Natural History Museum and M&M Store and General Conference

T-rex and kidlums. We were actually kind of disappointed with this museum, but apparently we missed the rug made entirely from spider's silk.

Ooooh, M&M's. Lots of them. And loud music. Christian's face pretty much says it all. This was not a cool place. Who wants to buy an M&M figurine dressed as Santa anyway?

I made them pose like this. They love me for it.

See Lydia at the Natural History Museum (and one of the highlights from "Night at the Museum") at lyddlelydia.blogspot.com. If you need an invite, just email me at bonbonbassoon@gmail.com.

How is your General Conference weekend going?

We:

...thanks to the internet, have been watching in the comfort of our home, even though we no longer live in Utah.

...missed the first few minutes of the Saturday Morning session because the streaming over the internet only had sound for the choir, not the speakers. We, tragically enough, weren't able to blame Classical 89 (which we usually do for Conference issues), but could imagine the panic happening behind the scenes as they try to figure out which cord is unplugged, or which pot is down, or which button just needs to be pushed.

...enjoyed all the talks - following the prophet seems to be a theme, don't you think?

...missed having family around (especially for the Priesthood session - Adam went by himself and I sat at home wishing I had my sisters, Mom, aunts and Grandma to hang out with. Note to self: Make friends (easier said than done). But we did carry on a Walton tradition of the men coming home from Priesthood and sharing what they heard while we all eat dessert (dark chocolate brownies - yum).

...ate yummy cinnamon rolls this morning, which should be a General Conference Sunday tradition, don't you agree? Weirdly enough, Lydia was not a fan.

...think it's odd to be watching at 12 and 4 instead of 10 and 2, but it means I have time in the morning to blog. Sweet.

Favorites

One of my absolute favorite things that we did in the whole 2 months of New Yorkiness was walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. We had spent the whole day running around Brooklyn (closed museum, closed museum, Coney Island, no food, no food, lots of walking, feed baby on sketchy park bench, spicy hot dogs, no ice cream, no ice cream, lots of walking, expensive (but good) ice cream, lots of walking and then we were at the Brooklyn Bridge. The sun was setting behind Manhattan and it was GORGEOUS. I was sad that Adam couldn't be there, but glad that I got to share a favorite moment with my Dad, Laura, Christian and Ali (and Lydia, of course).

Someday, when we are rich and famous (actually, when Adam is famous and I get to partake in just the rich part), I want to spend an anniversary or other special occasion at this little restaurant under (kind of) the Brooklyn Bridge. It looks out over the water and just looks so sweet. Someone put a bug in Adam's ear? I know for a fact he doesn't read this blog. So all my secrets are safe.

Seriously, gorgeous - do this if you're ever in NYC. The expensive (but good) ice cream place was called the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory (I think) and is right next to that cute restaurant and by "right next to" I mean "across some water from." The first, last, and middle picture on this post came from there.

P.S. Lydia posts are up. She's cuter than ever.

Some Punks Visited

And we had a grand old time at Coney Island and the MoMA (not in that order). The kids actually rode on the roller coasters. Ali gave the Cyclone a thumbs down, but all three of them enjoyed the ferris wheel/roller coaster. Lydia, Dad and I stayed firmly planted on solid ground.
Ali after the cyclone. "I'm sure happy to still be alive!"

Something about having a baby has made me kinda averse to extreme sports (if riding a roller coaster is either extreme or a sport, which it's not). It used to be fun to feel like I was going to die. Not so anymore. Is this a normal Mom response?


The MoMA was fun. I was impressed with how well my sibs knew Modern art (I had expected them to be bored). And then we made our own art. Doesn't Laura belong in a museum?And we, of course, saw some famous stuff.

More Dad in NYC

Sightseeing

This is a picture of the inside of the Public Library. That place has come up with somewhere weird to store it's books, because all I saw were walls like this. Okay, that's not entirely true. The reading rooms had a few books. Now those were cool rooms. I thought I took a picture, but that may have been a lie. Maybe it was on my Dad's camera? Maybe I'm crazy?

