an nyc visit from the cowles.

    Jason had spent weeks (probably months) planning his family’s trip to New York City. He loves making in depth itineraries and he was just as anxious as me to see his family’s reaction to their first real visit to the East Coast. Their adventure began in taking the Crestwood train to Grand Central and then crowding in the subway to head to downtown Manhattan. On this sunny day, we showed the Cowles around NYU campus, including Washington Square where we sat and listened to a student playing contemporary and classical music on an actual piano. I’ve seen NYU before, but it’s still so weird to me that the campus isn’t separate from New York City. It looks like any other parts of the city and you wouldn’t even know it was a university without the purple NYU flags hanging from its buildings. It was fun going into the university store and Mom buying NYU memorabilia and a sweatshirt for Jason. His parents are just as proud of him as me! 

NYU Campus at Washington Square with Jessica

Underneath the George Washington Arch

    We then headed further downtown to show off the Woolworth Building, where Jason actually attends his classes. Nearby, we visited the 9/11 Memorial Site. Jason and I had been saving the memorial for such a visit from family and were excited to finally check it off our list. After we made it through security checks, we were able to take in the incredible reality of that day in September. In place of each of the north and south towers, are two-tiered waterfalls that are the largest manmade waterfalls in North America. All of us shuffled through our stories of where we were and what we were doing when the towers fell. It was a surreal reminder of how tragic the event was and in walking the grounds I didn’t expect to get so emotional. In contrast, the nearby One World Trade Center or “Freedom Tower” is under construction, but will show America’s rebuilt strength as the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and 3^rd largest in the world. 

Reflecting at the 9/11 Memorial

I love this picture of all of us

Dad's dream motorcycle

    Later that evening, we took the Staten Island Ferry to take pictures of the Statue of Liberty. Liberty Island is currently closed from Hurricane Sandy, but Jason planned a great way to sneak a view of Lady Liberty and did I mention it was free? We looked like kids running onto the ferry when the doors opened—immediately looking for the best seats just ahead of a massive crowd taking the ride home. We were on the ferry at the perfect time because the sun was just starting to set and the view of the skyline was absolutely gorgeous. Jason and I have yet to visit the statue, so it was very exciting to be as close to it as we were. Jason says that New Yorkers view Staten Island as their redheaded stepsister, which use to claim the world’s largest landfill. Needless to say, we got right back on the ferry and started the journey home.

Bowling Green

Federal Hall

Viewing the skyline from the Staten Island Ferry

Jess is so adorable

Statue of Liberty at sunset

    Saturday we went to Times Square. We decided to walk from Grand Central instead of taking the subway because it’s always incredible turning the corner on Broadway and being hit with the lights and billboards all at once. It was definitely satisfying to see the surprised facial expression Jason’s family was wearing. We made our way to Duffy Square where Mom waited in line for discounted tickets and Dad sat down for a Diet Coke. After standing in line for another hour we finally got our tickets for an eight o’clock show.

Walking in Time Square

Can you spot Dad sipping on his Diet Coke?    

    We visited some of our favorite nearby stores we thought the family would enjoy. At the Disney Store, Jason and I bought our latest addition to our stuffed animal collection—“Bruce”, the shark from Finding Nemo. We also had fun at M&M World filling up our 1-pound bags of whatever assorted M&Ms we wanted. We also went into souvenir shops to find a spoon for Mom’s collection. On this 4 day weekend, Time Square was packed with tourists and finding a place to sit down for dinner looked impossible. Somehow Jason magically skipped the long wait at Red Lobster and we were seated immediately.

M&M World

Getting our M&Ms

Mom choosing her spoon

    After a great dinner, we headed to our show—we saw Chicago! It’s the longest running Broadway Musical. Jess and I have both seen the movie, so we were pretty excited to see it. Chicago had some really fun and catchy songs that were difficult not to sing along to like “Cell Block Tango” and “Mister Cellophane”. It’s definitely a girly musical, but Dad and Jason seemed to enjoy it as well.

It's always fun seeing a musical on Broadway

Waiting for Chicago to start

    The next day we went to the Upper East Side to eat lunch at Shake Shack or the east coast’s equivalent of In-N-Out. After devouring a delicious burger, fries, and shake, we went across the street to the American Museum of Natural History. This museum is huge! It has an enormous collection of taxidermy and probably contains every single animal you could ever think of, including Jason’s new favorite animal— the Elephant Seal. One of my favorite rooms had a giant replica of a Blue Whale. I especially loved the ocean animals, which is ironic since I’m terrified of just about every single one. Jess, of course, loved the giraffes. Jason really liked the Easter Island Moai that was featured in Night at the Museum. It’s his dream to travel to Chilean Polynesia to see them in real life. The collection of dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History was also huge and amazing. After a lot of walking, it was nice to rest our legs and look at the souvenirs in the gift shop.

