Steeds in the Garden State

Christmas Past

2012-01-18T20:14:00.006-07:00

Before we went up to Edmonton for the Christmas break we took B to see Santa at Macy's. She did so well last year, even smiling for the picture. What a difference a year makes.

Making our way through the line to see Santa is made a little easier with lots of things to see.

Happy, having a good time watching the dancing bears

All systems go on our approach to the North Pole

Houston we have a problem. Outside one of the many Santas at Macy's. She could sense him.

Oh the humanity. We thought that we might have a problem with her because she was upset by the Santa at our ward Christmas party.

She was so upset they didn't even take a picture of her. Luckily I brought my own camera.

Oh well, maybe next year.

A bonus picture: Santa at our ward party.

NYC Marathon 2011

2011-11-14T18:19:00.003-07:00

When I knew that I was coming to New York for school one of the first things I was excited about was the potential of running the marathon here. Unfortunately, you have to enter a lottery which you have a low chance of winning. After 2 years of applying unsuccessfuly I joined the New York Road Runner running club and ran 9qualifying races starting in February 2010 in order to get a guaranteed spot in the marathon. Fast forward over a year and a half later, past my nine races, the birth of our first kid, a lot of training and there I was, about to run the 2011 NYC marathon. My dad, brother, and sister-in-law came out to run as well. Actually my whole family came out to either run or watch the race.

We had to be at the start area on Staten Island by 7:30am even though my start time wasn't until 10:10am. There are three seperate starting areas and start lines because two of the groups run on the top of the Verrazano Bridge and the third group is on the bottom level. There were 47,000 runners so the start areas were full of port-a-pottys.

My dad ran with a camera and took pictures throughout the race. This is at the starting line

After crossing the bridge the course runs through Brooklyn. This the first time where you see some of the 2 million plus spectators. Kate and I went down to watch the marathon last year and noticed that some runners had their names on their shirts which made it fun to cheer for individule runners. Shortly after I came off the Verrezano I was confused and had to turn back when someone called out my name; I'd forgotten that I had put my name on my shirt. It was fun. For the rest of the race whenever I needed a little pick-me-up I would run closer to the side for some spectator to cheer me on. At one point one of the other runners that I had been running close to for a couple of miles turned around and said to me "I'm going to pretend that my name is Jason".

There was a steady line of spectators all along the course.

Water stations every mile. Don't worry all of those cups were made from recycled products

After running through Brooklyn you cross into Queens. It was interesting to experience some of the different feelings of the neighborhoods. From main streets with small local stores to tree lined Brownstone neighborhoods. From Queens you cross the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan. No spectators on the bridge meant it was quiet as you gained elevation going across the bridge, but just as you hit Manhattan you are hit by a wall of noise from the fans that seemed to be 5-6 people deep as you ran up 1st ave.

Some of the fans. We'd set up two places where they were going to be so they could take pictures. Even though my legs felt like they were going to explode as I came closer to both locations I forced myself to keep running so I wasn't walking as I passed them. The only problem was they were not at either spot but were somewhere else altogether.

You run up 1st ave. all the way up the island of Manhattan and cross into the Bronx only to turn around back into Manhattan and down 5th ave along the edge of Central Park.

Bridget was more excited about these balloons than the runners.

I don't know what he's wearing under that coat.

I'd sort of given up on seeing my family on the run, so I was surprised when I spotted them and relieved that I was running at that point. They were just inside Central Park within the last 2 miles.

Learning from experiences from my last marathon I knew that there would come a point where I would start to ask myself if the pain in my legs, the tightness in my quads and calves, and the fatigue was really worth continuing. Because I'd let myself ease off in past runs and having later been disappointed in my results, and also that I'd prepared for so long, I was able to mentally push myself past that point.

I did finish a bit slower than I wanted to, but I was still happy with my 3:45:39 finish.

We all met up after. It was so much fun, worth all of the training and waiting. The combination of the fans, the number of runners, and all with New York City as a backdrop made for an unbelievable experience.

Sweet Land of Liberty

2011-11-01T21:24:00.006-06:00

In anticipation of Halloween a couple of months ago we started thinking about what we could dress up as and more importantly what we could dress Bridget up as. We gave up pretty quickly on trying to think of a family theme and decided to just focus on B and this is what we came up with. We thought it was funny considering she is the only one in our family who was born in the US and as a bonus it was probably one of the first things she saw while looking out the window of the delivery room (which I'm totally sure she did). Kate made the dress and sash herself, the torch is a flashlight with a napkin taped to it, and we found the crown in Times Square at a tourist store. Bridget was all about dressing up. She kept the crown on and held onto the torch which I didn't think she would. I think it turned out really well.

On Halloween day Kate brought Bridget into the city to take pictures. As I look at these pictures it reminds me of the "Stay Puff Marshmallow Man" from the Ghostbusters walking around, maybe that's what I should have dressed up as.

Bridget meeting one of her admirers who shortly thereafter licked her face. His tongue was half the size of her face; she thought it was great.

Me and a couple of NYC landmarks

Kate and Bridget with some of New York's finest

Of course we took her out trick-or-treating. We started at about 5:30 and went for about a half hour. She loved walking around the streets with all the other kids around and the occasional person giving her candy seemed to work for her as well.

Jackpot!

Kate and I took turns going out with Bridget while the other one stayed home to hand out candy. Our neighborhood is funny in the way they hand out candy. Everyone just sits outside on their stoops and the kids go from stoop to stoop for candy. Kids can get a lot of candy fast, so lots of kids come trick-or-treating here. We must of had over three hundred kids come by before 7:00 when after already making one run to the store for more candy we realized that we were out of candy and Bridget had not had dinner yet and was running only on excitement and candy (typical Halloween diet)

Inspecting the haul.

The Great Pumpkin

2011-10-25T08:59:00.002-06:00

Last week we went with some friends to a pumpkin patch in NJ. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive we let B run around and explore. She loved playing among all of the gigantic pumpkins and kept trying to pick up the regular sized ones.

She was really excited when she discovered some Bridget sized pumpkins.

We took a hayride around the farm and saw some nice views of the valley where the leaves are beginning to change (That's right, the leaves are just changing now and we will be able to enjoy one last year of trick or treating without snowsuits).

They dropped us off at a pumpkin patch where everyone got to "harvest" a pumpkin to take home.

All of the kids loved riding the mini tractors. B took the tractor driving very seriously! She also couldn't decide which one she liked and continuously got on and off every tractor within range.

Chasing her friend Sam through the straw maze.

B wasn't sure how to feel about getting all muddy.

She got over it pretty quickly. Having fun is much more important!

All About B... and a little P

2011-10-21T19:18:00.002-06:00

As you will be able to tell from this post we have completely stopped taking pictures of each other and are only taking pictures of a more interesting/willing subject.

One of her favourite things to do is get on our bed and play on it. Sometimes she will lay down for a second or two while she catches her breath.

"Aww, shucks"

We let B feed herself at every meal so she usually ends up messy with crazy hair.

B loves walking to the park by our house. She actually wore this coat last year but because she is still small it fits now too. Such a little girl.

Walking to the park. Sometimes she insists on holding hands with both of us.

While everyone back in Canada was celebrating Thanksgiving we were enjoying 80 degree weather so Kate took Bridget to Central Park for the day.

Lately Bridget has increased her growling especially while eating.

While the weather was still nice the girls would come into the city to have lunch with me. Bridget's Garden is in Madison Square Park, which I walk through twice a day.

Union Square Park has a large playground with lots of kids. Bridget was in heaven.

Getting in "the zone" at one of her shoots. She loves going to shoots. They are basically play dates with a bunch of other kids followed by people working really hard to entertain her.

First encounter. Clowns 1. Bridget 0.

Not her Halloween costume. It's one of the outfits was wore at a shoot. The other one was Tweety-Bird

Kate's second cousin Peter came and stayed with us for a week. He won the wicked lottery so we got to see the show from front row centre. He loved it so much he went to two other shows.

'Ello Govna!

2011-10-02T10:08:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I had a Friday off and we were looking for something to do. One of my friends at school suggested taking the ferry out to Governor's Island and spending the day there. The island is about 1km off the southern tip of Manhattan and was actually the first place the original Dutch settlers landed when they claimed the land for the Netherlands. Now it's an empty military base that is open to the public on weekends in the summer for picnics and bike riding.

We took the ferry from the tip of Manhattan and rented bikes. I think it had been over 3 years since I'd been on a bike, so that, combined with having Bridget on the back took some getting used to. We biked around the island and I don't think Bridget liked it all that much because her helmet kept falling down into her eyes and even when she could see she was getting a great view of my back.

Jersey on the left, New York on the right, Kate and the Hudson River

This was the commanding officer's house that was built in the 1700s. You actually don't see many buildings that old in NYC, they traded their history for commerce.

We walked back to the WTC PATH station and took the scenic route past the Wall St. bull.

B really wanted to walk around so we let her play underneath the bull. We had to take the picture of it from the side because the view from the back is not exactly blog appropriate.

Our time here is ticking down so our goal for this coming year is to finish our NY "bucket list" and get pics of B at all of the classic NY sights so stay tuned.

Remembering when

2011-09-29T18:18:00.002-06:00

You're probably all aware that this year marked the 10th anniversary of 9-11. We knew this was going to be our last year being so close to the 9-11 memorials so I really wanted to get out and see one. They shut the PATH trains down going to WTC that morning and security was pretty tight in the downtown area so there was no point in even trying to get anywhere close to "ground zero" but as I was watching the news that morning I saw a clip of a memorial going on at the Jersey City waterfront. I packed up Bridget and let Kate sleep in and went down to check it out. There was a lot of singing and poems but the interesting things to hear were stories from those who remember being on the waterfront and waiting for the hundreds of wounded that were to come over that never came, the dust in the air and on the ground and the confusion.

Of course there is the tribute at night that they've done for several years now. Always kind of neat.

The building that looks like a red white and blue rocket pop is the new "One-World Trade Center" formerly known as "Freedom Tower" which is where the old world trade centers were.

If you've come to visit us since we've been here you'll know this is Kate doing what Kate does best, talking to complete strangers. The towers were never part of the skyline I associate with the city, but it's interesting to hear people talk about how they remember watching the towers being built, how they would use them as a landmark in the city to orient themselves, and how they'd become so much a part of their identity of the city, then what a shock it was to see them gone.

This is the last year they will be organizing a big memorial service in the city so we were glad we could be here and see it.

Hopewell Rocks!!!

2011-09-25T18:21:00.001-06:00

Our last stop was at the Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick on the Bay of Fundy. We walked around the flowerpot rock formations (which look like flower pots at high tide) at low tide. We were lucky in that it happened to be the lowest and highest tides of the season, rising 47ft at high tide. The Bay of Fundy is actually in the running for the 7 wonders of the natural world because it has the highest tides in the world.

The same spot at high tide 6 hours later

It was so neat to walk out on the mud flats at low tide. It felt like a day at the spa, except when I stepped on a rock covered with barnacles.

It was amazing how quickly the tide comes in and out, as you can see in the following video my mom took of her feet.

You can see the dark line on the rocks marking where the water reaches at high tide.

I really wanted to put on a swim suit and just go slide around on these mud flats.

Once the tide came in you couldn't even tell it had been a great big field of mud just hours before.

This flock of migratory birds was so amazing to watch. They acted just like a school of fish.

Jason and I signed up to go kayaking at high tide. B didn't get to come but she loved playing in the kayaks while she waited on shore with my mom.

Launching the boats.

We paddled south along the rocks for about an hour before turning back and it was amazing how much the water had receded in that short amount of time. On the way out we went through "tunnels" where the only way through was to use our hands on the sides but on the way back we had more than enough room to use our paddles.

That night we ate at a restaurant attached to an amusement park and we introduced B to the wonderful world of skiball. It was like a right of passage.

We had such a fabulous time the 2 weeks just flew by. Now back to real life.

