Merry Christmas from Chris, Evey and Belle

I have taken way to long to finish telling you guys about our trip. So I guess I will just try and tell you as much as I can think of right now and try not to let it get too long.

Saturday morning we got up a little later than we had planned...Go figure! It was a wonderful day though. We drove to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal which was only about 10 minutes or so from our hotel. We decided to take the ferry because it was free and it saved us the headache of driving into the city. We also found street parking so we didn't even have to pay for parking for the day.













The ferry ride is only about 30 minutes. But it is so cool to stand outside and watch as the city gets bigger and bigger as you get closer. And by far the ferry gives you the best view of the Statue of Liberty.

Most of our day was spent walking everywhere. We saw so many things in only 6 or so hours. One of the first things we did was go to the site where the The World Trade Center towers once stood tall over the city of New York. It was surreal standing there and looking at the massive empty space in the middle of the city. There is a fence that surrounds the whole area of Ground Zero. On one side of the fence there is a timeline of what happened that day. Actually standing where such a horrific tragedy happened was a little emotional. Chris and I just stood there in silence along with so many other people. There is a cross at the site which I assume is made from the remains of a beam from the building and as I stood there looking at it tears started forming. At first I was embarrassed thinking that people would think I was crazy...Only then did I realize I was not the only one. After that we went so many places....Rockefeller Center, Times Square, CBS Studios, Empire State Building, Macy's, Madison Square Garden, Penn Station. We of course took the subway quite a few times because it would have been WAY too much to do all the walking. We were sure to get a hot dog from a vendor on the street and it was YUMMMY! All the lights, store windows etc...Were such a treat. It really is a beautiful city. I loved it and can't wait to go back. Saturday night we met an old friend of mine and her parents for dinner. It was so wonderful to see them.

On Sunday before we headed home we drove back into the city and spent some time at Central Park. It was so pretty with the snow and the trees and of course all the buildings that surround the park. We took Belle for a nice walk and went and saw the skating rink and stuff. After we left Central Park we headed to the Bronx to get a few pictures of Yankee Stadium. That was about that. We had a wonderful weekend. I recommend to any to go to New York City, it really is amazing especially at Christmas.

For those of you who haven't see our pics yet we have them posted on a seperate site. Feel free to go check them out.

Chris and Evey's Weekend Getaway Part 1

Chris and I left our place around 8 am to head to New York. When we woke up that morning we looked outside to see a blanket of white and it was still coming down pretty heavy. It looked pretty but the thought of driving through it wasn't very pleasant. But off we went anyways. We would drive for a while with heavy snow and clearly slippery roads, but then we would drive for a while through nice clear roads that were just wet more than anything. We stopped for gas in Rhode Island and noticed a Tim Hortons just down the street. Of course I was VERY exited by this given the fact that there aren't many around that I can just go to whenever I want. There are two in Massachusetts, both of which are about an hour or so drive. By the time we were almost out of Connecticut and into New York the weather had cleared up nicely and the sun was out. We had great timing in leaving Boston for the weekend...That day we left they got hammered with like 7 inches of snow:)

We got a little lost once we got into New Jersey because Chris decided he wanted to go a different way that he thought would be quicker. IT WASN'T!! lol. Eventually he got us on the right track and we found our hotel. After we checked in and unloaded the car we were undecided if we wanted to go out and do something or just relax at the hotel until we needed to head out to the hockey game. We opted to stay at the hotel. Chris walked over to the Wendy's near our hotel and got us some lunch and we just relaxed and watched TV for a few hours. The hockey game was SO much fun. Being fans of the visiting team can be scary, depending on where you are. You can imagine our relief when we showed up at the arena and there were people all over the place with Colorado Avalanche jerseys on. At least we knew we weren't alone. The game was well worth the money and the 4 hour drive from Boston. The Devils and the Avalanche were tied after three periods and after the 5 minute overtime. So of course the game went to a shootout to determine the winner. After 7 shooters from each team the Avs finally scored and won the game 4-3. It was exciting!

That was about it for that night. We grabbed a little bite to eat on the way back to the hotel and I pretty much fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

On another note here's to hoping the Oilers continue to play well against the Canucks tonight. We are 2-0 against them this season, hopefully after tonight it will be 3-0. It will be tough and a lot of the outcome may lye in who plays in net for the Oil tonight.

Back from the BIG city

Chris and I made it back from New York in one piece, sorry it has taken me so long to post pictures and stuff. We had such an amazing weekend, there is a ton of stuff to tell. I think I am going to have to split it up into a few posts cause otherwise you would be sitting here reading for a very long time. Since everyone keeps asking to see our pictures and since we took WAY too many to pick only a few, we decided to make a separate blog just for our pictures. When I tell you there are a ton of pics on there I really mean it. They are pretty much in the order that we took them. So please go on over and have a look at them, some of them you will need to click on to get the bigger and better look at the picture. Save that link as well though as in the future we will use it for other pictures. I have been having some trouble getting the link to work for me on a regular basis so if you have any problems just let me know!

