Weekend Adventures

We had a wonderful weekend. It all started with us buying a new camera on Friday night. I will post pictures as soon as it is all up and running. To get the camera we took a little journey into Queens to go to Costco. I LOVE COSTCO. Saturday I was so proud of us because we got up around 9, got our junk together and went to the beach. (Usually on Saturdays we don't get up and going until noon.) We went to Long Beach and it was beautiful. The weather was perfect, the water temp was just right, and it wasn't too too crowded. We had a very relaxing day. Saturday night we went with a few friends to see the new Harry Potter. I am always a little disappointed because they are just not the books but they are always fun to see. I enjoy seeing how they visualise the book. Even though it is not as good as the book it was a great movie. After the move we went to Mozart's Cafe and had desert. Ryan and I shared a chocolate brownie sundae and it was delish. Sunday we went to church, took a nap and then went for a bike ride. (Now here is the real reason for this post...)
Ryan and I took a Sunday ride around Central Park. As we came around a corner I noticed a small family gathered around a large tree. There was a teenage boy standing right at the trunk of the tree with his right arm stretched up towards the branches. He was rubbing his fingers together as if he had a treat in his hand. About 8 inches above his hand on the tree was a small squirrel slowly inching his way down the tree head first. The entire family was watching and the dad was posed with his camera ready to snap the shot. When the squire was about 6 inches away he stopped but continued to watch this boys hand as it enticed him down from the tree. All of a sudden the squire JUMPED down onto the boys hand, the boy screamed, threw the squirrel on the ground, and preceded to hold his hand cry and run around.
1. Don't feed squirrels
2. if you are going to feed them have food in your fingers so when the squirrel bites down he bites down into the snack and not into your fingers.
3. Don't feed squirrels out of your hand.
4. Squirrels have rabies.
5. Don't do stupid things.

Bolo

Thursday night we went to dinner with my cousin Laurel to Bolo. It is a Bobby Flay restaurant and it was super yummy. It is Spanish style with tapas and dessert tapas. I am not a big fan of Spanish food (from Spain) but this was a bit Americanises and it was excellent. The atmosphere of the restaurant was also fun. I loved the bright colors.

Magical Walk

Sunday we went for a walk and instead of turning our usual left and going to the park we turned right and walked along the river. It was magical and a whole new part of the city that we never knew was there. At first we had the river on one side and FDR highway on the other side but as we walked further north we walked into a beautiful park and walkway the is above the highway. It was really a nice evening with people walking with their families and dogs. The best part about this walk was the fireflies were out. Ryan has never seen then and I have seen them once before and they are awesome. They are mesmerizing and I would watch them for hours. My co workers were shocked that we have never seen them before. Then they were shocked that we don't have fireflies in the west. (I wont get into it now but we have discovered that a lot of the people on the East coast are a little closed off about the rest of the United States. They seem to not realise that some things are different and New York is not the standard it is the exception.)

Transformers

I want to tell people about a strange phenomenon in New York. In Time Square there are two movie theaters that are cool, clean, and big. But there is some funny energy that is created in these theaters. Let me explain. I have never been in a theater where the crowd erupts into applause and cheering several time during the movie. Last night Ryan and I went to see Transformers. (Usually we try to stay away from movies created by Michael Bay, but we were celebrating Ryan's great GRE score and it is so stinking hot here we needed to get out of the heat.) The movie was action packet but the best part was the crowd. Every time Otimus Prime would say his name or every time the robot would transform the crowd would go nuts. It was really funny. And if this was the only movie this happened in then I would just caulk it up to the exciting action flic but about a week ago we saw Ratatouille and it was the same thing. It is so weird. I have been in a theater where people applaud at the ending or in a very important moment but never several times throughout the movie. It cracks me up. Oh yea and everyone should see Ratatouille it is really cute.

4th of July

Caitlin, Me and Jill
Half of the people in our apartment

Brad, Ryan, Cory, Dan

This was the first 4th of July in my memory where it was cold and rainy. It was a little sad because our great plans to go to the beach got thrown out the window but it was still a nice day. We had a ward doughnut breakfast in the park, then we had a nice relaxing day at home. In the evening we had 20 friends from our ward over for dinner. Surprisingly everyone fit in our little apartment and we had a great time. After dinner we went to another apartment building and watched the fireworks from the roof. Because it was a little cloudy and rainy the smoke got a little thick blocking our view but they were still pretty cool. Hopefully the view will be better next year.