Goodbye PEI

2011-09-22T19:48:00.001-06:00

We spent a day in Charlottetown where we visited "Founders Hall" and heard the story of how Canada became a country. It was kind of funny because despite my best efforts to avoid learning American history I knew a lot more about the creation of the US than Canada. Canada's story doesn't have a civil unrest, rebellion, and ultimate war. No, Canada's story is much more unassuming and involves more meetings, dinner parties, and handshakes. I think the history of Canada's founding is so much more Canadian.

We went to the Cow's ice cream factory. Supposedly they make the best ice cream in Canada.

Riding in the backseat with Bridget

Another red sand beach. This was after the hurricane that hit the East coast. We only experienced a short period of rain and some pretty strong winds but those winds brought a lot of seaweed onto the beach. You can also see the Confederation bridge in the background which connects PEI to New Brunswick.

Bridget loved walking in the shallow water and playing on the new sand bars that would suddenly appear as the tide went out. I would go and find some hermit crabs and put them down near her and she would "play" with them, meaning every time they would come out of their shells and start to crawl away she would try to pick them up and they would go back inside.

Bridget in a lobster trap

Another early morning walk with Bridget and the camera

On our final day in PEI we drove up to the north west point of the island and then back down the western coast. We walked around the northern point for a while, watching the eastern and western tides meeting and checking out the red cliffs.

"You belong among the wildflowers"

A little bit of the prairies by the ocean. This made us a little nostalgic for good old Alberta.

Gilbert loves Anne of Green Gables

2011-09-21T18:51:00.001-06:00

We took the ferry out to PEI and started driving around the island. The first things we noticed was there were a lot of potato and soy bean fields, and that every house, and I mean EVERY house, no matter how run down it was had a perfectly mowed lawn. It was eerie.

Our first stop was at a beach with an wooden canal leading to a little bay. The water was fairly warm and so shallow that B could walk in the tiny waves for quite a distance from shore.

Bridget enjoying the taste of PEI sand.

Despite the signs advising against it, everybody was jumping off into the canal. Of course we all had to do it too.

There were ladders on the sides of the canal but when the tide started coming in the water was moving so quickly we would just let the current carry us into the bay and walk up the shore.

We drove up to some place that claims to be the tuna capital of the world. What we found was an empty fishing village.

Kate wanted me to note that this looks just like the beach in Anne of Green Gables.

Ok, I (Kate) have to take over this post because I don't think Jason can truly do Green Gables justice. Lets just say I thought it was magical and he thought it was just "nice". This house isn't the one from the movie. It is even better. It belonged to LM Montgomery's cousins and was the house that actually inspired the novel.

Although some of the places in the book are fictional, there actually is a "haunted wood" next to Green Gables that LM would walk in when she visited.

Oooooo....spooky

There is also a real Lover's Lane

Of course we had to spend some time in Avonlea. If you go you should try to spend the whole day there because they basically run through the Anne of Green Gables story with performances at different locations throughout the day, starting in the schoolhouse with Anne breaking her slate over Gilbert's head and ending the day with them making up and becoming friends. We came after lunch just in time to catch Anne "setting Diana drunk".

B actually walked right up to Diana and sat in her lap. They were instant bosom friends!

Probably the highlight of the entire trip for me was seeing the musical Anne and Gilbert in Summerside, PEI. It was so fabulous! I totally encourage anyone who is in PEI during the summer to go see it.

The Cabot Trail and Other French Stuff

2011-09-17T20:04:00.000-06:00

We spent the day driving the Cabot Trail in the northwest part of Cape Breton. We read that it is one of the most scenic drives in all of Canada and we would definitely have to agree.

We stopped and went on a hike to a scenic lookout point. The trail description said we had a good chance of seeing Moose and some hikers we met on the way in had walked right by some and got some great pictures. We weren't so lucky and I was a little disappointed but the hike still had a beautiful view at the end of it

There were a lot of stairs to climb at the very end to get to the lookout point. When we were ready to leave Kate and I decided to race to the top. We made it a few steps from the top before we realized that B had kicked off one of her shoes and I had to run all the way to the bottom to get it.

Riding in the pack really tuckered Bridget out and she feel asleep on the way out

Our next stop was at a waterfall where Bridget couldn't resist getting in the water. The pictures don't really do justice to how red the water was (stained with tannins from decaying vegetation up stream).

Anne impressed all of the spectators by jumping off the rocks into the pool.

Pinchy the lobster

In morning when Bridget would wake up I would take her out of the hotel room and find something to do while Kate and Anne slept longer. When we were in hotels that had a breakfasts we would go and have first breakfast together (second breakfast was later when we would go with Kate and Anne). On Cape Breton we stayed in a lot of smaller hotels or cabins that meant Bridget and I had to find other things to do. We went on walks, most of the time down to the ocean.

We spent a day at the Fortress of Louisbourg. Back in the day this was a big French fort giving them access to fishing in the Grand Banks. The English took it over once only to give it back to the French later. After realizing that was a bad idea, the English took it over again and then proceeded to destroy the whole thing. In the 60's the Canadian government reconstructed what is there today.

B's favourite part was obviously the pens where all the animals are kept

Bridget sharing some of her Jersey street knowledge
about how to discharge 18th century firearms

We had meat pies for lunch and all they gave us to eat with was a giant spoon and a giant napkin that they told us to tie around our necks. It was delicious!

We loved Cape Breton and could have stayed even longer but Kate was really excited about getting to PEI and of course Green Gables so we decided to move on...

Canada's Ocean Playground

2011-09-13T09:33:00.005-06:00

After picking up my mom (Grandma Anne) in Halifax we drove down to Peggy's Cove. We didn't really know what there was to see or do there but decided we had to go just because it is famous and one of the few places we had actually heard of before we went on this trip. It turned out to be really beautiful and totally worth a visit.

We then drove back to Halifax and spent the afternoon walking around the Citadel, which is an old fort on a hill in the middle of the city. It was really interesting to learn about the history of Halifax and watch the changing of the guards. We learned in Williamsburg that B absolutely hates cannon/gun fire and this time was no exception. She started crying at the first gunshot and I had to keep her in the gift shop for the entire "show".

The next day we drove to Cape Breton to drive the Cabot Trail. Cape Breton is so gorgeous. We just stopped at random to take pictures because the entire drive up the western coast is beautiful. We ate lunch at the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre and were treated to some excellent fiddle and guitar music while we ate. The fiddle player was only about 10 years old but he was wonderful.

We spent the night in Cheticamp, our first stop on the Cabot Trail, and walked down to the beach from the little cabin we rented for the night. Every place we stopped at was just so beautiful and peaceful it made us want to live there forever in one of the little houses overlooking the water. We also enjoyed the night life and dragged B to a late lobster dinner with some fabulous live Acadian music. I of course did not order the lobster like Jason and my mom did but I did try some fish cakes and it was probably one of my favourite meals of the entire vacation.

Back to the Great White North

2011-09-11T14:24:00.000-06:00

All of our avid blog followers will remember that for my past Spring break we did a road trip down the east coast. So naturally for my last summer vacation out here we took a trip up the east coast to the Maritimes. It took 11 hours to get to Saint John New Brunswick, our first stop in Canada. We checked out the St. John river's tidal bore which means that the river is so affected by the tides in the Bay of Fundy that at low tide the river flows out to the bay but as the tide comes in the river reverses directions and eventually comes to a complete stop.

We did a couple of hikes in the Fundy trails park outside of St. John. On the way we stopped at a couple of places to document the low tide.

Checked out some sea caves on the way to the hike. (Later in this post you'll see what these places look like at high tide)

You can see the beach we hiked down to in the background. It was such a nice hike. The cool fresh smell of nature along the trail was a welcome break from the hot summer city smells (ie. the garbage piles, people on packed trains, etc)

There were only a couple of people on the beach when we got there but by the time we left we realized that we'd been alone on the beach for a while. Again something that doesn't happen much back in Jersey/New York.

On our way back home we took pictures at high tide of the areas that were at low tide on our way out.

The part of St. John that we stayed in reminded me of Cardston, in that most of the houses were built 50+ years ago and looked like it had seen better days (No offense Cardston). Case and point these posters were all over the place in the area, so I had to have one. It's a poster for a local wrestling league that fights in the local community center in front of dozens of fans. I was so disappointed that we weren't around for this or one of the roller derbies also advertised at the same venue. This did make me think that if this whole dental thing doesn't workout, than I should just start my own wrestling league. Look at these guys. One of them is licking the belt! Awesome. Best thing St. John has going on.

Having seen the best of St.John we moved on to Nova Scotia. We went to a beach near the cabin we stayed in that night. I was surprised how comfortable the water temperature was this far north.

The next day we went back at low tide to walk around on the now much expanded beach and play in the tide pools.

You may have guessed that B has finally started walking. It was really fun now that she likes the water rather than crying every time a wave touches her feet.

Next stop...Halifax!

First Birthday!

2011-08-08T20:53:00.013-06:00

Well, Bridget turned one! It's crazy how quickly the time goes by. It doesn't seem that long ago that she was a tiny little 7lb lump of a baby. Now she is standing on her own and is on the verge of taking her 1st step. She is such a character too. She makes us laugh on a daily basis.

Jason didn't get home until 9pm on her actual birthday so we had a little family party the previous Sunday and of course we let her have her very own cupcake. She was a little unsure about the icing and just kind of poked it at first but once we flipped it upside down she dug right in.

Sharing with Daddy

There are certain toys that she just loves putting in her mouth and this little frog is one of them. She has had baths where she kept that thing in her mouth the entire time. She also loves to pick it up without using her hands. It's pretty hilarious to watch.

All clean!

I thought I should also post some pictures of B on her actual birthday.

Her first meal as a one year old...bananas and toast. Mmmm.

Playing around the house.

B always has a great time at the park, especially when there is another baby in the swing next to her.

Such a big girl!

A few days later we had a "Princess Party" to celebrate with some of our closest friends. It was too hot to go to the park so we stayed inside and had a great time. B really loved playing with all the kids.

Trying on one of her b-day gifts.

Princess Bridget!

Wicked Awesome

2011-07-16T10:44:00.018-06:00

We've wanted an excuse to go to Boston for a while and we finally found one last week while Melissa was here visiting. It's only a 4 hour drive from NYC but we hit Friday rush hour traffic and it took us about six and a half. We wanted to do all of the historic touristy things in Boston and they make it really easy to do. All you do is follow the Freedom Trail, which is literally a red brick line that weaves throughout the city's downtown leading you to all of the sights.

Bridget waiting in the grass while we made our plans for the day

One of our first stops was an old graveyard where Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Benjamin Franklin's parents are buried. The Puritans that settled here often carved skulls with wings on their headstones so it added an extra creepy touch.

The freedom trail path

The actual steeple where Paul Revere hung the lanterns as a warning that the British were coming

Paul Revere's family pew

Sitting on a donkey. I have no idea why there was a statue of a donkey in the same plaza as the statue of Benjamin Franklin.

The USS Constitution first set sail in October 1797 and is the oldest warship still afloat in the world. On board the USS Constitution a.k.a "Old Ironsides". It was made of live oak, which is so dense that during it's first battle the cannonballs just stuck into the sides and bounced off.

At the USS Constitution museum. The ship's crew was allowed only 4 hours of sleep per night and they had to do it in these hammocks.

Walking around the historic Beacon Hill neighborhood

Bridget climbing the steps at Harvard

On the steps in front of one of the Harvard University libraries

The following day we decided to visit Salem, MA, the site of the infamous witch trials. It was such a cute, friendly little town that we actually enjoyed it more than Boston.

The town has constructed an outdoor memorial for the victims of the witch trials. Each victim has a stone bench engraved with their name and date of death. We are sitting on the bench for Bridget Bishop who was the first person tried and convicted of witchcraft during "the frenzy".

Giles Corey was the only victim who was pressed to death rather than hanged. He was in his 80s and was very wealthy. If he entered a plea of not guilty and then was found guilty he would have forfeited all his possessions so he refused to enter any plea at all so that his decendants would still inherit his fortune. The court was obviously not impressed so they ordered that he be pressed under stones until he entered a plea but instead he just kept saying "more weight" and died without ever entering a plea.

