Visitors-5 and Thanksgiving Dinner

Yes I know that I'm skipping our 4th visitors, but our 5th visitors were here during Thanksgiving and I wanted to post about that before it was too late. We had Tyler's brother and family come visit us for Thanksgiving and it was so fun!!! Spencer loves his cousins when they come to visit and they all had so much fun playing together, and I'm pretty sure they were all so sad to say good-bye to each other today. It was kinda cute how much they hugged each other. 

We did some of the same visitor things with them, and ate at some great places too. It was fun to have them here to do things and play games with at night. 

So you are wondering how my turkey turned out?? Here's a video to show you our yummy dinner, and the fun we had going to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. YES!!! We went to it and it was actually really fun, even though it was quite crowded. We did the showing of the balloons and blowing them up the night before also. That was REALLY crowded so I don't think we'll do that one again. Hope you enjoy our video and that your Thanksgiving was filled with good food, and good company. 

Broadway- 4

While Tyler's parents were here we went to another play, Mary Poppins. This was the best play we, as a family, have seen yet! It was just so happy, fun, and energetic! Spencer loved this one more than The Lion King, but I think that was mostly for the dancing and fun songs. If you have the chance of seeing this play DO!!! GO!!! RUN to this play!!! It's fantastic! 

One of my most favorite songs and dances from the play was this one: 

How they can remember all of those letters and how to make them is amazing to me! I love it!

My rating: 5 stars! (out of 5)

For reals, go see this play!!!

Broadway- 3

While my parents were here we went to The Lion King on broadway, and wow, what a show! We heard that we should get an aisle seat, especially since we were taking Spencer with us, and it was well worth it. This was Spencer's first play, and he was a bit apprehensive about it because he didn't know what to expect, after the first five minutes he leaned over to me and whispered "Mom, I think I'm going to love this!"It was so cute, and he really did love it. What a great time we had. 

The show was incredible, the way they had the costumes look like all the animals. It was beautiful, and they moved so gracefully. We all know the story, and so it was surprising or anything, but it was still great!

My rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING from US!!! 

The things we are most thankful for this day is our family. How blessed we are to have each other and truly love being with each other and having a ton of fun whenever we are together. This year has been a busy one with the move, but we are so thankful also that we have the opportunity to travel around the world so much, and live in AMAZING places. This leads us to being thankful for a job that the husband loves, which in turn makes me love it, and then Spencer loves it too. 


Today is going to be a great day because we also have family visiting us, making our first Thanksgiving meal, and going to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in the actual street!!! It should be fun, and I'll update when we get back. 


I have to say also that this is the first Thanksgiving meal that I've had to prepare, and I feel very proud to say I got the turkey all ready, and this is what I'm picturing what it will be like tomorrow:

...except we are not Grandparents. :) 

Hopefully this will not happen: a burnt turkey. I think we'll be okay though. I'll let you know how it turns out. 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Broadway- 2

While my friends were all out here, we decided to go to a play. We found one that was affordable off Broadway called STOMP! It was super fun and a little funny, which I was not expecting. It was loud too, I recommend taking some headache meds BEFORE going. It was great though. 

Here are some videos of some of the fun skits I liked: 

This first one doesn't show how it looked on stage with the lights flickering and making it look like the people were moving side to side. It was really cool, but this one is still fun. 

This one is just funny. We laughed pretty hard, the skit is a little different but still the same. 

My rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Broadway- 1

Our first Broadway play we saw while in New York City was How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, and it was FANTASTIC!!! It was during our apartment hunting trip where Tyler and I were able to see this great play. To make it even better, Daniel Radcliffe was the lead!!!!! He was incredible too! It was just a great play, and I really enjoyed it. Daniel leaves this December, so that's sad, but I'm really glad I was able to see him play this part. The thing that surprised me most was that he is a great comedian! He did so well with this part, and after seeing him being so dramatic in Harry Potter, it was fun to see him be funny. 

