Why Dad had to leave the Family Reunion a day early

I am going to need some help to photoshop Dad into the picture. We got everyone else in a good place, but he hid behind someone. He had to get back early for the Ministry Showcase at church....13 hours, 45 minutes driving with rain for at least 4 of those hours.

When the pastor asked for everyone who had a ministry represented to come to the front, not many were left in the audience.

Theresa has a cute new haircut!

The pastor's wife visits WPC's table.

Sue throws her hands up.

Some ministries came in costume and others gave food.

We worked really hard on this video....glad someone stopped to listen.

Roy had some photos of Guatamala and Brazil...even a picture of Liz!

The missions table won the prize. It was next to WPC's..so can we say Dad came close to winning?

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

I have been working on my pictures. I made a 5x7 20 page "everyday book" on Snapfish (with a coupon) for a lady we met while hiking in Acadia National Park. She forgot her camera and we promised to send her some pictures. It just cost me $2.04 to have it shipped to her. I also made another book on line for us with a coupon and just paid for shipping. I love making those books on line and can't resist free coupons.

This is another photo from our walk in Brooklyn on Saturday morning. It's a Brooklyn style garage sale. We also walked by this very pretty Community Garden.

You can volunteer and work in the these gardens in many Brooklyn communities. They grow flowers as well as vegetables.

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens: The Japanese Garden

Sometimes we take pictures of each other taking pictures.

Is that weird?

Brooklyn: Walking to Prospect Park

Saturday morning before we boarded the ship, we walked from our hotel in Brooklyn to Prospect Park,which the books said was a mile. It was uphill and seemed longer but it was beautiful and very interesting. This is an example of the beautiful brownstones in the Park Sloop neighborhood, an upscale area of Brooklyn. One of these little apartments is over a million dollars.
Many of them have a tiny little area beside the stoop for a garden and they plant flowers and vegetables and many people were out on the stoops cleaning up after the storm and visiting with their neighbors on Saturday morning. We also saw several young fathers pushing strollers or holding the hands of preschoolers.

We found this tribute to Brooklyn fireman on the sidewalk among the resturants and apartments.

We saw many veterinary clinics. One guide told us many New Yorkers live alone and are very attached to their pets. This one is just for cats.

It is easy to see why New Yorkers don't cook. There are all kinds of restaurants, carts and deli's everywhere. The smell of food on the street is wonderful and tempting.

The building with the gold top is One Hanson Place, the most expensive apartment building in Brooklyn, with one apartment available now for $8.4 million. Google it. They have a beautiful web site.

There are beautiful murals everywhere...and some not so beautiful, but still just as interesting.

As we neared the park, we found the Green Market, open every Saturday with baked goods and farm fresh vegetables. We found something to drink!

And lots of music

Grand Army Plaza, one entrance to the park, is a tribute to the Civil War.

We walked by the library,

and finally arrived at the Botanical Gardens, established in the 1920's, just one of many beautiful features of the 585 acre park.

First Day:Manhattan

We took millions of photos on our trip and it is going to take me a while to edit them and show them to you, but here a few of the experiences we that were most exciting to me.

NYC was the most scary and exciting part of the trip for me. I checked out every book from the library, bought books and maps, studied every web site I could find, asked the peas (twopeasinabucket.com) and spent at least a month trying to learn everything I could about NYC and what we should do there. From all that advice, I made a list of the things I most wanted to do and we were able to do them all except one.

1. Three Hour Circle line boat tour of Manhattan Island

We saw 3 rivers, seven bridges, five boroughs and 25 renown landmarks. It was a very good choice and I'm glad we did this first.

2. Central Park
One thing I wanted to see in Central Park was dog walkers. I was thrilled to find these guys. They were just finishing their walk and were telling each other good bye when we found them.

We found everyone in NYC to be very friendly and helpful (including the taxi drivers) and every where we went we saw people gathered in the parks and outside their apartments visiting with neighbors and friends.

3. Top of the Rock

The advice I got was to go here instead of The Empire State Building, because it is easier to get there and you can see the same thing. (It is Rockefeller Center where the Today show is taped.) I took this with the cell phone so we could email it to everyone. We got there about 4:30 and stayed until dark taking photos in the daylight, sunset and dark.

4. Riding the subway

If Basil looks a little spooked here, it is because we were a little anxious about how to get back to our hotel in Brooklyn on the subway. We had printed instructions, but we still had to ask 2 people for help. They were very nice and we got back with no problems. I studied the subway more than any other thing about NYC and was assured that it was easy, but I found it very complicated.

The one thing on my list that we did not get to do was walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. We saw it several times and took lots of photos of it but there was a storm when we got to Brooklyn the first night so we did not get a chance to actually walk over it. We were going to try again before we left for home, but it was too complicated to manage with luggage.

Movie Stars

Everyone on our flight from Baltimore to DFW was surprised when this guy walked on to the plane and sat down right behind first class. We learned he is a movie star. He starred in Air Bud. The flight attendant was the first to take his photo, then everyone else got a chance while we were stuck on the runway waiting for clearance to take off. By the time it was my turn, he had settled down in the floor for a nap.

We also found this movie being filmed in Central Park. The next day we read in the paper that Madonna is directing and it is about the romance of King Edward and Wallis Simpson.

We didn't see Madonna.

Nurse Granny visits a homeschool group

I enjoyed visiting a local homeschool group and talking about nurses this week. The hospital let me borrow their germ powder and black light so the children could practice washing their hands and seeing the germ powder glowing if they didn't do a good job. All the children knew me as Granny. Some of them, including my own grandchildren were surprised to find out that I was a nurse. They were shocked when I wore my scrubs and asked me why I had on those clothes.

We read a book about what nurses do and where they work and every family got to take a book about handwashing home.

We traced our hands and put germs on them.

The little girl in the plaid on the right wants to be a nurse. The little girl in the aqua beside her is scared of blood and doesn't like shots. In fact, she told me she doesn't like anything that happens at the Doctor's Office.

I took some of my tools and instruments and told them how I used them.

I told them my most important tool was my name badge because if I didn't have it, I didn't get paid. (Some of the Mommies laughed)

My weekend with some of my favorite people

I visited daughter #2 and her family this weekend. She was sick with an earache and went to see Dr. Paine as soon as I arrived. She was excused from from the photos this time, but if you look at the door, you can see her. One of our facebook (and real life) friends posted a photo of her granddaughter building a huge house of cards. Here is our version.

Boomer is a very sweet dog. One of the kids told me he acts like he is half cat. He gave me lots of love and I came home with some black hairs on my white shirt but still missing my kitty. The boys offered to get me a new one from a neighbor down the street who feeds strays.

Plumbers assistant and Dad are installing a new water filter.

The homeschooling group visited an apple orchard this week. They came home with 4 bags of apples. I peeled and sliced the ripe ones and #1 son made a pie. He had no recipe and with everyone in the family telling him he was doing it wrong, he made a delicious apple pie. I brought a piece home to Papa and he thought so, too.

We went to the park.

We are very grateful the weather is a little cooler!

We came home with a flat tire, but big brother helped him fix it.