Our New York Baby and Fun in the Big Apple

What a little doll our NY baby is! We had so much fun playing with her for a few hours last Tuesday. She has changed so much since she was “our baby” but seemed to sort of remember us. Tal and Anita’s back garden is a little bit of heaven right there in the middle of NYC.

She has her own little woods just a few steps out the back door!

As always we enjoyed lots of stimulating conversation with Tal and Anita both at home and at a wonderful Thai restaurant near Union Square.  We liked the quote splattered on the wall:

We spent the night in the new “digs” of a good friend. It was pretty spectacular!

Definitely AWESOME, both in the small cozy apartment with those we love and in the spacious grand apartment with a friend we admire!

A New Barn/Apartment

Instead of replacing our little log cabin that went up like a tinder box in a brush fire last year, we decided to build a barn with a little apartment above it. The horses are prancing around and filled with excitement. This is their old home:

 

And this is their new one.

The apartment upstairs is just one room with a door to the bathroom but it will be a nice stop-over for kids coming from AZ and CA with grandkids!

It has a nice big deck:

Note the closet with room for a pack and play on the right!

Tack room downstairs:

And the barn itself….

There’s a beautiful view of the five fingers of the Kolob from the front deck! It’s going to be kind of fun! Come for a visit!

Fun in the Tidal Pools

Forgot to mention the fun we had with the cute San Diego Eyre kids at the tidal pools on our way to the airport. His parents rolled up his pants so he wouldn’t’ get wet but Cubby, of course, “dived right in” with glee!  

Even though it was freezing cold to me, the kids didn’t seem to notice. They had a glorious time experimenting with the sea!.

 

We all had a pretty awesome time!

What an adorable family!

Basketball Baby at East High School

During the Christmas holidays every year, one of our good friends who used to be a student at East High (Jim McMaster) heroically organizes an alumni basketball tournament which is always so entertaining. 

This year, it was hard to believe that the baby I cuddled all those years ago when he was born in England  and who shot into the world in about three hours when he decided to come and who ended up being equally fast with a great “shot” on the basketball floor, who was an all-state-star from East High School played basketball for BYU, SLCC and was a co-team captain for the Weber State University team that went to the NCAA Tournament, was now home for the holidays so many years later and was able to participate in the tournament and introduce his stellar wife and his own adorable baby to a little corner of his world at East High. 

Memoires flooded back as we walked into the gym where we spent countless hours cheering for three of our sons who were on the team and our youngest daughter who later, predictably  became a cheerleader.  It was fun to sit with this new group in the gym and see so many old friends, not only kids who had morphed from boys to men and who had wives and children but also their parents who shared hundreds of hours on the benches there with us.

Tal scored about half the points and had some awesome three pointers.

As usual there was a always a big half time pow-wow:

And the self-appointed “coach” of course had some good advice that, for once, he actually got to deliver:

On the floor by the score keepers’ table was a line of stars that represented guys from East High who were All-State stars. One was there for Tal and one for Noah!

 

When Charity (the cheerleader) entered the gym she reminded us that she had probably spent more time in that room than any other room in the world except her own room at home. She was a fierce advocate of her brothers’ basketball careers from the time she was about three on up!

What fun we had with that baby and her mom as they were introduced to Tal’s old High School world. 

But nobody was more pleased about all that than her daddy!  This little girl was a long time in coming and he was delighted to introduce her to the gym!

Babies grow up and have babies! Where did all that time go? Incredibly fun!