Fun Before Hurricane Sandy

As I said in my previous post, Cassie and Chris came to visit!! Luckily, we were able to do a lot of fun things before Sandy hit. We went to the Fire Island lighthouse on Robert Moses Beach and took turns watching Taisley while we climbed to the top, all 192 steps! The view was so gorgeous but I'm nervous to find out what it looks like after Sandy hit. So sad. We are still not allowed to drive across the bridge to see what is left of the beach. :(

Cass and Chris on the boardwalk to the lighthouse. There was so much more color than the last time we walked to it in September.

We stopped to take a quick walk on the beach before we left. Taise still loves the sand but she didn't eat this time!

I'm so glad Cass and Chris were able to go to the city one day by themselves because Chris had to catch an unexpected early flight home before the hurricane hit.

They saw WICKED on Broadway! They found these last minute tickets on the 3rd row for a great deal! So glad they saw it because it's awesome!!

We made it to another Pumpkin Patch/Petting Farm which Taisley loved of course.

Cass and Chris being good sports and entertaining Taise on the playground :)

The pigs there were huge and quite disgusting but they amused Taisley

Her favorite were the goats again because they talk to her :)

They had adorable little red wagons you could pull around the farm. In Taisley's class at the library they sing a song about 'bouncin up and down in my little red wagon' so I thought it was cute that she was really in one. 

We bought tickets to this Jack O Lantern Blaze near Hudson Valley and it was awesome! It was over 5,000 jack o' lanterns made into all kinds of formations. We took a lot of pics but they don't do it justice. 

Spider made out of jack o' lanterns

The blaze was awesome!

 It took us an extra hour to get home due to construction at 10pm which was not awesome. 

So before the Jack O' Lantern Blaze we went to dinner. It was a very small Mexican restaurant and there was only one other customer besides us. Well if you have a toddler you know going out to dinner isn't always a smooth ride. Taisley was getting fussy and the waitress was very friendly with her and picked her up out of her seat to hold her. So we got to enjoy our dinner while the waitress babysat behind us! (notice Taise in the background) That was definitely a first timer for us! Of course Taisley, being the friendly baby that she is, didn't hesitate at all. We made sure to leave her a good tip for babysitting! I wish this place was closer to us.

Chris was supposed to be in this picture too but he had to catch his flight home due to Sandy. Cass and I had tons of fun in the city...we took the ferry to Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, went to the 9/11 Memorial and also went to China Town. I really enjoyed all the "sister" time we had the following week since we were mostly stuck inside from the hurricane. I was so glad Cass was there with us! 

I'm so glad their trip was mostly before the hurricane hit...we had such a blast with them! Love you guys! 

Strong Island

We survived our first hurricane. It was a very intense and humbling experience to say the least. God was watching over us and we were so blessed! We had been following the storm on the news several days before it hit and we were starting to get nervous for it. For our area the main concern was losing power for several days so Saturday night we went to the store and stocked up on non perishable food items as well as water, batteries and candles. We are located in Bay Shore on Long Island which is about 45 miles from Manhattan. Manhattan was evacuated Sunday and other areas were evacuated that were located close to water. We are about 3 miles from the bay. We had an emergency place to go if we needed to evacuate at any point. My sister and her husband, Cass and Chris, came to visit on Oct 22 and Chris was scheduled to leave Monday, Oct 29th and Cass on Nov 2nd. Well luckily they were able to get done most of the things they wanted to see and do because the airlines told Chris he had to leave Sat morning or else he wouldn't be able to catch a flight until Nov 2 and he couldn't miss that much work. So, poor Cass was stuck in NY for a hurricane. I was so glad she was here with me but I'm not so sure she felt the same way...haha. Sunday night the wind started to get really strong but there was no rain yet. Monday morning the rain came and the winds were getting stronger and stronger and stronger as the day went on. Monday night was the worst part of the hurricane...the winds were 82 miles per hour! I literally thought our windows were going to shatter!! The power flickered in and out a few times but it was never more than 2 minutes.....we never fully lost power! Through the entire storm we NEVER LOST POWER! I am still amazed by it. By Tuesday morning the worst was over, it was still really windy but the sun was trying to shine through. We were basically in shock that we still had power because 90% of Long Island was without power and we were part of the 10% with power. All the traffic lights were out around our home and the stores and several of our neighbors and friends had no power. On the news they kept saying if you were without power it could be up to 10 days before it gets turned back on because of how huge the outage was. Slowly our area is getting power back but there are still so many people that are without power and the damage is awful. Gas stations are running out of gas and the lines of cars at the gas stations are literally miles long. People are trying to fill up small gas cans for their generators. We drove around a little on Tuesday afternoon and so many trees and power lines are down and all over the place. A lot of homes, especially on or near the water are either totally GONE or severely damaged. The flooding was about 1 1/2 miles south of our home so again, we were so fortunate to have no damage done to our home. A family we know lost their home and are just so positive throughout this whole situation...they are really amazing. So many people called/emailed/text to check up on us and let us know they were thinking about us and praying for us and we are so grateful for all of your thoughts and prayers! Seeing the pictures in New Jersey and seeing first hand here in NY all the damage that was done and hearing about the lives that were lost we just feel so incredibly blessed.

