There are a lot of great aspects of working for the State Department, but one of our favorites is getting federal holidays off (Bri the Lawyer needed to work through most fed holidays).  As President’s Day 2017 approached (yes, yes – we’re a little behind on the blog J), we thought we would take the kids to New York City and see some friends and a show.  Twenty years ago, I served an LDS Spanish-speaking mission in Brooklyn and Queens, and fell in love with New York City.  Bri and I (and my dad and brother) went to NYC when we were dating in 1999 but I haven’t been back since , and the kids are always up for an adventure.  We got on AirBNB, found a great old brownstone in Staten Island, and scheduled our trip.   

On Friday after Bri finished his morning Russian classes, we packed the van and hit the road.  After a long six-hour trip through Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, we finally reached New York and Staten Island, found our place, and moved in.  Our rental was a spacious old brownstone in a nice neighborhood that looked like it was about 150 years old, lots of wood and fun brass and iron work, and warm.  We were on the top floor (and the rest of the browstone was empty – not sure what’s going on there, but good for us!).  We got situated and hit the hay.  

Saturday morning, we made breakfast, got ready, and drove to the Staten Island Ferry parking lot.  I served on Staten Island during my mission, and it was fun to look around and be back.  The SIF is a free 5-mile, 25 minute ferry, and we enjoyed getting the harbor view of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, New Jersey, and Manhattan on our way in.  We all especially enjoyed the good views of the majestic Statue of Liberty on our way in and looked forward to seeing it (Mon).  

We landed in Battery Harbor, got our bearings, and headed towards the 9/11 memorial.  En route, we stopped at Trinity Church so Bri could make his pilgrimage to Alexander Hamilton’s grave (we also saw the famous engineer Robert Fulton’s grave).  After taking a peek inside the beautiful old church, we continued our walk, passing by the New York Stock Exchange on our way, and arrived at the 9/11 Memorial.  

The Memorial was huge and beautiful, and once inside we went through the different exhibits, saw the massive exposed retaining wall in a cavernous display area, and reflected on the atrocities committed that day.  It was a somber moment for all of us.  Bri was in law school and we were living with my aunt and uncle when it happened, and we both remember watching it all on TV very vividly and the chaos of that day.  The kids have always been interested in 9/11, and they took it all in. asked us questions about the timeline and the people involved, and internalized what happened.   

After touring the museum, we came out and spent some time looking at the reflecting pools and honoring the dead before we headed across the street for some pizza.

We had booked (expensive!) late afternoon tickets for the Broadway musical School of Rock, and found our subway station and hopped on.  The kids enjoyed the subway train, and we got off at Time Square.  We all took in the spectacle of Time Square as we worked towards the Winter Garden Theater, and stopped in at M & M World for some merchandise and very overpriced M & Ms.  

After bleeding our bank account a bit, we headed to the School of Rock, found our seats, and settled in for a great show.  It was a fun time (if a little loud), and the kids loved it.  

Afterwards, we grabbed some McDonalds and Subway, and headed back thru Time Square.  In the Square we stopped and watched a group of kids hustle the crowd in hyping up a couple of them jumping over a group of bystanders.  After getting people (including participants) to pay up a few hundred dollars, a scaled-down version of the jump happened, and we laughed at the scam (we only lost $5, and it was worth it to watch).  We caught the train back to Battery Park, rode the ferry back, and settled in at the Browstone.  

Sunday morning, we identified a nearby LDS church on Staten Island and headed out to participate in their services.  En route, we realized we had picked up a screw in a tire, and decided our best option was to get to church and enlist help from the locals in figuring out where to get it fixed.  We found our congregation, slipped in, and enjoyed participating in the services.  Afterwards, we met the bishop who was disappointed we weren’t moving in, and spent several minutes talking to a couple of colorful New Yorkers who chatted us up and gave us directions to a tire place.  We found the place, had the tire repaired, and had lunch.  

I always saw this on my mission -- shoes thrown up on the powerlines!

After lunch, we headed to the ferry en route to Brooklyn to see some friends from my mission.  We caught the train uptown, and walked to and over the Brooklyn Bridge.  It was a fun way to see the city and river and get some sun.  