And here's Grand Central Station. The two buildings are kind of in the same grand style. I guess New York wanted to prove they were someone back whenever they were built (too lazy to even Wiki it).Constellations on the ceiling - except backwards so we can see them "The way God sees them." Really? Kinda odd if you ask me.

I am aware that these pictures are not great and that looking at a bunch of pictures of buildings is not great blogging material. I'll work on that.

But Lydia's still cute. See for yourself on her blog.

I should never go to Target - or anywhere that they sell baby clothes for that matter

We went to Target the other night for a few essentials for the new house and I got lost in the baby clothes section - cute baby dress after cute baby dress screamed at me that Lydia would look amazing in it (and only $8!). These are only a few of the adorable "must-haves" that I valiantly kept myself from purchasing. Aren't they adorable? Especially that turquoise/blue/white polka-dotted dress in the upper left. I die. Therefore, I should not walk into stores that carry baby clothes. Everytime I walk away from an adorable baby outfit a part of my soul stays behind with it.

Target baby clothes I want by wallofbonbons on Polyvore.com

Which one is your favorite?

Dad sees Nueva York

I was able to persuade my Dad to come visit for a few days during our last couple weeks in New York. He was really interested in all the architecture, so we spent a couple days wandering around looking at cool buildings.

Dad tried falafel for the first time - I loved it, and obviously he did as well, considering it got all over his nose as he wolfed it down.

The New York Public Library Lions - unfortunately the whole facade was covered in scaffolding - my experience with famous buildings has been that they're ALWAYS covered in scaffolding.
We saw the New York Public Library, Grand Central Station, the Chrysler Building, the Guggenheim, the Met, Greenwich Village, Washington Square Park, Bryant Park, Central Park, Ground Zero, Trinity Church (including the graves of Alexander Hamilton and the guy who invented the steam engine - Robert Fulton), the outside of the New York Stock Exchange, the place where George Washington was inaugurated, and the Staten Island Ferry. And that was before my siblings got here. Thanks, Dad - it was a blast running around the city with you, even if we did get stuck waiting for the A-train at 42nd street for more time than I like to think.

Caramoor

Lydia and I got to visit the site where Adam performed this summer. It was gorgeous there - lush, green, and beautifully landscaped. Thanks to a nice guard, we even got to listen to some of the performance.





See pictures of Lyddle on her blog.

Lincoln Center

This day was incredibly hot. It was during the heatwave that hit New York this summer and Lydia and I spent the two days following chained to our air-conditioner. I was glad to get a chance to see the Lincoln Center, though - with all it's famous performing halls.



Ah, the temple.

More of Babycakes on her blog.

Hi again

So...I've realized that I tend to take blogging breaks whenever life gets stressful for me. Or just busy. I guess that makes sense - the blog gets neglected instead of the baby or something. The busyness has definitely been present during the last month or so. It started with my Dad coming into town, followed by my 3 younger siblings. Then we had to move out of our apartment, get back to Utah, finish up two online classes, pack our lives onto a semi (that we didn't have to drive out to Indiana ourselves), go to a weeklong family reunion, then move to Indiana and unpack the lives that had been on a semi. Kinda crazy, but things seem to be settling down. We have a nice little townhouse with lots of space here, and, most importantly - Lydia has her own room. We're all much more rested these days.

Adam has had orientation this week, including some brutal tests, and will start classes next week. We've already gone to our ward, which we quite enjoyed, and we maybe even learned a few names. Although this town is nothing like New York, we think we'll like it here.

So - I hope to be posting a few things to update you on what has happened in the last little while (mostly during the last few weeks in New York, because that filled up my camera cards and I didn't have anywhere to empty them until we got to Indiana). I will also be posting pictures to Lydia's blog. For example, there's a new picture up now.

Staten Island Ferry or the cheap way to see the Statue of Liberty

Spoiler: photo of Lydia on this blog. I know, Shocker, huh.

We had to keep her from getting sunburned on that bald head somehow.



Fun, relaxing and free! Highly recommend it.