Going, going, back, back...

With the help of Jermaine's brother in the Bronx, we got through the remainder of the hurricane evacution.  Looking on the bright side, the crisis gave us an opportunity to get to know our neighbors better, and maybe started to make New York feel like home...at least for a while.

But we were thrilled to return to California for Thanksgiving. We had a lot of fun visiting family and friends, though we didn't have time to see everyone.  Hopefully, we will be back soon!

Some highlights of our trip:

Fun on JetBlue:

 

   

Mila shows off her developmental skills:

 

Visting with old friends:

      

Gangham style!

Mila loves Owen

Nothing unites preschoolers like a toy catelog

Shay and Sol

Shay and Scout

Shay and Donovan

   


Remembering Grandma at Thanksgiving and memorial at Forest Lawn:

 

We all get a chance to pick something to remember Grandma by - I get the pearls

  

Shay's ready in case a baseball game breaks out at Forest Lawn

 

 

 

Enjoying the sunshine:

         

Family time:

 

 

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

 

Hurricane Sandy - the calm after the storm

Writing this post on Thursday, the power in the downtown & Eastern areas of Manhattan is still out for the most part. After the power went out on Monday night, we decided to move hotels again. We got to a Hilton that had power & checked in for 2 days.

What a relief to stay somewhere for more than 1 night! We got to check out some of the restaurants around the hotel. On Tuesday morning, we also went back to our apartment to drop off dirty clothes, pick up fresh clothes, and check out the situation there. On the way, we saw some of the effects of the storm.

There were quite a few people still living at our apartment complex without power or water. Some were leaving as it was becoming clear that the situation would take a few days to resolve. Others, like our neighbor, were planning to stick it out.

To avoid the high Manhattan weekend hotel rates, we asked Jermaine's brothers to help us. Tony said he would pick us up and take us to Kenroy's until the power came back on.