once upon a time....

Bryson Sr. went out to Salt Lake to a Conference sometime in October.

I was home with the children for the weekend, and by Sunday afternoon I needed a change of pace, and a change of scenery.  We drove home from church, and I quickly made a picnic lunch and packed up snacks and we hopped back in the truck for a drive up north.  North to the land which I'd heard so much about....Westchester. 

It's the suburbs for many that work in the city - that want to have a home, a yard, a life that might resemble normal in other parts of the country - but can still be a relatively short train ride or car ride into the city. 

When we were looking at housing back in the year when Bryson finished his internship, we actually drove out one day and looked at New Rochelle, one of the main cities in Westchester.  I remember standing in the apartment building and being completely wowed over by the view of the Long Island Sound...however, why live this far out of the city only to still by in an apartment?  We crossed the area off our list, as quickly as it has been suggested to go and take a look. 

The logic was - it would be easier to move out to the suburbs after time in the city --- but it's harder to move into the city after you have time in the suburbs.  That made sense to us - so we chose Roosevelt Island as our home.  And love it as we do - there are times where I do yearn for a home (or half a home, or whatever it is that they divide them into in areas where Real Estate is so high that they can put you into 1/4 of a home and call it a fabulous rental with a price that makes Las Vegans extremely jealous).  Also to have a yard.  And a permanent car - not just to rent from our very generous friends that let us use their truck on a regular basis during the week for a price that...well, okay we understand that prices here are just inflated and ridiculous...but hey, it's New York!  And schools that include many of the programs that are cut from here in the city, because....well, I don't know all the reasons why our budget keeps shrinking but I have yet to hear that any programs are cut out in the areas of Westchester and other such suburbs.  The property taxes there are incredibly ridiculous...but for us, we would never consider buying until....well, I think until we know where we would be permanently.  And that might only be at the end of this lifetime when we finally have someone buy our plots at a cemetery.  Until then - happy renters we will (try to) be! :)  

Anyway - on this day I drove out to Westchester with the children - particularly to an area I'd heard a lot about from two different friends who both were very impressed by the area, the schools and the overall small town charm within a short distance to Manhattan.  It's just a little bit north of New Rochelle - still on the water or close to the water of the Long Island Sound - beautiful Larchmont and Mamaroneck.  Two of the cutest most quaint little towns that I've ever seen!  They reminded me of Kalispell, Montana where my family lived for 4 blissful years - a truly idyllic little spot in the country...which will need to be another post, as I could write many a memoir of Kalispell.  {sigh} 

I was equally impressed with Westchester - and specifically the Larchmont and Mamaroneck area.  In fact, I called Bryson that night and told him I found where I wanted to move.  Now.  

In reality, we have no idea when we will move.  Our lease does expire here in Februrary - however, there is SO much to consider that although the Westchester area is definitely on our radar...it's nothing definite, and we just don't know.

Here are some of the pictures I took that day.  I had told the children we were going to look for some autumn colors, although I knew there would probably not be any or very few trees that would have changed that early.  I just really wanted them to come on the drive with me!  However, I was surprised and we did see some trees (okay 2!) that had changed color and were striking beautiful - however, I think I was more taken by the view of the harbor, boats and the beach that were right past the trees....

 I'm a spaz with pictures - I take entirely too many.  So, here are more than enough of the 3 climbing one of the best little trees that we found right by the end of the harbor ~

This little stretch gave me a slight "heart-attack"....bu then I realized it was not a subway - if one of the kids fell in, they would be wet...not dead.  Then I relaxed a bit, and let them enjoy the walk still precariously close to the edge of the wall, but trying to breathe normally with the fun adventure they thought this was!  

Beautiful public beach that I'm sure is packed in the summer months!

We watched a few fishermen from this little pier - the boys thought it particularly fascinating that the men would cut up some of the fish to use as bait for catching other fish.  Madeleine and I thought it was appropriately gross!

We had a really nice afternoon together - it was very needed and wonderful to get out of the city for a few hours, to walk around and see a new area.  It was also great for the children to remember once we did get out of the car that they do like one another and can tolerate one another - even have fun together!

