Memorial Day 2009

For Memorial Day weekend Mom came to visit. Saturday night we went to see Avenue Q, hilariously inappropriate. I wore a mini dress and new shoes, I cant believe we didn't get any pictures! And I lent Mom some of my clothes to wear...and it was a good thing she brought a back-up because we are totally not the same size anymore.
Sunday Mom went to Ellis Island in the morning, while Rob and I stayed home and worked. Then we all met up for church. After church I was sooooooo looking forward to Island Burgers and Shakes, and we get the and it is CLOSED!!!! For Memorial Day. What kind of crap is that! We ate at Five Napkin Burger instead. Rob spilled his beer in my lap. The food was good. After dinner we walked over to Rockefeller Plaza for Top of the Rock. Here is a picture of me and Mom. It doesn't look like much, but that bright light is the Empire State Building.

Here are all of the reasons that I recommend Top of the Rock as an attraction (especially over the Empire State Building) The price is about the same. (ESB is more if you pay for the line cutting express ticket) There is NO LINE, I mean NO LINE at all! The first area has a history of the building and a model of the Plaza and buildings. The photo op (which we didn't do) is a green screen where they sit you on the famous beam where the workers are having lunch (when we saw that we kind of wished we had done the photo op). Then there are some short videos to watch if you choose. Then you go up. And there are THREE FLOORS with different patio over looks. The 67 gives great north and south views - this is where we took the picture. Then you go up to 68 and get a 360 view (and a gift shop where I talked mom into buying a black mug that reveals a picture of men on beam when filled with a hot beverage - does it work mom?) We couldn't go to the 69th floor because of possible lightening that may have been spotted. But I don't think we missed much.

Re-Cap: NO LINES, GREAT VIEW, GOOD PRICE, and did I mention NO LINES!!!

Monday we went to Mom's favorite restaurant, Max Brenner. Where we got there 5 minutes after they stopped serving breakfast, but convinced our waiter to ask teh chef if we could still order anyhow - we could. So we ate a HUGE breakfast, and I had the bright idea to get a peanut butter crepe for desert. I was so full I couldn't walk. But walk we did - a nice stroll through Central Park.

Thanks mom for visiting. I had a great time.

PS - a couple of pictures of me and Rob.

Top of the Rock - see the Empire State Building

Being Lovey

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the mothers in my life. And yes these are lot's and lot's of wedding pictures, because everyone is dressed all snazzy, and I have many pictures from that day. Above is my mom and my mother-in-law. I don't think they've ever seen this pic, it was a snapshot from my cousin that has just been pulled from the archives.

To mom, You're awesome. I absolutely love this picture of you. The things you have accomplished in life are amazing.

To Val, I'm happy I can be your daughter. You raised a son, who is also a wonderful husband.

To my grandmas. You are both so special to me. I love you.

Happy day to all the mothers out there.

My Sister

Emily is leaving in about a week to take a new job. She will be leading camping trips around the country. Just her, a van, a duffel bag, and a bunch of tourists. She will be gone for months. I will miss her, but I am proud of her for getting such a cool job. Before she goes, she has lots of packing to do and family to see, and she went turkey hunting with Dad. I went turkey hunting with Dad in college, it was more fun than I ever would have imagined (which is why I was 18 before I went for the first time). So here is Emily with her Turkey.

And so she doesn't kill me for posting this on the blog, a picture of us all dressed up at my wedding.

Love you sis, and I will miss you.

Boston

Last weekend Dad was in Boston for the marathon (he was not running), so Rob and I took a Bolt bus up. We love the Bolt bus because of the cheapish price and the on board electrical outlets and wi-fi. I can't be without the internet for too long.
We had a great weekend visiting - here are some pics. And there is only one of an old building. Who wants to look at pictures of old buildings, but on the other hand how can you go to Boston and not get pictures of old buildings...

Rob and I in front of the Old South Meeting house.
Independence Hall
Dad and I at Kingfish Hall where we ate.
Dad being goofy.

A passing Duck Boat. The tour was lots of fun. I went on one back in 2003 when I was living in Boston, and it is just as much fun as I remember. I mean its a truck AND a boat, and the crazy driver telling you all about Boston, some I which I am pretty sure is made up, but my radar isn't so good on that.


Rob and I on the tour. See how cold we are.
April in Boston is COLD. And we were outside in the wind AND on the water. I had the perfect windblown hair going though. And Rob is all bundled up.
Aunt Mary - the coat was the best gift! It is light enough for spring, and so warm and toasty to keep me warm in the wind.

Easter Hat Parade

A tradition that dates back to at least the 1890's and started with people walking around and admiring (or showing off) the Easter finery which includes the Easter hat. It takes place on Fifth Avenue from 47th to 57th streets - in front of all the big churches. Today the parade has deviated some from it's origins, people still come out but the hats are more like costumes. One NY Times archived article called it a Halloween-like festival in the spring. After taking in the sights, we went to mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Here are some pictures from the street.Cathedral HatCathedral Close-upBunny got run over by a taxi.See his tongue sticking out...

Easter bunny caretaker - see the carrots

Windmills

Easter Bonnet Chicks (they're name, not mine, they even had cards)

These carrot hats had bubble machines inside!

Ladies on the church steps.

Happy Birthday

To someone special...