City Hall. This is the site where the first victim, Bridget Bishop, was dragged by a mob, tried, and convicted by the audience in attendance which acted as her jury.

Yeah, they are a little fanatical about the whole witch thing but it was actually really fun.

Gravestone of William Hawthorne who acted as a judge during the trials.

Bridget LOVES her pool time!

Bridget Skywalker

2011-07-15T07:51:00.006-06:00

For some strange reason Jason has been seeing Star Wars in everything lately. Nolan looks like a Rancor, B looks like Luke Skywalker. I'm with everyone else though and don't see it at all. Maybe this will help.

Youngling

2011-07-13T08:31:00.003-06:00

Kate showed me this picture that she took of Bridget the other day and it reminded me of a shot from Star Wars (see below).

Ding, Liberty. Dong, Freedom.

2011-06-01T14:31:00.014-06:00

Last week Jase had some time off so we decided to finally take that trip to Philadelphia we've been talking about for 3 years. There was lots to see and we stayed right in the downtown area so we could walk to all the attractions. The best part is that most of the things we wanted to see were free. One of our first stops was the Liberty Bell, where we finally learned why it's such a big attraction. I'm not going to tell you though. If you're interested you'll have to look it up yourself or go to Philly and see it yourself.

This is Elfreth's Alley. It is the oldest residential street in America.

On old warship and a WWII submarine at Penn's Landing.

One guess who took this shot.

City Hall

While I was in the visitor's center some young guy asked me if I knew where the "Love Park" was. I thought he was talking about something dirty until we happened to come across this park later in the day.

B on the grass at the LOVE Park

Our little pillow mint is growing up!

We loved our Philly cheesesteaks at Reading Terminal Market

Independence Hall in the background

The old courtroom at Independence Hall. It's modelled after the British system and I especially like the round table in the middle where all the lawyers from both sides would all sit together.

The room where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed.

The chair in the back is original to the room and was the actual chair used by George Washington.

Watching the geese at the art museum.

The Rocky statue in front of the museum.

B at the top of the "Rocky" steps

We all had a great time and can check one more city off our list!

Crawling

2011-05-25T22:33:00.002-06:00

Bridget is crawling around now. She's very content to go exploring and gets excited when she finds something she likes. The other day she was in front of the laundry machine intently watching the clothes tumble.

Spring Has Sprung

2011-05-10T17:26:00.011-06:00

Now that the weather is nicer we have started taking Bridget to the park and she finally got to try the swings for the first time. She absolutely LOVED it! Although it's hard to tell whether she prefers the actual swinging or watching whatever kid is in the swing next to her.

There's something about a burst of warm sunny weather after a long cold winter that just makes me want to garden. However, that's a little difficult when you live in an apartment without a backyard. Jason is really the green thumb of the family so he was totally on board for doing a little gardening...Jersey style.

Jason with his latest avocado plant. Classic!

Our fire escape garden.

Bridget admiring our handiwork.

B is so excited to wake up and get ready for the day.

Bridget's favourite thing to do is go to the park by our house. She loves crawling around on our blanket and watching the other children, birds, squirrels and dogs. It is the perfect park for us because there are so many kids her age that also like to play there so she is constantly meeting new babies.

Such a ham! It's amazing how many different faces she makes.

Just soaking in the sunshine.

B showing the tree some love. It's never too early to start developing a love of nature!

The Easter Alligator hits NJ

2011-04-25T20:08:00.009-06:00

What is Easter without a visit from the Easter Alligator. For those unfamiliar with the Easter Alligator I'll attempt to explain. He's a newer family tradition, in that he didn't start making his yearly visits until I was in my teens but ever since has snuck in as soon as the Easter Bunny has left. You'd know if the Easter Alligator had stopped by your house because he leaves a trail of chocolaty foot prints (thankfully only on hard surfaces, never carpets) leading to a chocolate bunny bitten in half with a note announcing his visit. I think in his early years he was a little more ominous and may have really been out to get the Easter Bunny but that wasn't really kid friendly so he's developed into more of a mischevious figure out to eat candy. Either way I'm pretty sure he made his first visit to New Jersey this year.

Bridget was excited to get at the candy. She doesn't crawl or scooch or do anything reliably yet but when she saw all that stuff on the ground she went for it.

The spoils.

So excited to be eating chocolate!

The aftermath

All cleaned up and ready for church

Happy 8th...month!

2011-03-30T09:29:00.010-06:00

Bridget is now 8 months old. Wow, how the time has flown. I can't believe how big she is getting. She isn't crawling yet but I'm convinced it's only because she doesn't want to. She can easily pull herself into my lap when she wants something I have. She makes us laugh on a daily basis. Bridget attended a birthday party for the first time this past weekend. It was a cowboy theme and my friend Tamara went all out. It was great! Jason went for the "Hells Angels" look rather than the traditional cowboy bandana. We made brownies yesterday and Jason wanted to let B lick the frosting off the beaters. I don't want her to be one of those kids that doesn't know what to do with her cake on her 1st b-day so I agreed. She totally loved it. She is definitely our child. I feel like we don't have any "framable" pics of her so we're making more of an effort to have photo shoots where she's actually looking at the camera and there isn't a big mess in the background.

Give me Williamsburg or give me death!

2011-03-25T19:26:00.012-06:00

We spent a day exploring Colonial Williamsburg, the largest living history museum in North America. That means there were a whole bunch of people acting as though it were the mid 1700s. Luckily, they "weren't annoying" (as Jason put it) and would talk to you normally if you had questions rather than feign confusion over anything you mentioned that wasn't from that period. It was a lot of fun to tour the city and talk to the local blacksmith, weaver, printer etc. about what life was like then. It made me daydream about going back in time and living in that era (of course I would have been extremely wealthy and educated, otherwise life would have been way too hard).

The Governor's Palace (obviously where I would have lived)

The front entrance to the Palace was a large round room covered in the Governor's sword and gun collection.

You could even tour the cellar of the Palace, which was actually really neat, and a little creepy.

A very small portion of the Palace gardens.

I just love this pic of Jason examining the wheelsmith's handiwork. It's such a guy thing to do. I guess it is a wheel for a cannon, which is pretty cool. I really liked that all the tradespeople were actually working on real things, not just hitting their hammer on the same thing all day. The Blacksmith was making nails for the carpenter who was building a shed. The printer was printing newspapers that were being sold in local stores. It was great.

We went to observe a "trial" at the courthouse and I got to act as a local seamstress taking on an apprentice. Jason wishes he had volunteered to be on the panel of judges and taken Bridget with him. She has started yelling randomly in such a way that it would have sounded like she was voicing her objections.

I absolutely HAD to buy her this little mob hat. Soooo cute! Even Jason didn't object to this one.

The best part of the day were the re-enactments in Revolutionary City. The audience was ushered around so they were part of the show and the actors scattered themselves among us. It really helped you appreciate what it was like to be there. I actually got a little teary eyed over their reading of the Declaration of Independence.

Benedict Arnold giving a speech and interacting with the crowd.

My absolute favourite thing was listening to the band. Everyone who had gathered at the Capitol marched with the band to the courthouse to hear the Marquis de Lafeyette give a speech and send off the troops to battle.

Bridget did NOT like the cannons! After they fired she startled, looked around for a second in confusion and then started howling. Unfortunately we cut off the filming right before the howl.

Such a long, hot day for such a little girl. Time to hit the pool.

On The Water

2011-03-24T18:46:00.007-06:00

After Charleston we hit the road and headed towards Colonial Williamsburg. Bridget has gotten used to hanging out in her car seat for hours on end and is actually a really good road trip companion. Jason calls the car her "kryponite" as she usually falls asleep the instant we start the engine.

We really tried not to drive the same road twice so we opted to drive on a small single lane highway and catch a ferry to reach Williamsburg. It was B's first ferry and she loved it.

It was a little windy but B was just so happy not to be in her carseat that she didn't seem to mind.

One of the perks of taking the ferry is that we got to see a little of Jamestown. Founded in 1607, it was the first permanent English settlement in the US.

We really grew to love the Hampton Inn on this trip. They were really nice rooms with yummy hot breakfasts. Mmmm...turkey sausages, make your own waffles, home fries. Plus we could always get a really good deal on expedia. By the end of our trip I would scroll down the list of hotels in the AAA book and pick out the Hampton Inn. So I was really excited to see a Hampton in the Williamsburg historic district. As a rule, we would never book a hotel for 2 nights in a row just to keep our plans flexible and just in case it was a total dive. In Williamsburg, we walked into our room and immediately got on to expedia to book a 2nd night. Then we went to dinner at the Jamestown Pie Company because "Round Food is Good Food". We had chicken pot pies, cherry pie and key lime pie. Yum!

That night we took Bridget swimming for the very first time and she loved it!! The water was pretty cold but she didn't even care. She loves the water!

The only person who had more fun than B was Jason. He was so excited to have someone to play with, which worked for me. I got to relax in the hot tub and watch Bridget laugh while he played in the cold water.

Doing the Charleston

2011-03-16T19:05:00.016-06:00

I woke up early this morning and took Bridget on a run on the beach. With the recent change in time thanks to daylight savings we weren't up all that early and we still caught the sun rise over the ocean. I'm so accustomed to the sunset over the ocean on the west coast that this new to me. The tide was out and left the sand on the beach smooth and hard which made pushing Bridget's stroller easier.

We then went to the oldest continually operating plantation, Boone-Hall plantation. It was established in 1600's and started by producing indigo (for the blue dye) and cotton and over time has grown pecans and produced bricks all with the use of slaves. Now they still grow produce for local markets (no slaves though).

Another oak lined drive

Another chance for a family picture... (Bridget pulling Kate's hair)

...or two

Picking cotton

Boone-Hall from the drive. You might recognise this as Allie's home in the Notebook.

Looking from Boone-Hall down the drive

The original slave quarters at Boone-Hall. It had over 300 slaves in it's hay day.

We took a tour of the plantation (that now looks a lot like a farm but I guess if you have historic slave quarters on your farm you can call it a planation) and we saw a 6 foot alligator and it's 2 foot baby. Awesome.

Once we were done at the plantation, we drove into Charleston and walked around it's historic district. Charleston had a much different feeling than Savannah. Where in Savannah all of the historic buildings felt like they were museums and they took steps to recreate and preserve them in that era, Charleston had a more modern feel to their history.

Huge house that looks like no one is living in it and is falling apart

Kate says we can move to Charleston if we can live in this house.

Charleston had more wood railings whereas Savannah had iron. This is largely due to the fact that the railings were torn down and made into cannon balls during the civil war while Savannah was protected by a naval blockade.

This house and many in the area were built in 1670. People still live in it.

Back to the beach behind our hotel once again to finish off the day.

I did want to make one comment about the food we've been having. I've been trying to get as much seafood and BBQ that I can down here and it has all been delicious!

March to the Sea

2011-03-16T05:35:00.009-06:00

We started the day at the Wormsloe Plantation in Savannah. It has the most beautiful oak lined entryway and no, it is not the one from Forrest Gump. I think I'm going to make this a black and white pic and frame it for my house.

Wormsloe was built by one of the first settlers to the Savannah area (1733). The house is no longer standing but there are still some tabby ruins. Tabby is what they used to build stuff like walls and was a mix of lime, water, sand, oyster shells and ash. There are actually a lot of shells used in construction all over Savannah including some old streets.

Slave quarters

Jason in the slave cabin sleeping loft

Entrance to Wormsloe

After Savannah, we decided to head to Charleston. We hadn't planned on stopping there originally but we figured we'd driven all that way so might as well spend more time in the area. It was a 2.5 hour drive north of Savannah and we opted to pass through the city and spend the night on one of the surrounding beaches. It was a little nicer than Tybee Island and we got a room right on the beach.

Eating dinner at the restaurant next to our hotel. Jason had the blackened Mahi-Mahi that was so good even I enjoyed it (and I generally hate seafood).

Bridget also enjoyed dinner.