Here is a preview of part of the play that was shown at the Tony Awards. The stamina he has to have to sing and dance so much is incredible! I was in awe of all of these actors. Enjoy!!! 

My Rating: 5 stars (out of 5!)

Yes, it is THAT good. 

The things you see...

The sights you can see here in New York City are quite...unusual? different? unique?

Anyway...we were on one of those bus tours, and I looked over on the sidewalk, and saw this sight:

Yes. That is a dog in a stroller. That she is walking. I guess because dogs don't walk? Plus, look at the concern on her face. Anyway, just a bit strange to me, but perhaps not so strange here. 

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow....

Saturday October 29th we got quite the surprise that we were not expecting....SNOW!!!!! 

It was crazy to be getting snow in the first place, because we've been in Africa for four years with warm weather all year round and have loved it! Secondly it was weird because it was OCTOBER!

But alas, mother nature made us get used to winter really fast. Here is some video (I think if it works).

This is a baseball field (that is also used for soccer and football practices) right outside our window. Usually it's green, but it turned white with 1-2 inches of snow.

And what did we do during that day???

Snuggled and played video games/read books/and watched movies. 

I think I'm going to like winter. 

Visitors-3

First: sorry the pictures are a bit grainy, I took them with my phone.

Okay, so our next visitors were Tyler's parents and youngest sister. They were here only a short time and so we were excited to show them around town. One of the exciting things we did was go see the Statue of Liberty!

Here's Tyler and Spencer all excited on the rocky boat ride over. 

Spencer with Lady Liberty.

Spencer and his aunt with Lady Liberty!

It was a pretty perfect day to go there, and she was amazing to see. 

Close up.

Interesting fact: She has chains broken at her feet!!! Most people do not know that because we can't see down by her feet. I love this photo too because it makes her look like she is in motion.

Beautiful copper green. 

This is the original torch, they had to replace it because this one started getting cracks. 

Manhattan skyline and Lady Liberty's shadow.

It was pretty cool to be able to get this picture of the shadow of the Statue of  Liberty.

Love our flag waving in the wind.

Here is Spencer and his aunt watching one of their favorite shows to watch together Avatar: The Last Airbender. They are so cute together and definitely look alike with long legs and arms. 

It was wonderful to have our family here with us and to show them lots of things we love about the city already, even though we might have made them walk a bit too much. Legs were hurting at least one morning while they were here, but luckily we could handle it. Thanks again for coming!!!

Field Trip to...Central Park!

Spencer's school is pretty cool, and he is experiencing things we would never dream of while going to school in Harare, Zimbabwe and now New York City. The field trips are definitely a bit more exciting than what I had growing up. I volunteered to go and help out with the field trips and this one was when they were going to Central Park!

Here's Spencer at Sheep Meadow. The class was drawing what they saw...which was a lot of grass. 

And a tree. This tree was just kinda out there by itself, but it's beautiful. 

Here is The Mall. The leaves were just beginning to change colors, but as you can see it's quite a busy place with all kinds of sellers and musicians. 

Lastly we went to Bethesda Fountain, which they had to draw also. 

They have been going around Manhattan to different parks for 5 weeks now, one field trip every week, to see how different parks are structured. So while at these parks they have had to notice that the playgrounds are in certain areas, that there are trash bins, and restrooms, and lots of trees and grass. After looking at Central Park, High Line Park and others they are going to make a 3D layout of a park they created. I can't wait to see what they make in the end. 

Now, were your field trips ever this cool?!?!

Visitors-2

So, one Thursday night Tyler came home from work and we all ate dinner together as a family. I was really tired so I decided to get my pj's on, so I could just enjoy our Thursday night TV line up. Tyler then told me that he saw we had a package downstairs so he was going down to get it. So he left to go get this "package" and then knocked on the door to get back in. I went to open it for him, and realized there was no package in his hands, as I'm about to ask him where this "package" was, I see a stroller coming around the corner to our door. At first, I'm like "oh great! he saw someone downstairs and let them come up and I'm in my pj's!" Then I saw the girl pushing the stroller:

Yep! It was this girl right here! I looked at her and then thought "She looks really familiar" and she just smiled at me, then I realized who it was. That's Laura!!!!! One of my very best friends from when I was growing up in Virginia!! Then another person came after her, Mickelle! then Emily! and then Sarah!!!!! 

