The Johnson family

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Salt Lake City

We got to see several friends and family while we were in Salt Lake City. We only got a few pictures though. Here are a few of them.

Here are some photos of Piper and I playing Guitar Hero at Rick's brother Ryan's house.

We went to lunch with my great friend Sylvia and her husband Antonio. She's so awesome and I think about her often.

Cleveland

Piper enjoyed staying with our friends in Cleveland. She can't remember their boys' names so she just calls them "the boys." Here's a photo of Piper playing on one of their toys.

I've attempted to learn how to knit with hit-or-miss results. I've made hats before but I wanted to try this new pattern that I had seen my mom make. This is my first one. I can see some mistakes but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

New car, new house

We went to Cleveland three weeks ago for a few reasons: to get familiar with the city, to find a house to rent, and to lease a car for me. We were successful on all fronts (see below).

My new 2008 Honda CR-V EXL

The house we're renting in Rocky River

New York, New York

It's been a while ago now that we were in New York but I had photos so I had to share. We had lots of people we wanted to see and lots of places we wanted to eat while there. We tried to have the two come together as often as we could.

We didn't get as near as many pictures as we should have; we were having such a good time that we'd forget to take the camera out. We saw former co-workers, old friends from church, my college roommate Bethany, and Rick's college roommate Perkins and his family. We spent a Saturday showing the Perkins family the sights since they had only moved to the tri-state area two weeks before. At the zoo we ran into my friend Anna from work that had left on maternity leave about 18 months before we moved to Sydney. It was crazy that we saw her but it was awesome.

We picked a not-so-good time to visit New York as we had to suffer through a heat wave while there. After having been there now with a child and in the middle of such hot, sticky weather Rick and I are a bit more reassured by our decision to move to Cleveland. Hey we still love NYC, but it would be tough having a kid there. Piper never got a nap in her crib; it was always in the stroller while we were out.

Our time went by way too quickly and we're so happy that we got to go. It did my heart good to see the city again. A big shout-out to Nicole for letting us stay at her apartment and to Martina for helping us get situated while there. You guys rock!

Welcome to New York!

At Downing Street Park

At Balthazar for breakfast

The Statue of Liberty, or as Piper calls it the "Green Lady"

Sharing a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity

Dinosaurs, ROAR!

Waiting for the sea lion show to start at the Central Park Zoo.

Pretending to be a turtle

Me and Bethany

Looking at Manhattan from Brooklyn. We had just had pizza from Grimaldi's and ice cream from the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. Heaven.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Los Angeles - Reprise

While we were in LA we got to do many fun things with family and friends. My sister-in-law Masha was really nice and got free tickets to the Skirball museum. So we went together with two of her friends with all of our kids in tow. If you haven't been to the Skirball, go when you're in LA next. The exhibit we saw was one for kids about Noah's Ark. It was very interactive and very imaginative. It was so fun and Piper loved it. And free entry and free parking, you can't beat that.

We also took the Metro with my mom and dad to explore some of Los Angeles. We went to Union Station and Olvera Street. They film lots of movies in Union Station since it's so classic. Rick had never heard of Olvera Street. It's a little slice of Mexico and is also home to the oldest house in all of Los Angeles.

We met my sister-in-law Kristen and her two boys, Cooper and Porter, at the airport during their layover on the way to Seattle. It was fun for them to get to play a bit together and for us to visit with Kristen.

That corn looks good enough to eat!

Almost all of the group together (we're missing two of the babies).

Piper was serving Aunt Masha and Harper tea time.

Union Station

Cooper, Porter, and Piper

Monday, August 4, 2008

Fun in the "Sand" Diego Sun

For the 4th of July which is also Rick's birthday (yes, I know that was a whole month ago) we met our good friends Chet and Sharee in San Diego. We had loads of fun together. We went to the county fair and played at the beach. Rick got to eat at his favorite breakfast place, the Eggery, twice.

Chet & Sharee, you guys rock for driving all the way from Phoenix with your two boys in tow. Thanks for a great trip. We'll have to do it again, sooner rather than later.