GB and GJ Day 2: Lyndhurst Castle

After a tour of Irvington, Burke, Central Ave, and Stew Leonard's and lunch at the greek place, we headed to Lyndhurst Castle for a guided tour. 

The grounds of Lyndhurst are so beautiful and all of the trees and flowers are finally blooming! I was listening and being such a good boy until they told us that we couldn't bring the stroller into the castle. Let's just say that antiques and I don't mix, not to mention that you mean I have to stay QUIET...I don't think so. After about 2 minutes in the castle, Doc had to take me out and let me RUN! Thanks for entertaining me while everyone else was inside. The best part of the afternoon was getting to see the groundhog pop out of his hole. Thanks again, Doc!

After the tour, we headed back to the hotel to regroup before dinner. We ate at Harvest on Hudson tonight and since I missed my nap this afternoon, the first half of the meal was AWESOME. Mom, Dad, and Mimi took turns taking me outside to play. I was MUCH better once they brought my chicken fingers and berries. So much fun and lots more fun to come this weekend, but now it's time for me to go Night, Night!

GJ and GB visit NY!

Fun times!... my GREAT Grandmother Betty (GB) and GREAT Granddaddy Jack (GJ) came up to visit with Mimi and Doc. We are SO happy they are here to see where we live! The dinner at the Red Hat was taking WAY too long, so we came outside to play. 

A group shot...I am hiding behind the glasses between Mom and Dad. We MUST get a better group pic!

Blowing dandelions with Mimi after dinner.... This was TOO much fun! More festivities tomorrow!

B-ball

Luke is ALL BOY! Check out how excited he gets over basketball! (In case you can't tell he is yelling GO!!!)

A few more things....

to add to the cute things Luke is saying from the previous post. Luke has now learned the word burp and like to announce to us  EVERY time he or his daddy has burped.... pronounced "buhp."

Another thing he is doing is saying Thank you for things without our prompting. We have been getting him to say 'thank you' but having to tell him to say it first. Well, he can now say it all on his own and he says it a lot. Like today I set his lunch on his tray and he said thank you....pronounced "tank you!" Oh yea, and he actually asks to watch "bee-ball" since it seems like Jeremy has basketball on ALL THE TIME now. This talking thing is SO much fun!!!

The Boy is better and Summer is here!

After a rough weekend for all of us, Luke is much better :) Yea!  He was feeling better by Saturday, but by then Jeremy had caught whatever this was... And wouldn't you know it, by Sunday afternoon, I was catching this nasty cold! So much for close quarters! To add insult to injury, we went from cold spring days last week to summer conditions overnight and since we have no a/c, it was brutal on Saturday when it got up to 88 degrees (although our thermometer out front said it was 105!). Luke has decided that it is very fun to wear his "eyes" this year. "Eyes" have a double meaning in Luke language: Eyes= well, eyes, but they also mean eyeglasses. 

Luke's new phrase for the day is "choo choo are you?"  He loves ANY thing that has to do with transportation, i.e., truck, trains (aka: choo choo), car, and BUS! Just a few weeks ago EVERY thing was a Bus, but now he is branching out and calling a truck, a truck and a bus, a bus. Well, today he took it a step further and is now asking "Choo choo {where} are you?" (but he deletes the {where} and just says "choo choo are you?" Since we have the window open to get some breeze through the house, we can hear the trains at the bottom of the hill, so every time he heard one it was "choo choo are you?" It was TOO funny and cracked me up every time! 

Our Poor little Sick baby :(

Lukie's nose started running yesterday and we thought he might just have a little cold. Well, by the time I got home from work at 1pm, he was running a 102 degree fever and feeling lousy. He is normally such an active little guy that it breaks my heart to see him so lethargic. Notice that he has his Mickey Mouse in a choke hold and Elmo close by. The blanket is a hand made quilt that Granny Plank made and it is our favorite.  It is showing it's age, but we will keep using it until it literally falls apart. Now Jeremy thinks he is coming down with something, so this weekend may be a wash even though it is supposed to be 85 degrees here tomorrow! Hopefully after a good night's rest, everyone will be better tomorrow.

Sunday

Sadly, Mimi, Doc, and GM headed home today before we even got out of bed. Since we were in the city anyway, we decided to make a day of it because our days in NY are numbered. It was another GORGEOUS day, a little chilly but nice and sunny! We took advantage of the weather and decided to walk across the Brooklyn bridge to a little famous pizza place just under the Brooklyn bridge on the Brooklyn side.

We were told that there is ALWAYS a line at Grimaldi's  and today was no different, but since it was a nice day we didn't mind the wait. After about 30 minutes, we were seated and it was WELL worth the wait. 

The pizza was HANDS DOWN the BEST pepperoni pizza I have ever eaten. They make it by putting the mozzerella cheese on first, then the sauce with a little bit of oil and basil. We got the pepperoni, which was a thick cut pepperoni and the combination of flavors was delicious. Luke LOVED the pepperoni and kept asking for "pep-pa-oh, pep-pa-o!"

The boys chowing down!!!

After enjoying our pizza, we walked down the block to the water front and split a cup of chocolate chunk ice cream. What a fun date with my two boys!

We decided to use our 48 hour hop on/ hop off tickets to the very last second they were still valid and it got us within blocks of the hotel where they were holding our luggage. (Notice Luke napping in Jeremy's arms on the bus for the second day in a row.) What a great weekend! A huge THANKS to Mimi, Doc, and GM for ALL of the fun we had!!!

NYC with GM Day 2

We woke up early and had breakfast at the hotel and headed straight to the subway. We rode the train all the way to the end of the island to Battery Park. We hopped on the Staten Island Ferry, which was totally FREE, to let GM see the Statue of Liberty.