Bri has a growing obsession with Ben Franklin, the country's first diplomat and someone we see everywhere in our  travels!

On the other side, we found out our subway exit was closed, took a bus back to Manhattan, and caught the right train to Bushwick.  We quickly found our way to Cathy and Mami’s house, some Salvadoreneans I met on my mission, and had a great reunion and visit with them.  We ate Papoosas until we were stuffed and talked and caught up for hours.  It was fun to see my kids make connections and memories with people that mean so much to me!    

After a long visit, Cathy walked us back to the subway station.  On the way back to Battery Park, we had a guy on our train who would remove an item of clothing and throw it off at each stop.  We were happy to get back to the ferry after about eleven stops and before the guy was naked.  : )

Monday morning, we packed up the car, said goodbye to the brownstone, and drove to the ferry terminal.  We caught the ride in to Battery Park and ate breakfast at the Nathan’s Hot Dogs in the terminal.  

We then queued for a ridiculously long line to get on the Statue of Liberty ferry, and just missed one before catching the next and getting the best seats on the ferry up on top.  We marveled at the enormous beautiful statue as we approached (and Bri took about a million pictures).  We got off the ferry, walked around the base of the statue, then entered and queued in another lone line for the pedestal climb.  There is about a five-month wait to get tickets to climb to the crown, so unfortunately that wasn’t an option, but we did get to climb about halfway up to the pedestal.  Up at the pedestal, we walked around the narrow walkway, took pictures, and enjoyed the view.  

We headed back down and walked through the little museum they have on the main level before heading back to the ferry and continuing on to Ellis Island.  Ellis Island was a lot of fun, with great exhibits that really helped us/the kids to get a feel for what it was like to enter the country.  We have been Americans abroad and I think were all feeling a little tender at the thought of the millions of immigrants that fled poverty and persecution to become Americans, and our time on Ellis Island was touching and informative.  After Bri grabbed some bookmarks at the gift shop (and a spoon for Savvy’s growing collection), we caught the ferry back to Battery Park.  

We ate pretzels and hot dogs for lunch and grabbed some Wendys frosties at the terminal before catching our last ferry ride back to Staten Island and loading up in the van.

We had a long drive back to Virginia, and went to bed tired and happy.  I love New York and it will always have a special place in my heart, and I’m glad the kids got to have a great weekend and their own experience there as well!

After looking at the price of bike rentals, we decided not to put it off anymore, and just buy bikes of our own!  The kids have been patient over the past 2.5 years not having their bikes, or the ability to ride them in Angola, so it was about time.  And a promise is a promise.  :)  The kids were SUPER excited, and we couldn't believe our luck in finding a bike for everyone at one location--Target.  No, we're not the $500 a bike people.  Just bikes that can help us explore Virginia while we're here, and Latvia for the next few years.  There are a lot of outdoor parks and places to explore here and there as well, so they were worth the buy.  We've done a number of bike rides as a family on the weekends since then, and of course the kids love riding around Oakwood as well.  We LOVE the freedom to be outside in nature and enjoy exploring together!

We've been in a 2 bedroom apartment for 3.5 months and finally got put into a 3 bedroom (we've been on the waiting list for a 3 bedroom for almost 9 months or so!).  Having all the kids and all of their toys, school stuff, clothes and bulky winter clothes & boots, just made the living space very small for them.  Especially when each of them wanted room to spread out and do their "thing."  For Rhea, her "thing" is teaching, singing, etc., Savvy likes to spread out her dolls and toy horses and stable she got for Christmas, and Thomas just likes to have a little sanity and quiet time on top of room to jump around on the beds.  So it was time.  Here we are packing up again.

We're lucky, especially with the rain, that we got to stay in the same building and just move down two floors.  So we took a zillion trips back and forth, up and down, and the girls had a few friends come and help as well.  Fairly painless once dad got home from work and could help!

