lessons learned

we returned home from our vacation to wisconsin on father's day a week ago sunday. since then i've downloaded 300+ pictures on my computer, met up with my sister-in-law & her family in new york city and went to an air show at a military base in rhode island where we saw the blue angels, canadian snowbirds and the F-22 raptor perform.

i still need to go through my pics of our vacation, but am all set to blog about our day in new york. my wonderful sister and her two kids agreed to take the train with me to NYC so i could meet up with pat's sister's family. it was an adventureous day, but a good one nonetheless. i used to have a poster that said: "all i ever need to know i learned in new york." while i can't say i learned many life lessons on our little adventure, i did gain many other tidbits of wisdom such as:

1. new york city is much more wheelchair friendly than paris. however, the man at the information booth at grand central station is not aware of this. new york locals are much more aware of which subway stations have elevators. this doesn't help when you have already gotten off the subway and are trying to exit.


2. if in a pinch, i can take jake's wheelchair (with jake in it) up an escalator.


3. it might, just might, be easier to drive into NYC and find parking for a vehicle that needs 9 ft. clearance than navigate the subways.


4. you can fit a wheelchair, folded up double stroller, two adults, and five additional children in a very, tiny elevator.


5. don't get off the elevator unless you are sure that you are on the correct floor (especially when you have all the aforementioned things in tow.)


6. do follow that prompting to grab those rain poncho things that they gave you in niagara falls even though the weather forecast said no rain. (this was learned the hard way.)


7. don't take your kids to a playground with a water park when you are expecting your amazingly talented sister-in-law to take pictures of them. (it really wasn't that big of a deal).


8. most new yorkers are willing to show their big hearts when they see someone needs help. (i.e. making room for a wheelchair in the subway, giving up their seats for the kids in the subway, helping you find the elevator to exit when you look lost, offering to help you find a subway station w/an elevator, just opening the door themselves and setting off an alarm when they see you waiting for someone to come open the gate so you can exit, suggesting an inexpensive chinese restaurant to eat at when you are trying to get out of the rain, etc....) we'll just ignore the two ladies who immediately pressed the close doors button after entering a (rather large) elevator; they didn't look like they were from new york.

unfortunately i forgot my camera in the car at the train station, but my sister-in-law was all set to take pics. i had her do some of grace since i didn't have her do school pics this year. despite some craziness, we had a great time with annie and brian and especially enjoyed seeing their kids. (although i have no pics of jane.)

i put this pic in just so you could see what annie had to deal with. fritzy worked hard to keep a frown on his face (even when i pretended to be shot in the bum) and lily was picking a scab in most of the others!


i like this one a lot!!! it truly is amazing that annie got such a great shot in the very brief period of no rain.

evan likes to do lots of martial art like poses.

i mentioned there was a water park, right?

annie's boy with my sister's girl