i like to ride my bicycle...

Bicycles!

Since our stay in Hawaii - the children have been begging to ride bicycles again. They love any sort of bike and ask all the time if we move can we get a bike. They ask if they can have one in our place too - but they usually say very quickly, "I know, I know - we don't have enough room". Which we don't - so that is why it's fun to find a place where we can ride together as a family & get some of the cravings out for a bike ride.

Since Bryson's schedule is somewhat open right now with work, I had a feeling he would be off today as it's the last holiday weekend in the summer. I hoped that work might stay a little calm, so that we could go back to Governor's Island! We went there exactly one year ago today when Nana & Papa Lord were in town - which I just went back to my old blog and realized I posted a 'Coming Soon' post with a few pictures & hardly any descriptions of what we did. I can't believe a year later and I still haven't finished that --- and OTHER projects!

Well, a year ago to date, we went out to Governor's Island. It's a natural island that is out in the New York Harbor - it's a short ferry ride from Manhattan or Brooklyn - you can see the Statue of Liberty close at hand from the north shore of the island (we must really have a thing for North Shores! That's where we stay in Oahu, we live on the Northern tip of Roosevelt Island, and we loved the Northern part of Governor's Island....funny to think about actually!

We did miniature golfing and walking around the island last year, however the one thing that we had told the children we would do was bike riding and by the time we got to the rental hut on the island they weren't letting any more bikes go out for the night. The kiddos have not let us forget that we need to go back to ride bikes!

We took the ferry over from Brooklyn since I was already there on Thursday @ Pier 6, and realized a ferry left right from that Pier. I also needed to take back some items to Ikea which is only about 10 minutes away from the Pier. We decided to drive and make a morning out of the errand before we took the ferry over to the island. By the time we parked (which luck is usually on my side, as I've been able to find street parking this entire week when we go out for an adventure!). When we got to the end of the Pier, the boat was just leaving and we had 20 minutes to pass until the next ferry came along. Thankfully - the Pier is full of the different playgrounds that we had discovered on Thursday - that way it was a playtime until we needed to load up.

We hoped on the ferry & some gentlemen we were standing next to offered their seats - which I gladly took, however Madeleine was rather keen to stay right by Dad as much as possible today :)

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After walking through the island to the family bike rental shack - we made our choices and then were off to explore the biking paths around the island. It was a little bit muggy outside - however look past Bryson Sr. on the first bike - and you can see a glimpse of Lady Liberty from this vantage point.

Our view from where we stopped for a snack and to refuel with water. Speaking of fuel - little Bryson saw a dial on the front part of Bryson's bike and asked him if that is where we needed to put the gas in!

This bench was over by the tire swing, and I decided to move it closer so I could watch the kiddos. Have you seen anything so clever and functional as this bench? It was so easy to move - if we ever get a backyard I'd love to put some benches like this back there.

Last year it was the Unicycle Conference or meet-up on the same day/weekend. We enjoyed watching a few tricks each time we saw them!

What a fabulous day! I'm so glad the kiddos reminded us that it was definitely time to go on a long bike-ride together as our family. We all had a really, really good time!

Until next time Governor!

Oui ou Non?!

Gazing out the window tonight, Bryson Jr. exclaimed,

'Oh look!

It's a croissant moon!"

{it must be that New York accent! He thought he was saying crescent - or that croissant was crescent. I love his little accent on some words...it's darling & hilarious!}

Which that darling little homemade french saying, brought me back to last week....a good laugh of a story. We went to a friend's home out in New Jersey last Friday night to escape Hurrican Irene....more on that will come, but it was rather interesting as we ended up going more into the storm that out of it . We didn't know that at the time, but of course hindsight is always quite perfect.

We stayed with friends that we know through work, as the wife and the children were off to another state to visit family. The entire home open - except for the husband, and one day, we were in the kitchen cleaning up after a meal and I asked about their recent adventures over in Europe. I asked what his favorite place was they had visited, and he replied enthusiastically, "Oh, it was definitely Ver-sal-es."

Hmmm...I thought to myself for just a moment. Ver-sal-es? Where in the world....and then he went on to say that the Hall of Mirrors were magnificent and the incredible gardens, etc. That is when I realized where he was talking about.

At an appropriate time in the conversation, to reply to what he was talking about this area, I told him that I also had been to and loved Versailles - trying not to be obnoxious but also speaking clearly so that hopefully he could hear that the ending of the word is silent, the LL's are dropped and your voice almost seems to sound like a sigh to go along with that you say it Ver-SIGH {this explanation is phonetic, not correct grammar!}

He once again was very excited as he came back with more things that he loved about Ver-sal-es. And I did a different kind of sigh and realized that unfortunately this was one French word that would not be pronounced correctly during this conversation!

