We're off to NY...

O.K. so we've been planning this trip for 20 years! Bill's 20 yr reunionfor West Point is this weekend. Most of the people we will see there, we haven't seen since he graduated, we got married and moved on with our lives. They say that the Army is a small thing, and especially members of the Church in the Army...however, we have never until just this last year had anyone we knew from a previous duty station, live where we live at again. So, it has been many years since we've seen most of these people. We have a few friends that we've kept in touch with and even seen on rare occasions over the years, but for the most part, it will be the first time since graduation that we've seen his class mates.

I'm a bit nervous, and excited to see some people again. It's been a long time wince we've had the chance to catch up with old friends. AND, as an addition to all of that, we are staying with one of the families I nannied for, again. Bill hasn't seen them in abt. 14 yrs. I did get to see them last year when I went, but it will be good to see them again. We are going a day early and spending a day in the city, and we are going to see Phantom of the Opera! I' so excited! I've always wanted to see that one, but never got to. (we took a friend to see a show once, but she wanted to see Cats, and even though we'd already seen it... we went to Cats).

I am however sllightly worried about Liam, and pray that all will be well for him and for all who will help care for my kids while we are away. I worry about him daily now, and pray always that he will not have another incident, and we'll be able to stay on top of things, with the 'frequent' endoscopy, and appointments we'll have over the years, and we won't have an Emergency, like last time. On the other hand, this is now just life for us. Does it mean we should put the rest of life on hold, always, just so that we can be here personally to 'watch' every move he makes, 'in case' something happens? Honestly, if we did that, we'd all have to be hermits, and never leave the house and pad all the rooms, make him live in a plastic bubble in order to 'protect' him, and that wouldnt' be good for anyone!

Sometimes I worry that I am being a little too 'flip' and irreverant of the situation, but on the other hand, sometimes, you either have to laugh or else you'll cry. He's over all a healthy 'normal' (whatever that is!) 3 yr old little boy! He or any one we know could fall and hurt themselves, or get in some sort of accident, at any time. How is that so different? We can't live our lives in fear! We just have to keep moving forward to the best of our abilities...

And so... we're off to NY. (wish us all luck, and say a prayer or two, for my boy, and my peace of mind...).

On another note: I have never traveled so much in my life (since I was young anyway). I feel like I've taken so many trips this past calendar year... I'm sure it's a fluke, and the partying will have to come to a stop eventually... ;-)

I'm going to NY!!!!!

Today we are flying to NY and tomorrow we'll get to see Bekah! Yay!

I miss her! We will be moving her into her dorms on Friday. Fun times!

I hope to havbe lots of fun pic's next week to post!

(oh, and Liam's first day of school from last week as well!)

New York, New York

It's been a few days - just trying to get back into the swing of things with the kids going back to school, and everything. Now I'll get back to our New York trip.

After the Farm, we went across the Hudson River to visit another family that I worked for. They have this really cool house. It was originally bought from a Sears Catalog in the early 1900's and sent by railraod cars, in pieces, or something and then assembled on location. I'm sure it was originally some wealthy person in NYC's summer home or something. It is located along the Hudson River, in Nyack, just above the little community of Peirmont (a quaint little village). I could see the Tappan Zee Bridge from my bedroom window and at night it was all lit up and quite beautiful.

It has this beautiful arched doorway into the Living Room. and Arched built in bookcases next to the fireplace in the living room to echo the doorway as well. In the hallway to the guest bathroom, and basement is this cool brick floor. And then the kitchen used to have butcher block counter tops, but, it was very narrow and confined, so about 10 years ago they expanded it. It is very nice now, and I love the windows that you can see out and sort of brings the woods inside...

Bill and I got engaged when I lived with this family, (as a matter of fact, in this house), and we really loved this family and their kids, so, when Bill graduated from West Point, they came for the graduation, and at the end of it, the Cadets usually throw their hats in the air. I told Bill he couldn't throw his high, so that he made sure to get his hat back and give it to Adam (the then little boy I took care of from this family). It was cool to see that Ad still has the hat in his childhood room at home. And I made Sariah wear the hat for a couple of pictures.

PICTURES of my/our travels...

I was able to go back and put the pic's in the posts, so the information about what the pic's were was already there and I didn't have to rewrite stuff I've already written... or post pic's with no info to identify them.

So if you are interested in going BACK to previous posts from the past week or so... you can SEE what we have been up to.

I still have more to post, but I may wait another day...

Twin Babies

Here's mom with twin babies at nearly 37 weeks preg. We walked to a park a couple of blocks away, and Rach even climbed on the tire swing for a minute with the kids. How cute is that! Doesn't she look great?!









Here's a couple of cute pic's of the cute twins. With big brother and big sister.









And with Sariah and I getting a turn to hold them. :-) they are sooo cute!

