Happy holidays for us

I know, Christmas was a few weeks ago... but I'm just getting around to posting our pictures on the blog. We had a wonderful Christmas. We drove down to D.C. to spend it with our friends Em & Brett. I think this was our 5th visit to D.C. but we wanted to see the sights at Christmas, and we never pass up the chance to see Em & Brett. They're like family to us. Plus, we all got to spend a few days in New York City together, and that was wild.

Christmas tree in front of the Capitol Building.

The White House

The White House Christmas tree... though not as close to the White House as I thought it was going to be...

Christmas morning. Abby was too cute while opening presents. The present she's unwrapping is actually mine (and I'm very excited to read it!) but since all she wanted to do was unwrap the presents, she opened some that weren't technically hers. She'd unwrap one, look at it, toss it aside, and grab for another one. Too cute! Cory & I decided that we're just going to wrap up empty boxes for our little one this Christmas...

Christmas dinner. Delicious!!!

Wreaths at Arlington Cemetery. Very cool to see!



Mount Vernon, home of George Washington. It's right on the Potomac River. Very picturesque.

Washington DC temple, at night. They do a mini-temple square, and decorate all the surrounding trees. Very pretty.

Brett, Em, me, Cory

The Monday following Christmas, we drove up to New York City. We wanted to see all the NYC Christmas sights. This is Rockefeller Center. And no, we didn't ice skate, since it apparently costs $50 per person to do so. Ack! But it was fun to watch :)

The famed Rockefeller Center tree.

Em & I, looking quite awesome in our 2010 glasses.

Macy's Department Store.

One of Macy's decorated windows.

Ground Zero. Every other time we've been there, it's just been a hole in the ground. It's nice to see they're actually constructing something. We visited the church that's across the way, and they had many artifacts and posters memorializing 9/11. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I've seen it... I still choke up.

Times Square. You can see the pole that the ball drops down. Apparently the ball wasn't out... we think because it was so very windy.

I'm putting up this unflattering picture of me so maybe you can appreciate how cold it was. The temperature was only in the teens and the wind was gusting up to 50 mph... making it feel about 0. I'm wearing 4 layers on the top, plus my coat. I'm getting big enough that fitting into my coat without 4 layers is challenging... Cory had to literally zip me in and I could barely move. I felt like Randy from A Christmas Story...

Em, Brett, me - on the decorated streets of New York City.

Like I said, we had a very good time. Baby was actually pretty well behaved, and I only threw up twice the entire trip... and luckily it wasn't on the streets of NYC or on the subway. We're grateful for good friends who feel like family, when we couldn't be with family for the holidays. It was an awesome vacation, and we enjoyed every minute of it! We got back to our house on the 30th (no, we didn't want to stay at Times Square to see the ball drop; we watched it from the comfort of our warm living room). We vegged for New Years, watching as much football as possible, and eating lots of stuff that was tasty (but not nutritious). An excellent way to start the new year!

Sleepy Hollow

This past weekend we went down to Sleepy Hollow, NY (yes, it's a real city). We went last year and it was one of our favorite trips, so we decided to go again this year. We met up with Em & Brett, who drove up from D.C. The weather wasn't quite so nice (it was a bit cold), but we still all had a really good time.

On our way down, Cory and I stopped at Taughonnock Falls, about 30 miles south of our house. We wanted to take some pictures of the waterfall, surrounded by the fall leaves. We got more than we bargained for ...

SNOW!

Philipsburg Manor. This is a working farm established in the 1700's. You can take tours of the buildings, the mill, and walk around the grounds.

My favorite... Abby's expression. Priceless.



The Blaze. This is the main reason we went down again. They carve thousands of pumpkins and arrange them in scenes. You walk along a path and marvel at the talent on display. This picture is the Manor House.

Different lighting of the Manor House

Pirate ship

Captain Jack Sparrow

Marine life

Sunflowers

Graveyard

Washington Irving's house (author who wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow)
Love this picture of the 2 of us

Like I said, we had a great time!

One good weekend

Cory's sister Danielle and her boyfriend Trevor came to visit us last weekend. I took some time off from work and gave myself a 5-day weekend (nice!) It was so much fun having them here, and getting to show off New York.

First, we went to see all the church historical sites (that's what we do for everyone who visits). This is the frame home the Smiths built (I love fall!)


The temple, framed by fall leaves.

The original rock wall the Smiths built to mark their property line -- it's up on the temple grounds.

The next day, we drove 2.5 hours north to a place called 'The Thousand Islands.' When Cory and I moved out here, we made a list of all the places we wanted to visit while living on the east coast -- and this was the only place left on our list. So now we've seen everything :) The Thousand Islands is actually a group of more than 1800 islands, stretching from northern New York into Canada. Many of the islands are privately owned -- people buy the island then erect these gorgeous houses.


The only way to see the islands is by boat, so we took a 2 hour boat tour around the islands. This is us on the boat.

Haha, this is where Trevor is going to some day live...

This is the smallest of all the islands. All you need to be counted as one of the islands is a tree and some other form of vegetation. Wa-la!

They call this the world's shortest international bridge, cause it passes right over the American/Canadian border. Our tour guide says the guy who owns the islands used to banish his grand kids to another country when they were being bad.

This is Boldt Castle, as seen from the water.

The Boldt Castle pump house.

For a few extra dollars, you can take a tour of the castle, which is exactly what we did. The grounds were gorgeous. And the castle was so cool-looking.



Haha, I was trying so hard to keep a straight face... and failing miserably...

I love this picture of the 4 of us, on the terrace of the castle.

This is a state park called Watkins Glen. It's so pretty, carved out over centuries of time by water. Cory took Danielle & Trevor down to visit (I stayed home, by this time, I was feeling rather sick... too much playing, I'm afraid)

This is a good picture showing how narrow it is.

We'll sure miss all the cool stuff that's in or nearby New York when we move. We've seen some really cool places and it's so fun to show them off. It was nice having visitors, even though I felt crappy for lots of the time. Thanks for coming and seeing us, guys!