Cherry Blossoms Weekend in Washington D.C.

Happy Easter All!  It has been a wonderful week and a wonderful Easter.  Church was especially good today!  All of the meetings were really great! :) A lot of members shared their testimonies - we even got to hear from a man who is being baptized!  He said that we are all brothers and sisters wherever we are, because we are all children of God.  It was really cool to hear from him because, he's not a member yet!  He said he'd been "frequenting this place for the past few months, and I have a baptism date in May!"  Rich said to me that the missionaries must be FLOORED.  I guess it's not too often that investigators share their testimonies - which doesn't surprise me one bit because honestly, it takes a lot to get me to share mine and I've been a member my whole life!  So that was a treat to see.

In relief society today, the sister missionaries had an investigator with them.  Because I've living in Utah my whole life and because I didn't serve a mission I've never had the opportunity to see what investigators are really like.  She was obviously feeling the spirit throughout the day and during the closing prayer she said "Mmm PRAISE JESUS!"  It was pretty cool to see her feel the spirit so strongly and to see that she'd been coming to church - it was her 2nd Sunday!  I don't think there is any greater joy - for missionaries and members - than to see an investigator join!  I hope to see her again :)

Earlier this week, I was out on a walk on the Norwalk trail with Bilbo when we saw some new growth sprouting up from the ground.

I don't know what kind of plant that is but I'm excited to see that there are green things and new life growing!  I can't WAIT for everything to look like this!  I am honestly so SICK of the chilly weather and not seeing leaves on the trees.  When they're not covered in snow, bare trees are ugly.

Nearby where I saw that new growth, I discovered this perfect fishing spot!  We haven't noticed any fish at all in the Norwalk river (which runs along the Norwalk trail), but people have said that there will be.  I don't know if they will fill the river or what, but this spot would be perfect!  It's separated from the trail by a bridge and the water has little current, so if there ever ARE fish, then we WILL fish right here!

We went to Stew Leonard's on Thursday night (can you tell it's one of our favorites?) and we strolled through hoping to find some samples.  Stew's generally has samples throughout the store during the day, so we went around 7 o'clock hoping we'd catch some of the last samples - but none were out!  We're going to try going on a Saturday sometime - that should guarantee us some samples!  At the end of the "maze" (like Ikea...at Stew's you have to walk through it in a pathway that goes in one direction) there's a buffet of different foods that are priced by the pound.  Rich got some ribs that were actually very delicious (I tried some), but turned out to give him some indigestion issues in the middle of the night.  We thought about even cancelling our trip - but it turned out just fine.  :)

We left at about 8:30 Friday morning to head down to DC.  Which, by the way, this trip was fairly impromptu - we talked about it during the beginning of the week - and we still weren't for sure until Wednesday when we got a family in the ward to watch Bilbo for 2 days.  So we really had NO IDEA that this weekend was the kickoff for the Cherry Blossom Festival.  We made it there by about 2 o'clock.  We took the metro to Union and walked around, got some lunch and went to the Capital Building (which was the closest thing and it was huge).

You can see that Rich is trying to grow a little beard - this is about 3 weeks worth of beard hair.  I think it looks pretty good!

IUnfortunately the Capital was under construction....so that made the pictures not look as great.  But it's big and beautiful.  Behind us and across a large park is the supreme court building.  I was reminded of watching School House Rock videos in high school as I learned about the different branches of government....do I remember what they all do?  No.  Not at all.  Do I remember the song "I'm Just a Bill?"  Yes.  For your listening pleasure - I'm Just A Bill.

After visiting the capitol we headed down the National Mall and came to the Washington Monument.  You think the walk isn't that long to it because it's so huge and in pictures it looks like it's just a lovely stroll away.  No.  Don't be fooled.  By the end of the day, I wanted to saw my feet off.  And by the way, Rich and I were both over dressed (pants, sweaters, boots).  We'd been on the road and we didn't know how warm/cool it was outside - not to mention humid.  I was wearing comfy flip flops in the car but switched to my boots when we parked at the metro station.  Bad idea.  We quickly took off our jackets, tied them around our waists (praying we wouldn't see anyone we knew) and kept on sight seeing.  In the long run, when the sun went down it did get a little chilly and breezy - so we were glad we kept our jackets throughout the day.

When this picture (above) was taken it was actually very windy outside and it made it very hard to take this picture.  It was hard to hold still enough to make it perfect.  So for those with OCD viewing this, cringe and keep scrolling.

It was really a beautiful weekend to be in Washington DC.  You can see just how blue the sky was and how pretty the blossoms were.

This was twilight (taken from the Lincoln Memorial).  There were a LOT of people congregating around Lincoln around midday, so we waited until evening to see Lincoln in all his grandious massive greatness.

