Monday, September 12, 2016

New York Reunion

The excitement was building as a congregatin of Eyres were about to converge in NYC! We arrived on Monday before the family crowds appeared and were lucky enough to get tickets that very night for a much anticipated experience. Several of our grandchildren have many of the lyrics memorized to the newest sensation on Broadway and somehow, pretty reasonably priced tickets because available! Because we had been listenening to the astounding lyrics and music to Hamilton, to and from Bear Lake the last couple of trips, it was especially delightful to see this pretty amazing show! As you can see, they were balcony seats, but it’s a pretty small theatre and we felt so lucky to be there!

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The audience was as entertaining as the show. Everyone seemed to know the words and what was coming next and they cheered as though they were at a tennis match at the conclusion of each song. Pretty fun!

And speaking of tennis….on to the U.S. Open where we spent a couple of days on each end of when our other kids arrived watching some great tennis and marveling at the new roof on Arthur Ashe Stadium as well as the New Grandstand Stadium.

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On Tuesday night Ian and Charity arrived from London and Eli kindly got a ZIP car to pick them up, even though he and Julie, Zara and Dean had just arrived from their trip to Switzerland the day before. Even though everybody was jet lagged, they did amazingly well and not only survived, but thrived!

It was a grand reunion, since Charity and Ian weren’t able to be at the reunion this year but the main attraction of course, was Baby Moses!

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That afternoon Saydi arrived from Boston with the four Shumway kids to greet Moses with glee!

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Since Central Park is basically Julie and Eli’s back yard, we always have such a great time there!

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When we got to the Shakespeare Theatre, suddently there was a cloudburst! The adults took cover under the eaves but the kids soon realized that the rain wasn’t going away any time soon and began to revel in the experience of getting soaking wet in Central Park. It was great entertainment for all who were taking cover there including us!

Zara started with getting her dress soaking wet and then gave up on that. While Julie rang out the dress, she, joned by Dean, ran off in their “skivvies” much to the delight of everyone. Soon the other kids, youngest to the oldest gradually joined the joy in the rain!

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Soon the older kids dropped the umbrella and began stomping in puddles to follow Peter’s example (in the green shirt above). 

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Meanwhile, Moses was loving all that raucous action!

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What a fun memory! Can you tell that every child in this picture is soaking wet? Also, Zara’s dress got a little dirty! It actually had holes in it at the end of her busy day. I think her mom threw it away!

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From there it was off the the MET to meet a friend of Charity’s who had driven up from Philadephia to see her and meet the baby. This is the only picture I got in that marvelous place. The story behind it is pretty amazing but too long to chronicle here. If you look hard you can see Charity and her friend and husband in the lower left corner.

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After lots of fun including eating out (and some eating in) we bid farewell to Ian and Charity and Moses who took off for Texas where Ian’s family lives for a special weekend with the Wright family where we would join them for a baby blessing on Sunday (coming in the next post). Shortly afterward we walked Saydi and the kids back to their car on 80th street and they headed for home to beat the Labor Day traffic.

And we headed back to the US Open where they were selling Rick’s new book Tennis and Life (on the top left) just published last month. It was fun to see it prominently displayed in the first ever US Open bookstore!

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Eli joined us for the day and we saw several awesome matches!

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And at the end of the day, we enjoyed a spectacular sunset as we walked across the way to the Mets Stadium where the Mets were playing the Nats (Eli, Julie and Zara’s favorite team). How luck are we? Look at that beautiful new roof in the background!

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The fairly new Mets stadium is pretty amazing too!

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How Eli and Julie are doing this is beyond me! Luckily they don’t believe in jet lag!

The next morning we bid them a fond farewell and flew off to Texas with lots of grand memories in our pockets!

1 comment:

Julie said...

The pix of your grandchildren having fun in the rain remind me of spontaneous
delight as mentioned in your book Teaching Children Joy. They looked like they had a great time.

I'm surprised none of the adults didn't join in - especially Richard - I know I would've done:)