You Say Goodbye and I Say Hello

After saying goodbye to Lucy we knew we wanted another friend, and we also knew that a cat was more suitable to our busy lifestyle than another dog. I'm not gonna lie. Kyle went out into the yard after our goodbye to Lucy and cleaned up all the dog pop....and the prospect of spring with all the snow melted and no dog poop in the yard is absolutely glorious!!

I had the crazy idea to get a kitten instead of an adult cat. Kyle for sure wanted a Siamese. So we kept our eye out, and found a litter of kittens 10 weeks old down by the cities for a reasonable price. Wow....some of the prices were crazy. Anyway, we took a quick day trip down to the cities and came home with this cutie.

Rowdy was nice, but her growling and hissing when the kitten came near set her clear boundaries. She was not aggressive, but made it quite clear that she was not interested in playing. She has since adjusted. And that is how Luna (affectionately also known as "Spiderman" for her ability to climb everything) came into our lives.

You Know You Are Really Behind When.....

..... you haven't even written about the day that you had to say goodbye to a sweet friend. I think that the thought of writing that down was daunting and sad. So, I avoided it....and then things like swim season happened.

So, before I jump into official catch up mode.....we had to say goodbye to sweet Lucy in October. She was in pain. Like is SO MUCH pain. She couldn't get up and down the stairs, she didn't want to eat, she whined whenever anyone tried to pet her, and she would sit in the family room with her face into a corner. When it came time to head down to the Marching Band state competition in the cities, we knew nobody would board her in this condition. So the time finally came to say goodbye. We had been expecting it, but it was still incredibly difficult. Many many tears were shed the night before.

I made Kyle bring her in, because I knew I would waver about our decision when I got to the vet. She LOVED the vet, and no surprise when she got there was running around the waiting room smelling everything that she could. The hesitated to follow through with our wishes, gave Kyle the talk about how we could control her arthritis pain with pain meds, etc. Kyle stuck to his guns though, so the left the room to get what they needed. When they returned she was laying on the ground whimpering in pain, and they too agreed that the end had come.

You guys, this is supposed to be a quick process, and a minute after the injection, she was still with us and whimpering in pain. At this point Kyle was glad he was the only one there. The vet said that her circulation must have been really bad. When she was finally at peace the vet was able to examine her more and could feel multiple tumors along her spine. We made the right decision. If only they could stay as young, happy, and active as the day you get them.

A Few Catch Up Photos

I am almost caught up on the blogging (uffda....New York was a biggie). We can thank a little surgery and some time off from work (which I needed to fill while still "resting") for that. However, I found a few photos on my phone to share still.

Big huge college information packets...wwwhhhaattt??
Isn't it just time for preschool??

Instead of adapted physical education, this year
Nate is participating in unified physical education.
He loves it, and loves that his partner is a friend of Ben's.
They did well in the Bocce Ball unit!

Kyle and Nate heading on a mine field trip to
Duluth, that required safety gear including
steel toe boots for Nate. 

Marching Band continues, and one of the other moms
got this great photo of Ben during one of his two
soprano sax solos.

Surprises

We have had our eye on Craigslist for possible cars for Ben for a couple weeks. Some of us (Ben) more than others. Kyle was in Australia for almost 2 weeks, and Ben found so many possibilities. I, however, was not buying a car without Kyle.

So once Kyle returned home, Ben and Kyle were looking at possibilities one night. They found a Ford Taurus X for sale in Duluth. It was a really good price, for what we found (after a fair amount of research) was a very good car. Even better, Ben said it was acceptable. Not that the decision was entirely his....he should be happy just to have wheels.

So, Kyle contacted the seller the same night, knowing that the car wouldn't last long. We made plans to head to Duluth the next evening. Just so happened to be a Monday when Ben was at marching band practice. We had the cash to buy it, so as long as there was nothing that Kyle thought was horribly wrong with it, we were going to buy it.

Since Ben had to stay back in Rapids for practice, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to surprise him. We knew the timing would be really tight between getting Ben to practice and making it back in time to pick him up from practice. However, Ben made this easier on us by texting me at about 3:30 that he was just going to stay at school until practice. I calmly texted back an "OK we will pick you up at 9" reply, and planned to leave early enough from work to head to Duluth as soon as Nate got off the bus.

