Energy

Christian and Olin have a lot of energy. They can run and play and wrestle and stuff all day long. (Anytime we have to walk more than a block, however, Olin's energy becomes mysteriously and completely sapped and he needs to be bao-bao'd or Beco'd. We still bring the Beco on all trips where there might be walking and Dae and I, every trip, ask each other, should we really bring it? I am happy to say we did not pull it out one time in NYC. I am also embarrassed to say that I Beco'd Olin in the Salt Lake City airport last week and for the first time, he and I both were actually embarrassed about it. After his initial excitement of being placed in the carrier, he said he didn't really want anyone to see him. And I felt really ridiculous walking through the airport with a 5 year old's arms and legs hanging out of a carrier. I am usually not embarrassed about it, which may be most embarrassing part about it all!)

At the Trampoline Park on Black Friday. This trampoline park is so expensive. But the boys always beg to go and we don't take them that often and they expend a lot of energy here.

Brushing teeth at the Mobius Children's Museum in Spokane.  Interesting how lots of Children's Museums have an oral hygiene section. Oh and take a look at Olin's pants that I just got him for $7 at H&M. Way too short. My bad. 

The kids loved picking out their bag of rocks. Olin picked out one to represent each planet.

Spokane Falls

Island hopping!

Couldn't believe I caught him perfectly mid-jump both times

Boys who Brunch (at Sante restaurant in Spokane. We did a one-night trip to Spokane and stayed at the historic Davenport Hotel. Spokane is fun!)

Dental exam

Mobius Science Center

Extra photos from NYC. At Madame Tussaud's wax museum

Pic of excited Olin. He does this so much. I wonder when he will stop. Meanwhile, we still think it is so funny and he kind of smiles when we catch him doing it.

Strolling in the city. Both of them with left-knee-jeans-hole, always. Also, both of their shoes are in a state of disrepair. Olin's sole is coming undone from shoe (you can see on his right foot). They were hand-me-downs from Didi and Leelee but they were in really good shape when he started wearing them.  And both of Leelee's shoes have holes in them. Those were brand new when we bought them. 

Kid maintenance. Nail cutting, ear cleaning, hair cutting. I am glad I do not have girls!

New York City with Kids

NYC with kids! A whole different ballgame than NYC adults-style. ha! We have been on the go, and walking and taking the subway until we're bone-tired at the end of the day. We are here for Dae's vascular conference. The weather had been wonderful (70 degrees and sunny) until today when it plummetted by 30 degrees or so into the 40's. I was prepared with hats and gloves for me and kids.

Dae found this great VRBO. Small, two-bedroom, really nice and such beautiful views. The location is really central (corner of 27th st. and 6th ave)

Gregory's Coffee for chocolate milk (too hot for hot chocolate) and americano for me

View of Manhattan from Liberty Island

Olin propped up on the wall at Statue of Liberty

On the perimeter of Statue of Liberty hopping around

There she is!

Subway - tons of it. Dae and I each bought 7 day unlimited passes so we needed to get our money's worth. The kids were free. They just ducked under the turnstiles.

Happy in Chinatown

Nice family photo in Chinatown. No boy wanted to be in it.

Olin the photographer instructing "smile"

Instructing "funny face"

Joe's xiao long baos were enormous this time. Too big, and we ordered too much.

Streets of Chinatown

Waiting for the subway. Yellow train was our friend this trip.

Watching the Huskies beat ASU while face-masking

Meeting up with Dae's friends Rich and Young-Eun and their son Emanuel for Ippudo Ramen lunch. We met up with a couple of Korean folks this trip. haha!

Red leather jacket. Purchased at Banana Republic (around 1999?) at the height of Dae's Banana Republic days and he has refused to let me Goodwill it throughout the years and many many attempts. He finally pulled it out this trip and was very excited about its reappearance!

Rockefeller Christmas tree being erected and decorated!

Always excited about anything LEGO

He can literally fall asleep anytime and anywhere. It is an art.

Broadway Bites food carts at Greeley Square (corner of 33rd and Broadway). It's a seasonal food cart pod and it was so much fun. We got Indian food, pizza, Chinese buns and mochis.

Intrepid Sea, Air and Space museum. Christian was SO excited to go here. Housed at this museum are: Concorde, Space Shuttle Enterprise, Intrepid aircraft carrier (pictured), lots of airplanes, a submarine that was not open because of repairs.

This thing looked like an SR-71 but it had a different name on its label.

Concorde.

Onboard the aircraft carrier

Space Shuttle Enterprise

Astronaut

He was copying this air patroller's movements and it was really cute

Mamoun's Falafel was so good. It's basically a little window. We had heard about it from some people last time we were in NYC. Anyway, it seriously took us about an hour+ to get here, as we had to walk a mile to the subway stop from the museum, we took several incorrect subways and then walked a couple of blocks to this place. We were so tired and so hungry! Yesterday I think we probably walked 6 miles and then I walked another 2 miles to get to and from Nordstrom Rack (in order to capitalize on 10x Nordstrom point days, which I didn't even capitalize on because I didn't spend $150 :) 

Dae's Korean friends, Part II (ha!). Gina, James and their kids Christian and Aiden.

Aiden and Olin not only look alike, they are also missing the exact same tooth due to trauma.

Madame Tussaud's Wax museum. I was seriously impressed. Some of these figures were amazingly lifelike. They do a really good job. I thought Harry, Elizabeth and Kate were good but William was not as good.

4-D Marvel superheroes film. The ground moves and the seat sprays water and stuff like that. I thought the kids would be scared but they loved it.

Wax figure of Yao Ming. He's huge.

Central Park, before dark. We had promised the kids a trip to the park, and I really wanted to see if leaves were changing in Central Park. They were changing and it was pretty.

More jumpin'. They loved these big rocks at Central Park.

Times Square when it was warm. Notice the big changes in clothing between the warm days and the cold days.

Aboard the Intrepid aircraft carrier. This was a model of their sleeping berths.

Long subway escalator

LOTS of subway riding. And clearly we were very good about heeding the subway signage. hahaha!
Kids were real troopers. Yes there was whining about walking (from Olin) but all in all they did great.

Me and Anna Wintour