Well...most of it.

We had such a good time we decided to stay another day so stay tuned for more Charleston...

Welcome to Savannah y'all!

2011-03-14T19:01:00.017-06:00

We took a trolley tour of Savannah's historic district. It took us past all the squares and houses of importance in the area and gave a bunch of history about them along the way. Bridget was strapped to me in her carrier for almost the whole ride until I noticed that she kept slumping forward and I realized she had fallen asleep sitting up.

B loved playing with the moss.

Andrew Low House - former home of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts, and place where the first Girl Scout meeting was held

Kate wants to buy this house and move to Savannah. However, she admits that she'd have to fly north for about 4 months in the summer. It's only March but already we felt that if the weather were any hotter it would be too hot.

Sitting on a bench in the park where Forrest Gump sat waiting for the bus

Savannah goes all out for St. Patrick's day and dyes the fountain water green in all the squares.

Just driving down the street. The old oaks covered in Spanish Moss made everything look cooler.

We finished off the day by driving out to Tybee Island 20 minutes from Savannah and taking an evening stroll on the beach.

The devil went down to Georgia

2011-03-13T19:11:00.004-06:00

We left Rocky Mount and pushed on to Savannah. The road kills picked up quite a bit today with raccoons still holding their own but with more of what I think were muskrats. There were long stretches of road with swamp running along the side (which is where I think all the muskrats were coming from). We actually had to turn on the A/C in the car! We made it into Savannah with time to do a quick drive around the city to see some of the sights. We're planning on taking a trolley tour of the historic district. All the trees around here are covered in Spanish moss which makes everything a little more historic and creepy feeling.

The Spanish moss in the trees here did remind me a little of Jersey City, except that the "Jersey moss" in the trees are plastic bags like this one outside our 4th story window at home. I have a new appreciation for "Jersey moss" now.

In the Beginning...

2011-03-12T17:59:00.008-07:00

We left Jersey City this morning on our trip to the south. The plan is to make it down to Savannah, Georgia and see as much as we can along the way back. Today's goal was to drive to a town just across the Virginia border called Rocky Mount, North Carolina. We drove for 8 hours today and Bridget slept for all but 1.5 hours. Let me give you some of the highlights along the route.

The best part about driving in New Jersey was leaving New Jersey. As we started to drive south we noticed things start to green up. There was also a marked decrease in plastic bags stuck in trees and a lot more blossoms. We really loved the wild daffodils growing in the ditch along the side of the road. There was also a lot of raccoons "sleeping" on the side of the road. We drove past the Philip-Morris headquarters, maker of such fine produces as Marlboro cigarettes, reminding us we're in tobacco country. Our GPS took us on some back road to get to our hotel and we drove past our first cotton field with some of last year's crop still unharvested. As we drove around Rocky Mount to find a place to eat lots of people were out on their porches in rocking chairs enjoying the warm evening. Tomorrow we'll drive the 6 hours to Savannah.

(In the Golden Corral parking lot. Gotta love those buffets)

So far a great trip and it's only going to get better. We'll keep you posted.

California

2011-02-09T14:28:00.021-07:00

My Grandmother Taylor passed away recently so Bridget and I flew to LA for her memorial. Although we were sad she has left us and will miss her, it was really great to spend time with all the family I love but don't get to see very often.

15 years ago we were almost all blonde. Now there isn't a matching haircolour in the bunch.

Bridget with her Great-Papa Taylor.

The service was very nice and it was at a beautiful church overlooking the sea that my gran used to attend. The grounds were perfect for family photos.

All the cousins.

I can't remember the last time the 4 of us shared a hotel room. It was a blast.

It was so nice to take a break from the east coast blizzards and hit the beach in 80 degree weather. This was B's first time at the beach. She didn't like the cold water but loved kicking her feet in the sand.

We had so much fun. Now I can't wait for summer so we can take regular trips to the Jersey shore. It's pretty funny that B will have dipped her feet into both the Atlantic and Pacific ocean before her 1st birthday.

I love the winter weather

2011-01-05T19:36:00.015-07:00

I had two weeks off for the Christmas break (or the winter break as it is referred to here) and we packed the kid up and headed back to Edmonton. This is my third year of going home for Christmas and I've found that in the past I build up a mental list before the break of all the things I want to do but never write them down so by the time I get home I've forgotten half of them and accomplish even fewer of them. So this year I went home with a list in hand.

1. Bless Bridget

This was the soonest I could do it back in Edmonton with all of my family so Bridget was about five months old at the time and a little bigger then the typical baby being blessed, but at least she didn't walk up to the front by herself. I did have to make sure I kept my eyes closed during the blessing because she likes to smile and laugh when I make eye contact with her and I would have started laughing if she did.

(Bridget playing with her cousins. She looks so big in that doll stroller)

2. Start Canadianizing Bridget

This originally meant starting the process of applying for Bridget's Canadian citizenship, however, that didn't happen so I adapted it to mean getting her accustomed to the snow and cold. By doing that I was able to say I accomplished this one and it helped me check of other items on my list.

We started changing her diapers right in front of the sliding door to the back yard. Every time the door opened to let Harley out Bridget would get a blast of cold winter air. At first I don't think she knew what to make of it but after a while she just got used to it. Canadianization: check.

Showing off her new favourite trick of pulling out her soother and jamming her hand in her mouth.

3. Take Bridget skating on the lake at Hawrelak Park

It was cold most of the time I was in Edmonton but there were a few nice days that were prefect for skating and other outdoor winter activities. We didn't go skating on one of the nice days. By the time Kate decided not to be sick anymore (she was in bed for two days straight) all the nice days were gone and we were going skating in the cold. It was -20C (that's -4F for my metricly challenged readers). Obviously Bridget was not going to be out very long in those conditions but we wrapped her up well, threw her in a wagon and went for it. The ice was in rough shape. It was like there were marbles embedded in the ice, not to mention the huge cracks in it. We managed to skate for about 15 minutes until I felt satisfied I deserved to check it off the list.

(We kept her covered the whole time and only uncovered her to take pictures.)

4. Go Sledding

Another cold day but that didn't stop us from taking her out of the sled and playing with her in the snow.

(In her snow chair showing how deep the snow is)

Dropping Bridget into the snow in her snow suit, not on the original list (I didn't know she had a snow suit)

With all that checking things off my list I almost forgot that Christmas was in there too. For the last couple of years my family has tried to take a family picture on Christmas eve. Then of course after the real picture we take a not so serious picture. This year it was mustaches if you couldn't tell.

The family tradition is that Santa brings you one big present that isn't wrapped and is just on the couch. Kate and I didn't want to have to haul something back to NJ so Bridget just wasn't going to get a big Santa present but we hadn't thought that her cousins might get suspicious. This was pointed out to on Christmas morning so we had to come up with a Santa present fast. I think we came up with a pretty good one; a pineapple. I think I smell a new Christmas tradition for our kids' 1st Christmas.

(Bridget inspecting her Christmas present and approving. We ate it later that day)

(Bridget having a good time with Grandpa)

Christmas Crafts - A Post by Kate!!

2010-12-01T18:13:00.012-07:00

Pocket Advent Calendars

My friend Tamara and I recently got together to make these super cute advent calendars for some of our friends and family. In theory they would be really easy and fast to make but with 3 young kids between the two of us it took us 2 afternoons to make 5 each. I gave one to Jason to take to school and impress his friends with his Christmas spirit. They were so much fun to make I think they will become part of my Christmas tradition.

Tile Coasters

When I was in Edmonton in October Southgate Ward was having their Super Saturday and I was so sad I wasn't going to be around to make this fabulous and easy Christmas craft. I really wanted an excuse to make them so when my friend invited me to her annual Homemade Christmas Craft Exchange I already knew exactly what I was going to make. I found some really cute rub-ons that I thought worked really well with the snowflake paper but they turned out to be a total pain because they didn't stick very well on tile. I didn't know what they did on the bottom but I stuck a square of adhesive backed felt on it and it worked really well. I also made a set for myself.

Because Jason and I aren't going to be around for Christmas there is no point setting up a Christmas tree but it would be really depressing to go through almost the entire month of December without any decorations. Ever since I walked through the $1 section at Target and saw a package of 8 sparkly ornaments I have been trying to figure out what I could do with them and this is what I came up with:

You can't really tell but I found some silver and crystal monogram ornaments for the whole family (in order left to right "J", "B", "K").

And because no post is complete without a picture of Bridget...

My "Superbowl" Sunday

2010-11-08T18:09:00.009-07:00

Somebody forgot to tell Bridget about daylight savings, so she woke up around 6:30am on Sunday morning and didn't want to go back to sleep. I took her downstairs to play for a little bit then put her back to sleep. I have to admit I wasn't very put out about getting up because she is always so happy in the morning. That day in particular I was excited about getting up because it was marathon Sunday and I wanted to watch the pre-race coverage on the local news.

I had already gotten into the marathon spirit by volunteering at a race on Saturday in Central Park handing out cinnamon-raisin bagels for 45 minutes to ~7000 runners as they crossed what would be the marathon finish line. This run was a marathon warm-up run that took runners from the UN to Central Park. Most of the runners had come from other countries to run the marathon, with lots of runners from France, Germany, Japan, and the Netherlands. The park was buzzing with runners and people setting up for the marathon.

Runners on 1st ave

Although we hadn't planned on going to watch the marathon, I realized that next year at this time I'll be out on Staten Island waiting to start to run myself and will problably never see the marathon in person. Neither of us wanted to miss this opportunity so we rushed to get ready and out the door just as the first wave of men crossed the starting line.
Blockng the wind from Bridget's face

We didn't wait around to see if the rest of the band was behind him

The trains were filled with people going to cheer on the runners. It was fun to hear everyone on the trains talk about running so openly and the best place to watch and seeing the signs they'd made.

Our first stop was 1st ave at about the 18 mile mark but we missed the frontrunners. We then walked over closer to the finish line, stopping on 5th ave and actually saw some of the same people that ran past us on 1st ave. Random people were handing out bananas and licorice to any runner that wanted some. There was constant noise, cheering, and bells/horns.

There is just something so exciting about marathons that every time I watch one I forget about all the training needed and can't wait to run one. Knowing that I'll be running this one next year made this even more exciting. Next year I won't just be watching "the Superbowl of running", I'll be in it.

Home again

2010-11-02T08:32:00.009-06:00

Kate and Bridget are back from their trip to Edmonton for Canadian Thanksgiving. Most people (meaning everyone besides Kate and Bridget) don't know that the true way to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving is with 2+ Thanksgiving dinners, and maybe a Thanksgiving lunch if you can sneak it in, followed by a 2 and a half week vacation. I was in complete support of giving Bridget the true Thanksgiving experience. While there Bridget met lots of new people and family members for the first time.

Bridget and her cousin Preston

Bonding with Auntie Lissa. (She's the one with all the fun toys Bridget)

Kate's side of the family all together for an elusive family picture

This last weekend we decided to go out leafing. We drove just into New York state to Bear Mountain State Park. It was really nice to get out of the city and see some Fall colours. It was the first time Bridget was out in the cold for a long time and she held up pretty well. We need to make sure she's fully Canadianized before our trip home at Christmas.

Look at those beautiful trees!

(Brace yourself for the onslaught of family pictures)

This background looks like one of those that they pull down at Sears or at school picture day. I really wanted the bookcase or the laser background.

Where's the lasers?

I finished my last run to complete the nine needed to qualify for next year's marathon. All I have left to do is to do my volunteering and I'm doing it this next weekend. Registration is now open for anyone who wants to join me next year!

Grunting to Cooing

2010-10-03T11:37:00.006-06:00

This past week we went out on a picnic at the park by our house. I walk through this park every day on my way to school and see people with their kids and have always wanted to take my kid to the park too. Bridget had a good time even if Kate couldn't resist picking at her cradle cap.