After seeing the Washington Monument, we went to see some museums.  We wanted to see The Natural History Museum, the Air and Space Smithsonian and the Holocaust Museum.  The Natrual History Museum was our favorite by FAR, mostly because it wasn't as crowded as Air and Space, and also because they had MUMMIES!!!

These are Canopic jars used to put the deads organs and intestines in.  The ancient Egyptians believed in the afterlife and that they would be needing their organs during it.  So they kept their guts in these fancy jars.

Pretty scary looking, but also pretty well preserved! It amazing me that on these mummies you can actually still see their skin!

The section of the museum with the mummies was actually VERY SMALL - I'd love to go through a museum that is JUST MUMMIES!  Before we moved, Rich and I should have gone to the Mummies of the World exhibit in SLC.  We would have found it fascinating!

We went through a section of the museum that had skeletons of all kinds of creatures.  They had horses, giraffes, lions, dogs - even manatee skeletons.  Can you see what animal this skeleton belongs to?  (hint....it says in the picture)

THE HOPE DIAMOND - AKA - the heart of the sea (anyone who has seen Titanic should understand that reference).  Apparently this is the largest and most valuable diamond in the world.  We had no clue it was Washington DC.

This friend is a model and skull structure of "early humuns".  I'm not sure if I believe that humans evolved from ape like creatures....in fact, I don't believe that.  I do think that creatures that looked like this once lived and that they are related to homo sapiens.

We also visited the air and space museum.  Because it was kickoff weekend for the cherry blossoms - the entire city was swarming with tourists.

As you can see, in this picture Rich isn't feeling too hot.  Or...maybe so.  In fact, he's sweltering hot.  I swear it was like 90 degrees with 100% humidity in there.  I think there were like 100,000+ people in the museum right when we were.  We didn't stay very long because of the heat and mass quantities of crowds.  Blech.  But the plane is cool!

Here is the command module that the astronauts from Apollo 11 came back to earth in.  That thing has been in space!!  So cool.

Old school pilot uniforms for men and women.  The brown one is UPS!

All of the flags in Washington DC were at half staff out of respect for the terror happening in Europe.  We had several recorded warnings broadcast to us over the intercom in the metro stations to be aware.  The Metro Station Police Captain had a message that we heard a few times stating to call the police if we saw any unattended packages.  These are the flags surrounding the Washington Memorial.

We visited the Holocaust museum last on day one.  We'd heard it was pretty amazing but, after expecting a pretty intense experience (turns out we were supposed to have booked a tour- which we didn't, we'll do it next time we're in DC) we felt pretty underwhelmed.

This was part of the museum.  Local children had designed tiles to commemorate and remember the lives that were lost during the Holocaust.  I, as a teacher, thought it was pretty cute.  I think that's a great way to get kids engaged in their learning!

We strolled around (we did a LOT of strolling - bring incredibly comfortable shoes if you decide to walk) and visited the World War II Memorial.  My mom explained to me that that monument wasn't there when she served her mission there - so it's fairly new.  It too was huge and beautiful.  We took pictures by our states :)

Clearly I wasn't ready to take the picture.  Or have to deal with ticks in Connecticut.

We love you home state!

Rich isn't a natural selfiest - he doesn't even try.  He is however a natural Spanish speaker and he loved his mission in Puerto Rico - so  he had to have a picture in front of it!

After that, we went over to the Lincoln Memorial.  That was by far the best part of visiting DC.  It's just so huge - so much bigger than you think it's going to be.  The pillars are so thick and Lincoln is so majestic!  I'm glad that he has such a beautiful monument dedicated to him.  He was an incredible president!

Again...we don't take selfies very well.  Also, at this point in the day - we were pretty painfully tired and didn't bother trying to be at all normal/nice.

Get a load of that sunset......*sighs*  #tendermercy 

#sunsetsaremyfavoritetendermercy

We decided to head back to our hotel after that.  We stayed in College Park (which was one of my mom's areas on her mission).  We went to McDonalds for some kids meals and then hit the hay.

In the morning, I tried to meet up with my good friend Katelin (she lives about an hour outside of DC) but we slept in too late and got stuck in a sickeningly long line!  We wanted to see the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution in the National Archives building.  It was Saturday so...the crowds...I swear TRIPLED.

