Making Cado's Pillowcase

 We did a little family decorating on a pillowcase for Cado's Christmas.  You know when Bo's face looks like this, he is up to something.  We're pretty sure Cado will laugh as he sleeps on Bo's picture filled with Rodrigues and all of their cats, dogs, chickens and even chili peppers. 

Hunter's New Favorite Place

We're pretty sure we have found Hunter's new HAPPY PLACE.  We took him to the preschool and he could have played for hours.  Brooke and Dayton had to carry him out kicking and screaming!

Cosmic Bowling

After Dinner Music

Yep, our family knows how to get out of clean up duty.  They still pull the "I will go play the after dinner music" card!

Grandma Lessons!

 Well Hunter successfully learned his latest "Grandma lesson."  He now knows how to go down the stairs.  It took a little patience and practice but he loves it now.  My family may razz me, but I'm still quite confident that Grandma Shirlene has basically taught him everything he knows!

Thanksgiving Feast

 This was the first year we have EVER been at our house for Thanksgiving.  It was a smaller affair than usual, but that just meant that we had more food and leftovers.  It was great.

Thanksgiving Prep

 Brooke made the fruit and veggie trays the cutest trays ever!

 Lots of reading went on this weekend.

 I looked in the family room and this is what everyone looked like as they were waiting for turkey.

Hunter Loves His New Swing!

Captain Feels Pretty Entitled

Captain has been feeling pretty entitled lately.  He insists on coming in every day. He actually jumps on the door and won't even let us in first.  Then, once he is in, he just wants to be a lap dog!

Ready for Thanksgiving!

We made a Costco stop on the way home from Baltimore.  Just a few groceries to get ready for Thanksgiving weekend.  We are sooo excited.   Let's EAT!

Last Day in Baltimore

 Mariah and I ventured out a little while on Friday, but we decided to spend a few hours in our warm hotel room just because we were too cold.  We got to catch up on a few things as well as watch the cool renovation next door.  We were most impressed at the way they have to build elevators on the outside of the building and then take all of the stuff in and all of the garbage out through those elevators.  It was pretty cool to see.  Renovating sky scrapers looks pretty complicated.

New York, New York!

 We decided that since we were only 3 1/2 hours away from New York City that we might as well try to get there.  We took a really early bus to New York and arrived about 10:30 at the city.

 We did the pure tourist thing of riding around in the red bus to see the city as fast as humanly possible. 

 Being on top of the bus was the best view, but after the first hour we were pretty frozen and stayed downstairs in the heated section.

 The city really was amazing and huge.  The drivers and taxis were crazy as well.  I would never want to drive here.

 Passing by FOX news.  There's the post that Obama is going to announce his new immigration plan.  Oh, thank you Obama!

 Fifth Avenue where all the jewels are. We didn't even get off the bus here because we knew we could not afford any diamonds.

 This guy was on the bus too and I'm think he was pretty cold as well.

 We got to see Ground Zero and the tribute to the 9/11 people.  It was a beautiful thing to see and such a fitting tribute.  The water just went down and down.  To me it seemed to represent a crying nation for these victims.

 This is standing in front of the New World Trade Center.

 We made it to the Statue of Liberty.  It kind of looks like we got close, but we really didn't.  We didn't have time to go out on the boat to it but at least we can say that we saw it.  Thank goodness for a zoom lens.

 Dave was probably most excited about Wall Street and the bull.  Some guy was waiting patiently in a hamburger costume to get his picture taken.  I'm not sure what that was about.

 We went to a true legit deli and had a chicken Parmesan sandwich and a fantastic panini.

 We visited the Rockefeller Center and saw how they decorate the giant tree.  Scaffolding.

 Now we can say that we've been to the famous skating rink too.

 Times Square was pretty fun to see.  It's basically an overload of technology.

 Luckily we found a penny squisher in the M and M store.  We had been looking for one all week.

We made it back safe and sound without many glitches.  The only time I was truly stressed was at night during rush hour.  We could not get a cab at all.  Finally, I offered a guy 20 bucks to flag us down a cab.  He went and worked so diligently!  We got a cab and made it to our bus in time to return to Baltimore.  That was the best 20 bucks I spent the whole trip!