I know where Jason gets his good looks

A few of our favorite things in the American Museum of Natural History

Gift shop fun

    We took a short stroll through Central Park. We stopped by the “Imagine” mosaic, which is a memorial to John Lennon. Adjacent to the memorial is the Dakota Building where John and Yoko lived and ultimately where John was shot and killed. We stopped at Bethesda Terrace to take pictures near the fountain and walked Central Park until we hit 5^th Avenue. Sunday was freezing and overcast, but Central Park is always beautiful to see no matter what time of year it is.

A cold Central Park stroll

The "Imagine" memorial

Bethesda Terrace

Walking The Mall in Central Park

    Before Jason’s family headed home, Mom and Dad spoiled us and took us to Costco to go grocery shopping. It’s so exciting to have our freezer, fridge, and cupboards filled! We were so sad to watch Mom, Dad, and Jess go and we hope they will come back soon. We had such a fabulous time with them, but of course, I was very jealous that they were going home to warm, sunny California. 

a special valentine's eve.

     It has become somewhat of a tradition for Jason and I to celebrate Valentine’s Day on the 13^th of February. Somehow our schedules just never work for that special day and we always end up celebrating it the day before. Last year, we discovered that our halfway mark of our wedding anniversary is actually on the 13^th (this year being the 1.5 year mark) and gives us a special incentive to ignore the world and do our own thing. This year we were glad that we weren’t planning anything for the 14^th because Jason’s family was coming for their first visit to New York City!  But I’ll get to that later.

     The few days leading up to our Valentine’s Day were crazy. Jason was still getting back into school mode at the start of his second semester at NYU, I had just started my second job as a tutor at Huntington Learning Center (I’m already a substitute teacher at Bronxville Elementary), and on top of that I had to clean my house and make sure everything was perfect for the Cowles.

What's this?

     On the 13^th, I had just come home from my first day of working both jobs and I was still not sure what Jay and I were going to do to celebrate. I walked up the stairs to our home and noticed “Clue No. 1” sealed in a hot pink envelope and taped to the door. Jason wrote a short poem which led me to other hot pink envelopes hidden throughout the house with the last one finally disclosing our plans for Valentine’s Day. Jason is so good at surprises, even when we don’t have time for big ones and I had so much fun reading the clues to find the next one. He had me looking through our DVD collection, freezer, and even the toilet. After finding all ten, I had to follow the last clue up to the creepy attic where I was pleasantly surprised with Ghirardelli chocolate and a lovely card. In my lack of time over the week, I had only come up with a home-made card and some of Jay’s favorite candy. To finish the day, Jason arranged for us to eat at Frankie and Fanucci’s, an Italian Restaurant that is one of Westchester’s finest.

Some hiding places were cute and simple. . . 

While others were a little more messy. . .

Comin down from the cold attic with my surprise

I think he was happy with his candy

     After staying up until 2:30 in the morning to clean, I finally went to bed. Jason woke up only 30 minutes later to pick up his family from JFK airport. Since they had taken a red-eye flight, everyone was exhausted, so we just kind of hung out around the house and went to dinner and a movie. Warm Bodies wasn’t the typical chick flick, but Jessica, Jason, and I loved it! Dad fell asleep and snored.

     Stay tuned for the upcoming post about our visit from the Cowles. . .

What a good lookin bunch

the legend of sleepy hollow.

   When Jason told me that we lived only 20 minutes away from the village of Sleepy Hollow, my first thought was a sarcastic, “grrreat.” I wasn’t thrilled knowing that one day I would be convinced by Jason to go there, where I’d be totally freaked out. I’ll be honest, I haven’t even heard the full story of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, but I know there’s a headless horseman in it and going to the village that it was based on was sure to be a scary visit.

     We went on a semi-gloomy, freezing day. Driving through Sleepy Hollow, the town really cherishes the history of the story, for example, there was a high school named after the author Washington Irving and their mascot is the Headless Horseman.

     We parked at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where certain parts of the story take place and Washington Irving is actually buried. The cemetery was huge and we had no idea which way was Washington Irving’s grave. The cemetery wasn’t very organized since it had been around since the 1600s, but we eventually found the gravesite from a map at the front entrance. Jason printed out a copy of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” beforehand that I started reading at the gravesite.

Thank goodness for this map

You can tell this cemetery has been around for a long time

Reading Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

     We continued to read the story, and eventually moved to the car to keep warm. Once we were finished reading, we found the Headless Horseman Bridge, where Ichabod Crane is supposedly chased by the Headless Horseman. After reading the story and seeing the landmarks that the story was based on, I actually really enjoyed the story. It kind of made it real. I can see how it would excite kids and make the story come to life.