Here's a photo of the Archives building.  The line for it wrapped around from the front and part of the way down the side of the perpendicular street.  It was long.  It wasn't too bad though because it was moving fairly quickly.  We were almost inside when things stopped.  We were stuck about 20 people back from the entrance when the moving stopped!  We waited and waited and WAITED!!  We contemplated leaving the line....and then KEPT WAITING!!  We were stuck in that spot for lie 40 minutes!!  Finally, some people from the back of the line, pushed their way forward and then just opened the front doors - and then magically, things started moving again.  It was like the people in the front just didn't open the doors or something...we still don't know what happened.  It was a long frustrating wait though.  It was pretty cool to see the original Declaration and the Constitution.  Rich and I have been itching to watch National Treasure ever since our trip!

There was a museum inside and it was actually pretty cool.  After we saw the DofI and the Constitution, we walked around and saw this TV which was a recording of Eisenhower reporting about Brown vs. Board in Little Rock.  Rich said - "Imagine you were tuned in to this for real, imagine watching this back when it was headline news!"  It was cool to watch that clip and see what a great president he was.  He was stating he wanted to be in the Oval Office where all these famous presidents once sat to deliver this important address.  Pretty neat.

After the Archives, we had some lunch and then weren't sure what we wanted to do next.  We decided to try to find the White House since we were somewhat close to it.  We just started following crowds of people and eventually ended up finding the rear of it.

There it is.  It was kinda small...but otherwise looks just like it does in the movies.  Speaking of movies with the White House in them - I recommend Dave.  It is SO GOOD.  

This picture is kind of dark, but if you look close, you can see that those are secret service guys.  They were pretty legitimate.

After seeing the White House, we were feeling pretty overwhelmed by the copious amounts of tourists so we debated just going home at that point.  We decided we should see Arlington.  We totally misjudged how far away it was and walked about 500 miles to get to it.  Ok not 500, but it was far.  And it was hot and humid so it was hard to stay positive.

We had to cross this forever long bridge.  It was so long that there were bridges ON the bridge.  There really were.  I took a minute to enjoy the view - to the left of me was Washingon, to the right Arlington.  In the middle - a vast river.  Instead of Rich saying "Hey Tara - smile" he just...took a picture of me not looking at the camera.  He thought it was funny to see me on my tip toes.

Arlington was worth the walk though.  It's holy ground and there's a special spirit there.  And it's so beautiful - I want to go back in the fall when the leaves are changing - I think that would be so stunning!

Rich and I were imagining that these head stones were crosses - obviously we were mistaken.  Anyone know where we got that misconception?  And also...are the soldiers actually buried here or is it just a memorial for them?

This man in uniform was playing "Taps" for us in the visitors center - it's one of my favorite songs on brass.  Just kidding!!!  He's made entirely of wax!  Doesn't he look real though!?!?  I thought he was real when we walked in and I was about to tell Rich to be quiet so we could listen to his song.

That pretty much sums up our trip!  We originally planned to take a trip to the Washington DC temple, but we didn't have time!  (and someone -not me- couldn't find their temple recommend.....)  It was a blast (even though I whine a lot in this entry, we really did have fun). 

The Tupper family in the ward took care of Bilbo this time.  They live in Wilton and he had a fun time playing at their house in the woods.  They have a dog too so they had the chance to play with each other and wear each other out.  I think they had a lot of fun - both Bilbo and the Tuppers.  It's always nice when it's a Win-Win-Win.

He was helping clean up sticks from their yard - I'm sure he loved that because he LOVES sticks.

Well, auf wiedersehen goodnight!!

Spring Peepers, Red-Tailed Hawks and Small Town Cops

Hey friends!

This week was a quieter one, especially after visiting NYC this past weekend.  We've been enjoying watching X-files this past week.  I heard rumors that a new season was coming out so we decided to give it a try.  We're still in season one, but it's it's super spooky!  The music is old school horror sounding and it makes it even scarier!

Last Sunday (I think....the days blend sometimes) evening we were walking Bilbo through Cranbury Park and we kept hearing this high pitched cricket-like sound. <-----have a listen.  We could NOT figure out what it was and we kept thinking it sounded familiar.  It seemed to be coming from the trees, but we weren't positive, and we were thinking it was too early for crickets anyway.  Later in the week Leona was telling me about the different kinds of wildlife around Wilton and she brought up that the Spring Peepers were starting to come out.  They're tiny little frogs that survive freezing winters and "wake up" in the spring!  Check out this website to find out more about them!

On Tuesday I tried a new cornbread recipe!  The only reason I'm bringing it up, is because I thought it was delicious!!  It had a very autumn-y taste and would make a great side dish to a Thanksgiving meal.  Here's the link to the recipe if you'd like to try it out sometime!

On Wednesday, we went and worked out at the gym at Rich's work.  I ran a mile on the treadmill and discovered how insanely out of shape I've become!!  I did some free weight lifting and am now sore from that - but it's a good feeling to be sore.  Our goal is to start going every day - or running with Bilbo on the days we don't go.

