Somewhere In Middle America

My brother Mark and his family moved to Omaha Nebraska a couple years ago to go to law school. Saturday I flew out to help them get ready to come back to Arizona for the summer, to meet Scout their new baby girl and to fly back with Ashley to help with Sam (nearly 3) and Scout (1 month).

When driving into Omaha from the airport we saw this mural and this guy reminded me a little of John Krasinski. Or maybe I have just had John Krasinski on the brain lately.

Then we went to a pizza shop downtown that has pizza by the slice. I got apple walnut and brie maybe.

Then I took care of business and held my newest niece Scout.

Sam showed me if funny teeth before we headed for a get together in the park.

Sunday was mothers day and when I got up Mark was downstairs making eggs benedict it is something that Ashley's family does and it was delicious.

At church someone was handing out cupcakes with blue frosting, can you tell who had one.

Gilbert and Mesa are relatively new cities so I love going places that actually has some history and buildings older than myself. 

The weather was so lovely here I am wearing a sweater sitting under a tree. 

Here is the tree I am sitting under

while watching Sam play at the playground.

When we got back from the playground Mark was sitting outside feeding Scout.

I am so proud of my brothers for being such good husbands and fathers. You can see Ashley inside working hard packing up not only for their trip but they are renting their condo for the summer as well.

Monday we went to breakfast at Harold's Cafe where a scene from Jack Nicholson's film About Schmidt was filmed. 

 Then we headed to the University so Mark could scan some stuff and show me around the school a little.

 Sam played Judge in one of the mock courtrooms

Scout slept through most of it. 

 We also drove through one of the fancy neighborhoods and I loved this house and tree.

 Spring was so pretty with all the different trees in bloom.

I spent a lot of time outside playing with Sam, here we are looking a ladybug we found. 

 I just love this face he was giving me.

 I had to bribe him to take a picture with me. But really he was so sweet always saying thank you and telling me I was good at things.

 And oh man I loved holding this little string bean, she was so tiny and yet so long.

The day before we left Rainbow Rowell the author of Attachments & Eleanor & Park tweeted that her local bookstore had signed copies. I thought they made the perfect souvenir.

Here is Sammy on the plan waving goodbye to Omaha and hello to Arizona. Once we got seated Scout slept the whole flight and Sam was so good playing with his truck and reading books we didn't even have to get out the ipad.

New York Last Day

Our last day started with us getting up and singing happy birthday to Lindsey.

 Poor girl it was the saddest singing of happy birthday. Debbie had lost her voice and we had just woken up, oh it was not pretty, but sang with love! Oh and since Debbie had lost her voice she kept whispering and Lauren kept thinking she was telling secrets.

Then Lindsey Debbie and I headed to High Line Park where I was going to finally meet my author friend Elizabeth Eulberg! You can read more about how we became online friends here and here.

 It was so great to finally meet Elizabeth and she was even nicer and funnier than I expected which is saying a lot. Really she took time from her day to show not only me but my sister and friend around and we had such a good time.

 We sat and watched the traffic go by.

 We started at the end of the park so we ended up in the West Village and oh man it was gorgeous.

 Elizabeth pointed out some TV sights for us, the friends building.

 Carrie Bradshaw's front steps, which has a chain stopping people from going up.

 Then we found a little coffee shop Think Coffee that had good grilled cheese sandwiches and had an early lunch.

I was finally able to give Elizabeth her I heart Darcy pins that I have had since Prom & Prejudice came out back in Jan 2011.

 She signed my books! Debbie and I did carry on and yes I did have four books in mine! And did you notice the London fabric Lauren gave to me!

Then we headed back to Lauren's and it was time for Debbie and I to head home. It was a fast trip but I did see two rats (one on the street, the other in the subway) had a bum call me baby, so very successful and so much fun!

There were some funny things that I forgot to blog about before so I am going to mention them now so I can remember them later. 

~ Lindsey calling yahoo yay-hoo

~Debbie gasping when she found out The Black Keys were playing

~Looking for acorns at Ground Zero

~Lauren asking the cop if there were any eating facilities close by and Lindsey adding "or otherwise known as restaurants"

New York Day 3

We started off the day by walking to Central Park. 

And although it was beautiful we were not really in the mood for walking.

So Lauren took us to Little Brown Chocolate so we could get Nutella shakes, which we were in the mood for. Then we heading over to Lexington Avenue for a street fair where we found even more Nutella.

We went in to Grand Central Station to use the bathrooms and change out of our boots, Lauren brought flip flops. We didn't want to carry our boots all day so we looked for lockers, there were none there but there was a lost and found unfortunately it was closed. Lauren and I thought we could talk a nice police man in letting us leave a bag and come back to get it later. Sadly the person behind the counter was a woman and it was a no go.

I some how left out this photo Debbie took of Lauren and I looking like a couple of little old ladies. Debbie Instagramed this photo and commented on how she can't wait to take trips as old ladies. What Debbie didn't know that is exactly what Lauren and I were talking about.

Then we headed down to the 9/11 memorial

Before we entered the memorial we read about The Survival Tree and were touched by what that tree represented.

Look at how it has grown, it wasn't easy it took a lot of care but it has healed and kept growing. While we were there The NYPD Emerald Society Pipes & Drums played which of course made me cry.

I kept thinking about this post by Meg Cabot telling about 9/11. It was a moving experience being there and remembering.

 Next we headed to The Staten Island Ferry, it is free and you get a nice view of the Statue of Liberty.

 We had planned on eating on our way back up to Lauren's but we were to hungry to wait so we asked a cop on the Ferry if there was a good place to eat close by he sent us to Pier 76 restaurant.

 We all shared pizza, pasta, salads  and sweet potato fries and they were all very good!

 It was cold but I loved seeing the Statue of Liberty with the misty sea on my face.

Oh yeah and we stopped by Magnolia Bakery on the way home.  Who are famous for their cupcakes which none of us got. They had pumpkin cheese cake, I will always pick pumpkin anything.