We made it to Duluth in plenty of time, and had a quick dinner at Wendy's before making our way to Lakeside to look at the car, which ran great and appeared to be the good deal that we thought it was. After a test drive, we handed over the cash and headed back to Rapids.....with two cars. The timing was still a little tight, so there may have been some minor speeding involved.

We came up with a plan for the surprise as we got into Rapids right at 9. I drove my car over to where I normally pick Ben up, and Kyle and Nate sat in the Taurus at the other end of the parking lot. So, after Ben got behind the drivers seat to my car, we made our way to what he thought was home. Except as we got closer to Kyle and Nate, I asked him to pull into the spot next to his surprise. I got a video, but the first part is black because I was secretly recording with my phone in my lap so Ben didn't know I was recording. My favorite part is Nate's "SURPRISE".

So much fun that all of the pieces fell into place so that it could be a true surprise. Of course there was the instantaneous snap chat announcement that took place first.

We drove home to explore all of it more, and in his excitement he forgot to stop and get food (he had not eaten since lunch and it was now after 9.

They seriously look so grown up here.

So off we went, in the new car, to get some Taco Bell for Ben. It was a good night, and we even got hugs from the younger teenager.

New York - The Journey Home

We got up, packed our bags and went to find a cab in front of the hotel. We were so proud to have avoided cabs and Ubers by becoming NYC subway PROS. We watched the city go by as we made our way to the airport. The line for security was long. Like the locals were saying they had never seen it so long....THAT long. We found that Nate again qualified for pre-screen, and only had to go through the metal detectors and not take his shoes off again. However, this also meant that he had to go through without us. This made him nervous, as it had at MSP...but he did good.

We had breakfast at the restaurant in the airport, which was not really the greatest breakfast I had ever had. Then found a quiet corner of the airport to hang out in for awhile, since the corner by our terminal had hardly any chairs and people were already camped out on the floor. Our flight was slightly (45 minutes) delayed because of weather, but this was totally manageable.

We made our way to the terminal, boarded the packed plane, and left the gate without difficulty. However, that was then the difficulty started. Long....LONG story short, we sat on the ground because of thunderstorms for 4 hours. They said we couldn't go back to the terminal because of lightening, yet we sat on the open runway.

Then we finally made our way back to the terminal. We were told that people could get off to reschedule their flights if they wanted. However, if anyone else got off there was no guarantee that they would be let back on. So we all stayed. Including the couple with the young child sitting next to Kyle. That young child did better than some of the adults. They brought extra water on the flight, but no extra food. The only bathrooms were the one on the plane. We watched 2 movies before we were even close to being in the air.

When we finally took off (later than the time we were to have landed at MSP), we were hungry. The only thing Delta had given us was an extra serving of snacks. Of course, Nate doesn't eat any of them. He was also now feeling the cold that Ben had coming on. His sinuses were plugged, so fun when you are flying. So, we made plans to order a snack pack that had something we would all eat when the flight attendants got to us. Of course, they had run out of all of them by the time they got to our row. The row in front of us ordered them, but none left by the time they got to us. Mind you, we were in row 10 or something like that....many many rows behind us still. Why they didn't bring on extra food when we went back to the terminal, I still don't understand. We ended up keeping Nate's blood sugar regular with pop....and I willingly gave mine to Nate (and ordered him cookies I knew he wouldn't eat for me).

Once we finally landed at MSP, we got an Uber driver (the chattiest Uber driver around I think) back to Mike and Sara's to retrieve our car. The kids got a life lesson on respecting and honoring your parents from the driver. Mike and Sara got a nice surprise of some strange guy (the Uber driver) peeking in their window. After a very short visit, we all had McDonalds to eat.....which felt like a gourmet meal to us by that point. We were home about 1:30 AM....happy to be in our beds. Perhaps it was the world's way of making our goodbye to NYC easier. Kitty was sure happy to see us though.