Like I said this week was a quiet one, not much really happened.  Every morning I get partially ready and Bilbo and I go for a short walk, sometimes longer if I don't sleep in too long.  We usually head out to Merwin Meadows and play fetch for a little bit in a huge field, or we'll go to Cranbury Park in Norwalk (only a 10 minute drive).

One morning this week while I was heading to Merwin Meadows, I noticed a beautiful Red Tailed Hawk flying above the field!  It knew it had to be, because the tail was vibrantly colored!  We have a lot of birds of prey out here - which is similar to UT.  In that sense, CT is similar to UT.  I tried to take some pictures, but the hawk looks about the size of a pinhead.  In the second picture, you can see a blurry part of the tail that it is obviously red/brown in color.

 Bilbo has learned to be quite the little swimmer - he loves it!  He doesn't care if it's cold outside, hot outside or whatever, he'll always go get in the water if he can.  When he's hot he loves to sit in the water, or lay down in it.  Labradors have webbed feet, and Bilbo definitely inherited that from his dad who was one.  It's funny watching him swim, sometimes you can see his little white feet paddling away and it's just SO CUTE!   Here's a few videos of Bilbo enjoying swimming.

That last video was taken today - there's a little pond at Merwin Meadows (which is a park that's super close to where we live).  We were tossing his ball in, which eventually just sunk so we couldn't play with it anymore.  It was an old ball that had a hole in it.  Maybe when it warms up we'll go find it. 

Our week was pretty quiet, but the weekend was pretty wild!  We went to Norwalk to Petsmart to get Bilbo some more dog food (he'd run out earlier that day) and then make a quick stop at Stew Leonard's for a treat - we ended up getting rosemary kettle cooked chips and a 1/2 gallon of chocolate icecream.  Pretty exciting life, right?  Not really though - I mean how wild can it get with a couple of married Mormons and a puppy?  Well, apparently it can get pretty loud and crazy.

This is the face of a hard criminal.

On Friday night, we had a knock on the door at about 10:30.  I was almost positive it was Lynn, our next door neighbor, bringing us baked goods or something (last week I left her some homemade biscuits, so I thought she might be returning the favor).  We were VERY surprised to find a police officer behind our door.

He explained that he'd had a complaint, a noise complaint.  We immediately started thinking - ok what were we doing that was so loud?!  We explained that we'd been out for the past few hours and that we'd only been home like 20 minutes.  The officer said that the sound was like loud banging and furniture being moved around....finally we realized what the noise must have been.

  

 This is a picture of a Kong Wobbler.  This is Bilbo's new feeder - which we THOUGHT would be quieter than his old one (the Magic Mushroom).  Turns out it's just as noisy.  For about 15 minutes Bilbo had been using it to eat.  We explained to the police that must have been the sound.

Lynn told us when we first moved in that our downstairs neighbor, Robert, can be pretty crotchety and grumpy.  She said that if we ever heard him banging a broomstick on his ceiling not to take it personally.  We'd even met him a couple times and thought that he was just the opposite - he seemed charming infact!  So we were VERY surprised to see that he'd gone to the measure of calling the police!  

They asked to see Rich's ID (I even asked if they wanted to see mine as well, but they just wanted his).  They noticed we were from UT and we explained we'd lived here for about a month.  Then he scolded us about needing to get it changed right away - and he wrote down some information from Rich's license.  Another cop joined him just before they left and they asked us "We're not gonna be back again tonight are we?" (obviously absolutely not!)  They were pretty much jerks.  Rich felt like they treated us like idiot teenagers - they really kind of did.  They were pretty condescending.

After the police left, Rich and I put a note on our downstairs neighbors door, apologizing for the noise and told him we won't be using Bilbo's feeder anymore.  I hope we don't have any more issues!  And I really hope we're not on the radar of the Wilton police!!  Rich got online and started reading up on his rights - it turns out that he didn't HAVE to give the cops his ID, and Wilton doesn't have any noise laws - so we weren't breaking the law!  We really were just quite appalled that the man downstairs hadn't expressed any sort of complaint before contacting the police.

He wrote a note back, explaining that he was yelling and that he thought we were just ignoring ignoring it.

So that was our Friday.  Saturday was nice - even though Bilbo's noisy feeder was the reason for the evening visit from the police, we still love him.  It's always such a happy time when we let him out of his crate in the morning.

He is always abundantly happy and filled with love and kisses in the morning when we let him out of his crate!  Isn't he cute!!??  We love him.  A lot.

