Ithaca is Gorges

No, I didn't misspell gorgeous. Yes, Ithaca, NY is a beautiful place. It is known for its gorges. You can buy t-shirts and bumper stickers there that say "Ithaca is Gorges."

I love Ithaca. Part of my love for the city stems from me running away to Ithaca in high school with my best friend Amanda to meet various friends (yes, some of them were boys. Okay, that was why we went there: the boys) from our stake. Good memories, good times. As Amanda and I visited Ithaca, we discovered what a cool place it truly is.It's the home of Cornell University, the home of the Moosewood Restaurant, the home of Purity Ice Cream, and the home of several waterfalls.

It takes an hour and some change to get to Ithaca from my parents' house. I've been known to drive to Ithaca just to go to the Moosewood Restaurant. This trip was no exception. The Moosewood is a vegetarian restaurant that changes its menu daily. You never have the same thing twice. That alone is pretty dang exciting. Now, I'm no vegetarian, not even a health nut. But the food is dang good; you'll never have fresher food. Eating it just makes you feel good.

After doing good for our bodies, we indulged in Purity Ice Cream, homemade ice cream that's to die for. We ended the day by visiting Robert S. Treman state park, a park with several gorges. We hiked to the most famous waterfall there, Lucifer Falls. Turns out we took the long way: it was a 4 mile hike, half of that ascending (to have beautiful waterfalls, you have to climb a long way, baby). Dottie climbed the WHOLE THING. I'm impressed, since I was dying myself.

The Moosewood. Jared's home, by the way. He's been a huge help with the kids. See? His new best friend, Elliot.
Elliot's lunch was spoonfuls of pure, homemade peanut butter. Mmm . . . I could go for some right now.

Here we go: the hike to Lucifer Falls (great name, eh?). Carrie got to carry Elliot first. Lucky girl had her hair pulled for nearly 2 miles.
Dottie was a little trepidatious over this wobbly bridge.

Okay, I'm dying at this point. Elliot's killing my back. But isn't the waterfall beautiful?

Here's the big one: Lucifer Falls. The picture doesn't do the mass of this thing justice.
On the descent, Dottie was starting to get pooped. She would periodically squat like this to gain her strength. 4 miles for a 4 year old? I'm astounded, still.

At the end of the hike, we went to this swimming hole at the park that had this gorgeous waterfall to swim under. Nice, right?

Jared carried Dottie back to the car from the waterhole. She was truly tired at this point.

So, friends, visit Ithaca if you get a chance. It's truly a GORGEous place.

NYC!

One of my favorite things about going home is the trips to New York City. My mom, like me, is a Broadway addict. When I did my advertising internship in college in NYC, we discovered a cheap way to do Broadway: student rush tickets. If you're in college, all you need to do is show your student ID at the box office and you can get 2-4 tickets for a show for $20-30 a piece. While I may not be a student anymore, my sister Carrie is a student. So she got Dottie and I tickets to see Mary Poppins with her student ID.

Now you'll remember last summer, we took Dottie to see The Little Mermaid. She liked Mary Poppins, but she said "It was a little scary" (I agree; parts of it were), and that she likes The Little Mermaid more. Still, it was fun to go. We had a good time. It was nice to do something with Dottie sans Elliot.

While we were at the play, my mom and Carrie took Elliot to the Central Park Zoo. He had a blast! Elliot adores animals; he's mastered many sounds. However, my mom said many of the animals said "moo" in Elliot's book.

Carrie the turtle. Apparently, she got stuck in the turtle shell after this picture was taken.

Elliot rode the carousel several times.

We also stopped by the Toys R Us in Times Square. There's a giant ferris wheel in the store with each cart designed after a popular toy or cartoon character. Dottie, Elliot, and I got to ride the Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head cart.

There was also a giant Barbie house inside of Toys R Us: every little girl's dream. Here we are at the Barbie house.

Dottie and I at the play. Did I mention we got box seats with our $30 tickets? Yeah, we were pretty cool. This was during the intermission. I was trying to get the backdrop to the stage in the picture.

Dottie looks kind of bedraggled (as do the rest of us) because it was raining. Even though we had umbrellas, it's kind of a challenge to hold it up as you push a stroller.

