Fun in New York City!

I can’t tell you how happy we are that even though Noah and Kristi have left NYC, we still have an Eyre couple there! We stopped on our way to Europe for a night and then again on the way home for a day. What fun it was to see their cute apartment. Par for the course in these old NYC apartments, it’s a five story walk-up! Good exercise!

The apartment is small but delightful and is full of good things that represent this great couple….

Including this original picture of Swen Swenson with his school class in Sweden found in the old house where the Swensons lived. It was given to them by a kind area historian who had also talked to Brittani when she was there. Tal traded Grandma Ruthie’s book on the history of the Swensons which they had taken with them when so they could track the Swenson history, for the picture.  Both parties were delighted!

We were treated royally and had fun putting up the Murphy bed so that we could set up the table. 

We were treated royally and they shared some delicious food with us!

 

Spring was on the cusp in the Big Apple. This is a gorgeous magnolia tree that was truly popping like popcorn.

Central Park was also simply bursting with “baby leaves” and the wonders of nature!

 

We were able to have a fascinating meeting with our publishers for our new book at Penguin the morning after we arrived (and the day we left).  Now that we have the writing finished, we have lots of work to do to get it into parent’s hands. Luckily everyone knows exactly what we mean when we say “The Entitlement Trap.”

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of Kristi’s favorite store:

You can find anything in NYC! 

A Power of Moms Retreat for Deliberate Mothers!

(Weird format. Long story…it’s the best I can do!)

 

Women have volunteered to help from all over the country. Here is the powerful  and dynamic Power of Moms board:

Somehow we got 100 women into our “great room”.  What a great show of Mother Power!

 

 

Several sets of terrific mothers and daughters shared the day with us!

 

Richard and I did a little presenting too, with the help of our newest grandchild Peter James Shumway.

 

Here are our darling “presenter daughters” left to right: Saydi Shumway (Boston MA), Saren Loosli(Ogden UT) Happy Mom, Shawni Pothier (Gilbert AZ) and Charity Eyre (San Francisco, CA).  Could there be a more joyous experience than having all of your daughters to share such an amazing event?  Payday!

 

Kew Gardens

After spending most of our days in Ireland and Manchester either in the rain or the clouds, our days in London were simply spectacular!  Because it had rained the night before and the air was fresh and saturated with sunshine, we decided that we simply had to see Kew Gardens on such a splendorous day.

First things first however. We stopped at a lovely little bakery outside the train station that had delectable scones and clotted cream:

 

Wouldn’t you know it? The first thing we found in the garden was a new limb for the family picture! Think it would hold all 39 of us?  Maybe so! Let’s do it!

Right after that, Dad ran out of gas and laid down for a blissful nap while I covered as much ground as I could before we had to leave…in 45 minutes (somehow that phrase has a familiar ring Noah)!

It was simply gorgeous! There wasn’t anywhere you could look forever without seeing beauty!

In the end, my pizzazy partner had a great little “nappie” and I hope he looks at this blog soon to see what he missed!

Harrods!

There’s just no place on earth like Harrod’s!  It is a feast for the eyes, delight to the taste and a conglomeration of smells. (Actually, there are so many young girls giving out squirts of expensive perfume that the smell can get quite confusing!)

Anyway Eyrealmers will enjoy this little journey through the food halls:

 

 

Actually there was a ginormous solid chocolate easter egg there for 795 pounds (about $1200). I was so overwhelmed I forgot to take a picture!

 

Here’s the sushi bar of Jonah and Aja fame:

Mmmmmm. Can’t you just taste it?

They say you can buy ANYTHING at Harrods!  And when I saw this, I now believe it:

WHAT A PLACE!

LONDON!

We only had a couple of days in London but we went at full clip every hour we were there!  How we love that city! Because of the short time frame and because didn’t have a car, we didn’t even get to see any of our beloved friends from our years spent there! But we did see a lot of fantastic “other old friends”…the sights of London!

Our hotel was right in the middle of walking distance to everywhere! It’s an inconspicuous place called The Shaftsbury” (seen between those two flags). The cabs may be the more important part of this photo. Gotta love those London cabs!

I spent some precious time at Trafalgar Square feeling as though i could hug those big old lions!


They have a new “ship in a bottle” on a pedestal on the square as well as a “countdown to the Olympics clock”. 



One place I truly love is the National Gallery. I felt as though i was floating through heaven looking at those magnificent paintings! My favorite this time was a huge painting by Honthorst in the 1600’s of Jesus standing before the high priest with a candle on the table lighting up the high priest’s accusing finger as well as the Savior’s face. It’s too hard to explain on paper but the light was truly a heavenly light!  Ahhhh! Art!




We hit the plays as well. This one was a block from our hotel and though it’s not one we would want to see, it brought back fond memories of seeing Annie here for the first time.  




We did get to see Blood Brothers which was very English and very interesting!  It was about twin brothers who were separated at birth and grew up in totally different economic and social levels and how that played out very interestingly!


We also saw the new production of The Wizard of Oz with added music by Andrew Lloyd Weber. Thoroughly entertaining!  Sorry no pictures!
Les Miserables was one block in the other direction. Shucks! Not enough time! I’d love to see that again!



Walking home and window shopping by way of Regent Street at night was a delight!




The display above is 37,000 corks at Anthropologie!


An enormous clean-up job is underway at Piccadilly Circus in anticipation of the royal wedding in two weeks. People are pretty excited!
Probably the most important thing we did though whilst there was to meet with our hero “Dr. Phil” as he is know in Eyre-land.  He is the world’s foremost expert on the Lucy’s Bardet Biedl Syndrome.  He was unbelievably kind to meet with us over lunch and ended up spending over two hours with us going over the latest information he has on the syndrome.
He has spearheaded clinics just for kids with syndromes so that parents can show up at a doctor’s office and talk with someone who actually knows all about BBS!  We are SO grateful to him for the information we now have.  His office is at University College Hospital near Russell Square which we walked to from our hotel. It was a pure delight to be with him!
I got so engrossed in what he was saying that I entirely forgot to take a picture but here is a picture that I took with he and his wife helen at the BBS conference at Duke University this year. How we appreciate this great humanitarian who are doing so much good in the world!

London holds treasure we could not have known when we were there as “kids”!  All of Eyrealm holds a special spot in their hearts for this great place on earth!