We walked on the Hudson River Promenade down to Battery Park and had a nice, hazy view of the Statue and Ellis Island. 
Next we ventured to Times Square - hey, you gotta see it at least once in your life, right?
It was our lucky day - there was a Naked Cowboy sighting on Broadway. Don't worry, he was wearing his white undies under that guitar. Apparently, he's been "performing" in Times Square since 1998 - even in the winter. 
Rockefeller Center was next - an artist named Chris Burden has this installation on view in the Plaza. It's a giant erector set replica of The Rock. He calls it "What my dad gave me" and it was up in time for Father's Day. 
After getting some tasty cupcakes at Magnolia Bakery, we walked to Central Park. It was Father's Day, so we all decided to call our dad's while sitting on the rocks in Sheep's Meadow. 
The next day, we headed down to meet Ethan for lunch. We walked right by the "Law and Order" courthouse on the way to the Thai restaurant. (It's actually the NY State Supreme Court building). Apparently, we ate lunch right next to a city jail. We looked out the window and were surprised to see some rough looking handcuffed folks were filing out of a van. Once again, only in New York. In case you were wondering, it was very good Thai food.
Thanks for coming to visit, Dev! It was great to see you and show you our new home. :)
A few weeks ago, Ethan's sister Erin and her three kids came to visit us. Three adults, three kids and one cat: that's a new household record. Still there was plenty of room for everyone to sleep comfortably and much fun was had by all.
Our first full day we travelled into Manhattan to see the Statue of Liberty. Since we also had tickets to see Mary Poppins, we opted for the shorter, cheaper tour of the statue by taking the Staten Island ferry. It's free and leaves every 30 minutes from the South Ferry terminal at the southern tip of Manhattan. Below is Graham on his very first subway ride. He was glued to the window and kept asking "are we in a tunnel?" To Erin's horror, she had left her anti-bacterial wipes in the mini-van. Graham survived though, so if NYC subway germs didn't make him sick, I don't think there's much on this Earth that could.
Here are Erin, Graham and Kira watching as we pulled away from the ferry dock heading to Staten Island. We had outdoor seats on the Statue side and, although it was a bit cloudy, we were still able to see Lady Liberty pretty clearly.
We actually got much closer to the Statue than is shown in this picture, but we liked the water taxi in the foreground.
After the ferry ride, it was uptown to Times Square. We had a quick lunch at Bubba Gump and then hurried to the theater for a matinee show of Mary Poppins. Elin and I sat with the girls and Erin sat in a separate section with Graham. Graham wasn't as engrossed in the play as his older sisters. Erin thought it had something to do with the fact that Mary Poppins didn't "transform" into some sort of weapon or robot. At intermission, I asked Graham how he liked the show. His response: "I can't understand what they're saying." He was right. The British accents were a bit tricky at times. The second act proved more robust with livelier songs and cool special effects, so Graham enjoyed it much better. Proving how grown-up Maddie and Kira are getting, they were both quick to point out the wires that held up the actors during some of the flying scenes. Can't get much by them anymore.
Leaving the theater, we experienced a good, old fashioned Times Square mob scene. You don't appreciate how stressful mammoth crowds are until you're trying to keep track of three kids. Luckily it was only two blocks or so to the giant Toys R Us. We ducked inside and were greeted with a full size, indoor ferris wheel. Unfortunately the line was too long so Maddie and Kira had to settle for a picture in front of it. Still none of the kids left without a toy. Graham got a Transformer. Kira got a Jaguar stuffed animal, and Maddie got a coloring book. Erin threw in some sidewalk chalk and made it out of there without going bankrupt.
We made it home after a long day. Pictured below are Graham and Kira on their favorite chair in the apartment. They had just finished playing the Star Wars Lego game on the XBox and were very excited. Graham started asking about the game at breakfast and didn't stop until we started playing after dinner time. Graham is also our family Wii tennis pro and had a great time beating his mother in a few sets.
