Bright Lights, Big City

     Mom, Jon and I took a quick trip to New York City at the end of July.  We left early Monday morning and made it just in time for check in.  We dropped our things off and then headed into the city, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then boarded the CitySights bus for the night tour.  

Times Square

M&M World (YUM)

Statue of Liberty in the distance

     On Tuesday we took our time getting up and into the city.  We started off in Central Park and walked around for a bit.  We did not have very much luck with CitySights (the buses did not come as frequently as they should have).  We ended up changing or plans and walking A TON to get to the Harbor Cruise.  It was nice to hear some of the information and history both on the cruise and from the bus tours.  After lunch we took the Uptown bus tour: Central Park, Apollo Theatre, Museums & Harlem.  We ended the day at Rockefeller Center and just before sunset we took a ride to the "Top of the Rock" to get some amazing photos of the city.

A few of the sights before the cruise.

The Plaza

On the Harbor Cruise

Freedom Tower being built

Top of the Rock

Central Park

Finally found a comfortable seat to wait for the sun to set, but then I was told to get down.

     After sleeping in on Wednesday we headed back to the city and started the day with the Downtown Tour: Times Square, Broadway, Financial District, and Battery Park.  We enjoyed some of the tour and stopped at Battery Park to catch the ferry over to Liberty Island.  It took a lot longer than we thought to go through the line and get over to the Statue of Liberty.  It had to be a quick trip and we did not get to see Ellis Island, because we had to get back for our NBC Studios tour in the afternoon.  We couldn't take any photos, but we got to see the studios of Dr.   Oz, Sunday Night Football, and SNL.  Afterwards we grabbed some dinner before taking the subway over to the Financial District and Ground Zero.  Finally, we headed back to Times Square for the 8:00 showing of the Lion King on Broadway!  It was AMAZING!

A few sights on the Downtown Tour

Structure originally in front of the World Trade Center

Tiles created by students to remember September 11th

Liberty Island

NBC

Freedom Tower being built & Ground Zero

Winter Gardens

     It was a quick and BUSY trip, and we fit in as much as we could.  Thursday morning we slept in, packed up and headed home!

A Few Updates

     The end of July passed very quickly and a new school year is fast approaching. We have been a little busy in the last couple of weeks, so here are a few little updates.

     After the baby shower, the next two weeks were pretty low key. I spent time in Scarborough around the house doing some cleaning and working on a few projects. One of those projects was finally starting our wedding album (only took me a year to get started).

 

    Elliot was here visiting for three weeks while Danielle was in Greece, and Prescott was here with us off and on. We went on many walks/hikes and Sage and Elliot even managed to get locked in the bathroom at one point in time. Thankfully everything turned out all right. But, I think Sage is missing her puppy pals!

     At the end of July Mike and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. Because it was the paper anniversary we decided to incorporate paper into different activities throughout the day. We started with a scavenger hunt, watched our wedding video, read through some of our old cards/letters, and then enjoyed some champagne and a nice quiet dinner. We didn't get to the crossword puzzles or paper mache. Afterwards we decided to give our year old wedding cake a try. Surprisingly it didn't taste as bad as I thought it would! We had a few bites and then tossed the rest. 

The flowers Katie had left for us when we returned home!

Many clues...

The last week in July I headed to NYC with my mom and Jon. I will post more pictures and info about the trip in a separate post.

     Now it August already (CRAZY)! In the first two weeks we have spent some time with family. Mike and Dave participated in a homerun derby at Marshwood to raise money to fight breast cancer (article). My cousin Sam came and visited for a night.  We enjoyed some Wii and a little disc golf with him.  Mike has had some vacation time the last week and a half to spend with his sister Kelly while she was home. We have been to Peaks Island, visited here in Scarborough and spent some time at the Oslin home in Littleton. I am sure we will be making a few more trips to Peaks in the next few weeks before school starts.

Mike and Dave relaxing before their turns to hit.

    Finally, since Mike had some time off we have worked on a few house projects. We have started to power wash the deck in hopes that we will be able to stain it soon. We also finally stained the shed.

Oh and I almost forgot, Mike got a new car (very exciting)! Toyota Highlander.

     Well, I think those are all of the quick updates I can think of for now. Looking forward to enjoying the last few weeks of summer vacation and hopefully more blogging to follow!

Fourth of July

Well, I have a bit of blogging to catch up on.  It has taken me a while to get this post ready, because I have been playing around with imovie.  I am finally ready to unveil my creation:

As usual we spent the holiday with the Oslin family on Tripp Lake.  This year was certainly much more dry than last year, so we spent more time in the lake.  The weather was perfect for me: SUN, SUN, SUN (not so perfect for Mike)!  Here is a little video of the weekend festivities!  I am not too happy with the quality in some parts, but I think I just need to play around with our new video camera some more.  Enjoy!

It is about time!

The guestbook is finally finished!  It has only taken me ALMOST a year to complete, but I am really happy with the final product.  

Baby Love

Well Ashlea and Nick are officially back in the states and are trying to get settled in Kansas before Baby Eva arrives (around Aug. 28th).  Ashlea was able to come back a few weeks earlier than Nick and while she was home we threw her a baby shower.  

We had some delicious food and played a couple of games...

Ashlea opening a few gifts.  Everything will be sent to Kansas as soon as her and Nick are settled in their new place.  Hopefully everything from Germany will follow shortly after!

It was great to spend the day with family and friends celebrating Ashlea and baby Eva!  I wish her and Nick the best with their new home in Kansas and the arrival of their first baby!  I hope that I can make it out to meet her sometime in the fall!

Sewing Project Revealed

We had a baby shower this weekend for Ashlea (more to blog on that later), so I can now reveal photos of the sewing project.  

The onesies are for Ashlea to take photos and document Baby Eva's growth and hopefully share on facebook, snapfish, etc for family/friends to see, since we won't get to see them very often while they are in Kansas!

A Little Sewing Project (Sneak Peek)

     I have had an idea for a sewing project that I've been wanting to try, so I finally started it this  week.  Below are just a few sneak peek photos, because I don't want to give too much away before the project is complete.  

     If I had written this blog earlier in the week it would not have been as positive.  I was having a real hard time with my sewing machine.  It was not going very smoothly, I had to continually stop, rethread the needle, go a little bit, stop again.  It was very frustrating.  I also was not doing very well with curves/turns on the sewing machine.  The first few attempts were not very impressive!

Before:

     But, I am happy to say that I have figured out the problem and tonight was much more successful.  The problem was I needed new sewing needles. The old ones were too worn out.  So, I bought some new ones, fixed the thread tension and it made a huge difference!  I was able to complete two parts of the project in much less time and they looked better than my original designs!  I am getting really good at maneuvering the fabric, so that the curves look more polished!  I am halfway done, and will share the completed project soon!

After: