Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Stardate 63402.5 - Memorial Day (Observed)


On Memorial Day we walked over to Central Park and visited a playground, had a small picnic, and stopped by Bethesda Fountain. It was a gorgeous day and we all had a great time. Of course, we would have enjoyed the day even more had we been spending it at our beach house--but alas, we don't get the keys until next Friday.



NYC

Monday, May 25, 2009

Stardate 63396.22 - Fairy Loren


It seems like every post I write these days I talk about how much time has elapsed since the last post. Here are some random pictures from around the apartment from the last week or two. The photo above is of Loren in her fairy costume. Below is Kate in her new(ish) exer-saucer (thank you Craig's list!).



Here is one of our weeknight babysitters, Sarah, with Kate and Loren (and our messy apartment in the background).


Lastly, here I am with Kate at Cheryl's Grandmother's condo on the beach in Sea Bright. Kate is practicing her standing. She really, really, really wants to sit up and she is trying so hard to do it.


NYC

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Stardate 63375.03 - What a Roller Coaster!


It has been a little crazy these past few weeks. First, we've been thinking about getting a used car to replace the 8-year-old Toyota Rav4 that we currently have. It is a little small for a family of 4 and luggage, and we are starting to have some space issues with luggage when doing things like traveling for a long weekend. We found some good deals on some loaner Volvo XC70s, but by the time we got around to scheduling a trip out to the Long Island dealership they were all sold (at least we knew a good deal when we spotted it!). So that sort-of fell through.

Then, the studio apartment that abuts our unit on one side went up for sale. We entertained grand notions of buying it an combining units, but it turned out that the seller really wasn't all that interested in selling (he'd rather rent), and he really was not interested in any offer below his asking price (and we were not upping our offer without a counter-offer, especially in this market!). So that fell through.

But the excitement of having more space made us think about how we keep spending all the summer weekends in NJ, and how we keep trying to cram into Cheryl's Grandmother's beach condo (1 bedroom, 1 bath). So we decided to look at real estate on the Jersey Shore, with the idea of purchasing a summer/weekend home. While looking, we found a terrific 3-bedroom 2-bath house in Highlands, NJ with a driveway and a little yard that is only 2 minutes from the beach (an article on the town from the New York Times is available here). We decided to rent for a year to see if we liked the area enough to eventually buy something. Our lease starts the first week of June.

We're looking forward to having a place to escape to on weekends that is bigger than our current place. Not only can we store stuff there, but we can also use it even in the winter months as it will be better to be cooped up in a 3-bedroom house on weekends than in our 2-bedroom apartment in the city--more room for the girls to spread out. And Loren loves the beach so, so much. And look how happy Kate is when she got the news:


Here are some pictures from that weekend we went out to NJ (Mother's Day Weekend, actually) to look at property. We went to the farm in Holmdel Park that we have been to several times before with Cheryl's parents and Grandmother. We also invited Chris and Lisa to bring their daughter Lily and join us. And our friend Michelle was in town and so she also met us there for a visit.




Once we were back home, Loren asked for a photo in her new dress with Kate.


She then took this picture of me and Kate. I think she did a pretty good job! I had to squat down so I'd be level with her and the camera.

So we're all looking forward to weekends on the shore! We may even stay out a week or two over the summer as the commute in on the ferry won't be too bad. All part of our grand experiment to see if we like it.

So no car, no bigger apartment, no purchase on the shore, but a 12-month rental to see if we like it. And that crazy journey is why we haven't posted anything in 3 weeks to the blog.

NYC

Sunday, May 03, 2009

Stardate 63336.06 - Return to the Beach


Last weekend we had temperatures in the 80s, so on Saturday we took a trip over to Central Park for a picnic and to visit the Zoo. But first, here is a photo of Kate and Loren showing off their matching socks that Nana and Kraker gave them for Easter.


Loren has been watching Sid the Science Kid and wanted to bring a scientist bag with her to the park to look for bugs and to collect leaves and things. Cheryl helped her with her exploring while I tried to keep Kate out of the sun.



After eating our picnic we headed over to Central Park Zoo, and in the Children's Zoo portion the spider web is always a huge hit with Loren.


On Sunday we went to the beach. It is weird to remember how warm it was just one week ago, because as I'm writing this post it is in the 50s and raining today.




After the beach we went to Cheryl's parents' place where Bill entertained us with some Wii games. That company is doing something right in their marketing if they convinced Cheryl's parents to purchase one!


NYC