All Work No Play? Yeah Right.

Friday, our first full day in NYC, was a mixture of work and play. In order to extend our time there I booked a few sales visits in manhattan with one of our sales reps...plus it was good for me to get some customer face time. Can I just say that hospital pharmacies are one of the grossest, dingiest, strange places I've ever been? You'd think a place that potentially could create patient infections would be a little nicer. Wrong.


After work adventures I met Caitlin and Jenna our friend from evanston in the soho area. I used to live in little Italy, and I hated this festival during that time. It's the San Genero festival or something. Basically it's an infestation of crowds and cheap crap. It made getting home each day hell. Yep, still crowded.


Cheap crap....see what I'm saying? Big chair photo? Does that really require an enterprise?


Still, it brought back some memories. Feel me Craigy?


Instead of wasting money on that crap, we bought Rice to Riches instead! Gwen and Max got to bond on this trip.


Max also got to try rice pudding, which of course he dug in a big way. And we question why he won't eat vegetables?


This building says a lot about how NYC has changed since I've been there. New, tall and shiny buildings are popping up in areas that once were reserved for quainter, older times. Lower East side is full of them now, but even soho is immune. I'm not saying it's bad, just change in process.


We went to lots of stores, Muji included. Max got lots of attention by waving at patrons of the store. We bought him some NYC blocks and a few other enjoyable goods.


Just love him, that's all I ask.


Indian food time, hooray! We went to Basera and met some special guests for dinner.


Halesaclause!


Asian A (or 1) and soon to be spouse Ryan! I miss these crazy kids all the time. Oh the crazy things we went through together, and yet our friendship extends beyond war stories.


Honestly, they just came to hold and love the boy....which they did.


I was actually a little worried that Asian A would kidnap Max. She has baby fever in a big way, especially for Mormon babies. She's obsessed with them.


Here is the torture of visiting...you only get a little time with so many people. I would love to just hang with these guys for days. But I relish all the time I can get.

After dinner we went and got a pack n play. For some reason I can't sleep with max in my bed. I get anxious or something. That nights rest was much more fruitful.

Don't Make Assumptions Me

Well,it's time. Time to report on our NYC trip. This will be way too difficult to do with one or even two posts, so get ready for many...but there are many awesome pics, so I think you will enjoy.

We always thought that New York would always change for us once we had a baby. We would get used to our Evanston lifestyle and realize that it's just too hard to raise a baby in NYC. This trip was kind of meant to prove that. We figured we would come home happy to have visited but excited about our much simpler life in Evanston.

As we arrived to la guardia, we hauled our bags and baby crab out to the cab line only to find that it was pouring and the line was more than an hour long. We were starving and it was late. So we bought our subway passes and trudged out onto the m60 bus. I balanced the bags, strollers, etc while people adored Max and Caitlin. Then we jumped off into the rain and bumbled our way up onto the R train in Queens to go two stops to Stephens area in Astoria.

When we finally got there we were both soaked in rain and sweat, completely exhausted. I fully expected Caitlin to turn to me and say something about how much harder it is to have max with us. Instead I got, "That was awesome! I love the craziness and the work, it makes ARRIVING so much more rewarding!"

That pretty much sums up our feelings post the vacation. We had a great time with max and miss NYC more than ever.


Stephen took us to his weekly haunt for food - the Chicken Shack. These chicken pieces were so succulent and to die for.


See what I'm saying? We caught up with Steve and he told us all about his life in Queens. It seems like a really cool place and certainly somewhere Caitlin and I haven't spent much time.


Max was just so excited to eat and not be on that plane. Who can blame him?


Mmmmm. Baby cheetos. I'm excited to share our adventures with you all in the coming days.

Remember the Time?

Do you remember the time?


You may be wondering, "why is there a Michael Jackson impersonator dancing on this blog?". The answer is simple....


Because we were there. We had a party so we could invite all the new students and peeps in the ward to get to know us and each other. I had seen this guy in the Evanston parks before, but I didn't realize that he went around looking for big groups to dance for. He does not take money, he does it for the love of the king of pop.


