Jared and New York

Jared, Tyson's younger brother, came to visit us from Friday, August 14th -Tuesday, August 18th when we all left for NYC.

We did lots of fun stuff, of course! Jared has pretty much seen everything in DC, but we did take him to the American History Museum which was closed when he was here last. We saw the statue of Albert Einstein, the Pentagon Memorial, the Dulles Air and Space Museum, the monuments at night, and even had time to fit in going to 5 Guys (a burger joint that is popular here). It was fun to have him here with us!

The funniest thing is that when Tyson and Jared get together, they start acting similar. It was just one of those things, I could tell they were both their father's sons. :) Ah, Walker boys are all the same...well, same same, but different :)

All the Walker boys love trains (American History Museum)


Reed and daddy on an old train in the American History Museum
American History Museum - riding the 'train'



Reed playing with all the fun stuff for kids in the American History Museum

Eating hot dogs = something you must do as a tourist in downtown DC

Jared loves Howard Hughes - I forgot what plane this is, but Jared knows.

The Pentagon Memorial

The sunset in DC is always so beautiful!


Jared with Elbert Einstein (I affectionately call him Alby).

The inside of Ford's Theatre - that booth was the one President Lincoln was sitting in when he got shot.

No explanation needed :)


The Space Shuttle Enterprise

The Enterprise


Enterprise, the back end
Reed just happy to be walking around

I believe it's called the SR-751, something like that.....seriously amazing!

If you have seen Transformers 2, this guy looks familiar.....


On Tuesday, August 18th, we headed off for NYC by train! I was pretty excited to ride a train in the U.S., since none of us had ever done it. It was actually pretty impressive. It was a bit crazy getting there because we were going to drop our car off at my brother's house, first. Well, we ended up taking the wrong exit and DC is not forgiving if you miss an exit. So, instead of taking the bus from my bro's house, he ended up driving us so we would still be in time to ride the train! (Thanks, Ryan!!!) The train ride was cold!!!! I didn't think I would need shoes other than flip flops and pants on, but I was wishing I had both. The weirdest thing about the train ride was that Reed was not there with us. This was a non-kid family trip - so, I felt a little empty when we left. Reed is just always with me, so it was weird to leave him for almost 1 week! But, we both survived :)

We got to NYC and Tyson's family (minus Tyson, Jared, and myself) had been there since about 7 am...they had gone on a red-eye from Las Vegas...always fun :( Needless to say, they were pretty tired, but that did not stop us from getting out and seeing all the cool stuff in NYC! We did way too much to go into detail about each one, but here are some highlights (yes, Kimber, I took this pretty much from your blog - thanks!):

• Tried to go to Guggenheim (but it was closed)
• Tried to go on a speed boat tour, but it was closed due to weather :(
• Rode in a taxi!!!!
  
• Empire State Building Observatory
• Grand Central Station
• Radio City Music Hall Tour
• Rockefeller Center
• Top of the Rock Observation Deck
• United Nations
• Ellis Island
• Intrepid Sea Air & Space Museum
• Ground Zero
• Walking Tour of the Financial District
• Statue of Liberty
• NBC Studio Tour
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
  
• Battery Park
• Central Park
• Madison Square Garden Tour
• Serendipity III
• Wicked at Gershwin Theatre! (my favorite)
• Mets game
  
• Manhattan Temple
• Manhattan Museum of Art
  
• China Town
  
• Ate at a bunch of good restaurants including a Brasileira one!!!!
  
• Lots of hot dogs
• Lots of waiting in the sweaty subway!

Yes, Walker vacations are pretty much busy! It was so much fun just bustling to all the different places, getting lost, and just hanging out! I will definitely NOT miss the humidity (so much worse than DC), the no-so-nice people (we did find some nice ones, but most were not-so-nice), the dirtiness of the streets/subway platforms, and the stiflingly hot subways (I was surprised - there is no air circulation at all down there. No fan, no A/C on the platforms, nothing.....I almost passed out once).


Our gate to our first train ride in the United States! Woo woo!!!

First Amtrak experience - it was pretty nice!

Getting on the train to NYC

Madison Square Garden

First view of the Empire State Building on Tuesday

Our tour of Madison Square Garden - amazing building!

