A City Life For Me

Almost two weeks ago, my Elaine girl turn seven.  S-E-V-E-N.  Wow.  That makes me feel old!  Assuming she lives with us through college, that means we are about 1/3 done with our time with Elaine!  That is scary… I feel like there is yet so much to teach! Elaine is really a great big sister.  She is a helper and a teacher and an example, to Mommy and her siblings.  She is nearly always happy.  If she isn’t busy and involved with her brothers and sister, she is probably curled up with a book somewhere.  I used to be like that.  My Grandma was always getting on me for bringing a book everywhere.  Elaine brings three or four! I snapped a few pictures on the morning of her birthday. This was one of the few moments during our three weeks in Vancouver, BC that it wasn’t raining! Finally got her to smile! Elaine picked out her outfit for her birthday.  She loves purple, so the dress choice was easy.  The shirt is one that...

For Nolan’s birthday, we celebrated a week early in order to do it while we were at home.  The kids got to borrow some adjustable roller skates while we were on deputation, and they seemed to like it.  There is a new-ish roller skating rink at Brooklyn Bridge Park on Pier 6.  I’ve been wanting to go there anyway, so we gave both Elaine and Nolan some skates and took them skating.  Elaine did better than Nolan.  He got tired of falling on his bum, and took the skates off, but then eventually he put them back on.  (Poor guy is a klutz like Mommy).  Grandma outfitted them with new helmets, too.  It was a lovely evening to walk by the East River and view the city.  The kids were on and off the rink, and we even let the twins have a go.  Nehemiah is a natural athlete and did fantastic, even skating without the support bar! A tradition from Ben’s side – you get to pick out a cereal (the “junkier” the better).  He looks really happy here...

We took a little tour of New York City with our friend Jon Buker this weekend.  One of the things on Elaine’s bucket list was to walk the Brooklyn Bridge, so we started at Jane’s Carousel, walked the Bridge, and then went to the 9/11 Memorial.  Nehemiah was apprehensive at first… Liberty was a natural! The serious look… Nehemiah apparently hit his “wall” and took quite the nap on the Bridge.  This is what he looked like… Yes – he is asleep.  Yes – he was bumping people.  Yes – we did lay him down once we figured out he was really asleep! I think the Brooklyn Bridge is my favorite NYC icon.  It never disappoints – I’m always amazed at it’ The Freedom Tower.  It was nice visiting now that the Memorial is an open public square, and we didn’t have to stand in line or go through security!  One of these days I will make it to the Museum!