StoryBook Land

Last weekend Mark, Jonah, and I were able to get out of the city for the weekend! I love these weekends! For me, there is a sense of freedom that comes from riding around in a car. I did not even know this feeling until living the past 3 years without a car. I get quite excited about the thought of just being in a car and driving on an open highway. Anyways, we headed to New Jersey for the weekend and had a great time!

Mark's boss owns a house on the Jersey Shore at Long Beach Island. The house is beautiful and so is the beach there. We went down for an afternoon last summer and went again this past weekend. We spent the afternoon on the beach with a few of Mark's co-workers. The weather was great and the afternoon was relaxing. We then had dinner back at Mark's boss' beach house, which was really nice. After dinner we headed out to a hotel near Atlantic City, NJ, but not before Jonah gave every last one of Mark's co-workers and their family members a hug to say his goodbyes.


Here's Jonah playing in the sand at the beach. He loved the sand and the waves! Makes me really excited about our trip to Florida in a couple of weeks!

Sunday morning we drove a little through Atlantic City, NJ just to see it. We got out and walked on the boarwalk for just a few minutes, which was nice.
The main event for the day was taking Jonah to a little theme park called 'StoryBook Land'. It is a theme parked geared for children 5 or 6 and under. It was really cute. The theme is obviously storybooks... all the traditional stories, like 'Mary had a little lamb', 'Goldilocks and the 3 bears', 'Jack and Jill', etc. All the rides there are pretty much appropriate for Jonah, although there was 1 or 2 that he decided not to ride.

Here are a few pictures from our weekend.


This ride was a boat that rocked and kind of twirled around. I sat across from Mark and Jonah and was able to watch Jonah's expressions... SO cute!


Mark and Jonah on the boat ride


Jonah milking a mechanical cow :)


Mark and Jonah on the Balloon ride


Mary's schoolhouse from 'Mary had a Little Lamb'. Jonah kept calling it the barn. There was a live sheep outside of the house, so I can see why he thought it was a barn, especially since it is bright red! Jonah loved the little schoolhouse though, it was just his size.


Jonah was SO excited to go in the little school house. I acted like I was the teacher and had him sing his 'ABC's'... he was so proud of himself -- on the other hand, Mark reminds me a little bit of the character 'Billy Madison' in this pic :)


Jack and Jill's Hill had a big slide on it!



Here's the roller coaster that Jonah said he wanted to ride... he was all smiles at the beginning, but all tears and crying for Mama when he got off. Although, later he said he wanted to ride the 'faster, faster ride' again.. We didn't let him b/c we weren't sure if he really knew what he was saying. Now, if you ask him what is favorite ride was, he says, 'the faster, faster ride!!'.


At the top of the hill


There were multiple displays such as this one-- you can't really tell what Jonah is looking at, but he is looking into the home of the '3 bears'. If you pushed the button on the outside of the house, it told the story of 'Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. It was pretty cute. This story seemed to be Jonah's favorite. He is still talking about how Goldilocks broke Baby Bear's chair.


Jonah driving Mommy around in the 'Old Cars' as he called them


Jonah and Daddy riding the 'Choo-Choo'!


Jonah and Daddy inside the pumpkin of 'Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater'


We had a great time at StoryBook Land!

Our exciting news!

Summer Streets in the city

Every Saturday in August is 'Summer Streets' in NYC. The city shuts down a portion of Park Avenue from 7am-1pm on Saturday morning. It's Great! We have taken advantage of this every summer we have lived here so far. It provides a different place for runners, walkers, and cyclists to get out and exercise!

Mark, Jonah, and I headed out first thing Saturday morning and walked over to Park Avenue. We jogged about 3 miles and we were able to jog past the building Mark works in and other neat landmarks, such as Grand Central Station. The weather was really nice and we really enjoyed our time. Here are a couple of pictures from the morning jog.


The 3 of us on Park Avenue during our run - I'm 18 weeks pregnant and looking quite chubby ;)


Mark and Jonah in front of Mark's office building


After our run, we let Jonah explore Park Avenue a little.. alot of the nice office buildings have pretty fountains in front of them.