View from the Top of the Rock!

Radio City Music Hall - it was absolutely amazing!!!!

USS Intrepid

Times Square

Ellis Island

The Statue of Liberty was originally copper, but over 30 years it changed to green!



Manhattan from our boat!

Tyson's great-grandma Anna Allenbach (married a Zobrist) came from Switzerland to US via Ellis Island.
Pretty awesome view from the Empire State Building!

I actually think that I really look like my little sis, Kristy, in this photo (People tell us that frequently, but this one really does look like her). She is always doing this in pictures. This is us on top of the Empire State Building.

Another Crazy Month Gone By

I cannot believe that August has come and gone! I thought that July was crazy busy, but I was wrong. August was even crazier and busier than July! Ah well....that's just how life is, right?!

So, at the beginning of August, Tyson and I finally went miniature golfing - something we had not done until this year! You would think that since we dated in Provo, we would have gone miniature golfing at least a dozen times, but no, you would be mistaken. Actually, we went with the Young Men/Young Women at our church. Tyson teaches the 12 and 13-year-old boys. This activity was a combined one with the young women, so Tyson was supposed to attend. I do not work with the youth 12-18, but decided to go anyways since we had never been miniature golfing. It turned out to be a pretty fun evening! Some of our friends also work with the youth, so they were there and we all golfed together! I am not the best miniature golfer, but I did ok for me. Really, Tyson and I shared a club so one could watch Reed while the other golfed. We did not lose in our group, so I was happy! Plus, we got ice cream after it was all said and done :) A pretty great night if you ask me.


Taryn - an excellent golfer :)

Reed wanting to jump in the nasty water they had there. (Yes, I know he is getting super long hair. It has been cut.)

Joe - he actually got 2nd place...bravo!

The kiddos playing by the hole.

Our golfing group, plus Tyson and me. Lookin' good, Jana :)


A few days later, we were off to a Rowberry family reunion to be held on Georgetown campus. Sadly, I was a pitiful photographer during the 5-day reunion, so I only have a few pictures. But, we did take some family photos, while I will be posting on my next post (weird I don't think I have ever written post and posting in the same sentence). We sang lots of songs, all had our turns to cook, played lots of games, went to the zoo, had a talent show, went on a boat ride down the C&O canal, and even watched slide shows of pictures that my Grandma Dalling had (I had not seen very many of those, so it was really fun for me). All-in-all, it was pretty exhausting, but a lot of fun to be able to see all of my siblings and their families! During all of this, my sister, Kristy, came home from Taiwan where she served an 18-month mission for our church! I cannot believe that she is already home and that it has laready be a year and a half! Time certainly does fly! We got to go to the temple one night. It was amazing to have my entire family at the same temple at the same time! I can only imagine the joy my parents must have felt :) Well, that is a pretty rough outline of the Rowberry family reunion, but there it is.

Apparently, I only took pictures at the zoo!

Looking at the lions and tigers!

The molar of an elephant! That is how they mash their food....pretty amazing!


Elephants are always a must when visiting the zoo!


The death stare from Evyn - it can be deadly, so don't look for too long.

Alia -always ready for a picture :)


Nathan had finally given up and fallen asleep in a stroller.

Well, that covers the first 10 days in August....so I think I will stop there for today. Be on the lookout for more posts about an exciting month of August.

It's a......

On August 17th we went to the doctor to do the 20-week ultrasound! Yes, I know I am a week late in posting, but we left for New York the next morning and things have been crazy around here! So, everyone I talked to thought we were having another boy. I always thought it would be fun to have two of the same gender in a row - so, in my case, two boys in a row. Tyson thought it was actually going to be a girl since he was thinking another boy would be nice. So the verdict is......... (dramatic pause)..........................................................................

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!

The ultrasound was pretty clear about that one! I am both excited and nervous to have a girl. I am just getting the boy thing down, now I will have a girl! But, it will be awesome!

If you have any good girl names, please pass them on to us. Tyson and I are having a hard time deciding on girl names we both like. So, we are looking at all options! Yeah for girls! Now, I get to dress her in all the cute girl clothes - Yahoo!

Fruit leather

So, I have had a few people comment on the blog and few more people tell me in person that they wanted the recipe for fruit leather. Really, it's SUPER easy. Here it is!

