Opening Day

Another first in NYC was attending the opening game at Citifield and watching the Mets come awfully close to beating the Padres. The new park is beautiful and we hope to attend a few more games this season. We can catch the subway and take it all the way to the park so getting to and from is really very easy. A special treat on the night of the game was the appearance of Jackie Robinson's widow, Rachel. She had come to celebrate the opening of the field and the beautiful entrance/rotunda named in honor of her husband. She is certainly a gracious woman. In the photo you will see Sheri Garber, a friend of ours, me, Rachel and Paul. Sheri's husband was on an errand and missed the photo op, but he returned with hamburgers and shakes from the Shake Shack which is one of the vendors at the new stadium. He was also one of the heroes of the night.

A year in the life

It's been exactly a year since I arrived in New York City. You probably didn't know that there are hundreds of songs written about this great city i.e, Broadway Baby, Downtown (yes, Petula Clark's song), Down and Out in New York City, Easter Parade, New York State of Mind, Only in New York, Silver Bells, Stay'in Alive, just to mention a few. There are other great cities, we've lived in many of them, but there is something about New York that inspires this sort of creative homage. While we haven't yet written our own song, we have loved our first year in the city. When we moved here we committed to doing at least one thing each month that you can only do in New York. For example, this month we will see West Side Story and two nights later we'll attend the opening game of the Mets. Here is just a quick list of some of the things that I love about the city. Perhaps I'll put it to music one of these days.

Central Park--in every season
Watching the George Washington Bridge light up at night
Nodding to our neighborhood Jewish families on Saturday as they walk to their synagogues and knowing that they probably understand our devotion as we pass them on our way to church on Sunday mornings
Knowing how to get around on the subway
Filling up the gas tank in the car about every three months
Having family and friends visit often
Discovering small and interesting shops in our neighborhood
Being asked for directions (like I"m a native)
Picnics on the Hudson River
Meeting Paul almost every night after work and walking home together
Sharing this year with Paul
And there you have it.

Emergency Essentials

How many times have you heard the cry, "Mom, we're out of toilet paper!" or "Honey, where are the peanut M&M's?" And then you drag yourself out to the car and fight the traffic to the grocery store. This problem was recently solved for me when the retail space of our apartment building was converted into a CVS. That's right folks, we are living above the CVS and we are taking full advantage. Now whenever someone needs something I can reply, "Run down to the basement and pick it up" This solves all of our food storage problems----we have plenty of snacks and drinks to last a year----in the basement. How great is that?!

Bag Lady

My kids are making sure that I have all the cutest bags so I can be "green" doing all of my grocery shopping in the city. These are just a few of the ones in my collection and they do come in handy. Somedays you are out on the streets for a long time and you have to be able to carry around lots of stuff i.e. dry cleaning, groceries, books, newspapers, extra shoes, camera, city map, umbrella, etc.

We're faking it this year

After 33 years of picking the perfect fresh Christmas tree, we broke down and bought an artificial tree. This, inspite of the fact, that on every street corner in New York there are Christmas tree vendors. We just weren't sure a fresh tree would live more than seven or eight minutes under the hot air vent in the living room.
We don't have that smell of fresh pine, but I think the tree looks pretty authentic.
Our next challenge will be to find a place to store this beauty. Perhaps in our rooftop garden?

The not so impossible dream

I have dreamed of watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in person most of my life and this year, Paul made that dream come true. He secured VIP passes for us and we watched the parade from start to finish. The Spongebob balloon was a little bit scary, but I knew Mere would like this photo. Pat and Mer and Kendall, Berkeley and Emery were able to join us for Thanksgiving week and helped make our first Thanksgiving in New York extra special.

Octoberfest!

October was an amazing month of travel and fun houseguests. We started the month out in Utah, came home to a week long visit from Paige, Tyson, Avery, Megan, Blake and Mere with a hint of Brent (he was only here a couple of days) We had lots of fun discovering all the kid parks in the neighborhood,riding the carousel in Central Park, playing in the playroom, going to the Bronx Zoo,and more! Then we had a couple of days to wash towels and sheets before Randy shared his vacation with us. I believe that Randy and I broke the one day record for distance walking while we took in the sights of the Brooklyn Bridge, Chinatown, Time Square, Rockerfeller Center, but we made time for a hot dog in Madison Square Park. We also had a wonderful morning in the MET and with Randy's help, I have finally found a huge interest in Egyptian Art. With reluctance we sent Randy on his way, but boarded the plane for a trip to Montreal to see Joel and Genean. We were treated to a trip to Quebec City where we participated in Zone Training for the missionaries. This is always so much fun. Then we spent a night in the historic Hotel Frontenac with the only disappointment being that the Beaver Tail was closed for the season. Apparently this is a pastry place worthy of a future visit. We also got a glimpse of the 20 miles of underground shopping in Montreal. A visit with Joel and Genean always makes us appreciate the huge amount of work it takes to serve as a Mission President and Mission President's wife. We came home exhausted and yet Joel and Genean were anxious to get back into their routine of travel, training, speaking, counseling, cooking, cleaning, etc. etc. The fun doesn't stop there. We arrived home with a few hours to spare before Karen, Jana and Dallin arrived for the Halloween weekend. Once again, I donned my walking shoes and showed them the sights of the city. They managed to see a ballet, Hairspray, Mary Poppins, and the MET. That's not to mention a temple session, a visit to a jazz club, the Halloween parade in the Village, walks through Central Park,and of course, the stop at the Shake Shack for the world's best hamburger.
Thanks for the October memories.