I Heart New York

It is now official: I love New York! We saw so much of NYC. Lizzy was very cooperative and so we walked and walked and walked the whole city. We started out in Brooklyn, visiting DUMBO, Prospect Park, and eating at Grimaldi's (for the world's best pizza). Steph and Blake toured us all around their
turf.
We walked the Brooklyn Bridge to Manhattan. We then went to Times Square and got tickets to Phantom of the Opera, on broadway!! Phantom was so good. It was THE greatest broadway performance. Steph and Blake were so nice to babysit Lizzy.

We saw and did so much everyday. A couple stops of note were Ground Zero, Statue of Liberty, Staten Island, Wall Street, and so much more. I was just so grateful that Lizzy was happy and let us push her around in a stroller all day. We stopped in Littly Italy for some authentic pasta!We were walking up the street and Dave says, "Look, its you!" Sure enough I look up and see a giant button. (His nickname for me is "button")

The red sign above us says "No Standing Anytime." These signs cracked us up because everywhere we went there was a New Yorker trying to tell us what we should and shouldn't be doing. For instance, we were walking down a small sidewalk with the stroller and a larger woman passes us by going the opposite direction so we veer to the side as far as we can. However, she doesn't move an inch and slams the stroller with her purse and just yells at us that we need to "step back."

Central Park was huge! We spent the greater part of a whole day there. Before this trip, when I thought of New York I would imagine an over crowded city, chaos, rats, and man made structures. Granted, I did see quite a few rats in the subway; but when I think of New York now, images of beauty are conjured up in my mind.

Dave reluctantly posed for me while I tried to capture a few memories of Cental Park.

Marston Fam

The best part of New York was visiting the Marstons! We had so much fun with them. I loved how Evy would get sooo excited whenever she saw Lizzy and would want to help me change her, dress her, and play with her. She kept saying how she wanted a sister named Lizzy Rose! Dane was adorable and impressed us with his amazing scooter skills going down the hills of Brooklyn.

It was fun to see the Marston Family in the New York environment. I have a new respect for families with kids living in NYC.

Blake and Steph were so generous in letting us invade their home for a week! It was good to see Blake- it had a been a while since we missed seeing him this past holiday.

Stephanie was the perfect hostess as always. She really made sure we had a good time and got to see all the best sites in NYC.

We love you guys and miss ya already!

DC

Since we were already as far away as New York we decided to travel a few more hours and visit DC for a couple days! DC was truly more amazing than I thought it would be. Even though I have seen pictures of most of the sites, it is so powerful to be there in person. Each and every detail of those memorials and monuments is wrought with symbolism and meaning. We did a walking tour of the outdoor sites, admired all the federal buildings, and visited the Smithsonians.

We saw the motorcade three times! At one point I was literally 10 feet away from the President of the United States. (Granted, he was inside his limo so I couldn't see him.)

The Lincoln Memorial was my favorite!
We went to the Holocaust Museum and when you enter, they give you an ID Card full of information about a real person who lived through the Holocaust. You are supposed to imagine being this person as you walk through. It was kind of eerie when I picked up my ID card and saw her birthdate: It was MY birthday! Quite the coincidence.

She had a very sad life story, and it was so humbling and personal.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Lizzy just wants to say: "Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!"

Jamie took these pics and they turned out so cute!

Truffles, Pigs.. Ohh How I Love Food.

Those who know Dave and I best know that we absolutely LOVE mushrooms! We are just obsessed with them lately. So you can imagine our excitement when, just recently, one of Dave's patients generously gave him 3 whole, fresh black winter truffles!! Despite my love of mushrooms, I knew very little about black winter truffles so I googled them and this is what I found: -They are known as the black diamonds of the kitchen

-Are mainly harvested in Europe with the aid of female pigs or truffle dogs.

-They have never been successfully grown and can only be "hunted" for in old growth forests.

-Have been used as delicacies, aphrodisiacs, and medicines since the time of the Greeks/Romans

-They have a pungent odor that is good for flavoring food.

Needless to say, we were very excited by the prospect of trying the "diamonds" of the mushroom world. Despite their odd odor, and our slight fear of trying them they tasted great!



We then moved on to eating the "hunter" of the truffles- the pig!!

I took a picture of this huge bowl of kalua pork as a funny memento for Dave and I.

There was a great sale on pork and Dave LOVES kalua so we bought up 15 lbs. We figured we could freeze it and have pork ready to go for the next year! It generally needs to cook all day, but since there was so much pork it took SOO long! We kept checking it all day, and it still wasn't quite right until, finally, it was 1:00 AM in morning and we were finally able pull it out and shred it. We were so tired and worn out while we tediously shredded the pork all night. But we had a deliriously fun time. I think some of our greatest times together are spent in the kitchen!

Momma Called the Doctor and the Doctor Said...

Everywhere we go people always comment on how little or big Lizzy is. Half the people say, "She's so big!" and the other half say, "She's so small!"

Now I know why- she's in the 50th percentile, exactly in the middle.

So how come no one ever says, "She's juuuust the right size!"?


She had such a sad face after her vaccinations it melted her daddy's heart. :(

Standing All By Myself!!

Lizzy's latest trick is that she stands up all by herself! She needs to be watched carefully becuase she is learning how to balance herself (those slippery Ensigns can really throw a girl off balance!), but she can stand on those baby legs for a good 3 to 4 minutes!