The Best of New York - Summer 2013

We had a whirlwind trip to the States this summer.  Our hub ended up being NY, and so we were in and out of the city multiple times in the 6 weeks we were gone.  We started with one week in NY, then off to Vancouver Island, then back to NY for 5 days, then VT and Boston, and finally our last 10 days in NY.

We are so grateful to Karen, Matt and Juniper for sharing precious NY real estate with us so we could be as comfortable as possible as a family.  They even gave up their bedroom so the four of us could be in a space with a closed door, and they slept in Juni's room!

Our first week in NY we managed to celebrate Fathers Day with Matt and Karen, we visited the Prospect Park Zoo, took a couple of trips to the playgrounds in the neighborhood, and began our foray back into the joy of food in Brooklyn.  We also had time to visit with Michael, Tracy and a lovely bbq at Anna's where we got to see Keith and Jen's new baby Bryan, as well as visit with Christy.  Unfortunately the first couple of days were tough on the kids.  The jet lag wasn't too bad, but Eowyn had some kind of digestive thing that made her a bit miserable (constipated, we think!).  Luckily that was sorted before our next flight over to Vancouver.

Family brunch on Father's Day

Father's Day brunch with Matt, Karen and Juni

Wandering around the prospect park zoo - belly out, of course!

When we got back from Vancouver on the 3rd of July, we had taken the red eye, arrived in at 6am, and that same afternoon James went in for Lasik surgery.  He was out of commission for 24 hours, and I hung out with the kids at Karen's.  On James' birthday we had a BBQ at Christy's and got to see a bunch of his family including his parents, Keith and Jen again and even a few of his old friends.  Jen Blum even managed to make it!  It was a scorching afternoon, but fun to have him together with family for once on his actual birthday.

The next day we ventured into the city to check out the Museum of Natural History with the kids.  We met up with Leigh, Stirling and Grayson, Jen Blum, and Matt, Karen and Juni, so we were quite the crew meandering around.  I think we should have had our own special tour t-shirts so we could spot each other in a crowd!  Liam loved the museum - especially the life size humpback whale, and of course some of the dinosaur bones.

Hanging out with the dinosaurs - Liam, Stirling, Grayson, and Eowyn

Big and little foot prints!

Double trouble!

3 musketeers

Eowyn gets a close up

Love the Jen/Stirling cheeser combination

Hanging out with mama

We had a yummy lunch together before we headed back into Brooklyn for nap time with the kids, and Leigh headed back to CT.  It was really fun to have a few days to hang out with Jen in the city - especially since who knows when we'll next get to see here.

We miss you Jen!

Our third and final stay in NY came at then end of a week in Vermont and Boston.  We drove down from Boston in the morning and that same evening was the huge Lemmon grandchildren gathering.  Of course it was held at none other than Vesuvios, and it was actually pretty amazing to see all the grandkids assembled in one place.  This is quite a feat given that Joe's family came up from Florida, and Mike's kids and Jillian came up from NC.  The list goes something like this (from oldest to youngest):
Nicole, Meg, Kevin, Naomi, Samantha, Michael, Jolie, Liam, Colton, Patrick and Eowyn.  Christy made t-shirts for everyone and many photos were taken and were supposed to be shared, but haven't been as of yet.  I only managed to take a couple during the party but it gives a little sense!  Liam was really taken with Jolie and spent the next days running around with her as much as possible.

Liam and Eowyn in their t-shirts - If life gives you lemmons, love 'em!

Kevin was the pied piper of the little ones that night

I'm not sure what game this was, but they were all in! - Mikey (Shannon's son), Samantha, Eowyn, Jolie, Liam, Colton

The days were HOT.  Too hot in most cases, but we did spend part of a morning in the shade of Prospect Park.  We went with Joe and kids, and Christy and Anna, with Juni and Karen joining in. We found a nice quiet place in the park with shade so the kids could run about and with a little less monitoring.  Afterwards we got to see Anna's diner up in Queens.

One of the tough things about being in the city with young kids was the tight leash syndrome.  It felt like everywhere we went and everything we did required a certain behavior from the kids that was much more restrictive than their life back in Lugano.  It wasn't too surprising that a combination of that and being in other peoples' spaces and jet lag led to some acting out on both kids parts.  In the case of Liam, he was definitely not quite as sweet and caring as he normally is.  Listening was a challenge a lot of the time.  It was interesting because Juniper was so excited to have play mates living in her house and was so eager to share and to play.  I wish Liam had been a bit friendlier as she was so very generous with her love and her toys!  Eowyn, on the other hand, was a fair bit more clingy, and wanted to be held and carried places a lot by me or James "uppeee, up-eeee up-eee!!".  Other people couldn't hold her for most of the trip without her bursting into tears.

hanging out at the park - bagel and cell phone in hand

Prospect Park hang out - Christy, James, Liam, Eowyn, Karen, Juniper, Jolie and Colton

Karen and Juniper

Before all the cousins dispersed we managed a trip to the Brooklyn Children's Museum with Michael and his family and Jolie.  We went at a pretty busy time, so it was crowded, but the kids had a lot of fun checking everything out.  We certainly don't have access to this kind of stuff in Lugano!  Eowyn even touched a snake and a turtle!

Cousins in a boat - Liam, Samantha, Eowyn, James, Patrick, Jolie and Michael

Parallel play - Juni and Eowyn playing with water

The best part for Liam - playing bus driver in a real life looking bus!

Brothers and babies - James and Eowyn, Michael and Patrick

Tunnel fun - Patrick, Michael, James, Eowyn and Mike

Our last big outing was the Bronx zoo.  It took everything out of us and was definitely a long day, but I think the kids really enjoyed it, and at least the weather was slightly cooler that day after the horrible heat wave.  It was fun to meet up with Leigh and kids and to get to go with Matt, Karen and Juniper.  We all wandered around at a relaxed pace.  We also got more show than we bargained for when we were watching the sea lion show and a sea lion suddenly chased this duckling, catching it in its mouth and unfortunately maiming it.  We hoped the kids missed what happened!

Liam wasn't a fan of pictures so this was the only way James could get one with him!

And this - he's pretending to be a giraffe and the real life ones are behind him!

Eowyn and me with the Lion (raaaaar!)

Otherwise our time in NY was filled quickly with trips to Century 21 to stock up for the year, visits with family, eating, and more eating.  I'm pleased that I managed to carve out a little time to do some yoga.  I tried out Jaya Yoga in Park Slope, and Prema in Caroll Gardens.  It seems that the best time for me to get to class is 7am, so that's what I did.  I think I managed about 10 classes in total.  Not too great, but not too bad either!

 Dinner out with Gerard and Christy at Paulo Santo in Park Slope.  Some really good food!

Our last night dinner at Tracy's restaurant in the village with Karen and Matt.  We ate so much and it was so good I think we might have burst!