New York Day Six

Day six started out raining, and very cloudy. The plan had been to go to the observation floors of the World Trade Center. We attempted to carry out the plan, so following breakfast we made our way to the subway. By the time we got to the subway stop, it was pouring rain. We attempted to wait it out in the subway station, which has been rebuilt after 9/11 and is more like an undergrounds mall. We found coffee (and a couple umbrellas) and then made our way to One World Trade Center. Only, we found a bunch of people asking for refunds or changing their tickets for another day....no visibility on the observation floors.

So we regrouped and headed on the subway up to the American Museum of Natural History. When we got there we found that we were not the only tourists with this idea. The line to buy tickets was around the block (a NYC block)....and it was still pouring rain. However, Kyle had noticed that there was a members entrance with, of course no line.

We are now members of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. It was not much more to buy the family membership than it was to buy 4 tickets to get into the museum. So we purchased our membership at an outdoor kiosk (in a covered area safe from the rain), and made our way inside. If we had waited in the rain, we would have been outside standing in the rain for hours. Ben had already woke up with a cold, so we didn't necessarily want that.

This museum is huge....HUGE. We started on the bottom floor, which was just fine with Nate because this was there all the Theodore Roosevelt stuff is, including his hand written journals and some of the taxidermy stuff he did when he was younger.

He was so excited, and proud. However, we could also tell that six days of walking in NYC was getting the best of him. I talked him into using a wheelchair provided by the museum (we were members so we might as well take advantage of it...because we won't be back in the next year). It took some convincing, but he finally agreed. Kyle and the boys rested, and I went to find the most inappropriately sized wheelchair for Nate possible. But, he was able to see very corner (and there were a lot of them) of the museum as a result.

Kyle and Ben left after lunch served from a vending machine, because the line in the cafeteria was as ridiculous as the one to get into the museum. Ben wasn't feeling the greatest, so they took the subway back to the hotel for awhile. Nate and I explored....lots and lots of things. We had fun, and other than elevators that were so packed we often had to wait 4 or 5 times it came to us before there was one with room for me and wheelchair bound Nate. At one point we were just trying to get up one floor, and after waiting over and over again I asked a crowded elevator of able bodied people if there were a few people that could find it in themselves to go up one flight of stairs so that we could get in the elevator. There were some smart people who were willing. I believe that people behind me with a double stroller full of kids had to use the same technique.

We met up with Kyle and Ben (who was feeling better after a little rest), and had our last dinner in New York. Honestly don't remember where it was. The rain had let up, but it was still cloudy, so we decided to take our chances at the Empire State Building observation deck. It was not that far from the hotel, so we decided it was worth it. I had been to the observation deck in High School, and it had made me feel ill. But I had to go again. It is so neat up there, and even if we couldn't see much we figured the location is so famous it was worth it.

When we got there, we could see up to the observation deck from the street in front of the building. So, we thought chances were good. Of course because of the weather, there were no lines....which was a welcome first after a week in NYC.  When we bought the tickets, we were told that there was zero visibility at the top. However, one of the employees walking behind us informed us that it looked great up there. So, we took our chances.

We made our way to the elevators, and I hate these elevators. However they are new....go even faster than the ones I was on 25 years ago, and they play a little movie on the ceiling in the elevator. We were at the top in no time, and the view was spectacular. I was previously there during the day, which is neat....but the night view is so cool!

We spent a fair amount of time up there. I still don't like how I can feel the building moving, makes me sick to my stomach. But we all agreed it was one of our favorite parts of the trip. It was the perfect way to end the trip as well. We walked for awhile in the garment district, which I had also shopped in while there in high school. However, not much was open being it was night. We went by Macy's, but I didn't get a chance to show the boys the old and very cool escalators because they were closed.

We took the subway back for one last walk through Times Square at night. Our plan had been to go to the wax museum and take silly fun pictures "with" famous people. But we were shocked to find that the museum closed at 10. We didn't think ANYTHING closed that early in Times Square. We were disappointed, but headed back to the hotel to get a good night sleep before our journey home. This journey ended up being far more complicated than we thought it would be.

