Times Square

     One of the most iconic places when people say New York City is Times Square. It is busy, noisy, filled with tons of people, and illuminated day and night with lots of billboards and massive TV screens.

Times Square during the day.

 We even managed to see our home town sweetheart, Taylor Swift, there.

 People everywhere! With it being the weekend before Halloween, we saw lots of people in costumes Saturday night.

 The bright lights at the back of photo is the "center" of Times Square where everyone wants to get to.

 Another evening we went and captured a clearer photo. Taking self shots were always comical for John and I.

 So many things to look at with all the advertising and TV screens lining the buildings.

 At the center of Times Square. It was pretty much shoulder to shoulder people down here.

I told John we needed to get a shot of the both of us and after several failed attempts, this was the best one. Clearly, you can see that we were cracking up at this point.

Love in NYC

Fort Sam

     One of the little babies, Sam, I watch has recently begun to crawl. Much to the dismay of his big brother Finn as well as JT, Sam now crawls right into the middle of their fun. A few times JT and Finn have tried to take matters into their own hands to keep Sam away from their toys. 

  One day the boys were playing in the entryway/office (that's not really a office but we still call it that) with their cars. You can see them lined up on the right and lower part of the photo. Finn and JT starting bringing some of the larger toys and made a barrier wall around him.

Sam, unaware of the boys motives, appreciated the toys to play with.

Then, it must have hit him what was going on and he looked directly at me.

The boys kept bringing more and more toys to secure Sam in his spot and away from their area. They moved quite swiftly- this only took about 2 minutes.

Fort Sam completed! They were kind enough to drop some baby toys in the middle. I snapped the photo and "rescued" Sam from his confinement. Soon enough, JT and Finn will realize that Sam is just another one of the boys and include him in their fun.

NYC Boat Tour

          Since we were very short on time, we decided to see lots of major interest spots in one fell swoop by taking a boat tour. When we come back, we will go to many of these spots and explore them firsthand but this was a great way to actually see many things in a 90 minute tour.

 We secured one of the best spots on the lower deck. Clear windows that opened. It was getting pretty chilly and John was so kind to let me wear his jacket.

 Heading out, we could see the Empire State Building.

 Also a large group of kayaker on the Hudson Bay. Beautiful fall trees lining the waterway.

 Several enormous ships at the various docks.

     We had a wonderful tour guide. He had a great knowledge of the area, history, and a great sense of humor. He also had such passion and love for his city, it was apparent in how he told some of the stories he shared. One special spot we came upon was the World Trade Center. He had seen the attacks first hand and he described the horror all of us had witnessed on TV's with an impacting effect. When we came upon the scene, both John and I could just feel how huge of a impact this area has. It's hard to describe, but it was a reflective time for us. We felt the same way when we visited the U.S.S. Arizona memorial when we honeymooned in Hawaii. In addition to the sense of loss, you also feel and see the strength in seeing the beauty in the rebuilding that is taking place.

 The new 1 World Trade Center. When completed in 2014, it will stand 1776 feet tall. This height was purposely chosen for what the number represents to our country.

 The clear void where the former 2nd tower once stood. There is now a memorial site there for visitors to come. It is free but tickets and reservations are required. We had our tickets for Friday late afternoon, but arrived in the city after our reservation.  We will go next time for sure.

 Beautiful little parks were scattered along the waterway.

 Approaching the Brooklyn Bridge

 Manhattan Bridge

 Williamsburg Bridge

 We wrapped all the way around to the other side of the city.

Enjoying our trip back toward the port.

 Lady Liberty

The dark sky proved to be the perfect backdrop against the Statue of Liberty. She was absolutely beautiful. 

 It was a big weekend for the city as the crown was being reopened for tourists after a long renovation.

 Our attempt of a self shot with the Statue of Liberty.

As we approached the port, our guide brought us to a spot in the Hudson River where in 2009 Capt. Chelsey "Sulley" Sullenberger successfully landed the plane and all 155 passengers survived.

     This tour was fantastic and there is so much history that we were able to see first hand in just under two hours. We can't wait to see some of these places again and more in depth.

Helping Out

     Yesterday, Courtney asked me if it would be ok if after school she went with several of her friends to the church to volunteer and then attend the Wednesday night service for middle school instead of coming straight home. I told her of course- what parent is going to deny a child who wants to do volunteer work?

     When I picked Courtney up from church later that evening, she was so excited and was so eager to share what she and her friends had done. So I thought I'd share it will all of the Apedaile6 readers.

     Our church is in the middle of a 2 week drive to bring in meals for Thanksgiving. There have been shopping bags along with a list of required items so each family benefiting gets the same meal. In addition to the food, participants donate a bit of money in an envelope to purchase a turkey. I'm sure the church does that part as they need to be frozen/refrigerated. Several people have already brought their donations in and Courtney and her friends helped assemble the bags for easy distribution. Courtney said they went through over 400 Thanksgiving meal bags yesterday! How awesome is that? She and I talked about how being generous is important and how fantastic that so far 400 local families will get to have a wonderful Thanksgiving meal thanks to people doing something as small as donating $10-15 and picking up a few extra items at the grocery store.

Late last night John told me he saw this photo on the church's "Go!" Facebook page. I wanted to share this photo of Courtney and her  friends as they loaded up a trailer that will be delivering the meals to local families. So thankful Courtney has a serving heart and she has a group of friends that feel the same way.