Thanksgiving in New York City

We had the wonderful opportunity to visit my parents in New York City for Thanksgiving this year.  They are currently serving an LDS mission in Highland Falls, NY with a military assignment at West Point Military Academy.  It was such a great trip and we can't wait to go back and spend more time in NY while they are serving.

I am terrible at taking pictures while on vacation.  I usually completely forget to bring my camera along with me.  As I was looking through the 15 pictures I took of the entire trip, seriously, I was sad.  We did so many fun things and had such a great time and I really have no pictures to show for it. :(  Hopefully one of these days I will get with the program and document our lives a little better.

Here is a picture of our "nature hike."  This is Abbey and Ela's favorite thing to do.  We went on a trail close to my parents hut (their home is known as the Mission Hut on the Hudson) and explored the area a little bit.  

A gorgeous view of the bridges on our walk back to the cars.

We went downtown NYC on Black Friday and shockingly, it was not very crowded.  I've seen this iconic place a million times in movies and on TV, but it was amazing to see it in person.  

We of course made a visit to Yankee Stadium for Eric.  Unfortunately we didn't get there in time for him to tour the inside, but it was pretty neat to walk around.  This was the least crowded area we visited and the girls loved that they could run around without having to hold someone's hand.  

It has been many years since we have been with family for Thanksgiving and it was great to be with some of the people we love the most.  The girls loved staying at the hut and spending lots of down time with grandma and grandpa.  We love that we are only 9 hours away from them and can't wait for our next visit. 

Columbus Happenings

It's been a while since I updated this blog, sorry!  We've been very busy since the move and I want to share a few of the things we have been up to...

We decided to get a membership to the Columbus Zoo.  It really is one of the best zoos we have ever been to and the girls LOVE going to see the animals.  I forget how "hands on" this zoo is, it is so much fun that the girls get to interact with the animals.  The also love the rids at the zoo...maybe even more than the animals. :)

Here are a few of the places we were excited to visit around Columbus... Of course!  The Cheesecake Factory.  One of my favorite restaurants!   We went to the Circleville Pumpkin Festival.  It was super cold and rainy, but still lots of fun.  The picture with the turtle is at one of the many pet shops around Columbus.  This is Tucker and he wanders the pet shop with a balloon taped to his back.  He is huge and can actually move pretty fast!  The last picture is Ela enjoying her spaghetti from Piada, a delicious restaurant my friend introduced us to. 

The girls are very into crafting and creating.  Abbey has always enjoyed crafting (as you can see by her toilet paper roll spider and bat drawings - something she did completely on her own!) and Ela has followed Abbey's example.  She may or may not have a little OCD...notice the markers arranged by color?  This is something I totally would expect from Abbey, but it surprised me coming from Ela.  So cute though!  They created the lego "Flower City and House World" together one night.  

 This year we did THREE trick-or-treating nights...  One was Boo at the Zoo (shown below.)  It was pretty cold and rainy and of course, my little monster couldn't keep out of the puddles.  I had her hand me her candy and go jump as much as she wanted.  Abbey tried it for a minute and decided it was too rebellious!   We also did the ward trunk-or-treat and the neighborhood on Halloween night.  These two little sweeties got WAY TOO MANY sweets!  Mom and Dad have been very helpful in helping eat all the candy. :)

School in Ohio

The girls are doing great in school here.  Neither one of them have had any problems adjusting to their new surroundings.  They have really surprised me!  Ela had a little singing program and then they did a costume parade for Halloween.  She loves preschool!!!

                                        

Abbey loves, loves, loves Kindergarten and is doing so great!  She is already a little reader and I am amazed at how smart she is.  Ela likes to sit and do Abbey's reading with us and now Ela can read Abbey's first book.  I have a couple of little smarty-pants!!!  This is one of Abbey's writer's workshop papers, it is a picture of her and I on a boat, it reads... On Saturday we went on a bot (boat) together.  My cats did not like it at all.