Our First Piano Recital

Ashley just finished her first year of piano lessons. This was her first piano recital playing on an $80,000 Baldwin concert piano. The piano dealer said we could buy it for $72,000, so obviously we considered it heavily.

Britney's First Steps

Megan took this video, but she actually did a good job. We were working on Brit's walking skills during FHE. We also taught the girls the game of "Spoons." Awesome game.

The Belmont Stakes

For you racing enthusiasts out there, no need to explain. But for the rest of us, here is an explanation of the Belmont Stakes. First of all, everyone's heard of the Kentucky Derby. Well, the Belmont Stakes is like the Kentucky Derby, it's a horse race and it's part of the Triple Crown. Many people have heard of the Triple Crown. A race horse needs to win the three big races to be crowned a Triple Crown winner, like Secretariat or Man of War. The Belmont Stakes is the last and hardest leg of the Triple Crown. The Kentucky Derby or just plainly "the Derby", is the first race and the Preakness Stakes is the second race. The Belmont Stakes is the hardest race because it is the longest and requires good timing and endurance. Most Triple Crown attempts are broken up by the the Belmont Stakes where the winners have won the Derby and Preakness. Anyway, enough of the explanation.

Tara and I, along with my parents, and Derek and Edon went to the Belmont Stakes yesterday. It takes place in New York on Long Island, just a half hour out of the city. It was cool to be there. The ladies were dressed up in summer dresses and big hats and the gents wore linen suits with light blue or pink shirts with ties. Very metrosexual! It was cool though. We were underdressed, but so was half the crowd. There were 11 races on the day and we were there for the last five races.

Mine That Bird - Winner of the Kentucky Derby





We visited the paddock where they saddle the race horses and the jockeys "foot up". We got up close and personal with the jockeys and the horses at the paddock. We watched as Mine That Bird walked by, winner of the Derby. It was a fun day, but not perfect for the ladies because there was a lot of cigar smoking (not by us), a lot of gambling ( yes, we did gamble, but only $2 bets), and a lot of cleavage ( I forgot my sunglasses).

More Big Apple

It was a short, but fun trip. We had several great days and one really rainy one. We did typical tourist stuff, but we also went to the Manhattan Temple and the Belmont Stakes. New York is a fun city, I could probably even live there, temporarily.

Times Square was different than in years past. They have closed half of the streets through the Square and laid out tons of beach and lawn chairs for people to relax, people watch, and look at the lights.



We spent most of a rainy day in the Metropolitan Museum. Tara's favorite part is the knights and armoury. It was also cool to see art work from Van Gogh, Rembrant, Monet, Manet, and Picasso. Plus the topless roman statues were great too, now that's art.

Here we are atop the Empire State Building. My brother hadn't been there before so we went. This was the least favorite part of the trip. It's $20 to go up and that's only to the 86th floor observatory. It's another $15 per person to go to the 102nd floor to basically see the same thing. It was also packed full of people and took hours to finish. If you haven't been before, then consider doing it. But, if you have been up the Empire State Building, don't waste your time doing it again.

New York City

Just a quick note from New York. Mostly, for our girls who are at home in Utah with Grandma and Grandpa. This first day was nice and cool, partly cloudy. Today though was rainy, really rainy. So far we have done a lot of things. We saw the Statue of Liberty and the Bull by Wall Street. We went to Time Square and took a ferry ride. But most of all, we payed tribute at the American Doll Store. Three stories high and lots of pink. Our girls are going to be jealous when they see this picture below.