Bridget had her two month check up the other day and has almost doubled her birth weight. She's in the 67th percentile for weight and slightly under average height, so she's a short fatty. Just what every girl wants to be. She's traded most of her newborn grunting for cooing, making her more babylike and less badger-like. When I have late clinic and have the mornings off I am able to be there when she gets up in the morning. She smiles when I get her out of bed and loves talking to me.

She also loves bath time, spashing all the time. It's become a fun part of her otherwise grumpy bedtime routine.

Holding up her head during tummy time

I started this blog when I first came out to school here with the intent to keep family, including Kate, back at home apprised of my activities and to prove that I was still alive. Writing not being one of my strong suits I pushed Kate to take over the blog when she first came out. Needless to say that didn't happen and I'm still the main author. However, she proof-reads, edits (I don't always make sense in the first draft) and sets background and layout (I often complain that the backgrounds she picks are too girly). I bring this up because I've started to notice that of all the other blogs that I follow there are not that many guys writing family blogs.

(Note from Kate: He actually only continues doing it because he loves getting comments so please please say something or else I'll get stuck with the blogging responsibilities and then you'll only get annual updates at best)

Road Trip

2010-09-12T10:54:00.024-06:00

At the end of my extensive two week summer vacation my parents came out here to see Bridget. I still had a couple of days till school started up again and they wanted to go on a trip so we headed down to Washington D.C. for the Labour day long weekend. This was Bridget's first road trip and she did really well. It was a four hour drive down there and she slept almost the entire way except for the last 10 minutes when she cried uncontrollably.

Pillow mint

It was nice to have someone else there to take pictures of all three of us

The first night we were there we walked to the monuments and lucked out with a great sunset. Bridget had her diaper changed on the grass at the Washington monument.

You'll see more of him later.

So we saw all the monuments, took a tour of the Capital, went to the library of Congress, went to a couple of the Smithsonian museums and went to the Arlington cemetary and then we were out of DC. But not before stopping at the DC temple.

We left DC and headed into Pennsylvania to Gettysburg. We checked out the battlefield and walked around the town that still has buildings with bullet damage in them from the battle. Maybe in 150 years people will come to Jersey City and be impressed by the buildings here too.

Our next and final stop of our trip was at Hershey Pennsylvania. We toured their faux factory and the city that was built around the factory. There was lots of chocolate but no oompa-loompas, I looked. All of that chocolate was lost on Bridget and she could have cared less.

My dad and I did a run in Central Park. I always have a good time doing these runs and I think my Dad was pretty excited to do one too.

Bridget was there to cheer us on.

Waiting in Filene's Basement (which obviously isn't a basement at all) overlooking Union Square's farmers' market.

Every year on the evening of Sept. 11th the city puts up these lights to remind the terrorists that Batman still watches over Gotham City

One Month

2010-08-28T21:22:00.007-06:00

(Bridget looking so content)

Bridget's one month old now. It's been an interesting month of sleepless nights, dirty diapers and a lot of adjusting.

At her 1st doctor's appointment Bridget weighed 6lb 6oz, 8oz less than her birth weight which is normal but the doctor was concerned so asked to see her again at 2 weeks for another weigh in. So Bridget started her training to enter the glamorous world of competative eating and by the next appointment weighed 7lb 14oz.

(Family picture)

I had a board exam to take at the end of August so my school schedule gave me time to study which meant I could be at home in the mornings and spend time with Bridget when she wakes up. I would wake up and take her and let Kate sleep, and Bridget would lay in my lap as I studied. So far she's been pretty happy in the mornings. This is my favourite time with her.

For the first few weeks she refused to let me hold her or burp on my shoulder. Everytime I would put her up there she would insist on showing off her neck muscles by holding her head back away from my shoulder and looking up at my face. After a while her neck would get "tired" and she would "accidently" head butt me as she fell back to my shoulder. She now feels like she's proved whatever point she was trying to make and has now started to snuggle on my shoulder.

(Bridget excited to be one month old)

("The Only Little Girl In New York")

Jersey Girl

2010-07-29T19:37:00.008-06:00

So in case you've been living under a rock for the past few months and have only now emerged, all greasy haired and pimply to work as a carny at the one of the summer's traveling amusement parks, let me catch you up to date. Kate's been pregnant for let's say the last nine months or so. Now that we're all on the same page we can talk about some more current events. Have you heard about that oil washing up on the Gulf coast?

Anyways, Kate was due last Sunday. No baby came on Sunday. On Monday Kate and her mom Anne went and bought a crib for the baby so it was probably a good thing the baby was late or she would have been sleeping in a DeWalt tool box I found on the street. It's a pretty big box and DeWalt makes a quality product but I guess cribs are good too. Monday night we all went into the city to see the musical In the Heights. When we came home I went to bed but Kate and Anne stayed up playing games. Kate woke me up at two to tell me she was having contractions. Kate didn't feel like we needed to go the hospital till the morning so we didn't.

(Just a little pre-birth fashion show but Kate kept practicing her air flute and ruined the whole show)

We walked over the the hospital (it's only 3 blocks from our house) on Tuesday morning. Kate had a contraction on the walk over. They admitted her and took us to a delivery room. Now let me just take a second and tell about this room. It was a private room which isn't always the case out here, and it had an incredible view of the New York harbour, the Verrazano bridge, Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty. I was that close to naming our baby Liberty Freedom-Fries Steed the view was that inspiring. That being said if our window was looking the other direction I probably could have watched a mugging or other illicit activities.

(Kate, not fully enjoying the amazing view.)

I won't get into details but we were in the hospital the rest of the day and there were some needles, some poking, some pushing, the miracle of life and then there was a baby. Kate had her at 7:25 pm on the 27th and she was 6 lbs 14 oz, 20.5 inches. We named her Bridget Anne Steed. Both Kate and Bridget are doing well and I'm well too in case you were wondering. Cue the pictures of Bridget.

Kate came home with Bridget today from the hospital. Now the adventure begins.

Happy B-day Surprise Kate. Love, New Joisey

2010-06-25T20:51:00.008-06:00

We decided to celebrate Kate's birthday a day early this year because tomorrow we're going to a friend's place. So first off, Happy birthday Kate, and what better way to celebrate your 30th birthday than Jersey style. Ok we didn't really have anything planned so we just let the plentiful bounty of New Jersey provide. First we went to Kate's favourite place for Indian food, the mall's food court. Surprisingly I have to agree that it really is good Indian food. You can't beat a good butter chicken and naan bread. Next we went to a the A-Team and had a few laughs. It was a full moon and a refreshing cool break from the 30 degree days we've been having so we decided to sit on our stoop, take some pictures of the moon and see if we could see some fireflies. New Jersey had other plans.

As we were sitting there a BMW pulled up and double parked right in front of us to wait for someone. A few minutes later another car came ripping around the corner and sped down the street, clipping the BMW's mirror. The two drivers got together to talk it over and they were both a little worked up. The BMW driver didn't like that the other driver (who we suspect was drunk) kept saying that he could just fix it himself and things escalated. When he heatedly demanded that they exchange insurance info the drunk started throwing punches and BMW fought back. Both of them got some good shots in. After recovering from the shock of this happening less than 5 meters away from us, I decided I couldn't sit there anymore so I gave Kate the camera and started yelling at these guys while walking towards them. Kate said I was using my loud angry voice that she's never heard before. By the time I got close to them BMW had the drunk on the hood of a car so I pulled him off and drunk sort of stayed on the hood.

I thought it was over and I backed off not wanting to get too involved. However, the drunk had other ideas and starting going for BMW again. Bad move. BMW, who obviously had more of his wits about him and possibly had some previous fighting experience, hit drunky in the head a couple of times and then started choking him so I pulled him off again and the drunk slumped to the ground in the middle of the street. This time I made sure BMW was walking away and not coming back before I checked on the drunk who' was then laying on his back with a dazed look in his eyes. I make sure that he was OK and then told someone in the now gathering crowd to call the cops.

Once again I backed off, thinking it was over as the aggressor was still lying on the ground and all we had to do was wait for the cops.. Wrong again. Drunky stumbled to his feet and lunged yet again at Mr. BMW, catching him half turned around, and landed a punch. That didn't stop BMW from hammering him back a few more times and slamming him to the ground. Once again, I pulled him off and walked him away and this time the drunk decided to stay down, helped by another guy from the crowd who came in to stay with him to keep him down. Finally, 3 police cars pulled up and calmed things down. Apparently a bunch of people called the police and the cops had the impression that it was a giant street fight that spanned a full block, which is why 3 cars showed up.

At this point quite a few people had left their apartments and were hanging out on the street talking about what had happened. A group of them standing next to our stoop where Kate was standing holding the camera still attached to the tripod started talking about how someone was filming it. They looked at Kate expectantly saying "You guys were filming that right?" to which Kate replied "Um, no. We were taking pictures of the moon."

So after all was said and done we were thinking that we should have taken some pictures or video of the whole thing but we were both kind of caught up in the moment. We only took this one after we went inside and Kate suggested we might need some picutres for our blog. It's a pic of the drunk guy still stunned sitting up against a fence with the police waiting for his ambulance.

So, to sum it up, we had planned to finish the evening with a pleasant night out on our stoop and instead we ended up with a little bit of Joisey right up in front of our house. Happy Birthday Kate.

Park Art

2010-06-08T20:44:00.005-06:00

Everyday I walk through Madison Square Park on my way to school and every so often the park has a new art project in it. Past displays include tree houses in the trees, 8 foot tall concrete shapes on the grass, and a ring of lights around the park that light up to people's heart rates when they put their hands on sensors.

About a month ago on my way to school I came across one of these in the middle of the pedestrian area in front of the flat iron building. At first I couldn't tell if this was a statue or a guy in a body suit or body paint and just standing still (not entirely out of the question around here). Either way I gave him a wide birth as I walked past him. I didn't really know what to make of a naked metal statue in the middle of the sidewalk and was even more confused to find another one on the other side of the park too. But I guess that's art right?

I walked past these guys for about another week before I heard someone talking about something on top of buildings. On top of many of the buildings surrounding the park are more of these statues. Turns out there are 31 of these guys in all. As you can imagine, at first there were some problems with people thinking they were jumpers, especially from the one on the empire state building, but now they have settled in and are a part of the park. They are the sentinels of the park keeping watch at all times.

I actually kind of like watching people crane their necks around and do a double take when they see them for the first time. People love taking pictures with these guys, and putting hats, scarves and coats on them.

The whole thing has sort of grown on me.

Niagara Falls

2010-06-06T19:28:00.007-06:00

We went up to Niagara Falls last weekend. We had a lot of fun but as I started to write about our trip I started boring myself with how wordy I was so here's a bunch of pictures with captions instead.

Pregnant Kate at the falls

Picture from behind the ponchos you get when you go on the Maid of the Mist boat in an attempt to protect the camera from all the mist.

Maid of the Mist boat

Both falls

Kate didn't think there were enough pictures of just me in this post.

Kate beating me at mini-golf. In my defence it was 2 against 1. Notice how the club hits her belly even though she's using a kid's putter.

U.S. falls at night.

Horseshoe falls.

Into the fiery pit.

With this slow shutter speed it looks like a coloured curtain.

Looking down into the Horseshoe falls

More of the pregers

Fun with our camera. Spooky scary.

Scotland Run

2010-04-04T19:08:00.004-06:00

I ran another race in Central Park this weekend. It was in connection with Scotland week which from what I put together is a bunch of events in the city that are sponsored by the Scottish tourism industry. It was a 10Km race which is just over one loop of the park. I'd never been all the way to the top of the park before. In classic New York style where the feel and the mood of neighborhoods can change drastically in just a couple of blocks, popping out of the park after having no view of the surroundings and suddenly seeing Harlem I wouldn't have thought I was still in Manhattan.

We decided that red is a much better running colour for me so Kate can actually pick me out of the crowds. Because this was a Scotland run there were a number of people who ran in kilts. Kate really wished I'd brought the kilt that she bought me in Scotland a couple of years ago with me out here so I could wear it too. I wasn't as heart broken about that.