And he certainly brought it for our group.


Some kids just have a future in dancing.


Others don't. max did not trust this guy one bit, but he was intrigued.


But you know who Max does like? Alpha. They are so cute. Actually, Max really likes all other babies. He always smiles at them and sometimes tries to hold their hands.

Overall it was a nice get together and there seems to be some cool new people in our area. It might have been too much fun because below was Max about halfway through the party...


So tired, so willing to sleep wherever we lay him down.

Buddies In The Making

Big D's trip involved more than just wicked Beach Boy concerts, it also involved food and exciting excursions. This included a visit to local Evanston hotdog joint "Wiener, and Still the Champion".


My camera was on automatic focus and it chose dr. Pepper over D. I can't blame it.


Ketchup, mustard. Both awaited our corn dogs and cheese fries anxiously.


And before you know it, all the food was gone.


That afternoon we headed to another adventure...yep, you guessed it. A Met's game! (at Cubs stadium).


I was so excited to see the Mets. I missed them since leaving new York. It was a gorgeous day as well, so bonus.


The tension was high as these two mediocre teams duked it out.


This fan got super drunk. When woman would walk by, he would take a picture of their butts. Classy. Ironically, he got kicked out for yelling at the top of his lungs, "FAIR WEATHER FANS!!!!!". Way less bad then the pictures he was taking.


Big D...a thug.


We snapped this tender photo before leaving the game. Father and son bonding over baseball.


Bonding my eye!!! I was pissed by the end because the mets lost. Crap on those cubs.


Later as we walked around wrigleyville, we found interesting things to look at. Like this lost dog poster. That is the smallest lost dog I have ever seen...


I got excited about the pending 2010 Halloween that is almost upon us!


We found a solid record store to dig through. Big D has a decent collection of records to call his own.


Unfortunately, no great finds here today. Bought we found some sweet $1 CDs. Big D got a Kenny G album! Hooray! We did lots of other great stuff with D while he was in town. We went to DMK burger, which is amazing. We went to the botanical gardens. We managed to fit in lots of bike rides as well as a movie. I believed we showed the man a good time.


But ultimately dad didn't come to see me, Caitlin, the cubs, records or even Chicago. He came to see my main man homey Max G. They got lots of bonding time and by the end Max was loving having D around.





Hahahaha, I love this shot.


Seriously, does it get any more precious?


Yo Papa D, shut yo mouf!


Two buddies in the making. Thanks for coming out dad and letting Max get to know you!

Big D in Da Hizouse Y'all!

We went to the Ravinia Festival around labor day to see the Beach Boys perform. Why in tarnation would we do that? Cause they rock okay!


Also cause Big D was in town dawgs! The man hadn't seen the Beach Boys since the 60s when he saw them at Lagoon in Farmington, Utah! Crazy! I thinks his face says it all. If that face could speak, it would probably say Boooooshakayazzersmcgeeeeee!


Max...what do you want?


Sun Chips in their new extra loud bag? Have you people experienced this yet? These new 100% compostable bags sound like feedback from a bad microphone when you put your hands in the bag. Big D had to stop eating them at work because they annoy his coworkers and destroy meetings!


Instead Max got Cheetos! We are the best parents ever!


The Beach Boys started and man did they bring it. These guys are top shelf if you ask me. Also - JOHN STAMOS PLAYED WITH THEM!!!! It was like that episode from Full House when Uncle Jessie gets married and the Beach Boys play his reception. They even played that song that he sings in the show!


Big D didn't really care about Stamos, he just wanted to jam. Not as much as the freak drunk guy next to him. I wish I had some video of that guy....


Guess who else liked it? You guessed right! Maxers!

The Beach Boys sound a little tired and old, but their songs rock and we just sat and sang along the whole time. They played all the classics we wanted to hear and we left fulfilled. Plus we accomplished Big D's dream. Now if we could just get the Rolling Stones to come to Ravinia and play for ten bucks.