The next morning we visited a playground in Prospect Park. Below Maddie appears right at home sitting on top of the monkey bars.
Kira got a little assistance from Aunt Elin.
What would childhood be without swing sets?
Here is Maddie pushing Erin. Is it me or is Erin holding those chains a little tight? This is the same sister who taught me how to do back flips off a diving board when I was about 11. You've lost your edge, sis!!
They made the most of their short visit with us. We will miss having them so close as they move to Florida this week, but it's been great to spend some time with them over the past year and a half.
Is it me or could this be an ad for the Brooklyn Brewery? This is one of those rare group photo moments where not only is everyone looking into the camera, everyone is smiling. Not pictured is the Brooklyn Brewery kitty that was napping/guarding the bags of hops.
Home of Project Runway - where's Tim Gunn?
Little Italy for lunch
Colin: lawyer by day, wine connoisseur by mid afternoon
Dave pays homage to Sex in the City. Holy bicep! Dave you know you could work your triceps a little too.
I'll sign off with some other photos from the visit- thanks, Dave for supplying me with these! :)
I never knew Diana Ross had a park. The playground is really old, but it's had a lot of work done and it looks like a totally different park!!
Enjoying the sun in Central Park (there's Matt! Unfortunately, we had a short visit with him, but want to wish him the best of luck in India!)
Dave and his green twin
What better way to spend a Sunday morning in Spring than to run 13.1 miles? My friend Chris peer pressured me into signing up for the first ever Marine Corps Half Marathon down in Fredericksburg, Virgina. I caught a flight down to Virginia, crashed at his house for a night, and we drove down to Fredericksburg to run the race. This is the same "friend" who dropped a brick on my finger in first grade, so I really should have known better. The picture above is me somewhere in the middle of the race. The maps the Marines provided of the course prior to the race made the run seem fairly flat throughout, but in reality it seemed much hillier towards the beginning and end. Despite the hills Chris, his co-worker Will and I all finished in respectable times. While traditional wisdom says that carbohydrates should be the focus of your dinner the night before a race, we three geniuses decided to poo-poo tradition and settled on pork barbecue for our dinner. A little running tip for all you hopeful half-marathoners out there: stick to the carbs. 
Chris, his wife Megan, and their three sons Brandon, Owen and Kellan live in Leesburg, VA just outside of DC. As I mentioned, they put me up for the Friday night before the race. As you can see, the kids provided the majority of the entertainment. With three kids under the age of 5, I'm not really sure where Chris gets the energy to run 13 miles on a weekend, but he did it. Probably has something to do with the excellent woman Chris has for a wife. 
Here's Owen mugging for the camera. The kids were fun. Brandon taught me how to play Mario Kart and then we all went out to a local park and threw rocks into a creek. What more can a kid ask for in a day?
Seeing as how Richmond is only an hour or so drive from Fredericksburg, my brother and his family drove up to cheer us on. They were waiting for me right around mile 12.5 and, after some high fives from Peyton and Alison, I was able to finish the race strong. The race started at 7am, so by the time I was finished and all cleaned up, it was still barely 11am. We had about an hour to kill before lunch, so we went to the local Barnes and Noble. These cushions made a perfect little play pen for Alison, while Courtney and Peyton discussed some of literature's classic protagonists like Dora the Explorer and Superman.
Here is Alison getting ready for nap time in the back seat of the van. Wait, she's buckled in so maybe we were on our way to lunch. Either way, she's still cute.
Last Monday, we headed to Radio City Music Hall to see "The Swell Season" - a concert featuring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova from the movie "Once". We were so excited to see this concert, since we love the movie and the songs are great. A band called The Interference opened and we were pleasantly surprised - I need to add them to our iTunes. Glen and Marketa sounded just like they do in the movie. Glen is a great storyteller and had some great intros for each song. If you have the chance to see this concert, GO! It was excellent! (And Radio City was pretty cool too).