After the ferry ride, we got back on the hop on/ hop off bus and hopped off at Rockefeller Center. After a quick bite of lunch and some street shopping, we got in the cab and went straight to the Empire State Building.

It was pretty busy and after waiting in line for what seemed like FOREVER, we finally made it to the top. Such a pretty view, but I don't think I EVER need to go back up again. Been there, done that!

After we left the Empire State building, we had just enough time to get back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner at the Four Seasons. It was only a few blocks away from the hotel, so we all decided to walk there and let Luke walk to try to "wear" him out, so he would be good at dinner. (He is usually good, but we had been having a lot of long dinners and lunches and he was having a hyper afternoon and had not had a nap today.) We went to the early seating of dinner because Mimi, Doc, and GM were going to the 8 pm show of Phantom of the Opera .
Luke was surprisingly good at dinner, thanks to a HUGE bowl of berries and his car and bus!
After the wonderful dinner, they brought Doc a HUGE platter of cotton candy since his birthday was just a few days ago. Luke LOVED blowing out the candle OVER and OVER again, since Mimi and Dad kept lighting it back up with the candle on the table.
After dinner, Jeremy, Luke and I decided to make the most of our 48 hour hop on/ hop off bus tickets and took the night tour. Although, we got to see a lot of the buildings lit up, we had literally, the SLOWEST bus driver in the city....so the tour that was supposed to take 1 hour 45 minutes, ended up taking over 2 and a half hours. After about an hour and a half, Luke was sacked out and we took turns holding our tired little boy. I guess he was worn out from all that we had done over the weekend!

NYC with GM: Day 1

After taking the 11:16am train to NYC from Irvington to Grand Central, we went straight to the Hotel Elyssee to get checked in. After getting settled, we walked a few blocks to one of our favorite restaurants right next to Central Park, the Bottega Del Vino. Such wonderful Italian food and they have the BEST berry platter for Luke, since he LOVES any kind of berries.

Because GM wanted to see as much of NYC as she could we decided to take the hop on/hop off bus tour and it was even fun for Jeremy and me, even though we live so close to the city. 

After having two days of long dinners, GM was ready for a short and simple meal: a NY hot dog off the street. Since one of Luke's favorite things to eat are HOT DOGS, he decided to join her and ended up eating TWO of them! GM so kindly stayed at the hotel and put Luke to bed, while Mom, Dad, Jeremy and I went to dinner. We read about Vong in Mom's guide book and decided it would be perfect! It was a FABULOUS Thai restaurant. Check out the sampler platter below... I wish I had one right now! :)

Irvington Day 2

Today we got to show Grandmother Marion (GM) around our town. We walked up and down Main Street showing her all of our frequent hot spots: our library, Geordane's, the hardware store, Matthiessen park, the Tappan Zee Bridge, Burke, and Rip Van Winkle's statue, just to name a few!

After another great meal at the Harvest on Hudson, we went to the park. This is Doc and Luke watching the train go by. They are both saying "CHOO CHOO"

After the park, we took a tour of Washington Irving's home, Sunny Side. 

I left Luke at the Castle where Mimi, Doc, and GM are staying to change for dinner. This is how I found Luke and Mimi when I returned. Mimi said they had been "playing" chess for over an hour. She said that he liked sorting the people/ pieces into groups.

We had dinner at the castle tonight and what more appropriate dessert:  the castle chocolate tower. SO yummy!

Check out GM: for those of you who don't know GM, you normally NEVER see her doing this! But she actually LOVED the sweet dessert wine sherry that dad ordered with dessert! TOO funny! You go girl!!!
Lukie hamming it up for the camera: "CHEESE!"
Posing for yet another pic, while waiting for our car. Thanks for another wonderful day, Mimi and Doc! Can't wait to go to the city tomorrow!

Mimi, Doc, and GREAT GM

For Christmas, Mimi and Doc gave my GREAT grandmother Marion a trip up to see where we live! They got here today and I was SO very happy to see them. I love saying Mimi and Doc and I am working hard on saying Grandmother Marion, but that is a hard one. I almost said Marion tonight at dinner. We went to the Red Hat tonight, a French Bistro right on the Hudson River. I was such a good boy and Wednesday nights are jazz nights, so that helped to keep me entertained!

Here I am trying to "butter" my amuse bouche of bread, fig jelly, and cheese. It was pretty good, but in the end, I just decided to eat the bread part.

I LOVE having visitors! I can't wait to show GM around our town tomorrow and then it is on to spend the weekend in NYC! SO much fun!....

Happy Easter!

Getting my first peak at what the Easter Bunny brought me...hey, isn't this supposed to be an Easter basket?...not an Easter bucket?!?! 

After our church service, we had another Easter egg hunt. It was nice and sunny, but as you can see from our winter wear, it was FREEZING cold! The wind chill today was in the 30's...WAY too cold for Easter!

Our old neighbors, Mark and Michelle, invited us for Easter lunch at her parents house. And interestingly enough, this is where Mom and Dad spent their first Thanksgiving in NY, so it was only fitting that they spent their last big holiday in the same place. Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy have always been so nice to welcome us into their home. We always feel like family at their house. There were kids galore and the big boys, Jack and Andrew, helped chase me around and make sure I didn't go where I wasn't supposed to. I even go to sit at the kid table with all of the boys. The food was really good, but since there were 2 other boys my age, we didn't sit at the table for too long! We had too much playing to do.

Hanging with my buddy Connor!

ANOTHER egg hunt! After finding a few eggs, I decided to throw down my basket and play with the basket ball instead. I think I've hunted enough eggs this week!

This has been such a fun filled day, but is it time to go home for a nap yet?