Headless Horseman Bridge

The Old Dutch Church also has it's place in the story

     Of course, we know the Headless Horseman only comes out at night looking for his head, which must be why the cemetery closes at 4:30 PM to avoid any confrontation with him. By the way, I can guarantee, I will not be visiting the cemetery on Halloween.

jason's first white christmas.

     Jason was very excited for his first White Christmas this year. I was getting a little nervous that he wasn’t going to get it because there was no sign of snow here in Michigan until finally it came just in time on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, my grandparents and two great-aunts came over for dinner. It’s always so nice to see them, especially when I haven’t seen them in so long. The most fun part of the day was exchanging gifts in the morning with Jason. Of course, it’s the most relieving part of the day as well since I am on edge about whether Jason will like what I got him or not. By the way, he LOVED  his New Wayfarer Ray-bans. And I loved my new iPhone although it wasn't as big of a surprise.

Mom was smart to hide Jason's present in an odd container to throw him off

Getting annoyed with Jason staking his gifts (please ignore my Christmas morning look)

     After that first snowfall, it seemed like it would never stop. We got a total of about 7-8 inches of snow over a few days. One of those days, we just had to go sledding. Luckily, a bunch of my friends wanted to go too, which is always more fun. I had such a fun time catching up with some of my best friends from high school. I loved hearing about what they were up to and what their goals were. I have such a great group of smart, beautiful friends!

Jason couldn't wait for my friends so he went on the baby hill in my backyard

He didn't last very long

Alyssa, Jamie, Buddy (he belongs to Jamie), Kelsey, Nicole, Me, Jase

     A few days after Christmas, our family of four drove to Stow, Ohio to visit my mom's side of the family. Jason and I were so excited to catch up with the Pinkerton Family and to finally meet little Aiden (I always knew Dave and Sara would have the cutest kids). It was a little odd this year to not have Grandma and Grandpa there to celebrate with us. It wasn’t the same without them, but we still had a fabulous time. 

So cute

Aiden and his Mommy

Having fun at the Pinkerton's

Me? I became best friends with the dogs; this is Tucker

holiday spirit, the michigan way.

     To get into the holiday spirit, Mom and I planned some activities for the four of us to do as a family. On Friday December 21st, we headed to Greenfield Village in Dearborn. On this freezing night, we walked around the village and took a peek inside the 19th Century as we entered historic shops and homes.

     Greenfield Village contains many transplanted buildings like Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory, Noah Webster’s home, and a courthouse where Abraham Lincoln practiced law. The workers were so good at staying in character and when asked a question, they would always answer as if we were in the 1800s. We hurriedly walked from building to building to get out of the cold.

Staying cozy inside

     One of our favorite shops we explored was a hat shop where there were original hats from that period and some that were more recently made. Jason and I each chose a hat we liked and tried them on. Another shop we enjoyed was an Emporium which had some toys and candy that sparked our inner child. We also had fun taking a brief ride in an authentic Model-T.

In our 1800s hats

Kids in a toy store

     Our dinner was at Eagle Tavern, just inside the village. Here we were served a 5-course meal as if we were guests at the taverns owner’s home. The experience was really the best part of our visit with the singing, candle light, and of course, the food. For dessert, we were split into groups to sing the Twelve Days of Christmas and we all had fun singing our part as the four colly birds.

Our dinner at Eagle Tavern

     The following day, the four of us took a short visit to the German town of Frankenmuth. In all of my years of living only an hour away from Frankenmuth, I have never been.  We started with a German meal at the Bavarian Inn where the waitress dressed as milkmaids and the waiters dressed in lederhosen. Everyone in the family got an actual German meal but me. I know, I know Jason is usually the picky one, but I didn’t have to try schnitzel and sauerkraut to figure out if I liked or not. Jason told me as long as I ate his fries with Heinz ketchup that it counted.

Eating at the Bavarian Inn

     It was fun walking on Main Street and popping our heads into a few shops. Jason and Mom had their way in the Frankenmuth Fudge Shop collecting a bag of Salt Water Taffy. We also went inside the Frankenmuth Cheese Haus and tasted chocolate cheese samples. Jason and I took pictures next to a gorgeous holz brucke or wooden bridge covered with snow.

Walking around Frankenmuth

     After hitting a few more stores, we made our way to Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland which is the world’s Largest Christmas Store. The store was seriously huge and had every Christmas bulb you could imagine or decoration you could imagine. After looking hard, Jay and I bought a Christmas ornament of New York, our first ornament in hopefully a large collection of places we’ve been.

Our Christmas Ornament

Jason wanted this one