Liz and Lisa hit the Big Apple part 1

I've been going to New York for work about four times a year and I decided to take Liz with me for my June trip. We arrived on a Saturday and stayed until Wednesday. I worked that Monday and lined up a babysitter for her in the hotel and took the rest of the week off.

We spent a long time talking about what it would be like in New York - much larger and busier even then Chicago. I was initially worried about how she'd do in New York, but as you'll see she did quite well in the Big Apple. We had a blast and she just loved it!

Our start was a bit bumpy when our flight was delayed by 1 1/2 hours on due to a thunderstorm in Chicago.



See how quickly that grin turns into an annoyed frown after our flight continued to get delayed.



Here's the yucky weather we were dealing with in Chicago.


Finally in the air and Liz took a few shots from the window seat.



Here's Liz in the air playing with my watch.



When we landed, the first spot we went to was Central Park. Liz poses for all of us!



More time at Central Park.





Liz on the Carousal at Central Park.




Her favorite spot in our room was sitting on the window-sill behind the white curtain looking down onto the city. She wooed the hotel staff when we checked in and they gave us a nice corner room with an excellent view of the city.



Liz made such an impression on the hotel staff that they sent up complimentary milk and cookies - with a hand-written note! This was Liz's expression after she'd had a cookie...or two!



Our first night there we ate outdoors at a local restaurant chain where many locals bring their dogs. Liz loved petting dogs and of course eating New York pizza.



While we travel a lot with Liz, much of it is spending time with family. So, she doesn't get to spend a ton of time at hotels. I must say the hotel experience was something she really enjoyed. I pointed out a shoe-shine kit in the bathroom. I forgot to explain that only certain types of shoes need to be shined. Sure enough, in a matter of minutes, she was shining her pink sandals. This is funny and precious - all at once.







Sandals are all bright and shiny and that marks the end of our first day in New York.

The Inauguration

Here's our photo essay of the inauguration. For those of you on Facebook, you'll notice many of the same pictures and captions from Brian's album. But for the rest of you - it'll be new!

After we stood in line to get our tickets on Monday, we strolled around the capital the day before the inauguration.



Here's Brian in front of the capital.



Here's a nice artistic shot of the Capital that Brian took on Monday.



A Monday look at the seating area for the big shots/celebs who gave a lot of cash to the Obama campaign. The bad news for us poor slobs who had to stand? They got seats. The good news? They could see about as much as we could.The Capital is a very large place. I don't think they could see the President any better than we could.



Here I am in front of the "Big Shots" area as Brian would say.



Now, Brian gets his turn to be a big shot! Notice, there's still fence between us and the big shots - even on the day before the inauguration.



This is the official jumbotron screen where we could see everyone up close.



As you can imagine, Brian - our MSU Graduate - was quite excited to see an entire Spartan bus in D.C. during the inauguration. There was tons of other college students as well.



Here's a shot of the Capital at about 5:30 to 6 a.m. on inauguration day. We stayed in Baltimore and left our friend's house at about 3:10 a.m. By the time we were close to the Metro Greenbelt stop at 3:45 a.m., it was already full. The station had opened at 3:30 a.m. We drove one stop up to College Park and found plenty of spots and even got seats on the Metro - surprisingly. Oddly enough, the 30 mile drive from Baltimore to the Metro stop was fine with no traffic problems.



Here's just some of the people we were standing nearby.



Dawn breaks on the Capital and as Brian pointed out, those "Big Shots" are still likely cozy warm in their beds.



This is the view looking behind us. You can see crowds of people lined up to Washington Monument. In fact, crowds were lined up all the way to the Lincoln Memorial.



Now, can see that some of those big shots have woken up and are getting seated. By the way, each time the announcer would say, "please be seated," the entire mall erupted in laughter since most of us 2 million were standing.



Does it seem like we're a bit closer all of a sudden? Well, we are. We're now right across from the reeflecting pool - close to those pictures on Monday. We had hoped to be right by the reflecting pool, but when we arrived at about 4:45 a.m., we learned that security wasn't letting anyone in that area, even though the map showed "silver section" tickets would be there. We must have been in the rowdy group because all of a sudden people in front of us, "bum-rushed" the plastic gates and suddenly we were in that coveted spot -right by the reflecting water.



More and more people.



A nice shot of the reflecting pool.



Another nice view. Obama stood right where the camera stand is located.



There's the new president of the United States - the "test run" of the oath. We couldn't quite see him with our eyes, but had a great view of the jumbotron.




Now, we're all heading out. We chose to walk about a mile away to an "out of the way" metro stop. As you can imagine, there was no isolated metro stop, but we did get seats all the way back. Surprisingly again, traffic was just fine as we headed back to Baltiimore. We had a bit of time to catch a nap before we caught our flight back to Detroit that night.

Holiday Craze

It's hard to believe I've been off work the last two weeks - because it's been such a whirlwind. In such a short span, I was in New York, then we headed to Goshen, Ind. for Christmas with my family. Back home for a few days and off to Michigan to spend time with Brian's family. Then, we spent the last week at home where I took Liz downtown and worked on lots of projects (translation: cleaning).

Here are some of our favorite photos from the holiday season.

In the middle of December, we went to our Pal Dylan's fourth birthday. This was probably the best birthday party Liz has gone to because it was held at a place called FunFlatables. So, the whole party consisted of kids jumping up and down on the enormous inflatable objects. A child's dream come true. Liz was so impressed that as we were driving home, she said to me: "Dylan's party was genius."
A big compliment - I'd say. You'll notice Mommy and Daddy had some fun at the party too.












The next day after the birthday party, I headed to New York for my staff meeting. I usually go to the city about three times a year but don't always take pictures. Here's a few fun ones from the city. I got one taken with Elmo for Liz. The weather was beautiful in New York at December. Amazing. You hardly needed a coat - but I still wore one and the hat - just for good measure.







After I got back from New York, we headed to Goshen the weekend before Christmas. We spent time with my family - both my dad's side and my mom's side.





When I was growing up, we used to take pictures of the nine cousins every Christmas by the tree.



Here are the cousins with our kids. Brian enjoyed taking these pictures. In the pictures that he was in, my Aunt Barb kept teasing him for "hiding from the camera." That evening, Liz opened a kids' camera from my mom and began taking pictures. She remembered that phrase and kept telling Brian to stop "hiding from the camera." We'll get to her pictures eventually...I promise...





Here's Liz opening a few gifts at my mom's house.



My mom and her two sisters are opening gifts together. Don't they look a lot alike!



Despite all the travel, we stayed home for Christmas eve, made cookies and opened our stockings. We also opened gifts on Christmas day and even had our own "feast."







After we opened our gifts on Christmas day and had lunch at home we headed to Michigan and stayed there until the Sunday after Christmas. We were stunned to travel there with good weather and home again too. Here's Liz with her "Don't Break the Ice Game" along with Aunt Marilyn and Mimi Hedger.





When we got back from Michigan, I took Liz downtown Chicago for our tradition of spending the day in the city together at Christmas time. We walk around and see Chicago's Christmas tree at Daley Plaza, look at the Macy's windows, watch the ice-skaters and play in Grant Park - if there's time. It was a beautiful day and we also met up with Brian and friends at Pizzaria Uno and had plenty of time at the park. We also stopped in and had hot chocolate (blended chocolate for Liz) at Ethel's at the front of Nordstrom's on Michigan Avenue. It's one of my favorite chocolate places in town.






She played at Grant Park for a few hours while my friend Jennifer and I chatted. It's one of our favorite parks in the city.