Central Park Zoo, Children's petting Zoo and water park

Today we spent the day with Alan (my brother), Maline and his two kids, Savanna (5) and Jackson (2). We went to the central park zoo, the children's petting zoo, and to a water park in Central Park. It was a ton of fun. Here the kids are waiting for the subway to come at our station.

Here we are at the Central park zoo, which isn't that big but is still fun. It has polar bears, monkeys, sea lions, a tropical rain forest, reptile house and penguins.

The polar bears at central park zoo

Makenze and I with the monkeys

Tyler and his cousin, Savanna, play in a fake turtle egg at the children's zoo.

Alan, Maline and Savanna at the zoo with us

Makenzie

The kids and I eating lunch at the zoo

Here are some of the carriages we saw while walking in Central Park on the way to the zoo

There are random rocks and hills in Central Park that the kids love to climb on. Here Savanna and Tyler race to the top.

Mike and the kids at the top of the rocks

Tyler and Makenzie loved feeding the goats and the sheep. They could have done it for hours.

this waterpark in central park was so amazing. It had this river that the kids could walk in that went around the entire fort. There were slides and sprinklers too for the kids to play in.

Mike and Tyler in central park with the carnival in the background. We didn't have time to go to this little carnival since we were on the way to the waterpark but I'm sure we'll come back to go soon.

Our neighborhood

Here is a picture of us at a subway station nearby.
Our building
The entrance to our building

The American Museum of Natural History

Today we decided to go to the American Museum of Natural History with the kids. We spent four hours in there because it is so big. The kids especially loved the dinosaur bones, the hall of African mammals, and the hall of ocean life.

The entrance to the museum

Central Park

Yesterday was the first day it really hit me that I'm in New York City.
We took the subway with the kids for the first time and went on
a picnic to Central Park.

Here the kids enjoy popsicles we got from

a street vendor.

Central park is HUGE!! It took a 10 minute walk just to get to the middle from the

west side. Here is Belvedere castle which is right by the turtle pond where , yep

you guessed it, there is a pond with a whole bunch of turtles in it.

The kids playng near the turtle pond.

Makenzie in action. She never stops running around. It's exhausting just watching her.

The playground

Today we took the kids to a playground a couple of blocks from our apartment. It was fun to let them get out and run around.
Mike plays with the kids on the seesaw.

The kids and I on the way to the playground.

Our Trip to Target

The 2nd day we were here we decided to drive up to the Bronx to a Super-Target while we had the minivan and stock up on groceries and other things we needed for the apartment. We made it there okay but it was interesting trying to navigate the intermingled roads of the City. On large sections of the freeway there are no painted lanes. What should by any reasonable assumption be a 3 lane highway somehow manages to accomodate five or six cars. There were times when I could have stuck my arm out the window and given the driver next to me a high five. The other thing is that people don't use their blinkers. Lane changing is more like a war of attrition. Who will relent first? Most of the time it was us since we didn't want to deal with a damaged rental.
Target was interesting. Apparantly the store has experienced some cart theft, because as you approach the exit, the cart becomes impossible to move. We speculated that there must be some sort of super magnet that stopped the carts cold. So, after the doorman checks your receipt, and you wade through anxious taxi drivers, you have to lug the bags out to your car. It took poor Mike six trips before we were fully loaded.
We managed to get lost on the way home and when we turned around to go the right way, we found ourselves caught in a ridiculous traffic jam. What would have been a fifteen minute drive in Utah was an hour and a half of fun on a crowded freeway in the Bronx.

The Journey

Hello everyone! We've arrived in New York City finally!! It was a long day of traveling. We had to get up at 5:30 am to get to the airport on time with all of our stuff (yes, all 12 boxes and suitcases). I don't know what we would have done without skycap. After the first flight we had a lay-over in Chicago and we quickly discovered that nonstop flights are the way to go if you have kids :) The shorter, the better. Actually Tyler and Makenzie were both very good all things considered. We got them backpacks full of new books and toys. It kept them busy almost the entire way. When we arrived in NYC, we filled up three trolleys, (yes I said three) with our luggage and then I sat with Tyler and the luggage while Mike went to pick up the rental minivan (we had to do this in order to get all of our boxes to our new apt, there is no way they would have fit in a cab). This in itself was quite a funny situation because as we were waiting for Mike to get back Tyler decided he needed to use the restroom. But of course I couldn't take him to the bathroom because I had three trolleys and a stroller that I was watching and I wasn't about to let a stranger watch all of our luggage. Luckily Mike made it back before things got desperate- I was almost considering letting him pee on the sidewalk. :) After that, things went smoothly and we made it to our new apartment about 8:00 pm. What a long and tiring day!