I talked Bryson into a repeat visit out to Larchmont & Mamaroneck a few weeks after he had returned home.  We had slept in on that particular Sunday due to an intense work week where Bryson was in the office on average between 2-4am each night (morning?), and I was also exhausted from a week with the children and a few school events that had happened.  So, when we woke up at 9:40am and realized our church was starting in 20 minutes, or we could go and visit the ward our friends are in up in Westchester - which started at ONE o'clock....it was an easy decision!  And once again, I fell in love,  Probably even more in love.  Perhaps we won't move there in February - but then again, perhaps we will.  We shall just have to wait and see how this all pans out in the next few months.  

 Until then - these pictures make me super happy every time I look at them....and remind me to go and take another trip up to my favorite little towns {which I've been back to a few other times...it's one of the most enchanting places I've ever been!} - and I can't get over what a completely opposite view and feel it has from the city.  Each time I go, I love something from the city more and dislike it more - and like something about Westchester more and realize I'd actually miss the city if we did move. 

I wish someone would make this decision for us.   

September Labor Day

In working to get caught up a bit from the months without having a completely functioning blog - here is a rewind for the past few months.  I'll try my very best to be brief...so that I can actually catch up on all the pictures and stories of life. New beginnings all the way around :)

As we were doing a lot of things over Labor Day weekend - I decided to divide and conquer with posting the updates & pictures. Here are some of the highlights from activities on Monday (9.6) & Tuesday (9.7) while we had Nana and Papa Lord visiting us.....

It seems each day we got going a little bit later than planned or in my mind of when we would - which ended up working out as this was a vacation after all! I tend to be high-wired so in my mind had a running list of things to do and when we needed to be out the door to do them...in the end, it was so nice to have the kids just enjoying time with Nana & Papa that it wasn't like I could rush the crew. In the end - we did the high points of what we talked about, and realized that this gives ample reason to come back (as if there were more reasons needed!) and visit us again.

On Monday we planned to go for a water tour around Manhattan. Bryson needed to go into work for "a few hours" (loose interpretation - this usually means most of the day I have come to learn) - so as the morning was open we planned to go into Central Park for the zoo and maybe a playground before we needed to be on our way to catch the boat. I found out there was a free shuttle over to the Pier/waterway where we would leave, and as a bonus we could catch the shuttle on different routes around the city - lucky for us one stop was right by Bryant Park which is across the street from Bryson's work. As we left the house and got to the subway stop I realized it was already 12noon - and there wouldn't be a way to see more than 15 min. of Central Park if we were to get to the bus stop by Bryson's work by 2pm so that we could catch the shuttle over to the Pier, which would not even be easy to get in and out of the park in 15 min. so I asked if we could just go to Bryant Park and have lunch there while we waited for Bryson - even the kids were easy going and agreed. Maybe it was because I told them we'd have enough time to squeeze in a trip to Toys 'R Us as it's around the corner from the park/Bryson's work.

Win - Win!

Little Bryson has had a gift card to use from his birthday so he was very excited to go! Inside we hit the Lego section - which I don't know why I didn't get a picture. The mini-replicas of the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty were awesome! We found the Lego set little B wanted, and then the boys decided to take a look at this tall and rather amazing friend....

We lunched in Bryant Park next to the fountain, and again I forgot to take any pictures....oops! Oh well, once we got over to the boat I started to make up time and snapped away ~

Jacob came up with this on his own - he kept putting his hand in the air and tucking his arm under and saying "See - I'm just like her!". This was a statue on the dock where we were waiting and between this and the pigeons the wait went pretty fast & soon we were up on the top deck of the boat ready to head out to...sea? I still don't understand where it turns from the river to sea!

The boys looking out to the Jersey side....

We were cruising along and the tour guide for the boat was talking fast and giving so many great facts about the area and what we were seeing....it was a much better tour than I thought it would be! He told us not to get too excited about seeing Lady Liberty the first time that we would swing around and see her again and a bit more close - but how can one not be excited to see her? Each time I catch a glimpse I'm in awe...
It's hard to put the pictures in order as we saw many of the sites twice - we went down the Hudson River so we saw lower Manhattan and Jersey and then swung down to the tip of Manhattan and saw Downtown/Wall St. & Batter Park area then came up the East River (which is where Roosevelt Island sits). We passed under 3 bridges and I realized they are on here in reverse order to how we saw them...but I suppose they are in the right order if you are coming back down the East River!

