The Holman Invasion

Over the past week and a half we had the good fortune of hosting Dad and Mom Holman while Wes was on Spring Break. Luckily I was also able to take a few days off work, so we all had a nice little vacation. Although Wes and Fran went to the Metropolitan Museum of New York twice, she somehow left yearning for more. Hal and I had our fill of art and managed to finagle our way out of the second trip.

Central Park: The Mall

View from the Statue of Liberty

Bottom of the Rock

Time Square. One and DONE

The Brooklyn Bridge. An excellent photo from my husband

5th Ave Mansion

Blossoms in Central Park

Past 3 Months

So I know its been a while but there really has not been a whole lot going on out here. Up until recently Wes and I were hermits in our little apartment trying as hard as possible to stay warm. Here are some pictures to fill you in on the rest of our lives.

These first three are from the last snow storm of the year, or at least we hope its the last!!!

One of the many beautiful church in Harlem

The church across from our apartment covered in snow.

We finally had a wonderful day in February so I drug Wes out to Brooklyn to a park.

Just thought you should all know that there are places in New York City where they have not covered in cement... Yet.

The Boat House

A quaint neighborhood in Brooklyn

So I wanted to take some pictures of Harlem to show how beautiful it actually is. In many ways its one of my favorite places in Manhattan as it is definitely the old New York. It has not been covered in square glass buildings... Yet.

I finally remembered to take my camera with me to work and took some pictures from our office balcony. The balcony is the ONLY cool thing about our office, trust me on that!

The Empire State Building

The Macy's Building. I once saw David Beckham and Posh Spice walking in on the Red Carpet from the balcony.

In the upper right hand corner you can see the Chrysler and the Met Life Building.

Sorry for the long silence. For being alone out here it seems like we always keep busy doing something. Currently we have my family out visiting us, and the city. Unfortunately I kept forgetting my camera so I am not 100% sure if I'll ever post pictures.

Stepping back in time a bit. Wes and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It started out at 4pm Wednesday when we boarded the train at Penn Station. Wes and I both really enjoyed riding Amtrak and recommend it to everyone. 15 hrs later, we arrived in Ohio. Thanksgiving day we enjoyed a wonderful feast with U. Mark & A. Diane, U. Kenneth & A. Carol, U. Wayne and A. Linda, Grandma Sinn, and all their families. I believe there was 19 of us in one house on Thursday and Friday. The food was wonderful and the company even better! We did a lot of talking, eating, and game playing. Jumping a head to Saturday, Mark & Diane and family took us out to an Amish Settlement close by. It really feels like you are taking a step back in time while amongst Amish. We were able to get little tour of a horse farm, did a little "Amish" shopping, and bought some farm fresh eggs. Our trip home began at 12:45am with a ride back to train station. 17hrs later we arrived at Penn Station.

We both really enjoyed our time in Ohio. Thank you A. Diane & U. Mark for hosting us!




Here are some pictures of our weekend.

Outside U. Mark & A. Diane's House

Wes, Grandma Marian, and U. Kenneth
Sitting around talking after the wonderful meal!

U. Mark, A. Diane, Kimber, Weston

A. Linda, U. Wayne, A. Carol

Lori, Wes, U. Mark, Carmen, Julie, Luke
Playing an intents game of Dominos

Luke, Wes, Weston
Playing a very cold game of Football

Julie, Tyler
Checking out the football game and deciding it was much too cold outside.

A parking lot. Signs that we may possibly be in the Amish Country

Weston, Tyler, Julie, and Lori
Touring the horse farm

The hat selection. Any size you can think of!

Umm... I think his new look is growing on me.

Fall in NYC

One thing particularly odd about fall in New York is, unlike Oregon, once it starts raining it does not continue for the next three months straight. It will rain one day, then it will be nice and clear for the next week. During the last clear stretches we decided to check out the beautiful autumn colors around the area. I'll have to say I am impressed at how well the camera picked up the colors, however, it was much more beautiful in person.

My Employer

Hello everyone. Not a whole lot new with us here in Harlem.

This is a promotional video for Village Academies, the charter school I work for. I don't know if any of you are interested in this, but I figured I'd put it up anyway because I thought it was nicely done and gave a glimpse into what charter schools on the East Coast are all about (they are a lot different than on the West Coast).

Jim and Irene Invade New York

Last weekend we had the pleasure of hosting Mom and Dad Sinn. The first few days were filled with city stuff...eating at Afghani, Korean, and authentic Italian (located in the heart of Little Italy) restaurants. Friday and Saturday were full of touristy things around the city, like a visit to the top of the Empire State Building, touring old churches, walking around Battery Park and Central Park, etc. After a couple days in the city we decided to venture out and head up to the Catskills. The trees were in rare form and we were all impressed by how many of them there were!

These first few are from the Morse Estate, the guy who created the Morse Code. Our hotel happened to be right next to it so we took a walk through it.

The next few are from the Catskills State Park.

This House was built around 1717. It's amazing how old some of the buildings are.

This is close to West Point. We stopped by, but really didn't get any cool pictures. It was a gorgeous area though.