New York, New York!

We were extremely fortunate to be able to go to New York a few weeks ago. The trip was a gift from Brian's parents to celebrate his graduation, and we were glad to have them along for the week!

The first stop was to Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame. Brian is a huge baseball fan and he has always wanted to see the museum. We spent most of a day there and I think Brian could have stayed another day or two if the boys would have been agreeable to it.



Ezra's favorite part? The "holy cow"! Ezra *loves* cows and he made us stop and take pictures every time we passed this cow. Almost half of my pictures at the Hall of Fame are of this cow!

Our next stop was NYC! We visited the Statue of Liberty:

We spent a full day at the American Museum of Natural History. Ender *loved* the planetarium and the IMAX movie about Hubble. We just finished up our little unit that was an intro to space and Hubble was part of our reading. The movie detailed some work astronauts did to repair Hubble and Ender watched so intently you would have thought it was some intense thriller! (Ezra slept through both by the way.)

The other highlights for Ender were the mineral room and the Hall of Ocean Life. Ender's first and on-going collection is rocks and minerals. We spent a full hour in the mineral room looking closely at each sample. In the Hall of Ocean Life there is a life-size (100 foot!) blue whale hanging in the room. Ender stood at the panel for the blue whale for ages looking at pictures and asking us to read portions for him. When we got home it was the first thing he wanted to talk about and the first picture added to his notebook.

Ezra was MADLY in love with the dinosaurs! Those rooms took the longest to go through because Ezra wanted to see every little bit.

Another special thing for Brian was seeing the new Yankees stadium. One of the things he would love to do is to see all the different major league ballparks, and this added another one for him. As a bonus we got to see A-rod hit his 600th home run!

What trip to NYC with children would be complete without playing on the big floor piano at FAO Schwarz? Ender totally came out of his shell even with about 2 dozen people around and he was BREAK DANCING on the piano! It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Other stops on our visit included the fabulous Purlsoho. I had a budget that I met, and then my lovely mother-in-law stopped me before I got to the counter and said, "you are NOT finished shopping". She told me to pick up more as part of my Christmas present! I happily said yes to more yarn.

We also visited ground zero, Central Park and Times Square. There was some great food, and the subway was a good experience overall.

Ender asked to move there. We were surprised that he did so well on the whole trip. In general Ender doesn't do well with last-minute change and loud noises and both happened abundantly on the trip! He took it all in stride and handled it all well.

We are so thankful for this opportunity to visit a place so different than our home and for Brian to have the chance to fulfill a bit of his baseball dreams.