New York Day Five

Day five found us taking the subway down to the ferry landing to try and get to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island again. This time we took the right train, which took us to the right subway stop. We were also armed with reserved tickets, which meant we could skip the 2-3 hour ticket line and go right to security. We made our way through security and onto a ferry pretty quickly, which was nice because it was plenty warm out again today. This time because of the rain in the forecast it was also very humid as well.

We had decided before hand that viewing the Statue of Liberty from close up on the water was good enough, and that there was no need to get off at that stop. You are no longer able to go up into the statue unless you purchase your tickets at least a month before so that an additional security screening can be completed. As we got closer to that stop, we discovered that our plan was a valid one. One look at the thousands of people waiting in line to get on a ferry to go back to NYC and we knew we chose right. So, we enjoyed the close up view of the statue from the boat and relaxed as the boat loaded and unloaded.

We then made our way to Ellis Island. I had been here in high school, and knew that my ancestors had come through Ellis Island. However, as a 17 year old I didn't know the full story and didn't fully appreciate walking in the footsteps of my ancestors. Now I know that my Great-Great Grandmother was detained at the hospital on Ellis Island for 2 weeks because of an eye infection when she came over from Belgium with her three daughters during WWI. So although I knew the exhibits at Ellis Island leave a little something to be desired, I really wanted to be there again.

One of the first things my camera sought was the hospital, which is on the other side of the ferry landing from the processing building. The 1st and 2nd call passengers were brought right to New York to be processed rather quickly. The 3rd class and steerage passengers all went through Ellis Island. They were put through an extensive medical, physical, and mental examination. They used a button hook to lift up the eyelids of the immigrants and check for eye infections.

Button hook used to check for eye infections, and
the X that you were marked with if you were to go to the hospital.

Ellis Island Hospital

Ellis Island Hospital

Once we made our way into the main building (and found a bathroom to use), we discovered a sign for a "hard hat tour" for the yet to be restored hospital buildings. Like everything in NYC it was (all together now) MORE MONEY. However, I also knew I would really really regret not doing the tour. So, we bought 4 tickets for the hard hat tour, and were on our way over to the hospital shortly after.

You guys, I do NOT regret int he least spending the extra fortune to do this tour. Just like I totally didn't regret getting the Phantom tickets. The only restoration that had been completed was to stop any further deterioration. So, although it would have been really neat to see if restored to how it was when my Great-Great Grandmother was there, it was really neat to see in near ruins too. Some of the ruins was from Hurricane Sandy, which closed Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty for almost a year. 

A lot of areas are still blocked off from public access
due to the hurricane damage.

The white on the brick wall that goes about 1/3 of the way up
is the water line from the flooding during Hurricane Sandy.

The tour of the hospital was so so cool, even if you didn't have a family member that had been detained there. Maybe because I work in healthcare, and it was neat to see the design of the hospital based of germ theory in the early 1900s. Or maybe it was because of my family's story....whatever it was, I am so glad we didn't give up on getting here after our difficulties getting to it on our first try.

Maybe it was the opportunity to photograph some old buildings
that had yet to be restored.

Maybe it was the fact that they had an
Occupational Therapy building!!

Curved Hallway to prevent the spread of germs.

The tour also provided great views of the New York skyline and and of Ellis Island.

They told us to stay on the sidewalks
because they have issues with
sink holes.

We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at the exhibits of Ellis Island, although Nate's joints were starting to get the better of him. We did buy some time on a computer and order the passenger records from my Great Grandma and Grandpa. I could have ordered them anytime online, but there was something about ordering while I was AT Ellis Island that seemed cool. They arrived about 5 days after we got home, and there is was....a notation "passenger #26 to the hospital". 

I asked the tour guide what happened to the children of the person who was detained in the hospital. If it was a single parent, it was likely that all members of the family would be deported. Luckily the male family member was already in the US working on the railroad in Proctor. So, what likely happened is that all three girls spent two weeks in the dormitories in the main building on Ellis Island while mom was detained in the hospital. 

Crowded dormitories.

The "beds" that were used during the time that
my family would have stayed there. They were
later changed for better and less crowded beds.

The rest of day five found us back and the New York Brewing Company for more Lobster dinner. This time, I got lobster too. It was SO GOOD! We also wandered back to Times Square for another look. Because, there is always so much to look at in Times Square.