On Saturday we went into Danbury to check out the mall there.  It was huge, beautiful and extremely crowded.  We weren't there long - we stopped at the Microsoft store just to check out the cool gadgets, which was fun.  Then we went to Bath and Body Works (the reason for coming to the mall in the first place) to get more handsoap.  We had some Chick-fil-a and booked it out of there - it was so busy!  If I ever go there on my own to do some shopping, it will be on a weekday.  It was so crowded!

On Saturday night I went babysitting at a family's house in our ward.  They had three boys: Jack in 3rd grade, Gavin in 1st and then Beckett - who is 18 mo.s old.  It was a lot of fun!  Their house was beautiful!  It was a lot of fun to hang out in a house that was bigger than 2 rooms - their kitchen along was bigger than our entire apartment.  I've never been so envious of people with closets....we only have one and it's full!  It's been a bit of a challenge to find places for all of our junk.  Here's a picture of their kitchen - white is very in right now.  When we have our own house (hopefully atleast...someday) I don't think I want white.  Maybe.  We'll see when the time comes!  It's very pretty and it's really trendy, but I love dark woods.

I don't know why it's blurry....but it sure is a gorgeous kitchen right?

I was able to visit with the parents (Colby and Mindi Wheeler) when they got home.  They explained that this was their first home and they had rented for most of their marriage.  They have a cool life - they lived in Manhattan for a number of years - and also London!  How cool is that!?  Maybe the British influence is why they named their youngest Beckett - Rich and I joked that maybe they just love Pirates of the Caribbean (Jack Sparrow and Lord Beckett).  It was great to get to know them, and so much fun to tend their kids.  They are such cute (and easy) boys! :)

Church was really great today.  In Sacrament meeting we had a couple speak about Christ, the Atonement and His life.  The man who spoke shared the poem "Good Timber" by Douglas Malloch.  Several general authorities have quoted this poem, but it's a good one.  Here it is, I thought it was a beautiful choice of words, and we can learn a lot from this poem.  It teaches us that trials are a necessity and when we go through them we only become better.

The tree that never had to fight

For sun and sky and air and light,

But stood out in the open plain

And always got its share of rain,

Never became a forest king

But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil

To gain and farm his patch of soil,

Who never had to win his share

Of sun and sky and light and air,

Never became a manly man

But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease:

The stronger wind, the stronger trees;

The further sky, the greater length;

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth,

We find the patriarchs of both.

And they hold counsel with the stars

Whose broken branches show the scars

Of many winds and much of strife.

This is the common law of life.

This evening we were invited to dinner at the Jackson's house in Wilton.  They too have a beautiful house.  Their kids are a lot of fun.  Another couple was invited with their kids so it was fun to get to spend some time with ward members (and to not have to cook dinner) :)

We are going to try to MAYBE take a trip to Washington DC this weekend - Rich has work off on Friday so we MAY sneak out!  We need to find a puppy sitter for Bilbo who's willing to watch him for a few days.  If we can't make it, then there will be other times.  Peace out blog fam!

The Wilton Wilkins taste The Big Apple

Hello Again!

This week has been a great one!  Rich's job is going great - on Friday he was given his first REAL project.  I'd tell you what it is, but he's been sworn to secrecy apart from the walls of his own home ;)  I can tell you that it's something he'll be working on and will be released as a product to the public in the somewhat near future.  Haha!  I know it's not much info - but it's kind of cool to know that this project will be 'on the shelves' sometime soonish!

On Tuesday night - we took advantage of 5 Dollar Tuesday at the local movie theater called Bowtie Cinemas, and saw ZOOTOPIA!  If you haven't seen it yet - go!  It was a real crowd-pleaser!!  Not only was it a good story line, but the animation and creativity blew me away!  Especially the animation!  It makes me want to visit Zootopia - I wish it were real.  Maybe Disneyland will make a 'Zootopia'.  I laughed out loud at several parts of the movie!  It also has a really good message :)  So go see it!  We really enjoyed ourselves.  After the show when we got home I immediately downloaded the song "Try Everything" by Gazelle (Shakira) - it's a good one.  I made it my ringtone so I can be reminded of how good the movie was every time my phone rings :)

The background on my phone is of these two - it was just such a good show. I loved it!

On Wednesday morning, a few sisters from the RS presidency came to visit me at the apartment.  Cindy Rolapp, who is our RSP, and her secretary named Nattie.  They told me about the Ward Bulletin and enjoyed meeting Bilbo.  Everyone loves him - it's a really great way to meet people.  Whenever I go out to walk him I get smiles left and right.  Anyway, they were very sweet.  I got along with both of them really well.  Sis. Rolapp is older, I'd say in her late 40s early 50s - she's in excellent shape though.  She was even in running clothes when she dropped by.  And Nattie is super cute.  She's about my age and had her kids with her - Eason who is about 3 years old and her Bennet, who is like 3 months old but super chubby haha.  It was really great to visit with them.  They stayed for about an hour.