During Summer Streets, different companies set up booths to advertise their products. This was a Vespa scooter booth and they let you take pictures on the scooters :)


Another fountain/water fall in the midtown area

After our run, we grabbed something to eat and headed over to Central Park. Jonah had been saying he wanted to visit Gus. Gus is the Polar Bear at the Central Park zoo that Jonah likes so much. He is usually quite entertaining as he really likes to swim. He is fun to watch. While we were there, we also visited a few other displays, such as the penguins.

Jonah at the Penguin display at Central Park zoo





A few pics of Jonah watching Gus swim








After the zoo, we made a quick stop at the Central Park Carousel. Jonah and Daddy rode together and both seemed to really enjoy it.

The morning was wrapped up by some time on one of our favorite playgrounds in Central Park. It is one we used to visit pretty frequently when we lived further south in the city. Now, it isn't so close to us, so its kind of a special occasion to get to it. At the playground we ran into some friends from our old building. They have a little boy who is almost 2, so he and Jonah played together for a little while and then we all went to lunch. It was a great morning!

A couple converstations with Jonah.....

I am long overdue for an update on this blog. It's not that I haven't had material for a post, it's just that I have been lazy.... it really boils down to just that. As most of you know, I am expecting baby #2. I have been quite sick this pregnancy and due to that I have done a lot of napping during Jonah's naps rather than doing things like updating my blog. Well, I am finally feeling somewhat better, so hopefully I am going to be back to updating a little more often.

Jonah is always making me smile. 2 years old is such a great age. I have said that about every age with him, but the thing about Jonah being 2 is that he has been able to carry on some conversations with us. It is so cute and sometimes he says the most unexpected things and you are just thinking... where in the world did he come up with that?!? I thought I'd document a few of my recent conversations on here for you all to enjoy....

We were visiting Mark's family in Kentucky. Mark's parents are living in Wilmore, Kentucky right now, which is where Asbury College is. Mark and I both went to Asbury College, that is actually where we met... where it all began :) Anyways, one day we were all in Mark's parents van and we were driving by the front of the Asbury campus. I was pointing to the campus and telling Jonah, this is where Mommy and Daddy went to school. He was looking out the window at the buildings and the view of the front lawn of the school. He sat there quietly a minute and then he said "You wear you backpacks?" To which I smiled and replied, yes, we did wear backpacks. He then said, "Did you read you books?" To which I also replied yes... It was just so cute to see his little mind work and then formulate questions that focused on his idea of what school is all about. SO precious.

Me, directing a complaint to Mark, "My back is hurting tonight".... Jonah quickly chimes in and says "I'll rub your back Mommy!" He hops up and comes over to the couch to "rub" my back. Such sweet love for his Mommy.

After Jonah woke up from his nap one day, he came and sat beside me on the couch. He snuggled up right beside me and kind of laid his head against me. He looked up at me and said, "You my best friend, Mommy." If that didn't melt my heart.....

Last week I had to take Jonah to a back up day care program that Mark's work provides. Our usual babysitter is on vacation for a couple of weeks, so I utilized this benefit. Jonah refers to this daycare program as "school" He has been there a hand full of times and for the most part I think he enjoys going. (And yes, He insists on wearing a back pack when he goes to his 'school'). We were riding in a taxi that morning to drop him off and this is the conversation he and I had...
Jonah, "Where we going Mommy?" Me, "Well, I am taking you to your school and then I have to go to work". He sat there a minute or so thinking about what I had said, looking out the window of the taxi. Then he lit up and said, "No Mommy, I go to work!!!" I said, "oh really? where do you work?" Jonah replied, "New York City." I then said, "What is it you do for work in New York City?" Without hesitation Jonah said, "I work at Knapford Station, I drive Thomas!"
(For those of you that aren't familiar with Thomas the tank engine, this is a cartoon/character that Jonah loves. He has several of the little trains and is always playing with them. He also watches the cartoon of Thomas from time to time on the TV and has a couple of the DVD's. Knapford station is the home station of Thomas.) I couldn't believe that he came up with this whole scenario. It was adorable really. He was grinning from ear to ear when he told me that he worked at Knapford station and drove Thomas. I wish I could capture that precious moment and relive it over and over again. There was something so sweet about him in that moment, although I can't exactly put my finger on what it was.

Jonah is such a joy. He brightens my every moment.