The $18 registration fee was the least I've ever paid for a run but there was still a shirt and food after. Oh, about the food after the run, what else would you expect after a run in New York than bagels and New York apples. There were also canvas bags with the a Scottish flag on them and filled with SWAG advertising Scotland.

This video is from the start line. Kate said it took 15 minutes for all the runners to cross it. I show up in red at about 29 seconds.

The Belly

2010-03-26T16:03:00.005-06:00

Kate's a couple of months (or five) into this whole pregnancy thing so it's about time that it's documented on this thing. When Kate showed up here after her extended stay in Edmonton over Christmas she had a only the slightest sign of a belly that if you didn't know any better you might not notice (or worse think she'd just gained weight). Since then a lot has changed. There's no mistaking it anymore, there's a kid in there (or a small tuba or both).

The belly is now large enough that while eating poporn the other day Kate dropped a piece and couldn't find it on her initial search. Of course she couldn't see it, it was under the over-hang of the belly.

The other day Kate came in and met me in the city for dinner and a piano concert. While waiting on the platform in the PATH station we started to wonder if anyone would give up their seat for Kate. The trains at night can be pretty full and you usually don't get a seat unless you get on at the first stop. Kate was convinced that no one would give up their seat for her so I made her unbutton her coat and stick her belly out. It worked. As soon as she made eye contact with the guy sitting closest to her he asked if she wanted to sit down, so she did. It pays to be pregnant.

Crazy Weekend

2010-02-26T12:36:00.007-07:00

(This picture has nothing to do with this post. I just like to have a picture at the top of my posts and why can't it be a seagull)

Last weekend was kind of a crazy one for us. I’ve decided that the best way to write about it is to write about an event in its entirety and not necessarily follow a chronological order.
Last Friday Kate and I were going to meet in the city after school and have dinner together. She came in early to run some errands and she ended up walking from the temple near Lincoln Center down close to Carnegie Hall all the way to 34th street where we met at our favorite Korean restaurant. As we ate she told me that while she was at Carnegie Hall she noticed that the Julliard Orchestra was performing there. This was great because it was hitting two birds with one stone, see Julliard students perform and going to Carnegie Hall. The only problem came when Kate told me the date of the show. When she bought them she thought they were for the next Saturday but when she told me the date we figured out that they were actually for the next day. Normally that wouldn’t have been a problem because our typical weekend is pretty low key, but we’d just accepted an invitation to a Chinese New Year party which was on the same night. Fortunately, the party was at 5:00pm and the show was at 8:00pm. We knew it would be tight but we thought we could still do both. And we did. The party was fun, with some authentic Chinese food that was really good, though we had to leave early so we missed the Chinese games. We raced home to change and made it to the PATH station just as a train was pulling up (weekend service is spotty, so you don’t want to miss your train or you’ll be waiting another 15-20 minutes). It was tight so we caught a cab to Carnegie and make it to the performance on time. It was a good performance. I’m sure if Kate were writing this she would have more to say about it, but she’s not and so it was only good.

Back to Friday night after the restaurant… on the way home Kate told me that she’d heard something about a 4 mile run for Haiti support in Central Park the next morning and she thought I should do it. One thing I want to do while I'm here is run the New York Marathon. It can be kind of tough to get into this race. When you apply your name goes into a lottery and it’s just luck of the draw of who gets accepted. However, there are some ways to guarantee yourself a spot in the run, such as buying a travel package that includes a spot in the run, having run the NY marathon 10(?) times previously, being an elite runner and qualifying based on your smokin’ hot time, or participating in the New York Road Runners’ club (which is like the running room back at home) 9 + 1 program. I recently opted to join the club and do the 9 + 1 program which means I need to run 9 races and volunteer at one race this next year to guarantee my spot in next year’s marathon.

When we got home Kate looked up info on the race and found out it had been upgraded to a double qualifier (meaning it counted as completing 2 runs for the 9+1 program). That sealed it. But I wasn’t registered and on-line registration was closed at that point. The only way to register was to go to the race early and register on site. This meant getting up really early to make it there on time and hopefully grab a remaining spot. Needless to say we planned to relax for the rest of the evening and head to bed early.
Once we had settled in for the night, I was flipping through channels and noticed that there was a New Jersey Nets game on TV, which reminded me that my friend Dave had given me tickets to a Nets game coming up. I went and checked the tickets and sure enough they were for that very night and the game started in 30 minutes. I asked Kate if she wanted to go to a Nets game in half an hour and with that we were on our way to the game. They were playing the Toronto Raptors. The seats were good and the game was mediocre and Kate’s favorite part of the game was the half-time show and the free buffet that came with Dave’s season tickets. It was Kate’s first NBA game and we had a great time. We did end up leaving early to beat the traffic home and get a little sleep before the race but if you know anything about the Nets it’s that they have an even worse record this season than the Oilers so the outcome of the game was no mystery.

The next morning, we woke up at 5:45 and headed to Central Park to register for the race. At first it looked like the race was going to be a pretty low key event but as the start time approached more and more people kept showing up. They announced at the start of the run that they’d only had two weeks to plan this run and that they still had over 10,000 people show up. This was my first run in Central Park and by far the most people I’ve ever been in a race with. They did a good job of sorting people at the start line by their pace. Unlike other races I’ve been in where the pack thins out as the race goes on, this one never did. Even though Kate knew what I was wearing it was impossible to pick me out of the crowd so she just started taking random pictures hoping to catch me in one, and she did! We made a new rule that from now on I have to wear all neon spandex when I race.

(The start)

(Where's Waldo? I am in this picture. I have a grey toque and a black jacket and I'm right next to the "Run for Haiti" sign on the right side)

(Kate liked the singer in this video. You see how many people are there. The numbers on the right side are the minutes per mile marker and those go all the way back to 12 )

SNOW DAY!!!

2010-02-10T18:47:00.006-07:00

About a week ago the weather guys pin pointed today as the day when a blizzard would hit New York. I really didn't think too much about this because the last two snow storms that New Yorkers were warned to brace for didn't turn out to be that bad at all, maybe a skiff of snow. But as this one loomed closer people really started sounding different this time. Yesterday in class professors told us that the school never closes and that we should expect business a normal. This was followed by e-mails from the Dean of the dental collage and also one from the NYU admin. saying they expected the school to be open today but that that could change. Most students live within walking distance to the school or use public transit that is pretty reliable so I thought I would be heading in to class today BUT... it started snowing. Now I have to say that this isn't the light fluffy stuff that you could just sweep away with a broom, this is wet heavy slush on sidewalks and streets which is horrible to walk in (and I imagine drive in) because you slip and slide every time you step down into it and you shoes get soaked. However, on the plus side it's the type of snow that makes great snow balls and snowmen.

So when e-mail came saying that they canceled class today (I think they were worried about people being able to get home because it started snowing heavier in the afternoon and into the evening) I was excited that I didn't have to maneuver through that and have to deal with being wet all day.

This is the first snow day I've ever had. Compared to the amount of snow we had here today there were a couple of times back in Edmonton where I think there should have been snow days. I did end up going out today mostly to take pictures and to see how bad it was. What I noticed first was that it wasn't all that cold, I think was around 0 C, so that made walking around a little nicer. My feet were soaked within minutes of been out but my feet never were cold. Most if not all school kids had the day off too, so Van Vorst Park by our place was busy with people building snowmen and playing in the snow. I walked around for about an hour. It's still snowing right now but they are saying that they expect about 10-11 inches when it's all said and done. Kate's flight back here was canceled too but they did that yesterday so she didn't get halfway here and get stranded. An extra day in Edmonton.

(That's Ellis Island in the background. The water was dark and angry looking)

(This is the old train station on the Jersey side where most of the immigrants that went through Ellis Island and weren't staying in New York would catch trains to the rest of the country)

Halloween

2009-11-08T16:25:00.007-07:00

A couple of weeks ago Kate went with some of her friends from the ward to a pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkin which we then left sitting on our front step for another couple of weeks. The day before Halloween I decided to carve it and put it back on the step. We had been planning to go to the Halloween parade and didn't think there would be any trick-or-treaters in our neighborhood (I was at the parade last year too so I really didn't know if we would have any or not). Turns out that by having a Jack-o lantern you open yourself up to trick-or-treaters. I went into school that day and was going to meet Kate in the City for the parade. When Kate left to meet me at 5:00 there were already at least 30 kids on our small block alone. They rang our bell but Kate couldn't answer because we didn't have any candy for them. I guess she could have given out some of the dental garbage that I've accumulated but that would have just made them angrier. We'll be ready next year.

I knew taking pumpkin carving as my minor would pay off.

Some random half naked guy dancing on the fire escape of some bar before the parade.

The NYC mayoral election was a couple of days after Halloween, so this "guy" was campaigning for Thompson (who lost) saying "my vote's not for sale...but I am". Yikes!!!

I met Kate and our friend Dave in the city for the parade Halloween night. It was a little disappointing this year because it was raining the whole time which really put a damper on things. However, the I think the rain kept a lot of the costumes pretty tame. It was also fun afterwards as we went to get dinner to see all the people dressed up walking around. Dave invited us to a couple of parties but because we are such losers, Kate and I just went home.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

2009-10-28T14:15:00.029-06:00

Last Saturday Jason and I borrowed a friend's car and

took a little day trip to Sleepy Hollow, NY. The drive along the Hudson River is absolutely beautiful this time of year with all the leaves changing to wide variety of colours.

Every October in the Village of Sleepy Hollow they put on special events, like Haunted Hayrides and Legend Evening, to celebrate Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". We didn't spend the evening in Sleepy Hollow because all the events tickets were sold out but it was still fun just to walk around. It was a little rainy and foggy but that just added to the spooky atmosphere.

One of the things we enjoyed the most was walking through Sleepy Hollow's Old Dutch Church Cemetery. It is one of the oldest cemeteries in America and it was really neat to see the gravesites of soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War and Washington Irving himself.

"It's all dark and dead inside!"

They had a whole bunch of unbelievable gigantic mausoleums for all the dead rich people. The Rockefellers actually had a house nearby and put a lot of money into the town, including commissioning Matisse to design some church stainded glass windows that are still there. The window on this "small" mausoleum is broken and you can look inside...which really creeped me out.

The walk around the cemetary was actually really beautiful. It's amazing how many varieties of trees they have all growing together. I guess that's what you get when you aren't limited to only those trees that can survive -40 degree winters.

This doesn't belong to anyone famous. I just had to take a picture of it because it's the creepiest headstone I've ever seen.

Surprisingly, no one else was around to take this picture for us. Jason actually made us put away the camera when anyone passed because he thought we looked "creepy" having such a good time in a cemetery.

Kate's Here

2009-10-04T06:56:00.010-06:00

Well, she actually got here at the end of August which means my bachelor days are over and I've had to get used to living with someone again, but it's been a smooth transition. We had thought about doing some traveling when she first got here because I was on a 2 week break from school. But we decided to stick close to home and relax. We did go see "Mary Poppins" the musical, which was obviously Kate's choice but like most of the shows Kate's taken me to, I wasn't all that excited about going to it but was surprised at how much I enjoyed the show.

As smooth as that transition was it didn't last long because within 1 week of Kate arriving, we had our first house guest, Kate's cousin Rachel. So as cramped as I felt with having Kate move in, and right when we'd figured out where to put all of her stuff, we get another. I'd started school by this point so Kate took Rachel into the city a couple of times by herself to show her around.

A friend of ours had told Kate that "Broadway on Broadway" was going on in the city on a Sunday morning. Of course I had no idea what the heck Broadway on Broadway was, but it turns out that it's a show they put on in the middle of Times Square (on Broadway) to mark the beginning of the Broadway season where they have performances from most of the major shows. Of course Kate was really excited about this; I had my doubts but I tagged along anyways. We got to Times Square right before the show started and the place was packed with people and police barricades which made getting around difficult, so we just jumped one of the barricades that separated the people watching from the small area left for people walking, and we settled into a spot in perfect time to see the show. There were 26 performances and Kate was keeping a list of the shows that she now wants to see. It turned out to be a pretty fun time but what really tipped the scales was that at the end of the show they brought a bunch of the actors back out on stage and the started singing "New York, New York" (in case you ever forget where you are, they like to remind you) and all of the sudden they started throwing confetti from the building. We finished the day with a picnic in Central Park.