We had some very warm weather mid - week.  It was humid and hot!  The sun wasn't even out that much but the humidity made it feel like it was summer!  Bilbo and I were out for a walk and he liberally went in the water!  Last Sunday we started to "introduce" Bilbo to the streams and he was very hesitant about getting in the water.  Not anymore!  Now whenever we go out he seems to seek out the water!  

On Thursday, Rich and I were able to enjoy a "Paint Nite" put on by Nielsen.  I was able to go to his office, see where he works and meet his coworkers who are all VERY nice!  He's lucky to work with some pretty nice and kind people!  We were provided a canvas, paint and brushes to complete our paintings.  There was a painter who was showing us how to paint the picture.  I thought it was a lot of fun and now I want to paint more!  Mom or Mom Wilkins you may be getting one of these for Mother's Day/Christmas!  

It was just in the conference room where Rich has had a few trainings/meetings.  After we all finished our paintings (everyone painted the same thing, with a few variations as you can see) we had pizza (and beer/wine and for the Mormons - Diet Coke) and talked.  Everyone is sooooo intrigued with Brooke's (Rich's coworker who graduated from BYU and is also LDS) love life, so we talked about that a lot.  Everyone thinks it's interesting and pretty hilarious that she meets all of her dates at "church" and they call them "church guys".  It's kind of funny how people who aren't LDS perceive Single's Wards haha.  But hey - Rich and I wouldn't be married if it wasn't for our single's ward!

Here's a close up of mine.  The bird on the right I think looks like a pigeon haha!

After that we went out to Norwalk to visit the Smith family who would be watching Bilbo on Saturday.  The Darien ward has this awesome online bulletin where you can post things on and I posted something about someone to watch the dog.  Holly Smith saw my post and seemed more than happy to take Bilbo for a day.  We brought Bilbo along so that they could meet him and he could meet them.  We visited for a while - they're a super cute family!  They have 4 kids and they've lived in CT for a number of years.  They also rent their house - which I'm learning is pretty much the norm for a lot of folks out here.  You basically have to be insanely wealthy to buy a house out here because the homes run about a million bucks (no joke).  Suuper nice family though - it was a blessing that we met them.

Warren, one of my bosses texted me the below picture with the caption "Girl you fancy!" to which I responded "From LA to Tokyo" in reference to Iggy Azalea's song Fancy (<-- link to the music video...which IS explicit, so watch it at your own risk).  

It's a business card!  I had no idea I'd be getting one but it makes sense that I am because I've been working hard booking interviews this past work week.  Warren keeps saying Leona will "take care of YOU" because I've been doing such a good job at scheduling appointments, and just helping out in general.  I think he means I'll be getting a raise -  hopefully sooner than later.  Tomorrow is my first payday!  :)  We'll see how much part time $ makes.

On Friday, we took Bilbo out to Cranbury Park where we ran into several other dogs and their owners.  Bilbo got to play with about 10 other dogs - a few of them were Siberian Huskies and their puppies!  The puppies were a little younger than Bilbo (Bilbo is considered an adolescent dog now, while these pups were still kids), but he enjoyed playing chase with them.  After playing with the dogs for a little while, we went exploring off one of the trails that are throughout the park.  We followed one trail that lead us to an elementary school called Cranbury Elementary!  It was a really old one that reminded me a bit of Manila :(  Bilbo was chasing a smaller dog around the school and on our way back into the park, we came across a "stream" that was really just a puddle of muddy water.  Bilbo proceeded to LAY DOWN in it to cool off!  Oh boy....we need to start keeping a towel in the car.

Okay!  Here we go!  Saturday morning around 10 am, we dropped Bilbo off in Norwalk at the Smith's house  (below is what their house looks like - it has a small yard, but they live in a very dog friendly area.  Also, their house is VERY cute compared to other homes in Norwalk).

Look the google earth image has their house with pumpkins on the steps....CUTE!!!!

After dropping him off, we headed to the Darien train station where parking is free on the weekend.  Darien is only about 10 minutes away from the Smith's house, so it wasn't a long drive at all for us.  Shortly after arriving, we got on the train!  It took us a while to find somewhere to sit - I was worried for a minute that we'd have to stand the whole way into the city, but we found a place to sit in the back of the train.

Yeah....sorry about the crazy eyes.  We have a hard time taking "selfies" with both of us in them.  I'll NEVER own a selfie-stick, so this is what we end up with haha.  

