Aunt Renee's Visit

Aunt Renee gave me a great surprise for my birthday: she came for a visit! It was great to see her, even if it was only for a few days. One of the things I like about Renee's visits is that she takes a LOT of pictures, which was even more important this time since my own camera is on the fritz! So, the following pictures are from the dozens she took: We all like this one.. Caroline takes her meals seriously, as you can tell by this picture taken during one of our lunches during Aunt Renee's visit!

And here's Jordi, ready to go to ballet class. Aunt Renee had the priviledge of hanging out in the waiting area with me (& the other moms)
while Jordi was in class! While not quite as enamored as me by watching 3-year-olds dance, she couldn't deny that it was a pretty darn cute site!

Hide 'n' Seek

I can't believe it's been over 2 weeks since our last posting! We've had lots going on, (like visiting relatives, a birthday, and getting ready for Halloween) but I'll start with a cute picture of the girls playing together:
That's Jordi "counting the numbers" and Caroline attempting to hide. Once she gets going, I think Jordi could play this game for hours! She has no problem directing who counts & who hides, and is fair about alternating each time. For her part, Caroline knows there's a game going on, and is determined to participate, no matter what! When it's her turn to count, she diligently hides her eyes & makes noises that imitate numbers. Then, when it's time to hide (like in the picture above), she immediately & determinedly runs away from whomever's counting as fast as she can. As you can see, being around these two can be a lot of fun!

Kentucky 17 - South Carolina 24

Despite the loss, we enjoyed a fun-filled family weekend in Lexington. It started on Friday when the girls & I rode westward with Tim & Judy to meet up with Chris, who was in Lexington last week on business. Kickoff wasn't until Saturday evening, so we had lots of time for tailgating in the afternoon.


The Fords were in town for the game, too, and the girls were happy to have their cousin Emily to play with. Here's a picture of the three of them coloring in the warm afternoon sun:


Here's a picture of Jordi, warming up for the game. She loves cheering for the Wildcats.. note the megaphone around her neck!


Even Caroline is starting to get into the crowd's spirit inside the stadium. Until our aisle filled up with people, she ran back & forth and back & forth, yelling "Cat! Cat!" (with "meow! meow!" thrown in every once & a while!) That's what she's saying in this picture:

NYC, Part 3

This post will finally wrap up our trip to New York City. We had a really fun last day, and here are some pictures we took along the way...

Look closely, and you can see me, standing just off-center, wearing a pink shirt & waving at the camera. I took this self-portrait on the morning of our last day as I was walking past Rockefeller Plaza. It's a large, stainless steel sculpture in the shape of a 35 foot diameter concave mirror (FYI: that info's from the Public Art Fund website.) Anyway, I thought that it was neat that I could see myself in it from the back, so I took a picture!

Try to recognize the 3 people in the orange elevated stage... Right! They're the stars of "My Name is Earl." Chris & I were walking through Times Square on our way to the subway, and when we looked up, there they were! I'm sure it was some sort of promotion for their upcoming (now past) season premier. But whatever the reason, it was neat to see them in person. Jason Lee even waved back at me! (I waved at him when he seemed to be looking our direction!)

We went well off the beaten path to have lunch on our last day. Here's Chris, enjoying his macaroni & cheese in the front window of S'MAC, a great little niche restaurant in Soho. Funnily enough, I read about this place in the Sunday's Lexington Herald before we left. It was definitely worth the trek. We each tried something different, and they were both dee-lish!

We went a few more places (mostly shopping) before heading out. We had to leave from Newark airport at 5:20 in the morning, so our last night was spent in NJ. Not as exciting as the Big Apple, but at least we didn't have to get up so early in the next day. That about wraps it up for now! For those of you missing the girls, check back next time; we'll be back to posting their pictures soon!

NYC: The Late Show!

Chris, the Opportunity Maker, finagled a couple of coveted tickets to The Late Show for the Tuesday we were in New York (or, as Jordi says, "You Nork"). It was just as great as you're thinking!! In fact, it was even better since we earned seats in the front row! See the dot on my ticket in the picture below?
Well, as we were initially picking up our tickets, the person who handed them to us asked, in the course of seemingly innocuous conversation, if we had a favorite segment? Luckily, Chris thinks quickly and was able to provide an answer: Top Ten list. So the person mysteriously puts a blue dot on each of our tickets. Then, we're directed to step out of line and wait by ourselves. They still wouldn't divulge the meaning of the dots, except to tell us to come back for the taping 15 minutes before everyone else and to line up in a special line. By this point, we (and others with blue dots on their tickets) were dying of curiosity!

So, we came back early and went through all the coaching of the do's & don'ts of being an audience member at the Late Show (for example, they recommended to the two guys wearing hats that they remove them for the show because "Dave really doesn't like hats." Go figure!). The suspense continued to build as they waited until the last moment to reveal the meaning of the dot: seats in the front two rows! Woo hoo! Everyone was soooo excited! We then filed into the Ed Sullivan Theatre, and it was just as frigid as you've heard. Brrr! But it was so exciting to be there in person that you hardly noticed the cold. By yet another stroke of luck, Chris & I happened to get the last two seats in the middle section of front row.. right in front of Dave's desk! The only drawback was that, during taping, either a camera or a person holding gigantic cue cards was mostly blocking our view. We didn't even care, though, because it was SO COOL to be there, live & in person, seeing everyone we've been watching on TV for the past 20 years! Our time there sped by, and it was over too soon. I hope everyone who goes to NYC gets a chance to attend a show like this; it was truly special!