Kate kept trying to get in the video. I had to beat her off with a stick.

Kate and Rachel did end up going to one of the shows on Kate's list,"The Fantasticks". Here's some trivia for you, the designation to "Broadway" and "Off Broadway" has nothing to do with where the theater is located, is has to do with the size of the theater. The Fantasticks is an off Broadway show which means the theater holds less than 500 people which made for an intimate affair

Rachel was here for 2 weeks and left on a Wednesday afternoon and that Wednesday evening my brother Michael and 2 of his friends checked into the Jersey City Steed Hotel. Oddly enough you'd think that having three people sleeping on air mattresses on your living room floor would seem more crowded then just one, but it didn't. They only stayed a few days and we didn't see them that much but they did take me to a Yankees-Red Sox's game. The day before the game was hot and humid so I naturally assumed that the next day would have about the same weather. I was wrong and so were the other guys. It was cold and windy. We were all in shorts with only thin or no jackets. Cold the whole game, but still fun.

Twins? Surprisingly not. I'm just impressed that Michael actually remembered he had a brother.

The funny thing about having house guests in a one bedroom apartment is that when they leave the place seems a lot bigger.

Again our friend Dave, who seems to know about all the fun things going on in the city, told us about a concert and movie screening of The Wizard of OZ in Central Park to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the movie. We met after school, had dinner, and went up to the Park. After a little bit of a debacle which left Kate inside to save seats while I left to wait for Dave and almost couldn't get back in because they had filled up, we both were in to see the show (Dave showed up late and had to listen from outside). Julianne Hough and Jennifer Hudson preformed. The movie was fun to watch with about a thousand New Yorkers who boo-ed and jeered as the Wicked Witch showed up, cheered when Toto made his escape from the picnic basket, and sang along with all the songs.

Mr. Steed Goes to Washington

2009-08-26T15:50:00.018-06:00

Last Wednesday a friend of mine, Dave, said he was going down to Washington DC for the weekend and invited me to come with him. He was initially going down to get a bobble head from a the Nationals baseball game, but when I said that I'd take him up on the offer it became a sight-seeing weekend along with the baseball game. It's about a four hour drive down there with traffic and of course there was traffic on a Friday night.

The National Mall from the Capital building

Saturday we started out at the Capital. Dave lived in DC and worked at the Capital Building as a guide so we were able to bypass some lines waiting for a tour, and once we were on the tour Dave wasn't satisfied with how little our guide was telling us so we sort of wandered between tour groups and Dave filled in what wasn't being covered.

Archie Bunker's chair

Dorthy's Ruby Red Slippers

Oscar the Grouch. Note no slimey or elephant trunks or Bruno the can carrier.

We made our way through the various Smithsonian Museums for the next couple of hours which was good because it was raining.

We took the metro to the Nationals game. There are some big differences between the New York and the Washington Metro systems. DC's is newer and more open, people are more courteous, and you feel like you are less likely to find a pile of poop or a passed out drunk in the station. But where's the excitement then? The game ended up being delayed for about an hour because of the rain which turned out to be a good thing because by the time the game started there weren't many people left in the stadium so we could sit wherever we wanted. We sat in some great seats in both left and right field (we moved in the 6th inning). We did get the bobble heads.

Washington Monument reflecting in pool

Lincoln Monument

Closer

After the game we wandered back into the city to see the monuments at night. This was a really neat experience and I would highly recommend it. All of them are lit up at night and there is hardly anyone around. I didn't appreciate how empty they were until the next day, when we saw them during the day. It ended up being a late night, but DC has so many police around that I never felt unsafe.

During the day. Just a different look than at night.

On Sunday Dave had called a friend of his who is a city guide and agreed to take us around all the monuments and tell us all the stories about them. She is a lady in her 70's and has been doing tours for about 16 years so she is full of information and her pace was quick. She was a lot of fun. Having someone tell you the significance, historical background, and artistic aspects of each of the monuments deepened the whole experience.

The White House. The Obamas were on vacation.

World War II Memorial. With the Lincoln Monument in the background

This is hidden on the WWII memorial and was actually included by the artist. The American GI's would leave this mark on building as they went though cities.

Korean War Memorial. The etchings on the wall are actual pictures of soldiers from the war arranged to look like the mountains of Korea.

There are 19 statues of soldiers representing the army, air force, and Marines. Only 19 because when you look in the wall you see their reflections and you see 38 (see previous picture) which represents the 38th parallel the DMZ is on. Each of the soldier's faces is different and every face has characteristics of all the races of the soldiers that fought which makes the faces almost distorted.

The Vietnam War Memorial is just a wall with about 54000 names of the missing and dead. After the names of dead there is a diamond and after the missing a cross. Once the missing are confirmed dead the cross becomes a diamond.

People leave things at the wall all the time. Every day the national parks service picks up and catalogs what it is and where it was placed and stores it. There were a couple of letters on the ground while was there. Very personal letters. This one was from a guy writing to a friend of his. He explained that he had fought side by side with this guy but that he had been dealing with a lot of his own problems since he returned home but he was now ready to deal with his friend's death. The writer was said he was the first one to his friend's side after he went down.

Changing of the guard at the Tomb for the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. They change every half hour. The one guard marches back and forth for the half hour, then an officer comes out followed by the replacement guard. The officer inspects the uniform and gun of both guards.

This is a picture from Robert E. Lee's house in Arlington national cemetery. You can see the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Monument, and the Capital building. Arlington was build on land once owned by George Washington but was passed down to his step-granddaughter who married Lee. Despite living in Washington, Lee said his heart was in Virgina and he left to lead the the South in the Civil war. His wife moved shortly after when they started burying people around her garden. You can see that there aren't any tall buildings in Washington; no building is allowed to be taller then the Capital building.

I think I came away from the weekend with an appreciation for the way a country honours it's people who have sacrificed and held true to what they believe in.

Summer studying

2009-08-21T14:31:00.007-06:00

My summer semester of school started the beginning of July and just wrapped up yesterday. It's not exactly ideal to be in school in the summer but on the plus side the school's work load wasn't all that intense so I was able to do some fun things. One day before class I went up to Bryant Park where they had a big stage set up and on Wednesdays they had Broadway in the Park where they had performances from different Broadway musicals. It was alright but the music always means a lot more when you've actually seen the musical (and I haven't seen many).

Once a week I would have a lab that went until 8:30 at night, so on one of those nights I stopped in Hoboken on my way home and went to a "Movie Under the Stars". From the name you can figure out that it's a movie that they play outside and the night I went they were playing "Batman: The Dark Night". It was pretty cool the be watching a movie on the banks of the Hudson river with boats moving silently by and with the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building and the rest of the Manhattan skyline in the background.

I also started studying down at the main NYU campus which is right off of Washington Square Park. It's in a really nice area of the city and it's sort of fun to just go down there and wander around. The park itself is fun because it attracts all sorts of different people, making it a great place to take study breaks just to see what kind of people showed up that day.

With the mini Arc de Triomphe in the park, there is always a steady stream of tourists, but with the fountain there too, lots of locals young and old come down and play in the water. Apparently the park is a magnet for bands looking to make a quick buck and random people just playing for the heck of it. I've seen little rock bands, jazz bands, bagpipers, saxophone players, trumpeters, and tons of guitarists. It's funny to watch little groups form and then before you know it they're all playing and singing. Then there are people who just come and sit in the park and enjoy the oasis of green in the middle of the city.

Canmore Weekend

2009-07-06T19:52:00.011-06:00

The weekend of June 20th the family decided to go down to Canmore and spend the weekend in the mountains. Everyone else met up in Calgary on Friday morning at the zoo, but because of Kate's work, Kate and I left Edmonton Friday night. This trip had two purposes; first was the relaxing weekend with family and second Kate and I were running the 100 mile Kananaskis Rely with Kate's firm. More on that later. We ended up pulling into the condo in Canmore pretty late because although we got away from Edmonton in good time we stopped in Calgary to have diner with the 10 person relay team.

The place where we stayed was really nice and had a great view.

A couple of months ago Kate started talking about this run up in the mountains that her firm was going to put a team into. At first she sort of made it sound like I might be invited to run with their team, but only if they couldn't fill it internally first. She kept sending me the web page to look at to see which leg of the race I would want to do, but I felt like I was in no position to pick anything and would be happy with whatever leg they wanted to give me (if any at all). As the race came closer Kate started to sound more confident that I would be running and that I should really pick a leg. This time I took her advice (sort of) and I tried to look the website, but none of the links on the page showed up, so I put it off.

You get sort of get a sense of the hills from these. I like the second one because if you look close you can see a 7% grade sign for traffic going the other way. I'll never look at those signs the same way again.

After some time Kate told me that all of the legs were full except for one, so I was stuck with it. Turns out that no one else wanted this one because it was 18 Km of hills, and no not the nice gentle inclines or better yet declines, this was ascending to the top of a mountain pass with all but 3-4 Km going up. Of course no one wanted it. Well, anyways that's the leg I ran and considering the hills, the altitude, and the heat I felt pretty good afterward. (The leg after mine has 9Km down hill). Each team was responsible for water and support of their own runners so while we weren't running we would stop on the side of the road and wait for our runner to go by.

Kate trying to "mist" me with water as I run by. Turns out it was more of a full stream that hit me in the face.

Kate ran later in the day and her run was pretty challenging too. I wasn't at the start of her leg because I was dropping people off at their start points, but did catch up to her. I think her ran 16 Km and it was really hot. Her biggest problem was that she drank too much ahead of time and was feeling the effects of that a couple of Km in and of course there are no bathrooms on the side of a highway so she had to go in the "not so concealing" bushes (at least it wasn't between two cars at a car dealership in the winter. You know who I'm talking about). She finished and said she felt pretty crappy but that wore off after a few minutes and she was already planning her next race.

If you couldn't tell from the pictures it was a beautiful race.

"The Nolans"
In case you forgot this post started off about the weekend with family in the mountains, and that's what the rest of the weekend was. We ended up doing a couple of little hikes around the town and swam in the pool at the condo, we even ended up playing board games which is a rare thing we do.

Drumheller

2009-06-26T17:50:00.004-06:00

Two weeks ago Kate and I went camping in Drumheller with the Smiths. We were going to try to get away in the late afternoon but Kate had had a crazy week putting in a lot of hours and we didn't get away until the early evening. We arrived in the dark and set up camp in the dark. Our air mattress had hole in it, which we only found after pumping it up, so we slept on the ground.

We went on a hike the next day in the badlands. There wasn't really a trail to follow so we kind of made it up as we went along which meant that we ended up doing a hike that was a little longer and technical than we probably should have considering we had a 3 year-old and a 1 year-old. Down in the valley where we hiked it was hotter than at the top. We ended up hiking for about 2 hours and Moses walked most of it but he let me carry him for the last part after he had played shy in the morning to me.

We ended up spending a lot of time at the splash park in town. It was a fun weekend and it was good to get together with good friends

Marathon

2009-06-01T12:38:00.004-06:00

With classes finished for the year, I headed home with a brief stop in Calgary to run a race. In January I looked at my schedule and tried to find marathon that I could run in my time at home and the Calgary marathon fit. The only problem was that it was on the it was run only two days after my exams which meant that I had one day to travel and the the next day I'd run, but I decided that this was the year that I'd do my first marathon. So in January I put the bug in peoples ears to see if I could convince the other runners in the family to join me and they didn't disappoint; Christy and Dad signed up for the half and Trina and I signed up for the full.

The run was going pretty good considering that I trained at sea level and was running the race at elevation (the opposite of what you should do if you have that option). I was a little surprised that I had no joint, stomach, or muscle problem for over the first half of the run. Then at the 32 km mark my right quad tensed up and I had to slow down. That didn't help. By 36 km both my quads were throbbing and could only run 800m of every km they felt like they were going to explode. Those last couple of kilometers were killers.

