Summer

Being pregnant this summer is not ideal to keep Spencer entertained or being able to go outside in this heat, so we had a grand idea of making a Summer List of all the things Spencer can do with me or on his own this summer. The list he came up with is pretty great!! So we thought we would share with you:

As you can see many of these things are the same, but to Spencer they are very different. There are a few things on here that I'm really happy Spencer has put on here like doing Math, and reading. Especially when he agreed on reading a classic book with me this summer, which we have picked to be Treasure Island. The read-a-thon is something we have all been able to have fun with. We've only been reading for a week and Spencer is still in the lead. We count how many pages we've read and Spencer is at 469 pages, I am at 426 pages, and Tyler is around 390. This is just after ONE WEEK!?!?! I'm so happy he is having fun with it, and reading lots. Whoever has the highest number of pages read at the end of the summer gets to pick a prize for themselves. 

While the summer continues I will probably put up some posts about some of the fun things we have done. So far, we have been busy and done well. YAY for summer!!!

Last Day of School

This was Spencer on his first day of school for 2nd grade. What a cute kid!!!

THIS is Spencer on his last day of 2nd Grade with his AMAZINGLY wonderful teacher Allison. 

What a difference just nine months has made!? He looks so much older now and he has learned so much!!! I have to boast about his teacher that he had this year, she was amazing. Spencer started off the year a little rough, and she was worried about it. I had to go and see her a few times, then realized that she had no idea what Spencer was going through. So the next meeting we had at the beginning of the year, I let her know that the first day of school he was just coming from living in a hotel for a week, we moved into our apartment on the first day of school, he had NONE of his stuff for the past 4 months, and we were just moving back into the United States. She heard this and everything made sense. She always has been willing to help us push him more, and to help some odd habits he has. Plus she also thinks he's just the sweetest boy ever (yes he will not like I said that, but o-well).

She also had a way in which whenever she spoke Spencer was hooked. He would come home and tell us all that Allison said that day, and all that he learned. He loved learning from her, especially with the bird study they did at the end of the year. Spencer is a master bird finder, watcher and listener now. It's pretty cool to watch him go outside and hear a bird and say "Did you hear that? That was a house sparrow!" Or see a bird and figure out which one it was, especially when Grandpa Price called him to ask him about a bird he saw outside the window of his living room. And guess what? Spencer figured it out!!!! 

Spencer's 2nd grade year here in New York has gone by quickly and he has done well, as his report card showed us. YAY!!! Favorite subject this year: Math (we don't know where that came from). 

We now have a THIRD grader!! 

Fireworks!!

Being this our first summer in New York, we were excited to find out that we would most likely have a great view of the 4th of July fireworks. To make it easier on if we should be here or not, I'm eight months pregnant, so no traveling for me. Which made our decision easy to sit at home in the cool A/C and watch the fireworks from our living room window. We did have some doubts on how well we would be able to see them, but as you will see, it's pretty fantastic! 

Two hours before the show and boats were already gathering on the Hudson. There were four barges with the fireworks on them, one of them you can see the flat part on the right side of the picture.

One more hour to go, more boats, and the FDNY sprayers going.

NYPD helicopters coming in force to make sure all is well. 

Spencer ready in his seat. 

This was about a half an hour before the show started. 

20 minutes and the show starts!!! See all those blue and red lights?? Yeah, those are all the police boats in the river. 

The first fireworks!!!! YES, we can see them!!!!!

This is to get a better view of how we were seeing them. You can see the street below, so really not too shabby.

Hearts! We found out there were 30 different shapes for the fireworks. We tried to catch them all.

 Happy faces!

Beautiful!!

Fireworks are awesome!

Blurry but love the red, white and blue.

Finale.

The fireworks were awesome, even though we put the music from the TV on in the background, to which we quickly figured out the TV was 10 seconds behind our live view. So...next year we'll have to get the music on the radio or something. Overall, we'll be spending July 4th here again next year, it was GREAT!!!!

I was trying to get a video on here of the massive exodus of people and boats at the end of the show, but the video does not want to load. I'll keep trying, BUT it was crazy to see all the people from the park leaving and crowding the streets, and then also all the boats going back down the river. I was happy we could be home already and put Spencer straight to bed, and me too. Overall, a FANTASTIC July 4th. 

side note: in the last blog post I put up a picture of fireworks from I'm guessing last year's show here in NYC, but wanted to let you know that I did not take that picture. I found it online, but loved how it looked with the NYC skyline in the background, so it was taken from Jersey. Just so you know.

Happy July 4th!!!