Oh la la!

Oh, the places you'll go!

Pier 6 ~ Brooklyn NY.

I love finding new places around the city that we love.  Today, we ventured down to Pier 6 in Brooklyn - it's an area that they have slowly been converting, and now there are 6 Piers dedicated to being part of the Brooklyn Bridge Park.  Pier 6 opened last summer, and I heard rave reviews about the space and it had a water feature -- -which we love water features! --- so I knew that we needed to try it out.

It has been a little tricky to actually get to many of these places to try out their water features.  We have left the previous 2 summers right when school gets out and then when we return there is a frenzy to get ready for back to school.  This year is busier than ever - PTA could easily consume my life, and some days there has been a lot going on.  Tuesday for example - we finally got out of the apartment around 6pm.  That was a long day.
                                                     





















I knew that the kids deserved a break & to help me stick to the plan of getting out on an adventure - I signed up to host a playgroup for today in our ward.  It turned out that there were only 4 of us that showed up...but those kiddos played, and played to their hearts content.

And we now have a new favorite place to go!

Thankfully one of the other moms sent me all the pictures from today, because I did not take my camera out once!  I actually had to leave early from the playdate - I had a meeting back at school with The Trio - I finally found a nickname that works for our Principal, Assistant Principal and Test Administrator - which I think she has another official title, but I can't remember what it is...and since it is obviously so long to type out all their titles I realized today I shall refer to them as 'The Trio'.  So much easier!  The amazing thing, is that my friends offered to let the kiddos stay with them, and then they would bring them back to the island.  Seriously - that is a wonderful offer and I was a little nervous about leaving them in a place crawling with children...but then I realized they would be bored if I took them back to the meeting....because in meetings you can't be as goofy as one can be walking from the park to get ice cream!!!

 The crew - not sure how she got this group picture - but look how fun!  I'm at the meeting - so these are the amazing moms that are watching my kids...and the crew of kids.  Madeleine was in heaven that another girl showed up --- whew!

I had thrown out the idea of stopping at the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory - however there was another amazing ice cream shop they walked to where everyone got a nice cold treat.  What a perfect day!  The sun was out - it as warm.hot - but not too hot.  And to spend with friends --- I think we need to balance life with a few more of these outings!

Thanks Brooklyn.....we'll be back for another day in your area!

p.s. remember how I was excited to come back to consistent Internet access?  That will happen NEXT week.  The past 2 weeks we have been home, I have to sit in a chair and be connected to the router - wireless is a thing that is not working at our place for whatever reason.

I don't know who is more excited ---- me for wireless internet again, or Bryson for the Cable T.V. that he decided to sign up for --- because after all, why just get wireless internet when you can get the BYU Football games for fall season?!

Hopefully when wireless is on, and once our big school supply fundraiser is over and the kids are all in school full time (yes - all 3!  hooray!) --- I'll be back to posting more regularly.  There is still summer to post about you know! :)

checking-in....

....takes on two meanings right now. 


First I realized I haven't checked-in at all since we've been in Utah! We've been here since July 20th and have had an amazing 4+ weeks. Absolutely wonderful. Full of swimming, sun, family, fun, cousins, get-togethers, friends and chocolate covered cinnamon bears. I love being able to come here to visit. It does not feel like home, but I love coming to a place so familiar so I can drive without looking at maps and knowing where to get good food. Did I mention Cafe Rio in the above list?! Their new mint lemonade was amazing, and a new love along with my favorite salad.  The only thing I didn't want to try was the worm that Bryson found and enjoyed.....even after he washed it I could not be convinced to try that delicacy!

Totally opposite of yucky - look how sweet! Madeleine loved being an older cousin who was called upon to hold the babies.  She was in baby heaven!  

I haven't had consistent internet access - my mother doesn't believe in it. Okay - just kidding! My mom just doesn't use it - so she doesn't have it. Good for her - a tad bit exasperating for me. So I visit my in-laws and let the kids play here and jump online to catch up...but usually it's been to do PTA things which are more than in full-swing and causing me to have slight heart jumps every few hours. We start school in 3 weeks and there is a lot that is being done...but so much to still do.

Which is why - I'm checking-in tomorrow to fly home....a week earlier than I had planned, and I'm taking the kids back with me. Which was totally not planned. I mean they are our kids - so of course they were going to come eventually! I have some friends from college coming next weekend for a girls get-together so the kiddos were going to stay here for the weekend spending time with my mom and Nana & Papa Lord, then my mom was going to fly them home. However, we couldn't nail down a schedule where my mom could reasonably fly them out - life is too exciting with a zillion things going on...and most importantly - Bryson missed us. Terribly.