We almost made it under the 4th bridge - which to us is our "home bridge" as it's the one we see out our window and the one that runs from Queens over to Manhattan so how we get over if/when we drive. A new fact I learned is that the people in Manhattan call it the 59th St. bridge and the people in Queens call it the Queensboro Bridge (short for Queens Borough - one of the 5 boroughs of the city)....the tour guide said that the name of the bridge changes depending on if you are talking to someone from Manhattan or Queens - each group wanted the bridge to depict their area....funny, but true? I don't know - I didn't read anything about it on Wikipedia (link above), but I can see that happening...I'll have to pay closer attention to how Manhattan'ites refer to it in the future :)

The Williamsburg Bridge - I'm pretty sure that the tour guide was trying to pull our legs when he said that the architect from the Eiffel Tower wasn't busy and used his design for this bridge as well. Makes a nice story to the design of the bridge - but not quite true!

These are some old buildings on the side of Queens - and it struck me what a difference between the 2 sides of the river....

Queens

Manhattan....
Queens...

Manhattan....
Queens....

The 2nd bridge coming up the East River is the Manhattan Bridge - it's actually quite close to the Brooklyn Bridge, so sometimes I wonder why there are 2 bridges to do the same thing. However, I did learn that this bridge goes into the DUMBO area of Brooklyn. DUMBO? I could never figure out what the name was for, until the tour guide rattled off Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. Oh - that makes sense now!

Manhattan Bridge (onto the Brooklyn side...the Brooklyn Bridge is just past it...see how close they are?!)

As we live by so many bridges and they have become a part of our NYC life, I've thought about doing a wall of bridge pictures in the apartment somewhere...problem might be, finding the wall!

Brooklyn Bridge

Looking back from whence we came you can see the 3 bridges that we went under...so if you were to travel UP this East River you would come to the 4th - which would be the Queensboro Bridge, which part of it sits on Roosevelt Island.

The first bridge in the foreground is the Brooklyn, then the Manhattan and lastly the Williamsburg in the distance. I found it a fantastic site....love our bridges!

Jacob was excited when Madeleine brought back a t.p. roll from the restroom so that he could be on the lookout, and right away 'AHOY! A pirate ship!' He was not disappointed & some day we will tell him there really aren't Pirates in NYC - for now it's his favorite little tale when he sees this ships out in the water!
The view looking into Downtown/Finance area of NYC - Battery Park is at the very end with all the green trees....

Some of the people on the cruise....US! Madeleine catching a closer glimpse at the beautiful beacon out in the water...

Side note: this jacket of Madeleine's was a great find at one of my Gifts of the Heart Exchanges that we had back in Provo. I would find some of the greatest shirts/sweatshirts that had to do with where we were going - this sweatshirt for Madeleine, there is a t-shirt that Bryson has worn this year that is a NYC shirt that lists the 5 boroughs which we all love, and then last year when I took Madeleine to Disneyland there was a jacket that had Tinkerbell on it....how lucky is that? Actually more like tender mercies and you realize even down to some of the littlest things like a shirt Heavenly Father wants us to be happy. We are so blessed...

These glass buildings at the end of the river are part of the World Financial Center. The glass building that looks like a rainbow is the Winter Garden and it has a beautiful area inside the glass that is used for free concerts as well as a mini indoor shopping area. We discovered this building last year on 9.11 as they were giving out roses on the 2nd floor to take and put around the area of Ground Zero....Papa and Bugaboo (he has requested me to call him that when he and Bryson are together - love that boy!)

I loved the look of this old building...it supposedly is going to be having a major renovation for a new green space of a floating mall. I hope that part of the old look stays - it reminds me of the Golden Era of the 20's & 30's...hopefully I got that time frame right, although probably not! I also read that it was used as a detention center for protestors during the 2004 Republican National Convention...a bit unusual, but I suppose any space that is open in the city is considered fair game....
A newer more updated Pier along the way with the Empire State Building in the background. Empire refers to the nickname of New York State, which was given due to its prominence as the new Empire, also it's size and wealth when first settled...and well, maybe the wealth part still remains for a few of those people that live places within this big city!....
Chelsea Pier - this HUGE cage is the driving range for golf. See the building behind? There are 3 floors that golfers stand on to drive the ball out to sea - er, the cage...