1. Pick the fruit you want to use and chop it up
2. Put it in the blender to make it into a puree....you can make it chunky if you would like
3. Add sugar/sweetener to taste
4. Get out a pan - I have found that one pound of strawberries fits into a 9x13 cookie pan- and put wax paper on the bottom. Cut off enough wax paper to have some over the edges (it makes it easier to get the fruit leather off).
5. Put outside in the sun all day (if it is humid, it will probably need two days)
6. Bring inside and enjoy!!!!

Really, that is all I did. We have tried strawberry and peach so far, both being delicious! Experiment! Oh, the oven DOES NOT really work. It just makes it really hard to get off the wax paper and the pan gets all sticky. So, check the weather and wait for the sunshine :) Hope you enjoy the result!

Singin' in the Rain

The end of July was quite packed with all sorts of fun!

* Reed became an official customer in training! Recently, at our local Giant grocery store, I noticed these mini-sized green grocery carts. On the top it said customer in training and I thought, "That is too cute!" I thought maybe you had to purchase it or something. Turns out you don't! So, the next time we were there, we only needed 3 things. I thought I would give Reed the chance to be a customer in training since I didn't need a cart that day. He did a fabulous job strolling the cart throughout the store! He even put the food in as I handed it to him and then strolled again. I couldn't help but notice all the fun comments about how cute he was, of course. When we got up to the self-checkout lane, Reed handed me the food so I could scan it! I put it in the bag and placed it back in his cart. We strolled all the way outside and put our cart away! I would say that was a very productive customer in training! I wish more stores had things like that!



* I tried to make strawberry fruit leather on a day where it was not forecast to rain. It sprinkled once, then the sun came out, then it poured rain for the next hour! Needless to say, my fruit leather (that was sitting on top of our mailbox) was too water-logged to save by the time I got to it!
* I tried again, maybe a week later, to make strawberry fruit leather. It was a success! Reed would have eaten the whole pan had I let him :) Tyson almost did eat half of the pan!




* Reed has almost mastered ride-on-daddy-like-a-horsey...seriously the cutest thing!


* Reed's bottom left molar finally poked through the skin. Only another month until it is all in!


* I do not believe I officially showed Reed's Independence Day tie made by Grandma Walker. It has been a big hit throughout July! Thank you!


* Reed discovered (again) that he loves oven mitts, especially the blue orca one we own!

* One button off the back of my favorite pair of shorts got ripped apart on the playground by our apartment. I was sliding across the holey part (see picture below) and my button got stuck, then ripped off. I went searching for the button since I was hoping to sew it back on, but alas, it had broken into about 6 different pieces. So, it is there, on the playground, a casualty of sliding too rough.

Reed didn't seem to mind that my button had just been ripped off!

* Reed and I were going to play kickball with some friends. We got all ready, with the appropriate clothing, had our water, got some snacks, and even had on bug spray! We went outside to find it pouring rain :( No kickball that day. However.....
* Reed discovered again that he LOVES playing in the rain - mostly splashing in the puddles. We spent the next 20 minutes or so just laughing, splashing around, SINGING (I just had to because I have seen the movie so many times), and enjoying the rain.





* We went to a BBQ with some people from Tyson's work. The host and hostess made ribs, fish, these amazing potato wedges, and a fresh salad. Amazing!
* Tyson and I went to 2 Wolf Trap performances by the National Symphonic Orchestra- we had lawn tickets! We saw the music of John Williams which was AMAZING! The only problem was it was raining throughout the first-half of the performance! Reminder: We were on the lawn! Everyone had their umbrellas up, we were sitting on tarps, had on ponchos, and were trying not to move and get even more wet. But, it was totally worth it! The guy wrote some amazing music (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Close Encounters, Jaws, Harry Potter, just to name a few)! Our other performance was Blue Planet that was on the Discovery Channel. The orchestra played the background music while we watched the show on a giant screen. Luckily, NO RAIN! I enjoyed this show as well.....but am no longer a fan of killer whales. They are just mean! We also got to see a blue whale....wow, those animals are GIGANTIC! Definitely worth it :)


Reed playing in the rain! Ah, puddles are great!