NY Recap

Me, Kimberly and Laurel had such a good time in the Big Apple! We couldn't have asked for better weather or better company! We ate lots of pizza and walked around until our feet were bleeding!! Here is the recap:

Saturday:

We met up at the hotel and then headed to dinner with my co-workers. We stopped at a few places in Times Square on the way back.

Sunday:

We had breakfast together and then headed to Chinatown to buy knockoff purses, jewelry and other crap. (this was the first of 4 trips to Chinatown for the other girls) We took the subway back and then had lunch at Grand Central Station. I had to go to work for a while so they walked around town a bit and then we met up for dinner. On the way home, we stopped at Rockafellar Center. It all made me wish it was Christmas and the big giant tree was already lit. They ice skating rink had just opened and everyone was on the ice showing off whatever skate moves they had.

Monday:

I had to work all day ...I still can't figure out why I had to go on the trip in the first place...I literally did nothing!!! We went to Columbia University and toured a little bit of the campus and then started the session. I read a book the entire time or did the Sudoku puzzles out of the USA Today. We headed back and then I took the girls sightseeing. First, we hit the Empire State Building. We took the elevator to the 80th floor and then walked up the next 8 flights of stairs to avoid a 30 minute wait for an elevator. WHAT A MISTAKE!! I need to realize my limitations these days! I am just too pregnant for that anymore. We then we and had some pizza and I let the girls try tiramisu for the first time. Then we got lost!! We learned all about the subway by mistake. We tried to go to the Staten Island Ferry but somehow ended up in Chinatown again!! I still don't know how that happened. But we finally made it and honestly, I am glad we got lost because we got to see the Statue of Liberty all lit up at night. It was great and free and so the girls were super happy about that!! On the way back there was an imperative ice cream hunt where we searched several venues but ended up at an all night market pulling butterfinger ice cream pops out of their ice cream freezer.

Tuesday:

The girls got up early and headed to the Today show set at Rockafellar Center, but not before calling me at 5:30am to ask directions...twice!!! They had the best time. I was really worried they wouldn't like it since Laurel didn't even know what the Today show was, but they stayed all morning and didn't come back until 10am. They saw Meredith Viera and Cosmopolitan Magazine's 50 hottest guys too. They came back on Cloud Nine after taking pictures with all of the guys. They were the only young girls there that day and so the guys naturally wanted to take pictures with them rather than women old enough to be their mothers and grandmothers. I worked that morning but got off early. We all met up for lunch and then headed to the World Trade Center Memorial. It was so moving to see everything the museum had in their exhibits. They also had a place where you could view the new WTC towers that are currently being built. I am really glad we went. We made, yes, another stop in Chinatown for last minutes gifts for loved ones back home and then headed back to the hotel early for frozen yogurt, godiva chocolate truffles and chocolate strawberries, then to change for the Broadway play we had tickets to. It was their first Broadway play and I enjoyed experiencing it with them. We went and saw Wicked. OMG...it was such a good story that put a different perspective on the Wizard of Oz. Amazing talent too...the lead girls had such beautiful voices. The baby was craving late night pizza on the way back from the play, so who was I to deny her. We stopped and pigged out for a few minutes before heading to bed for our last night in the city.

Wednesday:

I got up early and went to pick up breakfast before our last session started while the girls slept in and then went shopping for the last time in the city. We all piled into the limo and headed off the airport for home. My 3 hour flight turned into an 8 hour flight due to weather in Houston. Then because of the weather, there was flooding everywhere and car accidents at every intersection. Our hour and a half trip home turned into a 4.5 hour trip home. We finally got home at 1:30 am when I realized I had food poisoning from our stop at McDonalds on the way home. What a wild ride!!!

Hurricane Gustav Update

Well, there is so to tell everyone and yet...none of it is about Gustav!!