I will be back later to start telling you about our weekend:) Hope ya'll are having a great week.

When I say I have been lost in mounds of wrapping paper and stuff, I really wasn't kidding:) We made one final trip to the store yesterday for some more wrapping paper and a few final presents were wrapped. Now all we need is to find 2 LARGE boxes and get this stuff shipped out. We will probably do that on Monday morning after we get back from New York.

We finally hot a brand new hot water heater and system installed yesterday. What a mess all of that was, but thank goodness it's all been dealt with.

For those of you who don't know Chris and I are off to New York City this weekend. We are leaving early tomorrow morning, will probably check into our hotel and then spend some time in the city before we head back over to New Jersey to go see a hockey game. I am SO exited and am certain I will probably take A LOT of pictures.....thank God we finally got that digital camera. We plan and hope to see a lot of things this weekend....one thing that is a must for us is to go see Rupert at the Hello Deli and have him make us a sandwich. Oh....we were going to rent a car this weekend but our landlords were like "why are you going to rent a car when we have 3?" So they are letting us take one of their cars....how awesome is that!?! :)

Where Has Evey Been???????

Somewhere amidst all the wrapping paper and tape and presents I emerged a few hours ago:)

I would like to introduce you all to......

SMUDGE

Smudge is the newest addition to Bryan and Andrea's family. Andrea REALLY wanted a cat and Bryan is REALLY allergic to cats. So they found a breed that is hypo allergenic and doesn't shed. She is a Devon Rex and I think she is SO cute. Her ears crack me up, I keep telling Andrea she looks like a little alien. Alien or not I know they are so excited to have her:)

The Drama Shall Soon Be Over.....

I HOPE!!!! The hot water heater wasn't working because when the electrician fixed the electrical stuff and turned it all back on he never turned the gas back on high enough. SO.....He is supposed to be coming this evening to do that and then on Monday they have a plumber coming to install a whole new system. We are going over to Amy and Troy's for dinner tonight and then bowling so we will just go over early and shower and get ready at their house.

Happy weekend to everyone:)

So Fresh and So Clean!!!

Don't worry folks.....Evey is no longer dirty! Ha! Tonight Chris and I went over to Curtis (our pastor)and Brandi's to use their shower. THANK YOU to them for saving us from being dirty another day. While we were over there we met their very cute and very SMALL dog Zoe. She is a miniature dachshund and she is 10 years old. And she is the cutest thing EVER! I couldn't believe my eyes when her short little legs jumped all the way up on the couch. She was the highlight of my day and just for you all I took her picture:)

Seeing RED!!!!

I am soooooooooo annoyed. No wait....annoyed is not the word. I AM FUMING....there might even be smoke coming out of my ears. We get home this evening to find out our landlord STILL has not called a plumber to come out and fix the fact that we have NO HOT WATER and I haven't had a shower in two days. It's 7 pm and she tells us that they don't have someone coming till MONDAY!!!! Tell me exactly what the heck we are supposed to do till then????

Is it possible that it is December 1st already!?! I mean really?? Why does it seem like everytime I blink another month has passed....craziness!!

Being that it is December 1st and Chris and I officially finished ALL of our Christmas shopping yesterday I am SO excited and proud of us. You have no idea what an accomplishment this is. I am such a procrastinator and I am the one who is normally running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get everything organized. Not this year....It's all done!! Well I suppose I shouldn't say ALL....Chris and I still need to finish our shopping for each other.....But we have plenty of time for that. But that doesn't count. The stuff we needed to be done was all the stuff for our families back in Seattle and Edmonton so that we can get it shipped out on a decent date. I did a bunch of wrapping last night, now we just need to wait for some things to come in the mail that we ordered online and we will be good to go.

Since I am sitting here blogging it is clear that we did not die of carbon monoxide poisoning....Which is a wonderful thing really. I would have been hacked otherwise. Things are still up in the air with the whole water heater thing, but at least the plumber and electrician were here last night and fixed the fan and we have another detector down here, this time though it's in the ceiling above the water heater so that it will be a little more effective next time. Hopefully there won't be a next time, but thank God for those detectors. But now we have another issue, for some reason now we have no hot water. Which does not make me a happy camper. I had not yet showered yesterday when all of this unfolded so I didn't get to have one. Last night when we got home from shopping I was super happy to know the problem was fixed and we could run the water heater safely and I could have a shower. Well wouldn't you know it...COLD WATER!!! So this morning Chris went in to have a look and noticed the valve for the hot water was turned way down so he turned it up as high as it can go and still NOTHING!!!! BOOOOOO!!! So we are waiting for Alex to get a hold of the plumber and electrician again to get this whole mess figured out. And they better hurry cause I want to freaking have a shower.

Oh and the coolest thing of all is that our landlords felt bad and were thankful that we stuck around yesterday to deal with everyone....The firemen, gas company (twice), plumber, electrician etc, that they are knocking 100 bucks off our rent for this month....SWEET!!