(wedding August 10, 2008)

Today is my cousin Haley's 7th Birthday. I can't believe she's 7! In my family there are kind of two groups of kids. My brother, sister, and I, and three (male) cousins who are our age. And then there is a gap of about 10 years to the little boys (who are hitting their teenage years) and the kids (Haley and Grant.)

Haley has the distinction of being my only female cousin. We were so excited that she was a girl. I was 20 when she was born, and almost the exact age my mom was when I was born. That was an interesting thought. I love the special relationship I have with Haley, and cherish the time I get to see her, especially because I live so far away. Once when I was home visiting Haley asked if I lived on the airplane. It made sense though, I always stayed at her house on my way to and from the airport.

So here are some pictures of Haley as a baby and toddler and kid, and from when she took on the role in my wedding as the flower girl and ring carrier.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

(first picture together, one week old, 2002)

(first birthday party, 2003)

(my college graduation, May 2004)

(2005)

(summer 2006)

(Christmas 2006)

(Christmas 2007)

(wedding, 2008)

Monkey Loves Pudding

Cufflinks

Rob finished his first batch of cufflinks recently. Check them out HERE for the Etsy store. Custom orders are available.

Poconos Part 1

Well, I am finally getting around to blogging. But the culprit in my lack of time was not the work - it is that my laptop has died. I am taking it to get fixed on Tuesday, but I have had to share a computer with Rob. Sharing is no fun when the person you are sharing with has actual work to do and you want to sit and blog and check facebook. But now it is the weekend so here I am.

Some friends of my cousins have a house in the Poconos, right on one of the lakes with a funny name that I cannot remember. They graciously invited us for the weekend. Of course we accepted.

This is the view from the back window.The lake was completely frozen. The house had no internet (well there was a dial-up connection - but who needs that). And in some places we had no cell service. Perfect for a weekend getaway. The first day we were there we stayed in our pjs and did a jigsaw puzzle, and some of the millions of crosswords. I actually finished a few almost by myself. Then we went out for a birthday dinner for Peggi.

Day two we went walking across the frozen lake. It was fun.

When we weren't outside or doing crosswords, we watched the birds on the feeders. This picture was taken with Rob's new technique to read about in the Eagle post.

Family Photos

When Rob first moved into the condo, the small bedroom / office looked a little like the picture to the left. Or maybe that's exactly what it looked like. The room was full of furniture we weren't sure what to do with, the artwork waiting to be hung on the walls, and boxes of stuff from the storage unit where Rob put the things from Uncle Al's house. We spent a couple of months cleaning out this room to make it a respectable office and now guest room. In the process there were all the family photos to deal with. There were thousands of photos and slides to look through. Rob was at first tempted to just toss the lot, but instead we sorted. The photos from Rob's childhood, and his Dad's were all put into a box. Along with slides of family events that someday we may have transferred. Tossed were pictures that were blurry and out of focus, and there were a ton of nature pics of birds and such that also went. What we were left with was two photo boxes full of Rob's family pictures. When we got back from New Mexico I decided to do something with them.


I had an empty photo album, so I went through the boxes and found the best 200 pictures. Then with my limited knowledge of chronology, dates on the back of some photos, and Rob's really awful sense of time, I organized and made an album. The only downside is after I was all done I found the roll of Rob's first birthday party, and there is no way I'm moving everything back to put them where they belong. So now we have a Power's family photo album. I'm going to have to enlist Val's help in labeling some of the people in the photos. I think I can get them all.
For my next project I want to print out the best of the digital photos from the last few years and put those in albums. I really love having them and that is the downfall of the digital camera.

New Mexico, part 5

Date in Santa Fe:

On Friday Rob and I took the car and drove up to Santa Fe. It snowed the whole time. Wet but pretty. We saw the cathedral on the square, then went shopping! I bought a small nativity from Peru. The Mexican and South American nativities are very different from the ones I'm used to seeing. We went into a pottery gallery and bought a little pot made with black clay, and a decorative band of sparkly green clay (it's made that way because of the minerals in the clay) There is a history behind the pot and the artists who made it, I'll have to do some research to remember everything the gallery owner told us about it.

We walked to a different part of Santa Fe and went to eat at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame BBQ. The food was alright, we had the BBQ sampler and sweet potato fries. The decor though was awesome, tons of pictures of cowgirls on there horses with their lassos. I should have bought a t-shirt.

On the way back the the car we stopped at the Church of Our Lady Guadalupe and took some pictures of the statue there. Many people have left candles and flowers at her feet. Then headed out of town before the snow got worse.

Oh, and on the way back to Mary's we stopped at one of the casinos and gambled away $4.91.

And when we finally did get back we had some peppermint cake and pie a day early for Valerie's birthday.

Here are pictures from Santa Fe:

New Mexico, part 4

Christmas Day!Christmas morning we woke up and once everyone was ready and dressed we opened the presents from Santa. It's so nice to know he found us in New Mexico. I got moccasins and Mary gave me some silver bangles that had belonged to Rob's grandmothers. Rob got a vest and a new shirt. Everyone liked the wedding pictures we gave them.For lunch we had a huge meal of steak, garlic mashed potatoes, broccoli with white cheese sauce, and delicious sweet potato pear soup. I really can't believe how much and how well we ate. After lunch we went to see the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Interesting movie - definitely a go see.

When we got back to the house we built a fire and settled in for another snow...and some more singing. Merry Christmas.