I finished in just over 4 hours. Not the time I expected and I was a little disappointed that my legs gave out on me but I guess it gives me a time to beat next time.

You probably can't tell this from the picture but the medal that all the marathon runners got for finishing the race also doubles as a belt buckle. Looks like I'm getting a new belt.

The day after the race I'm a little sore and walking is a little uncomfortable. Kate's got me sighed up for another 17km race in the mountains with her firm.

One Down

2009-06-01T12:16:00.002-06:00

I just finished my first year of dental school, only three more to go. I have to admit that at on the first day the end of the first year seemed like it would never come, but now looking back on the year it seems like it just flew by. With the first year having finished I have a short 5 week break which of course will be spent back in Edmonton. I started and finished my exams last Friday. I only had one day of exams, but it was 6 hours of tests covering five subjects spanning this whole semester. Needless to say it's good to have that over with. I flew out on Saturday afternoon to Calgary where Kate picked me up from the airport. My whole family was in Calgary this weekend for the Calgary marathon. It's good to be home.

Part of the Ride

2009-05-07T16:48:00.003-06:00

Yesterday after school I went over to my cousin, Susie’s place who’s in Manhattan for a couple of months. I went over there to babysit her kid so that she and a friend could go to a show. When they got back they mentioned that it had just started raining pretty hard as they came in the door. I didn’t think much about it though because I figured I had an umbrella and would be fine; how bad could it be? In fact, I’d all but forgotten about the rain when reached the building’s lobby an hour later after talking with Susie. Sure enough it was still raining, and raining hard. I only needed to walk 3-4 blocks to make it to the subway station but within only one block I was soaked from my waist down. After another block or so it started to rain under my umbrella as the water had made its way through the fabric. I thought about stepping into a restaurant and getting something to eat while trying to wait out the rain. I was tempted but I figured I was already soaked and couldn’t get much wetter. The streets flowed like rivers and the taxis were followed by rooster tails of water on the near empty streets. I tried to avoid the big puddles and the spray from the cars but once you’re wet you’re wet. I could feel the water sloshing around in my shoes.
The subway station had water dripping from the ceiling in some places but it was nice to be out the rain. Service at night is greatly reduced so I ended up waiting for 15-20 min. for a train. The MTA train was fairly empty, maybe only 10 people in the car I was in, which made it easier for the two homeless people covered with coats and dirty blankets to lay on the benches not to be disturbed. I guess it’s like a two dollar hotel room that keeps them out of the rain.
The MTA train doesn’t take me into Jersey so I had to transfer to the PATH train. The PATH trains runs even more infrequently than the MTA at night, so there were a lot of people waiting on the platform when I got there, but I still had to wait for another 15 minutes for the next train.
I haven’t said specifically what time any of this was taking place but it’s important to fully appreciate the next part of my voyage home last night. It was about 1:30 am when I arrived at the PATH station, apparently the perfect time for people to be leaving work, shows, or bars and heading home and those were the type of people waiting at the station. The subway is a great equalizer, there were guys in tuxes and women in evening dresses, but there were also others smoking and stumbling around the station.
I was able to get a seat on the train. The first thing I noticed was that sitting right across from me was two girls that had obviously been out partying and had too much to drink. One was passed out and laying in the others lap, I didn’t see her move until her friend dragged her out of the train at their stop. The other one was awake to start with and apparently let someone else know where they needed to get off because someone had to wake her up at her stop. Three collage aged guys drinking out of paper bags what turned out to be one liter bottles of beer started talking loudly about everything from politics to business to geography. Of course it was drunk talk so some of it was pretty funny and they even drew a couple of other people in the car into their weird conversation. Most people were doing a good job at ignoring or enjoying these guys except a large guy standing close to them who looked like he was ready to pop one of them in the face to shut them up, but nothing happened. The guy sitting next to me started talking with the drunk guys and I noticed out of the corner of my eye what looked like water dripping on to his sleeve. I looked up at the ceiling to see if there was a leak and was confused when I couldn’t figure out where the water was coming from. I looked back at the sleeve of his sweater to see if the drip was still hitting it and was even more confused to see that the drip wasn’t landing on his sleeve, the drip was coming out of his sleeve. It was the weirdest thing, to see drip after drip materialize out of his dry sleeve and then all of the sudden it stopped. I was a little grossed out as I tried to figure out what the heck that liquid was; it was like he had just sprung a leak. I was happy to get out of there when my stop came.
I finally got home at around 2:00 am. It wasn’t exactly what I expected to be doing last night but it’s all part of the ride.

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

2009-04-25T12:40:00.004-06:00

Last weekend a classmate of mine that lives in Brooklyn invited me and couple other guys from school over to go to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. It only took me 40 minutes to get there despite the fact that it was a Saturday and the trains don't run as frequently on the weekend and that I had to take three trains. Last weekend was the first really nice weather that we've had here this Spring so lots of other people had the same idea as us to take advantage of the weather. It was a really nice place especially with most of the trees in bloom.

Magnolia flowers

Later that night as I went grocery shopping, like I always do for fun on a Saturday night, it was still warm out so people were outside on their steps talking, playing guitar, and singing. The funniest thing I saw were two girls who must of been under 10, fencing in the middle of the sidewalk with epees, masks and uniforms. Not the type of thing you normally see happening on the street.

Chery tree blossoms and more magnolias

More of the same

Just so I don't have all flower pictures, this is an army memorial that's outside the park

Spring Time for Jason and Jersey City

2009-04-05T12:58:00.003-06:00

The winter wasn't as cold or as long as back at home but the Spring is still a relief. About a week ago the first flowers started showing up with grass poking through the cracks in the sidewalks. This week the trees started to flower. This splash of colour and life is a nice juxtaposition to the concrete and the cars of the city.

Nets Game

2009-02-07T07:30:00.007-07:00

A guy in my ward came up to me on Sunday asking if I had plans for for the next Wednesday and if I liked basketball. Obviously I didn't have any plans and of course I like basketball. Anyways, he told me that he had tickets to the Nets game that he wasn't going to be able to use, and because they were playing the Toronto Raptors he thought I'd be a fan of a Canadian team. (I'm not a big Raptors fan but who cares).

He gave me two tickets, so I took a guy from my class that lives on Staten Island. The game was at the Izod center which a little ways inland which means a long bus ride, so we decided to go to Staten Island and pick up his car and drive to the game.

The seats were really good, as you can see from the picture.

It was cool to see players like Vince Carter and Chris Bosh play.

I was a little conflicted about who to cheer for because I didn't go in really liking either of the teams all that much. I decided on the Raptors. They ended up winning, thanks to me.

The game wasn't all that action packed but It was fun to be there.

Because our seats were behind the basket they gave us thunder-sticks but there were a group of kids sitting behind us that couldn't use them without hitting me in the side of he head and they screamed like girls until half time, that's when they lost their voices. You can hear both it the video.

Christmas in the Great White North

2009-01-05T19:02:00.005-07:00

I had two weeks off from school for Christmas so I went back home. The day before I left New York there was a blizzard that shut down all the local airports. I managed to make it out without much trouble. I found out that the next day there was another storm that canceled more flights out of New York.

The weather wasn't much better in Edmonton. It was cold. There were only a few days that made it out of the -20s. That just meant that I didn't get to play as much shinny hockey as I would have liked to.

It was fun to be home and play with the kids. The twins were pretty funny on Christmas morning and Grace was cute and always giggling.

We did manage to get out skating once with M&T and the twins, but the ice was really bad that made it hard to skate so we didn't stay out very long.

The Smiths came up from Lethbrigde for New Year's eve.We spent the night playing rock band and watching hockey. Pretty good night.

And of course there was the Resolution Run on New Years Day. Being ridiculusly cold at the start and too hot at the end are just part of the run.

I've been away for 5 months but I was suprised at how much it felt like I hadn't been away at all.

Christmas in NYC

2008-12-13T06:38:00.008-07:00

Yesterday I went into the city to see some of the Christmas sights. I wanted to see the tree at Rockefeller Center and some of the shop displays on 5th ave. There were more and more people the closer I came to Rockefeller Center, and by the time I got there it was almost shoulder to shoulder. It was a pretty impressive tree and it was kind of fun to see people skating in the plaza.

The big store turn their display windows into Christmas dioramas that have little to do with the store itself, but tons of people stop to look at the displays.

Of course Macy's has Christmas lights and window displays outside but they also have the Times Square New Year's ball on display too. They also have a Santa set up that is reminiscent to "The Christmas Story". They make a big deal about Christmas.

Before I went home I stopped in at Bryant park where they have another Christmas tree and skating rink. And for no good reason I took a picture of the Empire state building. Merry Christmas from New York.

Thanksgiving Day Parade

2008-11-28T07:37:00.009-07:00

My parents are in town for a couple of days and we decided to go down to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We took the PATH train into the city, and the train was pretty full for a holiday, but it turned out that most of the people on it were heading to the same place we were. There were a lot of people there.By the time we found a good spot to watch from we were there were people 6-8 people deep off the rail, so we were behind a lot of people and the instant the parade started a wall of kids on shoulders and standing on things shot up in front of us. Most of my pictures were taken from between kids heads.You don't really get a sense of how big these things are until they float over you. They say there were 40 balloons.

These things float ominously down the street like Snoopy shaped clouds of chlorine gas over top of the unsuspecting crowds.

I'm not sure if this is Miley Cyrus or Hannah Montana, either way all the kids around us were going nuts when she went by. "IT'S MILEY"

This float has the whole sesame street gang, Bob, Maria, Gordan, Big Bird, Oscar, etc. I think they tried to get Mr. Hooper but had to settle for just his store I put these two pictures in especially for Moses Smith because I know he's a big fan of Neil Young. Keep on rocking in the free world Moses

I started to get kind of cold after 2+ hours of standing there, but most of the crowd stayed till the end of the parade. I think the little kids were kept warm with by their anticipation of the arrival of Santa. I was expecting him to throw candy or have his sleigh pulled by a John Deere tractor. I guess Cardston has just set the bar pretty high.

Parade left overs.

After the parade they kept Broadway closed to traffic while they cleaned up. It was pretty cool to walk down the middle of Broadway through Time Square.

Halloween Parade NYC

2008-11-01T21:08:00.007-06:00

Did you even know there is a Halloween parade in New York? I didn't until two weeks ago. I had nothing else to do last night so I went to it with a couple of guys from my class and it was crazy. It's like other parades in that there are floats and marching bands and people walking down the street but think of all of that taking place at night with everyone in costumes.

Anyone in costume is allowed to be in the parade so there were 50000 people in it. I stood and watched for over two hours and is was still going when I left. When I left I felt out of place not being in a costume. They said that there was about 2 million people watching.

There was a lot of creative costumes and floats.

The crowning jewel of the parade was the "thriller" dancers. They had Thriller playing and there were 5 Michael Jacksons and 200 zombies behind all dancing in unison. It was pretty impressive. It was a lot of fun.

Weekend Wife

2008-10-30T19:50:00.007-06:00

Kate came to visit me this last weekend and good times ensued. At first it was a little strange to have her here and see her in person rather than over a web cam but I got over that pretty quick. This was the first time she'd seen the apartment I live in, and I think she thinks the place is OK. We went into Manhattan on Saturday and went up to the museum of natural history and saw a couple of the stars of "Night at the Museum" movie.

When we got out of the museum it was raining and pretty windy, but for some reason we decided to walk through central park. There's nothing worse than trying to stay dry holding an umbrella in a rain and wind storm. We stumbled onto a pumpkin festival in the middle of central park where there were hundreds of pumpkins lining the paths around the festival that I guess people carved and put there. There is always something going on. Both of were cold and wet as we made our way down to time square and on towards our favorite Korean restaurant. The leaves haven't really changed colours yet around here but some trees are getting close.

Kate did a lot of shopping,but not a lot of buying, on Monday and Tuesday while I was in classes and we met up for lunch both days. She left Tuesday night and it's a little different since she left. I'm looking forward to the next time she comes to visit.