And we miss him. And are ready to wrap up an amazing 7 weeks and go HOME. It's so incredible to me that as much as I can't wait to leave the city when school gets out, my body and mind needs to go back after a break. It's our place. Our abode. And we do love it because it's where we are supposed to be right now. I'll probably not love it so much mid-January --- but for now, I'm missing our city.

Ta-ta for now...I'll post again and catch up on the summer adventures when we land and get SOLID Internet back. Whew - I've missed that. Until then...here are some quick pictures to enjoy.

   

 

Hukilau & Diamond Crater

One of my favorite parts of this vacation is that we had time to just relax and enjoy what day to day life. The kiddos could open the door and head outside and play with the neighborhood children - which there was always at least a little group to choose from, as the BYU-professor families living nearby all had a lot of children (5-6 and even 8 kiddos per family made for a lot of children always around!). It was so much fun for my 3 to make little friends in the neighborhood while we stayed there - and although I wasn't as relaxed as other moms to just let my children hang out all day together (seriously, these are great moms, but I must have some NYC paranoia...I couldn't just let my kids be out there for hours on end!), the kiddos still enjoyed a sense of what it would feel like to live in a neighborhood while we were there.

When Bryson got into town, I knew we would need to balance some downtime with some of our other times of hitting the beach and doing activities. I'm continually trying to calm down the type A personality in me, so that we could enjoy the part of vacation we all wanted...to relax!

Our first day of the week together, I was a little anxious to get up and going - so much for working on that Type A in me, right?! However, the kiddos decided to just head out and do their own things - such as Bryson got on his bike and finally learned how to ride on his own! He was so excited to reach one of his goals for this summer - now we just need to work on tying shoes. Although that goal is a little tricky to work on when we were wearing flip-flops most days. No worries though - the perfect part of summer vacation is that you have goals to keep you focused, but not to worry when you aren't working on them non-stop. I can't begin to express how much we needed this time to catch our breath in life!

Bryson Jr. also is our champion at playing Phase 10, and while I was still antsy to get out and do something!....he pulled Bryson (Dad) and I into a game. Isn't it always said that we learn so much from our children?....for me - it's to remember to take time to play in the moment - not to make the play time the destination of what I'm working to do. We enjoyed a fun game and few hours of just enjoying time together, and still enjoyed an afternoon outing!

And Jacob - well he is always great at keeping things real. I loved his outfit combo on this particular day....I try to let my children have freedom in dressing themselves most days. When the kiddos are in school, I'll try to help them choose outfits that match - but here, hey we are away from the fashion stresses of NYC, so why not let him live it up?!

By that afternoon we were ready for some time at the beach, and we packed up the snorkel gear thinking that Temple Beach just straight down from the temple might provide some snorkel time. Well - the surf was not cooperating, so we walked down to nearby Hukilau Beach. The waves were incredible and we got some great boogie-boarding time....almost too good & big of waves at times! {I didn't get any crash pictures, because I was in the water for those....but we did get some crazy big waves!}

Hukilau Beach {Laie}

We did have one place that was on our most-see/do list. To climb to the top of Diamond Head Crater. Bryson studied volcanoes for his research project in the spring, and he was so excited to see a volcano. Even though this volcano hasn't been active for thousands and thousands of years, it was still worth the climb. We drove into Waikiki on Wednesday the 13th - my mom was flying in that afternoon so we needed to pick her up at the airport & we realized this would be a great time to fit the hike in as well. Which took a little more effort than climbing this tree! {kiddos at the base of the crater}

Near the top they had this little "turn-out" to enjoy part of the view. It was already beautiful & helped us gear up for the last part of the hike....which was a steep climb up a lot of steps!

From the very top these were some of our views....

I loved this view above us while we were climbing down the stairs. It almost looked like you could monkey-bar your way down. Almost. :)

We were hot, sweaty & super thirsty when we hit the bottom....but we were so happy that we climbed together and checked something off our (small) list of things we wanted to do while on Oah'u. It was actually hard to get out the door on some days to work on checking things off - we were enjoying so much not feeling that we needed to be somewhere at a specific time. There were some days it seemed why not just enjoy the beach and sunshine right by us. However, it's also great to feel that rush when you accomplish something - and after we started hydrating ourselves with some Hawaii'an Shaved Ice we got to relish in the moment that we did something rewarding - and fun as well!