I was SHOCKED! in AWE! and FLABBERGASTED! 

I have to let you know that these girls are so important to me, and growing up. We helped each other a lot during our teenage years, and had fun the whole time. We have an incredibly close bond with each other. For the past 16 or 17 years we have been best friends, after that long you know you can trust these girls. I love them so much and was so touched that they came to visit. 

Back to the story, I wasn't sure what to do, then they all let me in on the secret. Tyler had planned a girlie weekend for me and to have all the girls come to NYC!!! I was shocked, and just smiled and teared up that they were all there. It was so wonderful to have friends around me, and to know I had a whole weekend with them. They had been planning this for around 8 months too. My husband is so great and wonderful to have done this for me, and I don't know quite what I can do for him now. 

I also was a bit overwhelmed, because I had not cleaned the sheets from when my parents had been there just three days before, nor had I gotten to the towels being washed. Remember we had just gotten our stuff and so I was unpacking boxes first. 

Anyway....onto the weekend! We had a fun-filled weekend that was excellent and put on here with lots of pictures, so get ready.

Here we all are, oh and did I mention I had another friend Mary with her 5 week old baby come and see us too!?!?!? I have THE best friends out of anyone. :) 

Mickelle, Sarah, me, Mary and C, Emily with baby in belly, and Laura with B. 

Do we look a little tired? Most nights we stayed up till 2AM talking! 

Sarah relaxing while we watched movies one day. 

Me relaxing while we watched movies.

 Now this little boy I think we fell in love with, and when I say we I mean me, Tyler and Spencer. We loved playing with him and Spencer was so tender with him when he would try to wrestle with him. It was dang cute!

This is B getting stuck. I told his mom not to get him out until I got a picture. He kept going after these rolled up pictures we had that were behind all of these other pictures. 

The first night we were there. We were so happy to be all together. 

One of our friends couldn't make it so we Skyped with her, and so I took a picture with Andrea so it would look like she was there. :) 

One of the nights we decided to go to STOMP so Tyler could watch B and we could have a girls night out. We had a blast, even with walking 2 miles home. For some reason cabbies hate driving to where we live, so we enjoyed the lovely New York night air and had a pleasant walk home. 

Aren't we so happy?!?

 Another day we took the free Staten Island Ferry so we could see the skyline and also get a better view of the Statue of  Liberty. It was a fun ride. 

We also went to Times Square and walked around there, then went to lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. 

Here's Emily and Mickelle looking over the dessert menu. 

Us on the subway. 

 We were also able to go to the 9/11 Memorial. 

This is the new World Trade Center going up. 

A map of the memorial area. 

It's an incredibly peaceful, and beautifully done memorial area. I encourage everyone to go and then to the Visitor's Center afterwards. 

 This is the Survivor Tree. Go HERE for the story. Amazing! 

On their last day there one of my friends, Laura, wanted to go to the Today show. So I decided to go with her. She knew exactly what time we should be there, and we got straight over there, and waited for like 10 minutes before Matt, Anne and Savannah came out to do some news. 

Here's Matt!!!! He was shorter than I thought and also very skinny. 

They actually did the news RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!!!! We were so excited and told Laura's husband in Utah to watch the show and see if he could see us over in the corner of the TV, and guess what?!!? He did! He said he saw us for a little bit. How fun!

We were able to shake Savannah's hand and then watch them go around and talk to people. It was quite fun. 

I have to thank Tyler and all the girls for coming. It was a great weekend even if I felt a little overwhelmed with not having the house ready. But it was so fun, and wonderful. Thanks also to the girls for taking pictures and most of these were from their cameras, so thank you!