Happy Anniversary

Can you believe that was us? Boyd and I celebrated 5 years of blissful marriage this weekend. Originally we had planned to take dance lessons or take a dinner/dancing cruise around Manhattan, but in the end we went to the "A Mid-summer Night Swing at Lincoln Center (an event they have in the month of July where they have live bands and dance lessons for a small fee, or you can hang around the edges for free.) We actually didn't pay for the lessons, but just ended up sticking on the outskirts. It was great. You could still hear the music well and luckily we stood next to a girl who was teaching her friends how to do the mambo. We just joined in and followed her lead!

Afterwards we went to Roy's for dinner. We chose Roy's because it is Hawaiian cuisine and we thought it might bring us back to our honeymoon in Hawaii.. Not quite, but the food was pretty good, but we had a great time. We enjoyed our evening talking about the past 5 years. We talked about our proudest, saddest, happiest, scariest, most romantic..etc moments. We also looked to the future and talked about what we still hope to accomplish. We have shared so many wonderful moments together over the past 5 years. I am so happy that I made it to Boyd's party 6 or so years ago and that he asked me if I was "interested?". I will forever be interested..

Getting the Ball Rolling

I feel like it has been forever since I have had a new post. I don't know what it is, but I just haven't felt like posting. So, I decided, I better write something tonight, even if it is just a few lines, just to get the ball rolling again. So, that is what I am doing... getting the ball rolling again.

911

At about 4:40 today I received a knock on my door. It took me a bit to get to the door and when I get there, I hear someone shout, "POLICE!" I was a bit shocked and opened the door. They asked if everything was OK, and then asked if someone had called 911. "Ummm, No, not that I know of..." I replied. They asked if maybe a little one had done it and he looked directly at Gavin. But, Gavin had been asleep. Then I recalled that Eli had been playing with the phone about 10 minutes earlier. Oops. The officers were really nice about the whole thing. I can not believe that my 10 month old called 911 already. I think this is an indication of the things yet to come.

Memories

So, this is the first time I am posting something like this. It kinda reminds me of a chain letter of sorts, only for blogs, but I just did it on my friend's blog and I kinda liked thinking about the memories I had with her, so I thought I would try it.. Here it goes..

Here are the directions:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember, good or bad but be nice!!!!!!!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.We can make it a competition if anyone wants. Let's see who can come up with the funniest memory and who has the most memories. Please keep it going. ENJOY :)

Call me CRAZY

One of the things I have loved about living in the city is not having to rely on a car. I love being able to get places by fairly reliable, though sometimes inept, public transportation. While carrying the kids up and down the subway stairs is not ideal, it has been a great way to get around. We haven't been severely impacted by the high gas prices. We're helping the environment. We don't have to put kids in and out of car seats. We haven't had to deal with parking a car.

So, what did we do this last week? In what has been called, "the most spontaneous things I have ever done, " by Monica who knows how indecisive I can be, we bought ourselves a 2003 Town and Country Minivan. CRAZY, I KNOW!

Last week, 2 days before our trip to Martha's Vineyard, I visited Monica out on Long Island, at her beautiful new home, who mentioned a van they were selling for some friends and asked if I knew anyone interested? I thought about it and saidI would ask around. She proceeded to tell me what is was going for, and I couldn't believe it. I started thinking about the possibility of owning a car in the city. It was something we had considered for further down the line. It all seemed to make sense to me. We have been renting cars pretty regularly. We have wanted it more now that we have two kids. We feel we received a great deal and it justified the purchase now as opposed to later. So, after a day and a half of craziness we were able to insure, register, and drive home our new minivan. We were even able to drive it on our trip!

So, I have begun the parking game. I am attempting to park in on the street since garages near us cost $450 a month. So, I have to move it at least 2x a week and up to 4 depending on how I play the game. We'll see how it goes! We have already received a ticket. It was a "welcome to New York with a car" present. I case you were wonderning, we are still planning on using public transport as our primary mode of transportation!
Boyd has never owned a car until now. I am sure he probably would have hoped for a better first car than a minivan. :)

"The Vineyard"

A couple of weeks ago some good friends, Ryan and Lynda, asked if we wanted to go to Martha's Vineyard with them because they had some friends who were willing to let us use their house for the weekend. It didn't take us long to say YES to that invite! So, after an extremely long drive in heavy traffic to Cape Cod and then a ferry ride over to the island, we arrived to a cute home in a small village called Vineyard Haven.

For many, Martha's Vineyard is a home away from home. They "summer" in "the Vineyard." I met one such couple and for some reason our encounter was very memorable. Our first day at the beach a couple, who were well into their 80's, plopped down on the beach next to us and then proceeded to enter the ocean, swim caps and all, hand in hand, crawling on their knees to get past the extremely rocky portion of the beach. They swam for a bit and then crawled back together onto the beach. I could tell they had been doing this for many years and I was touched by that. I wondered what Boyd and I would be doing together when we are 80! Anyway, I was informed by this sweet lady that they spent all their summers on the island and that the house they stayed at had been in her husband's family since the 1820's!

For us, it was our first time and it was marvelous. We were able to spend some time at the beach, where Gavin and his dad and eventually his mom made it out past the rocks and into the ocean. We watched fireworks on the 4th amongst beautiful old homes and a lighthouse. We rode our bikes in the rain along a bike path that took us along the ocean. We ate "peel and eat"shrimp with good friends. We rode our bikes to a light house. We returned to the beach for more sand fun.

We enjoyed great company and lots of great laughs. I am sad that I didn't get more pictures..

We won't dwell on some of major melt downs Gavin had as a result of little sleep.
It was a very memorable 4th of July Weekend. Hopefully, we can return some day!