They sleep in thier little bassinet -stroller- for now. They like to be close to one another (who can blame them after 8 months together in momma's tummy). So they swaddle them up tight and put them back to back (so they don't punch each other or puke on each other...) and they sleep pretty good.

Cider House Rules (picture heavy)

Well, before we could leave for the city, Sariah wanted to go back by the farm. Randy was going to be making cider, and we wanted to watch, and we wanted another donut for the road...

First the apples are gathered, then dumped (a variety of around 5 different kinds of apples), into a machine that washes then and removes most of the leaves. Then it gets dumped down onto a convery belt type thing (that is mostly original, and quite old), and the apples are sprayed off one more time and then transported up to the third floor, where they get dropped into a machine that basically pulverizes them. Then R pulls a lever and the apple mush drops down onto the 'car', that has been prepared with a layer of a wooden pallet, then a piece of special fabric, that catches the apple mash. Then, they spread it all out and fold the fabric up around all the sides, lay on another wodden pallet, and lay out another fabric piece, and pull the lever again, so that more apple mash comes down the chute, and they do this layer after layer, until they have about 14 layers. As each new layer is added, it gets heavier and heavier, and the juice begine poouring out the bottom of the 'car' which is covered in a plastic and the juice goes down a tube and into a funnel and pours downstiars to another level, and is poured into a screen, to filter it more finely, then it pours into a very large wooden barrel, then it travels through tubes down into a smaller wooden barrel (Sariah helped clean and wash it out in preparation for the fresh cider to be made). Then the cider is run through a UV ray machine that kills any possible bacteria that migh be left, and heats it. Then the cider is run through another series of hoses to a very large cooling machine, where it is pulled into another barrel and is then gravity fed into a bottling tub. The bottles are fitted onto one of 5 nozzles, and filled. Then the lids are fitted on the bottles, and the labels placed on the jugs.

After the apple mash on the car is high enough - the 'car' is pushed down to the press. The press has a hydrolic lift that puts up to 2,000 lbs of pressure or more on the stack of pallets and apple mash, forcing the cider to pour don through the funnel into the large wooden barrel downstairs.

After about 30 minutes or so... the hydraulic press is turned off, and the 'car' is pushed out the other side of the press and the 'blankets' of left over apple mash that is now nearly dry - as the juice has all been pressed out - are undone and the leftovers lifted off (in a large flat brick of apple peels, seeds, etc) and folded up and then thrown out into the woods, where it is basically mulch, adn will go back into the ground. (sometimes hunters will come gather some of it and place it to get the deer interested and come eat it so they can get their venison).

Once we got over to the farm, Sariah didn't want to leave. She got to help with making the cider.

She also helped Kristamarie put out pumpkins in the pumpkin patch. Then we went over to the farm store, and Tricia's treat shop, and Sariah got to help make some treats, (chocolate dipped pretzels) and stock and organize shelves and then Tricia taught her how to run the register, and she spent most of the rest of the afternoon running back and forth between shops ringing up customers. She was having a blast, and it helped make her even more determined to go back next year on fall break and work the harvest at the farm. I even helped wait on a few customers and helped make and bag some carmel apples.

Then, we went back to the Cider Mill. We helped bottle and label and stack the bottles of Cider in the baskets and then took them to the cold storage room, and clean up the cider tanks, etc. I think Randy said they made a total of nearly 900 gallons of Cider that day. They do that weekly durring the fall. Amazing!

I had no idea what all went into running a farm... I can't believe that after living with R and B for a year and a half - through two fall harvest seasons, I had so little knowlege of what all they did. Granted the farm is bigger than it used to be. The farm store sells more items, they have a gift shop as well now, and then there is Tricia's Treats. That started with Tricia making several batches of homemade cider donuts in the morning, and she would be mobbed before she got them out to the shop. They have gotten bigger and bigger each year. They straightened out an old barn, and it became Tricia's Treats downstairs, and upstairs are offices. Then this past year they built onto the barn, added a storage basement, and a whole new kitchen area. There are windows so that people can watch as they make fresh cider donuts with a cool donut making machine. They also bake pies and muffins, brownies, cookies and other yummy treats. They sell it, and hot or cold fresh pressed apple cider from the farm. (I am sure I gained some weight, eating donuts and drinking cider).

After a full day - working on the farm, Sariah got to drive us around the orchards and the Christmas trees in one of the Golf Carts they use to get around the farm quickly. We took some more pic's and picked some more apples. Then we went back to the house, ate Pizza, then got on our way across the river over the Tappan Zee Bridge to Nyack, where I lived for a year as a nanny to visit with B and L and their daughter (my Amanda's Name sake), Amanda.

There is so much more to tell, so I'll do it in installments, and add pics as I go along. I may tke a few days just so people can read it, and I can take the time to write and post pic's of our adventures.