Happy Birthday

Just wanted to drop an entry into the blog to say "Happy Birthday Baby Ryann and Grandpa Bernd", Just after Halloween Ryann turned 1 yrd old and Grandpa Bernd also sharing the same birthday had one also ....Again Happy Birthday to you both :)

Halloween 2008

TRICK or TREAT ...Trick or Treat ...this year we had our three girls go trick or treating with the grandparents (Grandma Lindsey and Grampa Bernd) .......Grace was a scrary old woman, Natalie was a beutiful good witch and little Ryann was a fluffy white lamb.

New Baby Boy

Just wanted to post a congratulations to my Friend Nathan and his wife Korina for having there first baby.

Please meet little Evan who was born at 1:16am in the morning on Sept 19, 2008. Baby Evan weighs 7 lb 14 oz, and is 21 inches long. Mom and dad are doing well at the hospital after an 18 hour labor period.

Congratulations again :)

About time I wrote something :)

Sorry for the long delay in updating this blog but the family has been very busy over the summer:

1) We have had a family vacation back to Wisconsin to visit the grandparents (with some fishing on the side with Natalie catching her first fish and her bigger sister catching some also).

2) Cindy and I made a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate our friend Todd's 40th birthday in August.

3) The family has endured living in half our house while the master bedroom and master bathroom have had a make over. Yes even the deck that I started last year finally got done (no I did not finish it ... I paid someone to do it).

New York Vacation - Day 6: Travel Home

The travel home was fairly uneventful. Our flight from LGA to Minneapolis was 1.5 hours late, but this time we had a 2.5 hour layover so we made our connection to Portland and ultimately back to Redmond. Ryann had been absolutely perfect on the way to New York – she fell asleep during takeoff and woke up at landing on all three flights – but wasn’t as great on the way home. She spent a good 20 minutes screaming on the LGA to MSP flight, but was better after that.

We feel that we saw everything we wanted to and it definitely puts the things you see on TV shows into perspective. Although we missed Natalie, I have to admit it was much easier to play tourist without a three-year-old and her attention span (and her afternoon naps). The baby was able to easily sleep whenever she wanted in the baby carrier, although she seemed to be quite sick of it at the end of the trip and would cry when she saw me take it out. But she survived too. Our legs had quite the work out. If only our weather would improve here at home, we could start walking here too.

I would recommend this trip to anyone who hasn’t been there; although I don’t feel a burning desire to go back anytime soon.

Next big trip…. Maybe Vegas this summer for Cindy's 40th.

New York Vacation - Day 5: Midtown

After another subway trip, we started our day by visiting the Today Show at Rockefeller Center. They didn’t have any outdoor events that day due to the cold weather, but we were featured in one of their fade-away shots. Nothing like a baby to draw the camera’s attention. J We got our 15 seconds of fame before walking over to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We followed that with a shopping trip down Fifth Avenue. While we saw Tiffany’s, Gucci, Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik stores, amongst others, we limited our stops to places like the Disney Store, FAO Schwartz, and Build-a-Bear. We lunched at the famous Carnegie Deli and it was absolutely as good as they say it is. We shipped a sandwich back to Bill’s dad and he concurred as well.

We went up the Empire State Building in the afternoon and it was another series of long, long lines that I’m not sure was worth the time. The views up top were certainly good, but the crowds make it difficult to enjoy. We stopped by Grand Central Station and saw the New York Public Library before heading back to the hotel to rest our very tired feet and pack up. After the lunch at Carnegie, no one was very hungry, so we had a light dinner and early evening.

New York Photo's: Day 5 (Select slideshow in album to view pictures)

New York Vacation - Day 4: Easter and the Museums

We had planned on doing some uniquely New York Easter activities, but decided against it at the last minute. We had talked about going to services at Trinity Church, seeing the Easter Parade, and going to the Easter egg hunt in Central Park. Instead we settled for letting Grace have an Easter egg hunt in our hotel room followed by another subway ride and a visit to the Museum of Natural History. We toured that at a whirlwind pace in the morning, followed by a stroll through Central Park where we had limited success finding a decent hot dog vendor. Misty, Dawn, Bill and I toured the Metropolitan Museum of Art while Dad, Marie, and Grace continued to explore Central Park. We went back to Times Square that evening and had dinner at what some call the “best” pizza place – Bella Vita. It was good, but certainly different than what we are all used to having as pizza, with fresh buffalo mozzarella and ground sausage rather than sausage balls.

New York Photo's: Day 4 (Select slideshow in album to view pictures)