Spoonerisms

In my family, we LOVE spoonerisms. What is a spoonerism, you ask? Well, let's allow wikipedia to explain: "A spoonerism is an error in speech or deliberate play on words in which corresponding consonants or vowels are switched . It is named after the Reverend William Archibald Spooner (1844–1930), Warden of New College, Oxford, who was notoriously prone to this tendency."


Let me give you a few examples. Carolyn Weed, if you switch the consonants, would become Warolyn Ceed. We mostly switch consonants. Dottie likes to quiz me in the morning, just by changing the beginning consonant to whatever she wants. This morning, she said to me: "Mommy, do you like Carolyn or Farolyn?"


Because we do this so much, there are often embarrassing faux pas which occur. One time, when driving into Provo in high school, I said to my siblings when I saw the restaurant Fuddruckers: "Look, there's Rudd . . . (you know what came next)." Boy, did I get teased for that one.


My favorite one that I've come up with drives Dottie CRAZY. One of her favorite movies is Barbie and the Nutcracker. Switched around, it becomes Narbie and the Buttcracker. Such a better title, don't you think? I love plays on words. Try out spoonerisms sometime. It'll give you some joy.

Back in PA

Well, we're here! We all survived the trip with relatively little damage. The damage: the end of the last day, Dottie took off all of her clothes, picked her nose until it bled, and painted her body with blood; I ended up sleeping on the floor in the hotel because Elliot's pack and play was next to my bed and he wouldn't sleep because he knew I was there; Dottie peed her pants in Ohio on the last day.

But we survived. We're all so happy to be out of the car. Both kids are loving the space of the house and the huge yard. It really is nice to be in the "country" again. I'm loving how things just grow naturally in Pennsylvania, no sprinklers needed. I'm loving spending time with Carrie and my mom.

Joe is still at home by his lonesome with nothing to console him but the internet and the bed. All other household fixtures have been removed. He's finishing his band camp and leaves Friday for grad school. I don't know what else to say . . . just getting adjusted to life apart?

Fifth Article of Faith

Okay, Dottie's been begging me to put this video on the blog. So even though I said I was going to stop procrastinating, here it is, the fifth article of faith. For the real words (Dottie gets some wrong on this one), click here.

Down to the Wire

I really shouldn't be doing this. Especially when my house looks like this . . .

And this . . .

And this . . .


Blogging compulsion has gotten the better of me once again. It's always something, that excuse for procrastinating the thing you dread. In college, I would download music or make a collage. Before the blog, I would check my email or read a book. Blogs are very bad for procrastination. I think an even bigger vice is facebook. Luckily I haven't let myself get addicted to that one.

This is it, the final days in my little house in Colorado Springs. We leave early Thursday morning, with Carrie and my mom. How am I feeling? Oh, fine. I don't really get hit by things until several days after the fact. So if you're expecting me to cry, you will be disappointed.

What I will miss the most is my husband. Fortunately, we will be reunited for a few weeks in July, in between grad school and officer training school. It is a summer of school for poor Joe. I wish I had news for you about our future plans from there, but most likely we won't know until he's in training. Okay, here are the pictures. Then I should seriously get down to packing. My goal is the WHOLE KITCHEN today.

This is all I have from my birthday last Monday. I neglected to get them from my mom's camera. If you want to see more, email me. I'll hook you up.
Dottie's birthday was on Saturday. Since our house is in obvious disarray, we opted to have the party at a fun park. It was a short little party, since the kids kept on trying to jump in the pond after the ducks. We had a good turn out, although I neglected to get a good shot of everyone. Those pictures would be on my mom's camera, once again.


So next time I post, I'll be in PA with my mom, dad, and Carrie. Let's hope my children will miraculously become angels so my mom won't regret the decision of letting us stay for 4 months.

Belated Joy School Graduation Pictures

Okay, I finally managed to get the pictures from Dottie's Joy School Graduation from my mom. I still don't have pictures of my birthday (today) because my camera was dead. Me and cameras. We're just not meant to be. My mom got pictures, which I will have to snag again.

This is me, trying to prompt the kids to sing "I've Got Joy."

This is when Dottie entered the shy stage of the event. I think the next song she started covering her eyes. Geez Louise.

Dottie getting her diploma! Hurray for Dottie!

My Graduate!


All of the kids with their diplomas.

Running a muck in the yard afterwards.

My little boy. He loves playing with balls. I need to get some more boy toys, for real.