We had to wish everyone a HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!! 

I think this is one of our favorite holidays because we love America, and all that it is and the freedom that is here. Living overseas we always get a different perspective of what a great country the USA is. Now being here in America for the 4th of July and living here, we can't say that we feel any different. Yes, we have our differences in this country but that's what makes it so great. Different ideas make what this country is today. I'm just thankful we are not under any kind of dictatorship, and we are free to choose which religion we practice, and we have so many rights as citizens. We can complain a lot about what we don't have and that we don't have enough or that the government is corrupt, but to me, it is nothing compared to how others live. I love this country and am so excited we get to celebrate its birthday!!

Living in New York means we get to see the fireworks here!!!! And guess what?? Our apartment looks out over the Hudson River, so I can't wait to sit in a cool apartment and watch the wonderful display of fireworks to celebrate this great day!!! Hamburgers and corn on the cob for dinner....what could be better?!?! 

Wishing you all a happy 4th of July today and that we take a moment to just relax, celebrate, and forget any complaints we may have, this country is great!!!

Enterprise Shuttle

Remember a few months ago I did a post about how the Enterprise Shuttle came flying into town?? Well, a few weeks ago it went sailing up the Hudson River to go to its new home on the Intrepid. I was excited to see the shuttle again, and so I knew which day it was to come and thought it would take its time getting down the river especially since it's so big. A-ha, I was wrong. It was cruising up the river, and I almost missed it!!!! But alas, I did not, and got to the railing just in time to get these shots. 

On the water it looked a lot smaller than what I thought it would, but then it should because it wasn't even as big as the airplane it was piggy-backing.

The tug boats helping it along down the river. There were also lots of other boats just going up the river with it.

Then we saw this big ol' crane coming up the river. Yep, it's the one that picked up the Enterprise to put it on top of the Intrepid. Crazy how big this thing was though.

You can barely see the Enterprise over on the right side of the picture, and then the crane following behind. 

Pretty fun stuff to see on the Hudson. 

Cool things that happen in NYC - part 3

Today, Saturday, started off like any other Saturday. Sleeping in, getting ready for the day slowly, hearing sirens, then hearing more sirens, then hearing A LOT of motorcycles?? Wait, that doesn't happen every Saturday.

Turns out a whole bunch of motorcyclists went for a ride up and down West Highway. I'm guessing for a rally of some sort, still waiting to hear what it's about. There were easily over 200 motorcycles, and I'm probably guessing very low. They stopped traffic for at least 10 minutes. 

You can see them stopped on the one side of the highway, while still riding through on the other side. Yes, they went up one way and then came back the other way. 

They themselves got into a little bit of a traffic jam...

...so they got off their bikes and talked with each other! 

Another cool thing that you don't know about and it just happens right outside your window in New York City. 

Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend we had a fun time going down to Virginia to visit my parents and my sister and her family. It was great to see them all and Spencer, of course, LOVED being with his grandparents (who give him anything) and playing with his cousin Wyatt (who plays everything with him). 

While there we were able to go to Williamsburg Outlets to shop some for me and baby, and the boys. Then eat at Pierce's BBQ, which everyone loved. Then we had great family dinners, played rummy and had great conversations. 

Our last day there on Tuesday was a bit exciting because our flights started getting cancelled! Luckily it was three hours before our first flight left that we heard about it being cancelled, and was able to get online and choose a flight that fit with us. We thought this was a bit of luck because then we were able to head to Red Robin for a lunch with my parents. Well, three hours later, we got another notification that our next flight was cancelled too!! Again luckily we had not gone to the airport, but unfortunately we would have to leave the next morning which left at 6:10am, so we would make it back before school, but that also meant that we had to get up at 3:30am!!! 

We woke up early and got to the airport and got home in record time. Spencer was at school on time, Tyler was at work on time, and I got to take a good nap that day because I was exhausted. Even though the travel wasn't perfect, we had a blast with our family, and found a new show to watch now on A&E...Duck Dynasty!! Check it out. 

In other news, baby boy is doing great, and moving lots! He is getting big too, as you can tell from these next two pictures. This first one is me at around 24/25 weeks. 

This is the belly at 28 weeks! He decided to pop right out and grow lots! 

He still has 11 weeks to get bigger, but hopefully not too much bigger. We are getting very excited to meet this little (or big) one. And yes only 11 weeks, because Spencer was an emergency c-section and was 9lbs. 2 oz. So we decided this one would need to come a week early, so a week early is what we will do, and hopefully not have too big of a baby, but I guess we'll see.