These were just a few pictures of the water and damage we saw:

We kept staring out the windows watching the storm so Taisley wanted to look out the windows too. (this was before I thought the windows were going to shatter)

We were not sure how many people were going to be out trick or treating for Halloween after the storm but there was a few out and about. Taisley was not feeling very good, she had a little fever, but was still so excited to put on her cow costume. We took her to a few houses in our neighborhood. She waived at everyone that opened their door and just wanted to carry the candy around in her hands. It was so cute to see her cruisin down the street as a little cow. It was really fun having Cass here with us during Halloween too! Luckily she was able to catch her flight home this morning. They barely opened the airport back up on Nov 1st. I will post more pics from their trip later. 

Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers!!

Visitors!!!!!!!

Trav's parents came out to visit and it was so much fun!

Trav was brave enough to drive us into the city this time instead of taking the train. We left early Saturday morning and surprisingly didn't catch up with too much traffic. 

We took the ferry out to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty:

We also went to Ellis Island which is right next to Liberty Island. It was really neat to learn about all of the immigrants that came through Ellis Island to get to America. Lots of cool stories! 

Becky and I saw 'WICKED' on Broadway!!!

It was seriously incredible! 

on the subway

We went to the lighthouse on Fire Island which is about 10 minutes from our house right on the beach. Unfortunately, we were too late to walk up inside but we will have to do that next time.

We went to the White Post Farms which is a petting zoo not too far from our house.

 (after getting lost and taking a short detour) 

Taisley LOVED the animals, as you can tell by her face.

They had hayrides and a pumpkin patch for the fall festival. 

While we were at the farms we fed the goats and sheep bottles of milk. Well, the next morning Taisley decided she would feed her own bottle to her stuffed animal Zebra. It was the cutest thing. Now she likes to feed ALL of her stuffed animals her drinks. She was giving her bear juice in the picture below. 

 She has been so observant lately. She gets her toy kitchen plate and fork and acts like she is taking bites of food and says..."mmmm". She is so funny and keeps us laughing all day long. I try to write everything down in her baby book so we can remember all the funny things she does. If you haven't noticed by now Taisley never has a bow or flower on her head anymore because she rips them off after being on for about 1.5 seconds. It doesn't bother me until we get to costco and 2 different people tell us how cute our little BOY is...even though she has hearts on her shirt and pants! Come on people! Haha oh well maybe one of these days she will let me put a bow on her head again. 

We had tons of fun with Becky and JD while they were here and are so glad they came. It's always so sad to see our visitors go. Taisley cried when they got out of the car at the airport :(

The fall weather is settling in....the last couple of days it's been pretty chilly. The leaves are starting to change colors and it's so beautiful to watch. 

Boston!

Travis had a couple days off of school in September so we decided to take a trip to Boston. Trav served his mission in Boston so he holds a special place for this city in his heart. Even though we live in New York now...he is still one of the biggest Red Sox fans (and Boston Celtics and New England Patriots fan) you will ever meet. We even had a Boston Red Sox sticker on the back of our car that I made him remove so we wouldn't get jumped here in NY :). He also served 12 months of his mission in New Hampshire where he made many life long friends. We were lucky enough to stay with one of those friends, The Bentall family, and had such a great time with them. We were very glad everyone was able to meet Taisley. 

Unfortunately, we didn't get very many pictures but here are some of us in Boston.

This is such a neat spot close to the ocean where you can see Boston's skyline really well. 

Trav at the "Cheers" Bar

Taisley playing in The Boston Gardens

The Boston Gardens

Such a fun trip! So cool that it's only 4 1/2 hours driving distance from us now...we will definitely be back soon.