Halloween N Stuff

Halloween in the new hood was a blast.  How can it not be when you're roaming the streets with 30+ fellow trick or treaters?  Tim and I might have had more fun than our children.  Jason provided the booze wagon, which was a lovely gift.  Dude took off and was out of sight 90% of the night and Squirt kept close.  Candy rewards kept the whining at bay and Enzo got his exercise for the week. I didn't get a photo of myself (what else is new), but I was quite proud of my Social Butterfly getup - wings and social media logos plastered all over my body.  Thank you very much.  Dude donated all his candy for $3 at the dentist and Squirt decided to hand over half of hers.  We still have 85% of it sitting in our pantry since none of us love sweets.  You're welcome to it.   

 It was Cubbies season and shockingly, our teddy bear allowed us to don him in a tshirt.  That was a first.  

On another note, Squirt had her first official project/presentation at school.  She chose the Northern Lights and wrote a hypothesis about what she thinks they are:

"God and Jesus shine their power onto the sun and it bounces to the moon.  They squeeze their power, the juice comes out and pushes up the moon and the sun.  God and Jesus mix up all the colors, scribble, scribble, scribble and twirl them all around like an art project."  

There Was This Fall Day

 

 

Estes Love

For the second year running, we packed up house and home and headed to Estes Park YMCA for a weekend of friend fun.  This year we rented a cabin together that provided comfort rather than chills up and down our spine like last year's excuse for lodging.  We hit the weather jackpot, resulting in fresh air in abundance.  Enzo and Samson were in dog heaven and the kids hiked and ran around with giant sticks until their hearts were content.  Our cabin had a view that knocked my socks off (see the first photo).  Elk weren't bugling this year, but they showed plenty of face for our elk loving crew. The boys/men mastered 18 holes of Frisbee golf while the girls/women took a hay ride and partook in the arts and crafts room.   We ate well, fit in a couple board games, sent the big kids on a meadow horse back ride, got scolded for running the ponies on the snail's pace pony rides for the littles.....it was a weekend well spent.    

 

NYC Through My Eyes

I went to NYC in high school for a choir trip.  I remember a couple minutes from that trip.  Last week, Tim and I took a 4 hour plane trip (ALONE) to the Big Apple for a conference he had to attend.  I did not have to attend said conference, so I got to explore.  Since I remembered next to nothing from my adolescent adventure, this was a wrapped gift.  I'll be honest.  I expected to hate it.  I expected to think it was grungy, concrete filled, dirty, stanky, over crowded, over priced, and rude. Instead, here's what my little eyes saw.  

 

 My deepest apologies for this one, but I couldn't keep it to myself.

  Ick.  

 

 My very favorite visual.  A group of elderly folks dressed in white playing croquet in the middle of Central Park.

 Couldn't get enough of these little loves.  

 I sat at Tavern on the Green for 2.5 hours, eating, drinking, reading, and eavesdropping on some ludicrously rich humans.  

 Art?

 Dinner with Jake, a member of the family Tim works for.  We walked 7 MILES to get there and it was worth every step.  

 That would be Jake, going the other way home.

 They built a freaking seating area so people can look at all the Times Square advertisements for as long as their hearts desire.  So weird.  

This was a powerful morning.  There was an aura of humility and respect in the air the second we got off the subway near ground zero.  It felt so much different than the rest of the city felt.  People were hushed, they walked slower, they looked each other in the eye, and treated the air with respect.  I loved this side of town and what they've done to memorialize the lost and the trauma of 9-11.

 

My two days in NYC were a gift for so many reasons.  I breathed in the diversity, sunshine, man made beauty, smells of thousands of restaurants I'll never dine in, sounds of human interaction and hard working people, more smiles than I thought I'd see, less hustle than I thought I'd encounter, shiny yellow matching cabs, accents and languages too numerous to count, a serene waterfront, artistic expression, feeling far safer than I imagined feeling....so much lovliness.

There was plenty that rubbed me the wrong way too, but I walked away with a surprisingly positive relationship with NYC.  She treated me well and I have to say I'll look forward to visiting her again.