Here is the 3rd bedroom that was added to the two bedroom space--quite a bit more breathing room for everyone with an extra kitchenette and walk in closet as well as bathroom.  Ahhhhh.  Even with boxes still to get rid of, there's a lot more room than we had.  Feeling grateful for space.  :)

Lice--probably the most obnoxious plague that has hit our family!  Not something we thought we'd deal with back in the states, after not dealing with it in Africa where I went prepared with lice kits and all just in case.  We never dealt with it in Utah either, so it was off my radar.  But our foreign service friends that come back to Virginia every few years, say that their kids always get lice when they come back here from post.  We will be approaching our return to Virginia differently next time.  :)  

It looks like Savannah got it first because of the quantity on her head.  They were all cozy in that thick, long hair of hers.  Rhea had it bad as well, but has thinner hair so less work to nit pick.  The most frustrating part of it all though, was that because we were sharing brushes and winter hats, I got it as well and had to depend on the goodness of my friend Analee, to nit pick my head.  After working all morning, I would come home, scarf down some lunch, and go to her house for a few hours before the kids got home from school.  We did this for a week, and then "check-ups" for another week or so after that to make sure we got rid of them.  Then I would do the laundry & cleaning, and then when the kids got home, I would nit pick them.  Luckily just a few lice liked Thomas, and Briant's manly Bryll cream kept the little guys from ever being able to get a good grip and settle on him.  So here I am in the pics below, nit picking Savvy's hair, the nightly 2-3 hour ritual for each kid.  I forgot to get pics of the other kids (kind of distracted!), but I think these pics represent the repeated procedure very well that consumed our lives for the month of January (the process of shampooing and nit picking lasted a few weeks, but then we had to continue checking their hair to make sure I didn't miss an egg and have a whole family reunion on their heads again).  The washing of the laundry and running pillows, stuffed animals, etc. through the dryer wasn't fun either.  Honestly, it felt like that was our month of January in a nutshell because I can't remember anything else about it!

And then of course we noticed a month or so later that the lice had come back in full force on Savannah again.  Don't know if I missed a few or if she got them again, but this time after nit-picking for 5 days, I hired Ana to come and help.  She nit-picks for a side job so I had her do Savannah and then check the rest of us too to make sure we were clean.  She's from the Philippines, and she told stories of playing around with lice there when they got it.  They would do experiments and take lice from her sister's head, and put it on her own so they could watch and see how long it would take them to multiply.  They weren't stressed about getting rid of them either.  We were all shocked when listening to this!!  We can't imagine why anyone would actively seek out to have lice!

 She was so cute and easy to work with.  I told her it was fun getting to know her but that we don't ever want to see her again...at least for nit-picking.  ;)

I'm glad that period is over, but we're not in the clear of course.  I have the girls wear their hair in braids or pony tails every day to try and control the chances of getting it again.  And they know not to share brushes, hats, etc. with friends from school.  And because of the prevalence of the lice here with girls at Oakwood, we don't go to friends' houses.  The kids always play outside together!  Sad, but with how the lice continues to get passed around, we have to try and eliminate any extra possible lice-getting scenarios!  Just sitting here typing this, my head is itching.  ;)

I grabbed our new camera and we headed Christmas evening to see the Festival of Lights at the LDS Washington, D.C. temple.  Amazing lights, an outdoor nativity, a creche room in the visitors' center with 80 nativity scenes from all over the world donated by collectors for the month, and a theater of performances going on every night.  The outdoor tree lights are put on by volunteer members of the church that start putting them up in August, and it takes them until April to take them down.  Quite the effort, but definitely worth it.  The days before Christmas and after, they were averaging about 8,000 visitors per night, and for the month a total of 100,000 visitors.  Amazingly the special spirit and calm of the temple was still there despite the crowds.  I couldn't get enough of the lights with the temple in the backdrop all lit up beautifully as well. I'm glad we were here to take advantage of the festival!  Briant and I got to enjoy everything again when we volunteered to help usher in the visitors' center a few days after Christmas.  We both commented that it was probably one of our favorite volunteer service opportunities that we've ever had!

We got to the temple just before the sun had completely set so I quickly grabbed some pics while the sky was still light and had some sunset color on the horizon and then had fun taking pics in the dark.