2-Wheeled Wonder

After we got back from New York, things settled down for a few days and then Hadley decided that she wanted to try and ride her bike without training wheels.  We tried this before a month or two back and she had immediately wanted them back on, so I said sure and took them off.  

Well, something must have clicked this time because she just took off without me really doing anything to help!  The last time I put the training wheels back on, I made them higher so she couldn't rely on them as much and I guess that was all she needed, that determined little girl!

If there is one thing we know about Hadley, if she wants something, she will fight tooth and nail to get it!

 It is way too hard to pedal, steer and look up at mom and smile.  I guess for safety reasons, we should keep the smiling at a low priority for now.

 Everyone wanted to join in on the fun and Allie showed us her cool trick of riding with no feet on the pedals.  They like to use the neighbors's driveway as their ramp to shoot off into the cup-de-sac.  A perfect spot for leaning how to ride a bike!

 Oh, there is that smile!

 Miles, in true Miles-fashion decided to find a way to get really dirty.  We had this little spot in front of the house that is not graded correctly and has stagnant water all the time.

 Miles decided it would be a great place to push the baby stroller and he fell in the muck and got gross.  Had to take a picture first though. :)

Cathedral, Central Park and Matilda!

 We started off the morning with a visit to Absolute Bagel (with a long line!) and had hot bagels that were SOOO good and then walked over to St. John the Divine Cathedral which was so gothic and beautiful!  We went through about 5 different cathedrals while in NYC and this was was by far the most grand.  It always amazes me how cathedrals are never really done, always having work done or additions in progress, along with the names of those who were the benefactors.

 I loved the great hall in the center of the cross with it's beautiful columns and ceiling which seemed to reach heaven.  The stained glass windows were also beautiful, but hard to capture in picture.  It didn't help that it was cloudy outside so the light coming through was pretty filtered.

 Outside on the grounds, there were 2 peacocks that have lived there for years and they both gave us a show as we were walking around.

 Next we walked over to get a Levain chocolate chip cookie and pb chocolate cookie which were almost scone-like and very delicious.  To work of the cookies, we decided to walk from the upper west side of central park down to the east side and took the less-busy trails to see a few different things.

 We headed over to the upper east side to visit the gardens and Alice in Wonderland statue.  The gardens were SOOOO close to blooming with daffodils and tulips, but not quite.  Bummer!

We also hit up the castle to get the highest vantage point and look around.  

That night we went to the Ramen Bar for authentic ramen which was good and then headed to see Matilda the musical.  It was cute and fun to be so close (small theaters here in the city).  We ended the night with some delicious delicacies from Carlo's Bakery (their shop in Manhattan).  We had a Cannoli and a Strawberry Cheese cake.  Yum!

Let Freedom Ring

I am so glad we held off  a couple of days to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island because the weather was beautiful and we were able to see everything without all the fog of the previous days!  Hooray!

We took the subway all the way down to the end of the island to hop on the boat to go see the Statue of Liberty first and then Ellis Island next.  

Mike took these beautiful pictures as we were leaving the dock and they look great!  I guess the benefit of coming while it is still somewhat cold in New York is that it is not too busy!  We frequently walked through what would be super long line ropes and rarely waited more than a few minutes.  

This is a cool shot while on the boat of the new Freedom Tower which opened right after our trip.

They take you around the whole island and then drop you off to go walk around the bottom.  She really isn't as big as I would have thought, but it still looks really cool!  The crown tickets were sold out by the time we got our flight tickets, so we didn't get to go up, but still was pretty neat!

Next was Ellis Island which had such a neat feel and almost a reverence about it.  So many people made they way to America through these doors and I can only imagine the fear and uncertainty along with their hope and desire for something better.  I love America!

After lunch, we headed out to the Highline (which is a decent walk away from the subway) which was fun to see a the meat packing district and where a lot of buildings are being re-vamped into apartments and such.  Always a changing city!

Sunday in Central Park

Sunday Morning we took it easy and headed over to the Manhattan Temple for Sacrament meeting and then we walked back to our hotel in the beautiful weather and picked up our bikes for a bike tour of central park.  We biked around the whole thing once to get a feel for it and then again and stopped along the way the second time to see different parts and to take a little break.  It is a huge park!  

It finally warmed up so we had our huge coats in the backpack with the water bottle and took turns wearing the backpack because it was so heavy.  They trees were just starting to bloom, a few weeks later and we would have seen some beautiful foliage! (darn polar vortex)  

After we dropped off our bikes we headed back to relax and take some pictures.  Of course we threw in some yummy food in the mix and ended up walking back down Madison avenue just to take more the city in.  It was a good down day for us because we had been walking so much the past couple of days and our feet were a bit tired.