Vienna Assignment #1 and #2

Vienna Assignment #1: Eat at an ethnic restaurant (not mexican or italian).Our group of 24 went to Zorba's, a Greek restaurant in Oklahoma City. We had a great time talking about the fun stuff we would see on our big adventure and feeling very brave about what we ordered. The food here is excellent by the way. The first picture is what I ordered. I don't remember what it was called, but it is essentially a pizza thing with chicken and artichokes on it.
Here is Katie's ethnic order of corn dog and french fries.

And here is Collin's chicken nuggets and french fries, again, very ethnic. If the kids meals are anything like European food we might be ok, otherwise we might come back very skinny.

And finally, Matt's order of Gyro - we think it was lamb and bread. We went here on January 19, so you can tell that I've already forgotten exactly what we had. This is why I MUST blog on the day it happens!!

Vienna Assignment #2: Go to campground near Stillwater and bond with the college kids.

We left town yesterday and headed to Saint Grove Campground outside of Stillwater. All of our OC kids, along with our 2 ACU girls and 1 Cascade guy made the trip. We were also there with the kids going on PacRim in the Fall and Vienna in the Fall and Turkey this summer. We had a great time with the college kids but my only regret was sleeping on the bottom bunk with both Katie and Collin for 4 hours before passing off Katie to Matt's bunk bed. Next time...pack 4 sets of twin sheets. No pictures to show of this trip. While Matt was in meetings with the college kids, Collin, Katie and I explored the campground. We found a lake, some horses, and 2 playgrounds. We also spent some time in our room playing battleship, connect 4 and jumprope. We are excited about starting the planning part of our trip. Still don't have any definite dates, but tentatively set to leave on May 19. I hope we can wait a week so Collin can finish most of Kindergarten, I can finish all of Sonshine School and Matt can finish his Maymester class.

Mack and Swirl

Since June of 2008, Collin has been praying for a dog, specifically a Saint Bernard. This fall, Matt and Collin began reading Where the Red Fern Grows. Collin loved the book. I didn't want any part of reading the book. I read it once when I was 10 and that was good enough for me. So for Christmas, Collin asked Santa Clause for a Saint Bernard. And...well...um...Santa brought 2 dogs, a brother and a sister, just like in the book. Collin thought he would name them Old Dan and Little Ann just like in the book and he wants to carve their initials in our tree in the backyard, just like in the book. We have not taken a knife to the tree yet.
But they are named Mack and Swirl. Mack is the brother. He is bigger and calmer. Swirl is the sister and her fur is super soft. She is very independent and she plays a little rough with Mack. We think their personalities are a little like Collin and Katie. Today I bought the dogs a heat lamp to keep them warm on our frigid Oklahoma nights. However, before spending their first night with the lamp, they chewed through the cord!!! Thought that would make you laugh Serena and Momma and Daddy!!

Mack and Swirl are not very good picture takers. They will never look into the camera and hold still. And forget about getting pictures of Collin, Katie, Mack and Swirl together. Hasn't happened yet. Now you have met the new additions to our family. And by the way, they are really mutts with some Saint Bernard in them, but we call them Saint Bernards.

New York City - Day 6

We worshipped with the Manhattan Church of Christ this morning. Burton Coffman, uncle of our great friend David Coffman, started this congregation. So we were really excited to go here today. I was also thrilled, yes thrilled, to see Lester Holt of the Today Show at church this morning. I was stalking, no waiting, to meet him after services but HELIO swept in front of him to meet us and Lester walked on by. Alas...I did not get to meet Lester Holt.We did however run into Bailey and Joyce McBride at church today. They are members of our congregation in Edmond and he also teaches at OC with Matt. They were in town to see the Van Goghs at the MoMA. We were so surprised to see them but what fun it was.
Matt is attending one last session while I blog in the hotel lobby. We are then heading to the airport to fly back to Lubbock and drive to Post to pick up our kiddos. Then tomorrow we will head back to OKC and our real life. Thanks for following us on our fantastic trip.

New York City - Day 5

Today I went with Matt to a history session. Sounds awful, right? Well, it was at the New York Historical Society and I thought that I could look around while he was in the lecture. But somehow, somehow I have injured my right ankle. I don't know what I did, but it's bruised on the ankle. So I sat and read for 2 hours because I couldn't walk around and I feel funny limping around. I need a cane. We ate lunch afterwards at the TINIEST place that could be called a restaurant. It was called Big Nick's Burger and Pizza Joint. It's on the Upper West Side - Seinfeld territory - yep, we're still looking for the Seinfeld restaurant. It was great food. We just also felt like we could have reached over and flipped the burgers ourselves it was so small. But Frommer's gave it a good rating and now so do we - for food, not for atmosphere.

Tonight we saw Wicked. We saw it in OKC as well and we loved that performance...but this was awesome! And I hardly ever use the word awesome!
We couldn't take any photos inside and you really didn't want to see another of me in my red coat did you? We had excellent seats, thank you Jarre for the advice on seat location.

This is hard to see but this is the NY skyline from Central Park. I did not get to run around the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis reservoir like I thought I would, you know, like they always show people running around it in the movies. I'm going to say my excuse was the bitter, frigid temperatures. Yep, that's it. There is no other reason except for the cold.

Time to get packed up. Tomorrow we fly back to Lubbock see our kiddos for the first time this year!! Six days is too long to be away from the kids I've decided. Next adventure, we'll just take them with us.