We had the "privelidge" of sitting behind this fellow and his other Asian friends.  Because if you're ever going to go visit somewhere that is filled with world renowned attractions - it wouldn't be complete without at least a few hundred chatty and oddly dressed Asians.  This friend was dressed so uniquely we had to sneak a pic!  

When we got to Grand Central - which is BEAUTIFUL, btw, we hurried off to Times Square.  Being in the city was pretty surreal.  The buildings were HUGE, there were hotdog stands everywhere - just like in the movies and there were tons of taxis and people! 

Times Square was a lot of fun!  It definitely had the typical NYC feel!  Here are some pictures and a short video - so you have proof that we were THERE! :)

Do you see the advertisement for Lion King?  That's the one we want to see!

Do we look like tourists?  I think we do!  Last night, we watched "I Am Legend" because it takes place in NYC, and Will Smith does a little bit of deer hunting at the beginning in Times Square.  We kept wondering - HOW did they film this?  They can't just clear out Manhattan - 1.6 million people live there!!

After Times Square we started getting hungry and we didn't know what to do because the hunger was making us delirious!  Jk!  But we were getting hungry.  We ended up taking the subway (which ended up having a few delays due to construction, we had to switch subways a few times) to the Tribeca area where we had THE BEST Indian food!!  It was the best food we've had since being back east (in my opinion)!!  Maybe it's because we were so hungry, but it tasted incredible!

After our blissful lunch, we headed to the 9/11 memorial - which was beautiful!  It would have felt a little bit like hallowed ground had there not been so many people!  The memorial is made up of the leftover foundations from the original twin towers.  They turn them into these cool inverted fountains that are just MASSIVE!  I cannot imagine how huge the twin towers were!!  9/11/01 still seems like it's fresh in my mind.  While we were there, I tried to imagine what people must have been feeling, thinking.  At the time, I couldn't comprehend the size of the buildings...I still can't, even after having getting a look at the memorial.  When we first arrived, we thought that there was just one fountain, but there are two!  And they are big!  Look closely at the pictures, you might get a sense of how massive they are.

This last picture is of the new world trade - it's called One World Trade center.  It's beautiful and the architecture of it is quite unique.  It is the 2nd tallest building in NYC and maybe the world!  You can't see the top of it in this picture, but if you google it, or click the link, then you can see the entire building.  It's built right near the memorial.

After we saw the memorial, we went down to Battery Park to try to get a glimpse of Lady Liberty.  On our way, we found the Charging Bull which is apparently the most photographed statue in the world!  There was a huge crowd of people around it so we didn't bother trying to get a picture with us in it, but I did capture this one!

Eventually we made to to Battery Park - but not with out an endless amount of harassing from weirdo tour guides asking if we're GOING to the Statue of Liberty.  We told about 20 people "no thank you!' and Rich just started saying "NO!" firmly.  It was pretty obnoxious, but once we got to the park, we ran into a little friend.

This little guy was pretty friendly.  Someone had left some peanuts on a bench so I tried to get him to take it from my hand, but he wasn't willing.  So I tossed him some peanuts which he happy inspected and then buried in the ground.  His tail was so bushy!

Yes...that's here.  The one, the only, Statue of Liberty.  Lady Liberty who tells the world, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"  

In this picture she looks itty bitty and SUPER far away!  But in person, she seemed A LOT closer.  Like several hundred feet closer.  She was certainly not that tiny in person.  So sorry that you as views don't get our view.  This picture does NOT do justice!!  She was stunning!

After seeing her, we ambled along the park and took a few other pictures.  We were right on the beach and behind me was an average view of Manhattan.  There was a bronze eagle monument honoring those who had died in the wars.  

That eagle looks a lot better than the one in Yale, right?  It actually looks like an eagle, instead of a chubby pigeon.

After Battery Park, we headed to Wall Street!  That was a fun part of New York - I honestly thought it'd be a little boring.  The Stock Exchange building was very intricate and there was a statue of George Washington there that I didn't know existed.  It was kind of a fun place to walk through because there were no cars allowed there so we could just walk along the cobblestone freely.  You'll see a few pictures that I took of the Stock Exchange building and one of George Washington (again...we didn't bother getting close to it because there were about 100 people already congregated around him).  The last picture is one I did NOT take, but it gives you kind of idea of where things are in relation to one another.

Do you love the nude artwork and the cherubs above the sign?  We thought it was rather interesting.  How long would that have taken to sculpt??

