Last Day in New York City

On our last day of our trip we took the girls to the Zoo in Central Park, had lunch at the Plaza Hotel, did a little shopping on 5th Avenue and we went to Rockefeller Center and took a trip to the"Top of the Rock" to see all of the city!

 

 

 

Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty

After our evening at the game we slept really well! We got up and headed back down to Down town Manhattan to catch the fairy to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It had to have been the hottest day yet in NY with 90% humidity. Poor Anastyn was sweating profusely, it got to the point where her head was soaking wet!  It was hot!!  We got in line for the fairy, went through extensive security prior to boarding the Fairy.
A few short minutes across the Harbour and we were standing face to face with the Statue of Liberty.  It such a sight to see in person and the symbolic value of the Statue of Liberty. The Statue is also a symbol of the migration of people from many countries into the United States in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. She is a symbol  of – inspiration, contemplation, debate and protest , of ideals such as liberty, peace, human rights, abolition of slavery, democracy and opportunity.

 

After we walked around the grounds of the Statue of Liberty we loaded back on to the fairy and headed over to Ellis Island. Prior to going on our trip I looked into some genealogy to try and determine where our ancestors migrated from. I found that on my side of the family my great grandparents were from Germany, most of Justin's ancestor are Scottish.

Walking through the doors of this building was very overwhelming. To think what our ancestor endured to try to make it to the same point where I was standing was very humbling.

 

 

 

 

 

Family Vacation 2012~ Day 2

Ground Zero... Awe the feelings that surround this amazing monument are undescribable. I don't think there is just "one" word that could describe the feelings felt while we were at this monument. It is an experience we will never forget.

 

 

 

The tree was found during the clean up of the towers, it was uprooted and placed here in the monument. During last years blizzard the tree was uprooted again, so they took it to a conservatory to nurture it until weather permitted for it to be replanted. So it is now back in its home secured to the ground to prevent any further damage from the weather.

FDNY Battalion Cheif Helmet

Yankee's

 

After our afternoon at Ground Zero, we decided to get on the Subway and go to the Yankee game. It was a short 15 minute ride from Lower Manhattan to the Bronx. It was awesome coming up the stairs from the subway and seeing the stadium. We spent a little while wondering around the stadium & visiting Monument Park. We watched 7 innings of the games and then headed back to the hotel so that we could beat the crowd. The girls enjoyed the game and were troopers going from on end of the city to the other with no nap!

 

Family Vacation 2012~Times Square

Our Hotel was just a few blocks from Time Square. Our 1st night in NY we walked down to do a little sight seeing. It truly is a beautiful city...

 

I think seeing the horse's were Nyah's favorite part of our trip, when you ask her what she saw in NY

her cheerful response...HORSE'S!

The Times Square Ball Drop

 

 

 

Swimming Lessons

Nyah just finished her 1st session of swimming lessons, she is such a little fish. She excelled in class by the end of her 10 day class she could...

• Hold her breath for 40 seconds under water
• would jump off the side of the pool with just a "noodle"
• kick across the pool
• start to use her arms in the freestyle stroke
• lay on her back and kick across the pool with minimal assistance

the BEST daddy EBER( the words of Anastyn)

For Father's Day the girls and I made Justin a collage of pictures that said their favorite things about their DADDY!

 

PETROGLYPHS AND FORT PEARCE MONUMENT

On this beautiful spring Saturday at the end of March. We went and spent the morning with Grandma and Papa, going for a little ride to the Black Hill Petroglyphs across the state line in Arizona. When we got there we got out to go for a little hike on the trail to see these amazing remnants of the past. Along our hike you girls were so excited about seeing lizards along our trails, Anastyn was funny she kept saying where the "SNAKES" at referring to the lizards. We had to stop and take a picture on every rock that we passed, because of the shapes or holes that were in them we even crawled through them with Grandma. On the petroglyphs we saw one that looked like Santa Claus and his Reindeer.
After we were done at the Black Hills we took a drive around the hill to the Fort Pearce monument out towards Hurricane in Warner Valley. The small structure at the Fort Pearce Historic Site is one of only three remaining stone guard posts built during Utah’s Black Hawk War. This “war” was actually period of intermittent raiding between 1865 and 1870, during which the Ute Tribe, led by Chief Black Hawk (Antonga), and other Native Americans allies attempted to drive the Mormons from the Ute traditional homelands. Mounted Ute raiding parties, often joined by Navajos, stole Mormon livestock, attacked outlying ranches and settlements, and killed settlers who interfered with the raids. More than 100 Native Americans and at least 70 Mormons were killed during the raiding.

To protect their herds and homes, local Mormon militia constructed a series of protected guard or sentry posts, called ‘forts’, along major trails and travel corridors in central and southern Utah. Four to six armed men with horses were stationed at each post, to attack and delay the Indian raiding parties, while a rider raced to the nearest settlements with a warning. Horses were stabled at night in the guard posts, to ensure that the early warning ride could be made without delay.

This was really cool to see tons of rocks stacked up in the shape of a house with just a few windows in them to be able to get there rifles out and protect there herds from the indians. That was a wonderful start to our beautiful Spring time saturday morning.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Since our last post we celebrated Daddy's 32nd Birthday!! We celebrated the day before his birthday because this year he was scheduled to work. So when he got home Friday morning we had a Breakfast Birthday Party celebration with festive hats and table wear picked out by the girls. Nyah picked out the wrapping paper for his present...TaNgLeD which Nyah call's "Repunzle" and our hats & plates were sports themed. It was fun to have our little party, we played CandyLand and enjoyed each others company.

Happy Birthday to the best DADDY, we love you!

Love,

Your Girls

Is it time???

Well we have attempted to start POTTY TRAINING Anastyn... It may be a challenge. Her answer to just about everything is NO...especially when you ask her anything in regards to going potty.

Anastyn you want to wear big girl panties? NO

Anastyn do you need to go potty? NO

Anastyn do you want to sit on the potty? NO

Anastyn are you ever going to stop peeing in your pants? NO

hmmm.... well the past few weeks she has come to us regularly with a diaper in hand "I wet" and the other day when we were having lunch she had pooped her pants, she came to me and said "you change it". So we went and bought her new panties with Dora on them and got her to put them on this afternoon after her nap... overall would say it went pretty well. She did wet 2 pair but, she at least wore them and sat on the potty a few times and tried!