It all started on Saturday when we got the car the packed up and the house readied. The hurricane was supposed to hit on Sunday night so we were going to leave at 3am on Sunday morning for Austin to try and miss the traffic. (evidently, so did everyone else. It took over three hours to get to Houston and it normally only takes about an hour. )

We were finally finished and starting to settle in for the night when we noticed that Maggie was at the back door AGAIN! She had to go to the bathroom yet she had just come back inside. We watched her through the window and she kept squatting to go but couldn't. She had been SUPER clingy that day and had been quite moppy thirsty. She never did go to the bathroom so we called her inside to go to bed. She roamed the house for about 30 minutes trying to get our attention to let her out and go to the bathroom and we were ignoring her hoping that she would go to sleep. UNTIL...she couldn't hold it anymore and pee'd on my carpet. Sigh!! So we got the address for a vet that was open on Sunday in Austin and took her first thing when we got there. Tuns out, she's a big FAKER!! They couldn't find anything wrong with her at the vet but still charged us $140!!

We booked a hotel in advance expecting the hotels to be packed and we were right plus we knew we would have a hard time finding a place for Maggie. Our room wasn't great but they didn't care that we were bringing in a 75 lb dog. It smelled a little funny, like a hotel that takes pets!! Maggie spent the whole time with her face glued tot he window watching the kids down below in the pool.

Well, nothing happened at home. We called a friend who stayed behind and got the word that it was sunny and hot at home so we headed back home on Monday morning. Our motive was to get there before the storm turned west and started flooding our area with rain and plus we wanted to miss the traffic of everyone coming home. It rained for a few minutes on Monday night but nothing to write home about.

So there's our hurricane evacuation story! Big Time Exciting!!

Vacation Finale

I finally found the camera! And yes, it was in the car like E said!! All of these are from the night of fourth of July.

Since Ashley's husband wasn't going to be home for the fourth and all of her friends moved this year during transfer season, she came over to spend the weekend with us. We had lots of fun!

Here is my mom, dad, cousin, Laurel, and her boyfriend, Kyle, on the blanket next to us watching the fireworks.

Just a shot of the fireworks coming off of the barge in the water.

Here is Maggie watching the fireworks. She did relatively ok during the show. After the show, some kids started shooting fireworks close to where we were. At the time, we were in a large crowd of people who were all walking back to their cars. The fireworks went off, and a then people starting stopping to pet her. THAT'S WHEN SHE FREAKED OUT!!! So E just moved her to the side of the crowd and we waited until they were all gone and then walked back tot he condo!

Vacation Memories

Vacation was great! We did alot of napping on the beach, by the pool, on the couch, in the car, and in the bed. Pregnancy and morning sickness is exhausting. Luckily I was on vacation and had lots of spare time to get over it. I got plenty of sun, ate lots of "approved" seafood, saw the Blue Angels, (found out I knew a Blue Angel, how many people can say that), went watersliding, saw my family and extended family, went shopping for maternity clothes (I know it's early but there was a giant outlet mall there) spent some quality time with Ash and had dinner with an old college teammate, Carrie, got some exercise, swam, played with Maggs and just really had a good time overall.

Well, E swears that the camera was in my car this morning but I think he is loosing it! I looked high and low for that thing with no luck. So I will share a few from my friend, Ashley, that she took and sent my way.

We saw some beautiful fireworks on the night of the fourth. We all curled up on our blankets in the sand and watched the sky light up. It was beautiful. After the fireworks were over, me and Ashley saw a red light in the sky. We went outside and a large portion of the brush behind where we were staying caught on fire. We went and got my dad and E and we all walked out to go and see just how bad it really was (it felt a little like chasing an ambulance, but that was the excitement at the moment). It never got close enough to affect our accomodations but the fire burned off and on for a few days. We took our neice, Beth, to Waterville, (this waterpark close by) when another fire broke out and ash starting falling on us whilel we were in the pool. Turns out, a stray fireworks started the blaze. This picture is what we could see from the main street.

Maggs loved the sand. There were so many interesting things hidden under the sand. Crabs, bugs, trash, plants...she had the best time digging around and playing chase.

I never said she was smart...I decided to let her off of the leash for a while to play fetch and burn some energy. Immediately, she walked right over to a sand dune preserve and started digging. Not what I was wanting!! So I brought the long leash, threw the toy and chased it with her. She just gets so distracted with all the people and birds around, not to mention all of the new smells.

I thought this was a cute pic of E and Magpie!

**I promise I will post the others as soon as I find that camera!!