Weekend in Richmond

Last weekend, we flew down to Richmond to see Ethan's brother and his family. Ethan's dad (Gramps) drove up to join us. We had a great weekend and wish we could see everyone more often. We went to Busch Gardens, had a few cookouts, drafted our NFL fantasy teams and hung out. The kids kept us entertained, as always!

Puzzle time with Uncle Ethan

Slinky time with Aunt Elin

Gramps on the log flume ride

This was P's favorite ride of the day.....just wait until he's tall enough to ride the Griffin!
Uncle E and P

The Griffin...Ethan, Matt and I went on this ride once. At this point in the photo, we are suspended for 6 seconds, facing the ground. And then.....

...we are suddenly falling straight down. It was terrifying.

We liked the other roller coaster better (Apollo's Chariot). It looks like an easy, rolling ride but it's actually super fast and awesome. It was Gramps' idea to ride this one!

Bears are #1

Supporting our teams!

Have a great holiday weekend! We are off to Seattle tomorrow so we'll post photos when we return.

DC Visitors

One of Ethan's friends from college, Whitney, and her friend Karen were in NYC a few weekends ago. Unfortunately, I was getting over being sick and missed out on a fun dinner - complete with belly dancers! Ethan and I met up with them for lunch the next day - we had a nice time and are glad that we'll have some friends to look up in DC should we move there in the near future.

Prospect Park Zoo

Last weekend, we went to the Prospect Park Zoo with Ethan's coworker and his family. This was our first time there and we found out it's a cute little zoo. It's been remodeled recently and there is a nature trail, plus a monkey house (complete with baboons), sea lion area, and a petting zoo. It's definately a children's zoo, which was great because we had two kids with us.

Did you know porcupines can climb trees?

Turtle pond

Ethan barely fitting in the shell.

Behind me is a fish aquarium, although you can't see any of the fish.

Alpaca at the petting zoo. I think he just got a haircut.

Concerts Galore

We took full advantage of the free concerts in Prospect Park this summer. Much better than last year, when we went to ZERO concerts. Last Saturday was a tribute concert to Bill Withers - a 1970's songwriter, singer, etc . He wrote "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine (When She's Gone)" and "Lovely Day", just to name a few. The concert featured songs performed by lots of different singers, most of them we had never heard of. Maybe that's because we were only babies in the 70's.... The main reason we went to the concert was because The Swell Season was scheduled to perform. (The singers from the movie Once).

Ethan ran into our eye doctor while in the concessions line, who proceeded to get us into the VIP section of the bandshell. We were given wrist bands and got to stand right by the stage. It pays to get your eyes checked!

The summer season ended with a final concert on Tuesday night - Bob Dylan! We didn't have tickets - the show sold out quickly and tickets were selling for hundreds of dollars on the street. We were okay with standing just outside the bandshell- we didn't need to see Bob Dylan, just hear him. I think everyone else in the city had the same idea - I have never seen so many people sitting outside the fences of the bandshell. We stayed for a few songs - Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 (the song from Forrest Gump), Lay Lady Lay and a couple we didn't know. That's one nice thing about this city - you can step out of your apartment, walk a block and listen to Bob Dylan play in the park.

Bikes.....finally!

We went for a bike ride last weekend. It is embarassing to say this was the FIRST time we've used our bikes since moving to New York. They collected dust in our closet until Sunday. Ethan pumped up the tires, hooked on the front wheels and adjusted the brakes. I removed as much dust and cat hair I could from the spokes. And we were off - 2 laps around Prospect Park. It was a nice day and we saw some interesting things in the Park. As we rode, we heard singing nearby. It turns out a wedding was taking place in the park - there was a large crowd of people wearing native dress of an African country. I don't know which one - I think the flag had yellow, red, blue and green horizontal stripes. Anyway, it was a pretty cool sight.