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. 

Grandma Came to Visit!!

Grandma Ria came to visit us the end of August and we had soooo much fun with her here! When she got in the car at the airport, Taisley was so excited! It was really cute. These two spent a lot of time together back in AZ while I was working full time. 

Unfortunately, Trav was busy with school the whole week so my mom and I had to venture out on our own. 

We made it up to Montauk Point and went up in the lighthouse. We had to take turns because they wouldn't let Taisley go up in the lighthouse. It was a warm day so when we got down to the beach we tried to cool off in the water a little bit without getting too wet...Taisley just wanted to dive right in.

Here is the view from the top of the lighthouse...it was beautiful!

Mom and I were able to go to the city while Trav stayed home with Taisley (what a nice guy).

I was a little nervous to go without Trav since this was only my second time in the city but Mom and I figured it out and luckily didn't get lost, haha. The subway system is a little tricky but once you figure that out and have a map with you, you're golden! 

We were able to see PHANTOM OF THE OPERA on BROADWAY!!!! It was amazing!!!

It was in the "Majestic" Theater 

The beautiful Manhattan Temple

Mom in Time Square

We ate lunch at the 'Shake Shack' just a few blocks from Time Square...it was delicious! 

Right outside of Central Park

It was so much fun running around New York City with my mom! We had a blast! 

 Taisley turned ONE!!!!! 

We were so lucky to have my mom here to celebrate with us.

I think Taisley enjoyed her cake....what do you think?

Haha We love this silly girl!

She had fun opening all her gifts and playing with all her new toys. 

It was sad to see Grandma go when Taisley and I dropped her off at the airport. We had so much fun with her and were glad she could come stay with us. We love you Grandma Ria!

Here is Taisley girl just having fun.

This is her new favorite spot...she pulls everything out and in she goes.

Then she will play peek a boo with you. haha.

This is how the living room looks for most of the day. She loves to pull every book and toy out that she has and then play play play. We pick it all up at night and she is back at it in the morning!! 

This is at the mall playground. Taisley is usually the popular one and all the kids follow her around. Of course she loves the attention and has a grand ole time. 

Trav started school and is loving it so far. He is busy studying all the time but he does great at balancing everything out. This is the 1st day of school. When I told him I had to snap a picture he said "I'm not in first grade" haha. Hey, I think it's a big deal :)

Fun Fun Fun!!

This was the last week before Travis started school so we tried to fit a lot of fun things into our agenda.

 We were able to head over to the North Shore of Long Island and let me just tell you....it is GORGEOUS!!! The houses are beautiful, I felt like we were in a movie driving along the roads.

This is Teddy Roosevelt's home. It is a 23 bedroom mansion that was purchased for $17,000 in 1885. 

Unfortunatley, the inside of the home is closed for rehabilitation for the next 3 years...bummer! But the outside was awesome too. 

This was a huge porch on the back side of the home and it was dreamy. The home sits on 95 acres of land on top of a hill.  

It started pouring rain while we were there so we hid in this barn on the property. 

Taisley patiently waited for the rain to stop while sitting at the edge of the barn. 

Our next stop was the "Old Westbury Gardens" on the North Shore. It is a huge mansion that sits on 160 acres of beautiful land. It was built in 1906 and was owned by the Phipps family. It is now open to the public and the inside remains virtually as it did when the family lived there. It is furnished with English antiques and decorative arts. On the 160 acres there are beautiful gardens that you can walk through. The pictures below don't do it justice. 

This is the front (that's Taisley roaming free)

This is the view from the back

These are some of the gardens 

Taisley was sooo exhausted she fell asleep on our stroll through the gardens.

We were able to go to a minor league baseball game....The Long Island Ducks! We got seats behind the visitor dugout and it was really fun. Taisley loves that kind of environment...she claps and cheers and has a grand ole time. Oh and of course she made friends with the people sitting in front and beside us. :) 

She wanted to give kisses to their mascot "Quacker Jack"

We have experienced a couple crazy storms while being here but this one was pretty SCARY!!

We have never seen or heard lightening and thunder that big! We kept receiving urgent text alerts about a tornado warning and that we needed to "take shelter now". I was really scared. Amazingly, Taisley napped through the whole thing. A tornado did hit about 15 minutes away from us...it went about 4 1/2 miles long. Crazy!! I tried to snap some pictures to show how much rain came down, not sure if you can really tell.

Trav and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary on August 7th. Luckily our friend was able to watch Taisley for us so we could go to dinner. :) 

The rest of the pics are of Taisley girl. She is so hilarious and fun! She has really been into her "accessories" lately. Haha, we love her to pieces!