Wall street was fun!  It was very American and Patriotic - except for the nudity about the NYSE sign - that was more European.  After this we headed over to try to find the Brooklyn Bridge!  I was looking forward to this!  It was a long walk and we made the mistake of thinking the weather would be warmer than it was....we were freezing for most of the day. :/   Once we found the Brooklyn Bridge, Rich was able to find a nice guy selling hoodies for 15$ so he was able to get warm.  Before we left I convinced him to wear short sleeves so he was holding that over my head all day.  I had a cardigan and was only slightly warmer than he was...but still warmer.  Anyway, here's a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge!  -- which also makes a cameo in I Am Legend (as well as Grand Central Terminal), except in the movie...the BB is broken!

Like I said...something happens when we try to take selfies.  I guess it's a sign that we're not vain, right?  I was trying to look not like a crazy-eyed weirdo and Rich is making a face.  We just...we can't do it.  Unlike the two of us, the bridge is gorgeous and as strong and beautiful as ever!

Alrighty we're getting there...at this point in the day, we were getting pretty exhausted!  We sat down on a bench after taking this photo and tried to take a nap, but we were too cold and uncomfortable (someone had to pee...and it wasn't me...) so we kept on going.  

We headed back towards the main part of the city when we realized we'd stumbled into none other than...Chinatown.  It was like being IN CHINA!  We noticed all the signs on the buildings were in Chinese and there were Chinese people everywhere.  We were the only white people in sight!  These pictures aren't the best, but we took a few so that maybe Katie and Caleb can read some of that Chinese writing!  We were wishing they were with us as we strolled along, sticking out like sore thumbs!

 We caught the subway back to Midtown and tried to find the Empire State Building.  Let me tell you about the Empire State Building....it's underwhelming.  At least in my opinion.  We got of the subway, and started looking for it only to realize we were basically right in front of it!!  We had a moment of..."is that it?  That's it!  Wait...really?  THAT'S the Empire State Building?"  Maybe it's because we were so tired...or maybe the hype is just way to up for us and we were expecting something more grandiose...but we saw it.  I didn't get a picture of it because there was no way I could capture it.  I should have though so I could show how normal it looks.  It's kind of attached to a number of other buildings...or atleast very close to them.  Or so it appeared.  There's a lot of stores that are on the bottom floor of it... I don't know, it just didn't blow me away like Lady Liberty or the 9/11 memorial did.  I did get a picture of the sign.

It's a class sign though right?  We tried going inside but we were quickly "kicked out".  The doorman asked if we were "going up" and when I responded..."we're actually not" he gave us a look as if we had sorely disappointed him.  In a way it was kind of funny.  We promptly exited after he glared at us.  

We went inside Macy's (the largest store in the world) and sat down outside of a fitting room, trying to decide if we were ready to go home or not.  We definitely were.  We thought we'd try to stay into the night so we could get some dinner in the city and maybe see some buildings and Times Square all lit up, but the exhaustion outweighed the excitement.  So we  headed back to Grand Central and got on the train.

It was a long ride home, mostly because we were SO tired!  After getting to Darien, we got in the car and headed to Norwalk to pick up Bilbo.  When we got to the Smith's one of their girls was outside running around with him and I thought - hopefully he had as fun of a day that we had.  Holly sent me this picture shortly after we'd got on the train to head home.

I think he definitely had a good day.  The Smith's refused our money when we offered to pay them for taking him for the day, and explained that everything went great.  They said he was a great boy and offered to watch him again in the future.  All the kids were sad to see him go, but as you can see, they had a wonderful day with him.  I think Bilbo even got to visit the ocean for the first time in his life - he smelled a little oceanic after we got him home!

We had a kind of late lunch so we didn't get hungry for dinner until around 8 o'clock.  Since we had planning to eat in the city, we decided to just go out to eat locally.  We went to this CUTE little restaurant in Wilton called Little Pub.  It's got this Lord of the Rings-y feel to it!  I feel like a hobbit getting a PINT of beer or something when I'm there!  It was my first time getting something to eat there, but Rich had been with his co-workers (it's located really close to Nielsen).  They actually have Va-lee parking (not sure if I spelled that right) so in a way we felt fancy, but mostly annoyed that we had to tip the guy for parking the car.  The food is fantastic there!  We'll definitely be going there again in the future!  It was actually very busy when we went and so we basically had to yell to be able to hear each other there were so many guests.  I took some pictures because the ambiance was so quaint.  :)

That first picture is just one from Google, I did not take it.  But the others I did.  It's a little dark inside...but it keeps the feel just right.  You really feel like you're in midevil times.

Well that basically sums up our week.  It's Sunday now...and because of the exhaustion of our NYC adventure and the loss of an hour of sleep thanks to Daylight Savings - it was ROUGH getting up for church this morning! But... we're actually very happy that Daylight Savings has finally happened because now we'll actually have a bit more daylight after Rich gets off work.  It'll be nice to start running after work.  

Until next time folks!  Love you! :D