Room with a View

     When we arrived at our hotel, Hilton Garden Inn on West 35th Street, we were both very excited to find out our room was on the 29th (out of 31) floors. Not only that, we also had a corner room, which meant better views with more windows. It was such a site when we opened our drapes for the first time and was enjoyed our entire stay.

The city looks so beautiful at night with all of the buildings illuminated.

 I got a big kick out of seeing the HUGE Macy's building outside our window. I of course thought of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. I'll now be able to visualize exactly where the parade is going on.

A cool outdoor deck on the top of a condo building.

John and I taking some dorky self photos that we took of our view.

In the daylight, the views aren't as spectacular but impressive. Looking forward to sharing some of the places we went in the coming posts.

Heading to NY

     This past weekend, John and I had a little getaway. He has been traveling a ton with work in the recent months and everything lined up for this trip. John has been working in Pennsylvania and he suggested that during one of the weekends I come up to join him in Pa and we would drive in to New York City. Sounded like a fantastic idea and we made plans for our trip. 

Since I was meeting John, I flew out Friday morning. My first solo flight in addition to the furthest north I have ever traveled. A window seat is a must for me- I love looking down and watching the sights below.

Since I just used my camera phone, I wasn't able to capture the beauty of the fall colors on our ascent/descent. It was one of the most beautiful sights of display of changing trees I have ever seen.

Here, some mountain ranges that we flew over. I'm guessing somewhere in Virginia perhaps?

Heading down toward Philadelphia.

A great view of Philadelphia's skyline as we landed at the airport.

After John picked me up, we headed further north to New York. Passed the stadiums for the Phillies and Eagles.

Most of the drive was on the New Jersey Turnpike. I also discovered just how many toll roads and bridges there are on the East Coast. TONS! I think the drive on the Turnpike cost around $11. 

Our view of the city as we got closer.

We made our way into the city through the Lincoln Tunnel. 

Awesome to think of how we were going under Hudson River. It's about 1.5 miles long.

After navigating some streets, we had arrived in New York City!

Lights, massive buildings, and people everywhere!

John did a great job getting us to our hotel with the help of our GPS system. Looking forward to sharing more photos of our adventures in the coming days.

Random Courtney

          So as you remember, I took some photos this weekend on Courtney's camera. When I was ready to upload the photos, I couldn't find her camera. I asked Courtney where it was and in typical teen fashion, "I'm not sure." was her response. She said she had uploaded recently and maybe the photos I took were already on the computer.

     So I looked and while there were some cute photos, not the recent photos I need. So instead of the post I was intending of writing, you will get some random Courtney photos. A look into what photos a 13 year old takes these days...

 Courtney and JT

 Courtney and her friend Katherine making silly faces

 Capturing JT's finer moments

 Lots of shots of her newly painted nails. For those of you not in the know, Harry Styles is her favorite member of  the group One Direction.

 Even a few random shots of Nanny when she came to visit in August.

 Adorable Courtney in her new glasses. 

 Several showing her style...

Courtney made this 1D sweatshit herself. Crafty like her Mom ;)

This showing her love of the Lord. My favorite one to discover in this group of uploads.

Random JT

     Today will be just a few photos of random JT stuff as I need to upload and edit photos from Courtney's camera I used over the weekend. Enjoy the cuteness.

JT in one of his new fall/winter outfits. The "Dude" shirt. JT has already developed a love for comfy pants already. The past few weeks when it's been chilly, he has strongly preferred sweats of fleece pants. So strongly that one day when I chose jeans for him, he threw a major fit saying how the jeans were hurting him as he pulled madly at them. I allowed him to choose some replacement pants and he brought down fleece pants and stated, "These are comfy, much better!"

Super JT! Starting to have capes made out of blankets to hone in his super powers.

We had to get a tire plugged recently and JT LOVED watching up close as they repaired the hole a screw caused.

Cheesy as always.

Looking super adorable in the A's visor Grandma C got for JT when John visited her on a recent business trip.

This was just the most perfect shirt for our little man.

Writing with Q-tips

     I was looking forward to doing this activity with JT and Finn. In the past few months, JT has really become interested in writing his name and some simple shapes and items. I found this activity and thought it could help with early writing skills. So simple too!

 All that's needed for the activity is Q-Tips, a little bowl or cup of water, and a chalkboard.

 I prepared the chalk wall for the boys before we started the activity. The possibilities are endless with this. Yes, I'm aware that my stars need some serious work- ha ha.

 Ready to learn and play!

 All you need to do is dip the Q-tip in the water and trace over the letter, number, shape, or picture that has been drawn. JT went against the grain of norm at first and traced inside the circle.

 Finn working on the shapes.

 Working on his name- one of his favorite things to draw. Oddly, he almost always starts by writing his "T" first.

 "Across and down" is what we say when writing his "T".

 On to the "J". Those hooks/swoops sure can be hard to learn!

Finn working on his name. He was ready to make the "F" into a "P" ;)

 

The boys had such a great time working on their numbers.

It was super adorable how they almost always worked on the same portion of the wall at the same time.

Though they did work individually at times.

The boys really enjoyed this activity and have asked to do it again. I think this will be used several times a week as long as they are enjoying it.