Which of these 3 buildings with the spires houses Bank of America/Merrill Lynch where Bryson works?
answer: Building on the right, which has a diamond shape on top is the answer! His building, Bank of America Tower is the 2nd tallest building in NYC, the 4th in the U.S. AND is one of the most ecologically friendly buildings in the world. We think he works at a great space and we really love to see it from around the city - the downside, is that we can't see it from our apartment, but perhaps if we went to a higher floor some day we would....

We got back to the Pier and shuttled back over to Bryant Park where Bryson went back to work and we went home to relax and enjoy some dinner. Bugaboo was super excited to have Papa around to help him put together his new Lego set...

The final day Papa & Nana were here was Tuesday - and technically we were up earlier than in the days past, but we were still on vacation mode. So, by the time breakfast was eaten, bags were packed and then lunch/snacks for the kiddos were packed away it was after 10:30am when we went to get the truck.  Since we would be driving Papa & Nana out to JFK airport, I thought we might as well take the opportunity to hurry in and see a few sites in Central Park, and then drive out to the airport. Finding parking is not exactly ideal around Central Park....at least the lower sections. It does happen - one just has to be patient - and I was a little patient and kept telling myself that this was going to work.  I tend to try to make all things work out, even if they seem unrealistic.  

Normal'ish

A new blog.

A new chance to fill it up with stories, pictures and the little to big happenings of our family, our day to day tales....and what I call our "normal'ish" life.

What really is normal?

I've been wondering about this quite a bit over the past few months. I believe my definition of normal was first rocked about when we moved here to the city. Living here is unlike anything we have ever expected. Even now, after a year of living here, the day to day events which are feeling normal enough by habit - are not normal considering what we have experienced for the better part of our life. What my husband and I grew up with. What we experienced for the first 8 years of marriage and for the most part of our 3 children's lives.

I've caught myself so many times in life - and especially this past year - saying to myself, "Oh when things slow down a bit....' OR '....when things get back to normal'. Which I find rather ironic. As what really is normal?

Really. Who defines normal?

It must be ourselves and what we are used to. However, with how full life is and how it completely changes with the beat of our hearts each day - how can one ever expect for it to stay normal? Or BE normal?

There is the little saying that goes something like this - 'Normal is only the setting on your dishwasher'. (or washing machine, or some such gadget) That seems to be right. For it seems that the minute something goes well, and it might be a tad easier on my self, or my life - I want to claim it as normal. It's like my inner being wants to cry out 'Let's try to get back to that one little instant in life - that time when things felt NORMAL'.

And yet it's all very relative isn't it. It's like chasing clouds - they move, they evaporate, they change forms. Although the subject of clouds is normal - they very way they exist is not.

Perhaps the reason that normal does not really exist is that - well, we are here on earth to experience a vast array of decisions, choices and experiences. So if we continually experienced normal - than would we becoming better people each day? Would we be progressing? Would I become the best person I could be, by staying "normal". Ah. Blogging is the cheapest therapy in the world! I now have written down, what I thought in my heart would be true. Now that it comes down to having it on cyber-paper....it's the black and white. The truth. As much as I might think I want normal - that really wouldn't help me become the person I want to be - the person that I hope to become and need to become.

I concede. I have a life that does not meet the "normal" status-quo that I thought I might experience in life. We don't live in a home in the suburbs and we don't have a car. We live in a city where life is fast-paced and hectic, and completely not the norm that I had thought I would be experiencing at this point in my life.

Therefore, I shall try my very best to stop saying that 'life will get back to normal'. And enjoy the life that we have - the one we are living right at the moment. The life where there is joy, hope, frustration, sadness and a lot of learning. Oh and course there is happiness, laughter and smiles. To everything there is an up and sometimes a down. That is a part of life that might be almost considered the 'N' word!

I suppose the only part of my life that I would like to be normal-ish....are the parts of my daily life which I would like to become more habit. To help make me into that better person, as they would become habit, tradition - a bit of normal in the everyday life where things are not.

Does that work? Can we have a tad bit of normal in a not-so normal day and life? I believe there must be a way for the two to c0-exist together. So perhaps after all....I'm not conceding entirely. I am still working and looking for the ways in which to have a bit of normal'ish in a not so normal life.

Which doesn't make a lot of sense when said that way - but feels rather right to me. I'll stick with that thought until proven otherwise!