Coming to an end?

Is summer really almost over??? I just can't believe it. I still feel like it just began! I'm not ready to send Rachel back to school, or for colder weather. I am ready to move. We've officially lived through 3 NYC summers. Crazy huh? We've just been anticipating this move for about 5 months now. It's about time we just did it. I'm ready for more space, access to a backyard, laundry machines, every day conveniences...but still, it is sad to see this chapter of our lives come to an end.Check out my new vacuum! Our townhouse in Princeton has carpet. I'm really looking forward to it.
And my new mop! This girl is an amazing army crawler. Just look at her shirt. So gross!
You would think this means she is crawling? Nope! Still doesn't like her knees really and hates standing.
I'm realizing that her baby phase is quickly coming to an end. She'll be turning 1 in just 2 weeks. She's got her first tooth, and even saying a few words, "bye bye" "uh-oh" "mama" "dada". Speaking of, she's also turning into a daddy's girl! I'm 0 for 3 :) I love how she follows him around the apartment when he gets home from work and then how she clings and cries as I pry her from him to go to bed. Anyway, here's a little video of her animal-like crawling.

Play date with our friend Merrick
Check out this amazing NYC themed birthday party at a park overlooking the Statue of Liberty. Loved it, I just had to share.

We headed out to Lake Hopatcong last weekend for our friends birthday party.

The fabulous first graders!
Nice ride eh?
We're going to miss this family of friends. Of course this lake is only an hour away from Princeton too.
The last thing on my bucket list of things to do in New York City was to go back to Stardust Diner, but this time to see our friend Ryan sing. It was such a fun night! The kids loved it! Rachel got a little embarrassed when Ryan sat down and sang to her. Tommy thought it was loud but in the end they were totally into it. Even Katelyn was bouncing up and down!

I hope he forgives me, he told me not to put any pictures on the blog. He was fabulous!!!!!!!!!!!
And finally, we finished up swimming lessons. I did a semi-private class and Rachel and Tommy loved doing it together. They thought their teacher Benny was so funny. Rachel improved quite a bit and is so proud of her new skills. Tommy was all smiles the entire time! He has loved kicking in the water since birth.

M-Pirate State Building

So our time is growing short here in the city and I asked Rachel what she wanted to do in NYC before we move. She has asked me lots of questions lately and is really fascinated that the Empire State building is the tallest building and that it has 102 floors. She has also recently climbed all 26 floors up to our apartment. I was going to take her on a special date just me and her to the top but then I couldn't resist my little boy's face when he begged to go to the "m-pirate" state building. I assured him that he wasn't going to see any pirates and he still wanted to go. His, "I'm coming with you, isn't that great?!" made it all worth it. And Jake didn't want to be left out, so he joined too :)

East viewNorth
Finding our apartment
South
And the west view isn't all that exciting. Isn't it great we're moving over there! Actually we are really excited...and getting anxious.

So along this little family outing I have to say we got our fair share of unsolicited advice. And let me tell you, New York City is a mecca for the best parents and advice.

Here's a sampling of things I've been told this past year:

"Be careful! He might fall down the stairs"
I didn't know a kid could fall down 5 feet away, but you never know anything can happen

"Are you checking your baby? She might not be breathing...you should check. Have you read the articles on those things?"

"You need to nip that in the butt" referring to my kids' hyper behavior on a subway followed by a nice long lecture about how I need to discipline my kids and how this behavior might cause violence. This man should watch me try and force my children to sit down and not laugh, then he might see some violence!

"Your kid is going to loose his teeth!" Referring to my kids sitting on their knees on the bus. Forget about their teeth! They're only baby teeth. I've nearly lost mine trying to get these kids to sit down.

"Is this your kid? He was climbing on a bench!"
Yes, I know...he's a kid.

"You can't put your kid up there they could fall! What are you thinking?"
If you see me shoving my child through these bars that he cannot anatomically fit through, then yes, please try and stop me.

And at the Empire State building we touched and climbed too many things, and Tommy even got lost (once again 5 feet away). Most the time I just smile and nod and wish I could see them try and handle three kids in New York City since they obviously think they could do better. Of course sometimes it's nice to have someone else saying "no" to them, because my kids are more likely to listen to them than to me.

Governor's Island

We asked a friend of ours, who's lived here a while, what their favorite things to do in New York City was and they told us, bike riding on Governor's Island. We had never heard of it before but it turns out that the ferry is right next to the Staten Island ferry and it's just a half mile across the river. It doesn't take us long to get to at all. It's an old deserted army/coast gaurd base. I'm not sure why they don't occupy it but that's okay because that leaves room for exploring. Jake was in heaven!!!!
Ignoring the rope blocking the stairs going to the second floor Jake was having the time of his life while the nerves of his wife were going crazy with the possibility of getting caught or in trouble. But I must say it was really cool. We found these stairs in the middle of the house that provide a passageway to everywhere in the house, from the basement to the loft.
We enjoyed a relaxing day complete with a picnic and some croquet

And some hippy crafts...this is Tommy's stenciling a boat going to New Jersey

flubber
Overlooking our neighborhood. Our apartment building is just to the left of Jake's head.
The kids thought this jail was awesome
A really perfect day! We had such a blast.

Summer fun

Just some random pictures from last monthGood buddies! (Although we do have our good share of fighting. Kinda driving me nuts!)


Waiting for the bus after church
Daytrip to the beach

Heading to the Staten Island Yankee baseball game for "Group Day" with Daddy's work group.


Zucchini muffins (fun picture taken by Rachel)Kate has gotten to the point where she is not as content just sitting in the stroller like she used to. She's all part of the action now when we go to the playground


Most days we're in our pjs till almost lunch time

The rest of Utah

My camera broke toward the end of my trip, so I didn't take as many pictures and those I did were with my phone...

We wanted to do some camping (we've all been itching to go) but it never worked out so we settled for s'mores in the backyard.
Jake didn't get on the first flight he tried to do standby on, so we lucked out and got to have him for an extra day. We did a small hike not far from my house to Bell Canyon reservoir. We LOVED the fresh air and the gorgeous view and sunset.
Rachel had a lot of fun putting up a Barbie show
Our last weekend we spent a few nights in Park City and enjoyed shopping at the outlets, boating, the alpine slide and coaster, playing games and watching movies. What's funny is that I tried to fight hard against watching high action/intense movies because I have a hard time falling asleep afterwards, but I lost the battle and then I was the only one who stayed awake for them.
The new coaster (of course, I don't know how new it is...I haven't been to Park City in like 10 years) was an absolute riot. Rachel says she went as fast as they could go.

The kids had a blast doing the trampoline thing. Tommy surprised me with how high he got jumping.
And Rachel surprised me by doing 2 flips! I wasn't expecting it at all.
Our last couple of days we got to hang out with the Draper Herways. Rachel and Scarlet play so great together and I had a great time talking with my sister-in-law Lara. Thanks for having us!
I'm done now! It only took a whole month to blog this trip :)