Congrats

Anna (Ryan's Cousin) and her fiance Tim just sent out their save the date and set up a wedding website. This picture is courtesy of their site and it cracks me up. We are looking forward to their wedding at Tahoe next July.

Adventures with Kipp & Kyle

On June 20th Ryan's little brothers arrived in New York for a crazy week in the city. They are studying for the SAT and Ryan is studying for the GRE so the hope was that they would all study during the day and get out and about at night. I could have bet that flashcards would have stayed in their suitcases the entire time they were here. But I was wrong. I was very proud of them. But we also packed a lot of fun stuff in. On Thursday they recovered from their late flight and jet lag. Thursday night we went to dinner downtown at a little dinner in the West Village and enjoyed a cupcake from Magnolia. Those cupcakes are De-lish. Friday I took the half day off from work so at noon we went to a yummy Indian restaurant for lunch. We picked up the best cookies in the world form the Bouchon Bakery and enjoyed them in front of Radio City Music Hall.

After the great cookie we went to the taping of the Conan O'Brian show. It was totally different from the way it looks on TV but it was funny.
After the show we walked up 5th Ave and did a little shopping and the enjoyed the free night at the MOMA.

(Kipp)

(Kyle)

After the MOMA we walked and checked out some of the architecture on the upper east side. Then we enjoyed Papaya Dogs for dinner. Brad (a friend from our ward) just had a birthday so his wife Jill invited us and some other couples over for cake and ice cream. It was a very fun night. Saturday morning we had a hard time getting up and going so we didn't get to the beach until later in the day. But it was a nice after noon. The water was beyond cold but the beach was really nice.

(Long Beach)

(the train ride home)

After the beach we ran home, showered quickly, and jumped on the subway to go to the METS game. We were a little late but nothing had happened. It was 0-0 and already the 7th inning. So at the end of the 9th inning and the last 5 min of the game the METS scored and won the game. So we were a little sad we were late until we realise that we saw the only exciting thing that happened. The stadium was really cool and we had great views of the city. After the game we walked around Time Square and people watched which is always fun. Sunday we went to church and Kipp and Kyle helped us in the nursery. We came home had lunch and all fell asleep for 2 hours. Sunday afternoon we walked through the park and checked out the roller disco and drum circle and enjoyed the good weather.

Sunday was really nice. Monday the boys were super lazy and didn't get out of the house until I came home from work. After work we went to Canal street and walked around. We had dinner in little Italy which was really fun and then we went to see Ocean 13. Tuesday was our anniversary so Ryan walked them around the city during the day and we left them at home so we could go to dinner that night. Wednesday the walked around some more, went to the movies again, and we met up after work at Shake Shack for dinner.

I love that place. It is very good. It was super hot and muggy but it was nice to be in the park. We did some more shopping that evening and then went home early. They flew out early early Thursday morning. It was really fun to have them in town, I hope they had a good time.

One Great Anniversary

Ryan and I have a love for Mario Batali. So for our anniversary we decided to go to his main restaurant downtown. It is right next to Washington Square park and it is call Babbo. It was seven courses of yummy goodness.
starter: chick pea brochette yummy thing
1st course: prosciutto ham, cheese, and fiddleheads
2nd course: wide homemade paste, morel mushrooms, with a butter and sage sauce
3rd course: duck and goat cheese puree in a ravioli with a tomato sauce
4th course: small pieces of lamb with faba bean puree
cheese course: goat cheese with honey and fennel
5th course: a pear cake thing (sorry hard to explain)
6th course: a scoop of gelato covered in chocolate sprinkled with cookie crumbs
7th course: a warm molten chocolate cake, and Ryan had a lemon tart cake thing.
then they brought out 3 little cookies to try
It was a crazy amount of food but it was wonderful. I was a little worried about having the tasting menu because I know that Mario Batali makes some really crazy things. But I loved every bite (even the mushrooms and I don't like mushrooms). One of the hardest things about New York is that there are so many restaurants. You find one that you love but it is hard to go back because there are so many new ones to try. But Babbo is one restaurant that we might have to go back too.