New York City - Day 4

Friday, January 2 - Today Matt's conference started. So it was time for me to explore NYC by myself. I visited FAO Schwarz. Wow - what a fun store. Here is lego Darth Vader. There was also lego Chewbacca and lego Harry Potter and company and lego Batman.
And here is the "Big" Piano. I also went to the Disney Store - yes, it's different there - The American Girl store, Tiffany and Co. - just to look of course. I saw the Trump Towers from "The Apprentice" and walked all over 5th avenue. Thanks Serena and Laura for the needed help when I couldn't remember where a store was. When Matt finished his conference we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art - they stay open late on Fridays. So in 2 hours we had to cram in everything in the WORLDS largest museum. We are not art people, but that is a really neat museum. It's just so full of stuff, the amount of stuff is amazing. Stuff sounds so sophisticated doesn't it? Then we tried to find Seinfeld's restaurant and did not succeed. We settled for a Milky Way hot chocolate and a cinnamon roll from Dunkin Donuts. Yum!

New York City - Day 3

New Year's Day - there aren't many people out this morning. Probably because the bulk of them are sleeping off Times Square from the night before. We got up and headed to the Empire State Building. The line for security wasn't 3 hours long today!

Matt enjoying the sights of NY.

Now you know I don't like to be up high. And here I am on the 86th floor. Lucky for us that the 102nd observatory was being remodeled. But this event did turn out to be one of my favorites. I mostly stayed in the inside part but did venture out when I felt like the wind was dying down. Again, we sprung for the audio tour and again I was glad. Although I felt like the tour misled us slightly when it said that Seinfeld's restaurant was at the NW corner of Central Park and then we walked 25 blocks to get there and it wasn't there. That's not right at 20 something degrees!

Collin and Katie are doing just fine. Collin was caught jumping on the bed. And Katie had snuck outside, but other than that I think they are doing just fine. Collin tells me that Katie has been whining for me but when she gets on the phone she just sings Father Abraham to me.

New York City - Day 2

We left our hotel early to take a subway down to Battery Park to get on a ferry. I must say that we are getting to be pretty savvy subway riders. It was a cold, cold morning. The line to the statue cruise was SO long. But thanks to my planning ahead we showed our prepurchased tickets and suddenly we were in the Fast Pass line for the ferry. Yea! (By the way, you should totally buy your tickets ahead of time and get the "Monument Pass" so you can go up inside the base of the statue and spring for the audio tour - it's worth it.) Here we are on the ferry. It started to snow while we waited to head to the stateu so they made us move inside. But had it been a clear day I wanted to video us riding out to the statue.
I wish I could say I teared up somewhat at seeing the statue. I teared up when I saw Cinderella's Castle for the first time, when I saw Hayley Mills perform on stage in "The King and I" and even when I saw the Grand Canyon as an adult, but I did not shed a tear for our Lady Liberty. And I can only guess that my body said "Do not cry. It is too cold." As it was a whopping 1 degree out on the island!!

Matt and the snow and the statue base.

Me and Lady Liberty. I cannot feel my toes or the tips of my fingers in this picture.

After taking the Monument tour of the statue, we took the ferry over to Ellis Island. That also was a great place to visit and the audio tour was worth the extra money.

We concluded our day by walking around the financial district. Here is Federal Hall. I think this is where George Washington was inaugurated. Shhh, don't tell Matt I can't remember what happened here. He doesn't read my blog.

Here is the NY Stock Exchange. This whole area is really pretty and had it not been for the bitter, bitter wind I would have loved to stroll these streets and take in everything.

Last thing we saw before getting back on the subway was Ground Zero. They are in the process of turning it into the Freedom Memorial. It's hard to tell if they are building or still cleaning up, but I definately want to come back here when it is all finished.

Do you remember where you were when this happened? I was teaching my math lesson to my second graders in Crawfordville, FL. I was told that a bomb went off in the World Trade Center and that Tallahassee was shutting down to protect the presidents brother. I got to turn on the news at about 1:30 that afternoon while my kids were at PE and catch up to what really happened. Matt was in class at Florida State that day and they sent everyone home at about 10:30 and then closed the school for the day. While I can't say I was excited to see this site, I'm glad I did.

We did NOT spend New Year's Eve in Times Square. We walked through Times Square on the 30th and we were shoulder to shoulder with people then and it was crazy. I knew someone could totally get trampled. So at about 7ish on New Years Eve we went to our hotel which is at 7th Avenue and 53th St. That is one block east and I think 3 blocks north of Times Square. Well, the crowds were already backed up to the front of our hotel!! We rang in the New Year snug and warm in our hotel and could see the ball drop from our window (or TV). The crowds were SO loud that it seemed like were counting down next door and we are on the 20th floor.

Ok, enough bloggin today. Matt is out of his conference now and we are headed out to eat some dinner. Happy New Year!

New York City - Day 1

Matt walking the Brooklyn Bridge on a VERY cold December 30 evening.

Me walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. I am VERY afraid of heights but I'm glad to say that I walked it and I didn't cry and I enjoyed the sights from the bridge.

The big Christmas tree at Rockefeller Plaza. It was unfortunate for me that I did NOT get to wave to Matt Lauer on the Today show.

We walked around NY when we first got here and I took a ton of pictures of buildings and stuff, but it's just not that fun to blog about those things. We say Radio City Music Hall, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler building and lots of other buildings that I can't remember right now.

December 30, 2008 - This is our 13th anniversary. Matt and I decided to leave both of our children in Texas with Pops and Jarre (thank you by the way) and head to NYC for a few days to see the sights, go to shows and celebrate our 13 years. Oh yeah, Matt has a conference here too, so that helped us choose the destination. Here we are at the Lubbock airport, playing a little chess before our flight. Matt won.