Home Again

Well we have been home almost 2 weeks.  It feels great to sleep in our own beds! 
School started last week. 

Anna is in 7th grade this year.

 

 

Katie is in 5th grade.

 

 

Emi is in her 2nd year of preschool.

 

We have been getting back into the routine of school.  I actually kind of miss the hotel.  It was so easy to keep everything picked up when we all had a limited number of things.  I didn't have a crazy long to do list like I do at home.  I am always trying to go through things and get rid of more possessions.  It is really hard to do that with all of the kid clutter.  They never seem to want to part with anything!

 

We are going to try to make up for some lost boat time in the next few months.  Last weekend we went to Chatfield just for the morning.

 

And just yesterday,  Gregg and I tried something new, stand up paddle boarding. 

We rented gear in Edwards and drove to a lake in Eagle.  It was kind of far to go, but a beautiful little lake.  Of course the paddle boarding was a little tougher than it looks, but we did okay.  Of course Gregg didn't fall once.  I fell several times, but only in the water once.  I enjoyed it and would love to do it again, Gregg not so much.  Maybe I can do it again the next time we go to Hawaii and he would like to try surfing.  The day was beautiful yesterday and Gregg even did a little fishing.  It was kind of a fun date day for us.  Thanks to Pam for watching our kiddos.

 

 

Manhattan again!

We got up bright and early again this morning to get on the Long Island Railroad to Penn station in Manhattan.  The LIRR was great!  Very clean and nice and it only took about 35 minutes to get into the city. 

 

We got some Starbucks.  It is funny how much Anna and Katie love Starbucks.  Then got on a double decker bus for a tour today.

 

We got off the bus at the World Trade Center to view the 9/11 memorial.  It was very nice and they are still working on construction of the new towers.  Anna and Katie asked a lot of questions.  Anna was just 6 months old when it happened, so they don't really realize how much 9/11 changed us as a nation.  We need to talk and learn about this more when we get home.

 

Next we went to Battery Park and looked at the Statue of Liberty.  Too crowded to go, so we did the free Staten Island Ferry instead and got some good views of the Statue from the boat.

 

We got back on the bus and went around the lower East side, up to the bottom of Central Park and back to Times Square, where we got off and walked to Rockefeller Center.  Katie had seen a sign for a new store for the Cake Boss.  She loves to watch those baking challenges on T.V.  So we walked over there and got a few cookies.

 

At this point it was almost 6.  We didn't really eat lunch, we had some hot pretzels from a cart and an apple we brought from breakfast.  We were getting tired and hungry.  Even with the bus, we walked a lot.  We went to a bar and grill and got some soup and an appetizer sampler, close to Penn station and got back on the train home at almost 8.

 

We are worn out and ready for bed!  The day was great and we had such nice weather!  No rain and about 79 degrees.  Such a difference from that sweltering first weekend.

 

 

 

 

The Hamptons

We got up early (at least for me and the girls) at 6:30 this morning.  We wanted to make sure there wasn't a lot of traffic and that we could get parking at the beach in the Hamptons we were going to.  Turns out that really wasn't a problem as it was sprinkling all morning and rather cool.  We went to Cupsogue Beach in West Hampton.  It was a very pretty beach. 

After a few hours it started to rain a little harder and we were cold so we decided to drive to the next Hampton.  We explored all of the Hamptons today starting with West Hampton, then Southampton, Bridgehampton and finally East Hampton.

 

We are staying in the middle of the Green part of this map.  So it is quite a trek.  Probably almost 2 hours to East Hampton.  After the beach in West Hampton, we went to Southampton.  It was very ritzy.  We wanted to eat lunch and all of the restaurants seemed so nice.  We ended up at 75 main.  We had brunch type foods and was very good.  About $15 per menu item.  We saw lots of fancy cars and handbags.  We went on to East Hampton.  Traffic was really bad in between the towns.  Only a two lane road and lots of summer traffic.

 

I couldn't get any pictures of super fancy houses.  All of those had really high hedges all around them.  Had to get a picture in front of Polo as Gregg thought that every man he saw had a polo shirt on.  We saw all kinds of high end stores.  Tiffany, several Ralph Lauren stores.  Lots of home décor and decorator stores.  I don't think I have ever seen so many Mercedes.  It was fun to see this area of Long Island.  I would have liked to drive all the way to Montauk (the end of the island), but after we ran into so much traffic thought we better not go another 15 to 20 miles east.  We came back to our neck of the woods and ate at a Japanese restaurant and had some ice cream.

 

Tomorrow it is off to the city.

 

 

 

Long Island continued

Well our routine is pretty set by now.  We get up at almost 9 (even after three weeks we can't seem to get up earlier and Gregg gets up at 6:30), we go eat breakfast.  I usually go to the gym after breakfast and after that we go to the pool.  Then lunch and Emi's nap.  Pretty boring huh?  I am such a homebody and I have made my kids that way too.  So we are fine to sew and read, play games, watch t.v. etc.  When we travel and are sight seeing, I am the exact opposite, much to the dismay of the girls.  I like to do as much as possible, even when they are begging to go back to the hotel.  This trip has been interesting as we have had both.  Plenty of down time during the week while Gregg is working and trying to pack in a lot on the weekends.  The girls have been working on an American Girl sewing project of two owls.  Even Emi has been sewing.

This afternoon we went to a market that was different than home.  Kind of a farmer's market.  It was packed inside, you had to pay to get a cart.  Gregg bought a lobster and I bought some little cheesecakes from a bakery.  You have to pay at every department.  We also bought steaks and potatoes.  This was the first dinner we've cooked since being here.  Gregg grilled the steaks.

 

Tomorrow we are slumming in the Hamptons!