Valentine's Day

We started off Valentine's Day by making a 50's B-movie style movie ad for Erica's graphic design class.

"Attack of the Insects from Outer Space"

Charles got some Valentine's presents from his Grandmas.   He especially liked the stuffed fox from Grandma Shauna and the chocolates from Grandma Odalisa. Erica festooned the apartment in the decorations that both sent.  Mom and Dad enjoyed the yummy treats.  Thank you Grandmas!

He was hugging the fox even more cutely before we got the camera on...

Erica and Charles threw a Valentine's party at our apartment with her friends and their kids.

Charles went exploring in the aftermath.

He really likes our singing dancing mouse.  Thank you Dave and Arlena for the best White Elephant Christmas Eve gift ever!

On Saturday, I took Erica on a Valentine's Date to the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center to see Sleeping Beauty (the ballet).  We enjoyed the dancing and the music, written by Tchaikovsky, which fits it so well.  We also took some pictures of the interior, but an usher came up and told us that no photos are allowed because the architecture of the building is copyrighted (she let us keep our camera, but told us not to post them online).

The LDS Temple is right across the street from the Lincoln Center!

An awake beauty, standing next to the tutu that the Sleeping Beauty wore (in olden times).  However, the tutu worn by the Sleeping Beauty in the modern production was pretty much identical.

Charles had some excess energy to run off when we got home from the babysitter's (thank you Durham's for watching him!)  It worked--he went to sleep great last night, without any crying.

Orange Picking Part 2

We figured out how to get the videos to upload!

At the Nelson Orange Farm

One of our favorite Christmas traditions when we are in Riverside for the holidays is to pick fresh oranges in the backyard and make orange.  We pick as many as we can  and make as much orange juice as we can, then we deliver it to all of the family's friends and neighbors and sing "we wish you a merry christmas."  It's a lot of fun.

 Charles really really liked the ladder.

 Electric orange juicer is a must.

We make a great team.

We tried uploading videos but it isn't working on.  Maybe if we do it as a separate post...

Bach Vespers

 I had been wanting to see these for some time.  Erica was nice enough to come with me (and the Grimshaws of our ward were kind enought to trade babysittings.  It was a really neat setting--they light the candles, burn incense and do a real church service just like what would have been done in Bach's day.  I had no idea that Bach was not just a composer, he wrote lyrics to his music, too!  And much/most of his music was religious.

Vespers are the sunset evening prayer service in many liturgical traditions (including Lutheran, which was Bach's religion I believe).  The service we attended (last Sunday evening) was Candlemas, which commemorates when Simeon met Joseph, Mary and baby Jesus at the temple.

We didn't take photos, so these are from the website of the Lutheran Holy Trinity Church.  If it was closer to our house, we'd go more often, but it's in Manhattan near the Lincoln Center (and the LDS temple), so we probably won't make it over there again.

Here are some of the words of Candlemas Vesper:
[Simeon speaking]
"I have enough!
I have taken the Savior, the hope of the devout,
into my eager arms.
I have enough!
I have gazed upon him;
my faith has imprinted Jesus on my heart...

"In faith I cling to him
for I too see as Simeon did..."

Blizzard

Note to all those who were sorely disappointed when yesterday's post malfunctioned: we have gone in and fixed it.  So now we have 2 new posts!

It wasn't as bad as they said it would be, though the wind blew what snow there was every which way.  Four inches or so, quite manageable.  And fun to walk around in the next morning!  Baby Charles liked the snow much better this time (he hated it when it snowed a foot and a half in January while we were in Utah).

 Sledding on cookie sheets worked better than it looked in this picture.

 One of these is not like the other.  Threw in a sledding picture from behind my parents' house in January, just to keep you guessing.

Back at the park in NYC

Random Phone Camera Post

We've been forgetting our camera a lot.  One of several excuses for not blogging in a loooong loong time.  Our phones are not fancy, they can't access the internet for example, but they are equipped with primitive cameras.  The blog-worthy ones below give a smattering of our lives since we "went off the grid" last fall, so to speak.

Playground in Shore Road Park.  We love living by the ocean. Don't worry, this was taken back when it was warm, we dress him appropriately when it is cold outside.

Erica made a two-tiered desk out of storage bins and suitcases. It lasted until we got a free desk from our friends who moved out a couple of months ago.  Somehow she found a tetris-like way to fit all of the bins and suitcases into our limited closet space.

This snapshot records some cute shoes that Erica enjoyed having him wear.  Alas he outgrew them so fast.

Sorry, you'll have to rotate your computer to view this one.  When we visited Coney back in September we enjoyed Nathan's famous hot dogs.

Charles loved crawling around the beach.  It was cold enough that pretty much no one else was there.

Columbus Day parade.

Erica looking urban. Fifth Avenue stores were fun to window shop at.

Walking in the City that never sleeps at night

"We are probably the lowest prices in the city."  Can't fault them for honesty.

Sorry again.  We went to Grand Central Station's holiday train show.

Seaport in lower Manhattan, near the IKEA ferry

All aboard the IKEA ferry!

You can just barely see the Statue of Liberty.  The view was beautiful, trust us.

Governor's Island.  My grandpa visited the hospital here when he was in the Army 60 years ago.  Looks like the buildings are still there, but not sure about the hospital.  There are cultural activities in the summer, we're planning to go and enjoy them.

This photo looks a lot creepier than it was.  But it was pretty creepy--Charles thought the statue was a real person and was scared enough to hit its nose (that's what he does when he is scared of someone and they get too close).

Here is the circle of statues that we were among (not our photograph)

This is what Dad feels like when we he comes home from work...okay not really. There's only one of Charles.

Art at the Brooklyn Museum, continued.  Baby Charles liked this one because baby Jesus gets to hold a bird!

A foot from Ancient Egypt

We made our own art at the Brooklyn Museum.  The one on the left is a hippo surfacing out of the water, the one on the right is a bird perched on the head of a person. The one on the far left is child that is worn out from so much good family fun!

Cannonball Park, just a 5-minute walk from our house.