Astoria, New York

Before I start in on our 2nd day in New York, I thought I would show Astoria, or more specifically, Lauren's neighborhood. This first picture is of the front door to Lauren & Nick's apartment...

The view looking east-ish down the street


The view heading West-ish... in strange case of foreshadowing, the girl in the distance is carrying the exact umbrella that Sarah will purchase later in the day, as the one she is currently holding will eventually leak on her head... maybe that is what she is gazing at...



Beautiful church at the corner...


A view of the street as you round the block


Around the block the other way...you can see the grocery store


This cracked me up...not the only one we saw parked like this... hope they have good brakes...


This is 2 blocks away, Steinway St...it has stores, christmas trees, coffee, and street vendors... and also where one of her subway stops is...




These are from another part of her neighborhood... I loved how the stores poured out onto the sidewalk...the produce always looked so pretty and delicious, and there was always fresh flowers... they would even leave bins of bottled water on ice out on the streets. It was a very trustworthy feeling...

And the other subway stop near her house (she lives halfway between two)... it was neat because it was above ground...

New York, New York!

Inspired. That's how I feel right now. I am 3 days out from my first ever visit to New York and I miss it already. I look at my photos (all 700 of them) and feel like I'm reminiscing with an old friend. New York welcomed me with open arms, and breathed it's life into me.
Before we even landed, I was in awe of the city. As our plane descended and broke through the clouds, we were greeted with a view of Manhattan that was breathtaking... we realized as we passed over Times Square what we were looking at. I grabbed my camera in time to capture Central Park below us...



We took a cab to Lauren's apartment, which was everything I dreamed, and then she took us to eat at a place in her neighborhood. The night was still young, so she said we could go see the Rockefeller tree, which would be beautiful at night. This is our first time on the subway (which we ended up riding so many times I can't even count!)
Lauren knew her way around so good it was crazy...I think she planned her subway exits by the shock value we got...the picture below was the first thing I saw as we came out of the subway...it was New York




The night was still kind of hazy, which made the skyscrapers and the lights look amazing...


This was one of the windows of Bergdorf Goodman...they were so incredible in person, these pictures don't so justice, but yes, they were kind of weird....


Some things were just neat because I've seen them on TV or in movies...here's Trump Tower...


One place I wanted to see was St Patrick's Cathedral...and it just happened to be on our way! It was so massive, and yet so small compared to the buildings around it...






One thing Lauren and Sarah would not do is stand outside the Today Show...so I made sure to look through the Today window while we were at Rockefeller Plaza...


The first view of Rockefeller Center was amazing...

and up close with the rink...


The Library...


And we ended the night catching the subway from Grand Central Station.
And that was just the first night...

Incredibly Sorry....

I want to begin by saying I am so sorry for not posting in so long. between two computers going ca-put and forgetfulness I did not mean to go so long without posting.
I'm posting tonight some video from Andrew's second baseball game.... the first one he was the starting pitcher! I'm just a proud mom- posting a strike out and an at bat.....
for all our neighbors, Mason was the catcher....

The Steam Engine

Thanks to dad, we learned that the largest running steam engine was coming through Jeff City.... and the boys happened to be off school! It was running late, but it was still really cool to see a real working steam engine...




These men were putting grease sticks in the puffer joints (I'm sure that's not the technical name)

they hooked these water tankers up to the fire hydrant to refill

happy boys...

proof I was there!

Happy Birthday Drew!

Can you believe my baby turned 9!!!!??
I thought I do double duty and post some pictures of the first day of school, too... can you believe we're in 3rd and 1st grade now? As much as I hate time flying by, my boys get better every year, so I'm excited to see what this new year brings....
and I'll hopefully get better about posting!

end of summer

I have been pretty bad about posting this summer....and now it is over...
We tried to get in some last minute fun.... the Washington Fair-the boys always have a good time, and on a beautiful day we managed to squeeze in the Runge nature center, which they love to visit.....

Can you see Papa O and Drew on the bumper cars?

the boys playing in soy beans

Drew milking a cow...

Austin driving a combine....

At the Runge....

going up a fire tower...

Bass Pro visit....

Summer baseball...

So last weekend, Drew's baseball team played in the show me state games.... here's a picture of Drew catching (his favorite position).....
And then tuesday Randy got offered tickets to the Royals game on Wednesday.... and they were playing the Twins! The boys were so excited... we got there before the gates opened, and Drew and I went straight to the twins dugout to wait for Joe Mauer- Drew's favorite player.... unfortunately, this was a 1:00 game and the heat index was like 105, so the players didn't come out until 30 minutes before the game....but we still saw him warm up, closer than we've ever been... it was still really cool (Drew said his legs were shaking!)