NYC PICTURE PURGE

Random uncategorized NYC pics:

Flower shop.

Apartments that remind me of You've Got Mail.

High rise. 

Charming.

Brooklyn Bridge.

Andrew checkin' the view.

Secret garden among the pavement and skyscrapers.

Central Park.

The Plaza.

Trinity Church.

1700's.

Becca on the ferry.

Lady liberty.

High altitude garden.

MUCHOS FOTOS DE VACACIONES

The holidays were crazy and busy and wonderful. This is a summary of our vacation in a nutshell.

1.) Whirlwind of Elementary holiday festivities. 

I was assigned to make the fire for the school program's set fireplace.

2.) Driving.

Left wintry Idaho, and drove 16 hours to Arizona. The land of T-shirts and flip-flops.

3.) Visiting little sisters. 

Andrew/ Aurora and neighbor/ happy, little Belle

Duck, duck, goose.

Freestone Park.

feeding the ducks/ Aurora/ twins in their new shirts: Chillin' with my BFF

Andrew + Belle = In Belle's dreams

picnic lunch/ hide-and-go-seek/ playground

4.) Hangin' with Mom.

She and Andrew played one-on-one. Mom kicked his TRASH.

After Frisbee golf, Becca reminisced of childhood 

Playing on Main Street statues

5.) Anniversary Trip to Zion's National Park

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Desert Pearl Inn: modern and rustic.

Highly recommend.

wood floors/ mountain views/ private back patio overlooking pool

kitchenette allowed for homemade spaghetti dinner

Minutes from national park

Beautiful hikes and wildlife

6.) New Year's Celebration with Utah Ashmores

MIL planned fun dinner. Served everything directly on tablecloth for us to dig into. 

Ate salad, spaghetti, or alfredo from the table.

Mostly, I loved little Laney staring at the food...at the adults digging in...and back at the food, with utter bewilderment.

7.) And then it was home again, home again, jiggity jig. To start up real life again. Phew!

NYC MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Very crowded, very loud, very big museum filled with dead animals and other stuff. It's free with a "suggested" donation of $20. I think it was worth seeing.

Here's the short version:

Tyrannosaurus Rex

More dinosaur bones



Brontosaurus
And Andrew. Looking exceptionally dashing.

Woolly Mammoth

Andrew's picture he wanted with the big moose.

Very large pterodactyl hanging from the ceiling

Very large sea turtle hanging from the ceiling

realistic, exotic animal display

realistic, non-exotic animal display

And really big, dead moose that look alive

There is Andrew looking innocent and...way too happy. And there is Mom reacting to whatever Andrew just did or said to tease her.

The End.

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

Yes, I am still talking about our NYC trip. I probably will be for another year...that's how many pictures I took. 

Having an art degree, this place was kind of a big deal for me. Like, I was in heaven. It was fun to see all the original paintings I had only ever seen in textbooks. 

The building itself was a piece of art. The design was so fun and open.

I like the movement and action captured just by repeating the image one more time.

Look familiar to anyone? Andy Warhol's Pop Art of Cambell's soup cans, Mickey Mouse, and other famous popular culture icons are really well known. 

This is a really famous painting. 

But mostly, it just gave me a strange urge to find my tweezers. 

This painting was certainly itty-bitty for being so famous. 

I was excited to find this, because I always plan a mini unit about real vs fantasy centered around Marc Chagall's paintings. It's so much fun to hear my third graders holding in-depth analytical discussions about his work. 

There were more Picassos than I can list. 

Andrew wasn't impressed with this famous painting. Neither was I, actually. 

I've always been a fan of Kandinsky. His paintings are happy. 

Kinda cool, I guess. 

There were several of Seurat's pointillist paintings. They don't do much for me. 

Am I the only one to get goosebumps from looking at a painting? 

Don't answer that.

I didn't realize this was so big. 

Cezanne is probably my favorite artist...because of the colors, and free, expressive strokes, and defined outlines. I wish they had more there at MoMA. 

And there were a nice collection of Van Goghs...

Such as this grand finale of the day. I know that it's a super trendy, over circulated, commercialized painting...but it really is incredible art. It's so much better in person.