First Day of School

We had a successful first day of school. Spencer was very excited to be able to go to school and make new friends. Wyatt was excited that his friend Corbin is in his class again. Mom was excited to only have 2 kids at home.

 

Wyatt's birthday

Wyatt celebrated his 7th birthday this month. He is such a good reader. He can pretty much sound out any words and his vocabulary always astounds me. He really likes playing on the computer and spends all day on there if mom lets him. We have signed him up for soccer this fall so we shall see how that goes. We celebrated by having a small family party at our house. He chose mac n cheese, and chicken nuggets for dinner. Then we had cake and ice cream for dessert.

 

Anderson Family Reunion 2021- Long Island New York

 This years Anderson Reunion was held on Long Island New York. Liz's Dad was born in Southampton and grew up in East Quogue. So we decided to spend this family reunion seeing Long Island and seeing some of his extended family who still live there.

We left Utah on Tuesday afternoon. We even met up with Nick and Karri at the airport because we were on the same flight to New York. We flew into JFK and got there around 9:30 pm. 

We then drove to our hotel in Astoria, which is just across the Queensborough Bridge from Manhattan. On the way we grabbed dinner from a food truck. We had a great view of Manhattan from our hotel room.

The next day, we drove into Manhattan to the American Museum of Natural History. Just for future reference, it takes a lot longer to go 4 miles in New York City than it does to go 4 miles in Utah. It took us 40 minutes to get to the museum from our hotel and it was only 4.3 miles away. Also there are no rules for driving in New York City. Its a free for all to do whatever you want. Park on the street, sure. Run red lights, alright. Drive on the wrong side of the road, absolutely. Pedestrians in the way, doesn't matter.

We had breakfast at the Museum of Natural History and then we went inside and explored.

The boys loved all the dinosaurs. We tried to see an exhibit on every floor of the museum but I think we missed the 2nd floor. We spent a lot of time looking at the dinosaurs. We also saw a giant whale that was pretty sweet.

After the museum we met up with some cousins in Central Park. The boys were not fans of having to walk, in their own words "SUPER FAR!" However, they had a lot of fun at the play park.

We then traveled to our rental house for the week in Riverhead, Long Island. We spent the rest of the night hanging out and unpacking. Then we played some games.

The next day, the boys all went to the Long Island Aquarium. Mamu bought the older boys a penguin experience for their birthdays. So they got to enter the penguin enclosure and pet the penguins. They also got pictures with the penguin and received a painting that was painted by the penguins.

While the boys went to the aquarium, Liz went to visit with her Great Aunt Betsy. We had a great tie catching up with her and talking about some family history that she didn't know about. She learned her Grandma Irma had a ceramics shop. Aunt Betsy gave us a bunch of the ceramics she still had that were given to her by Irma. All the siblings got to split them up and now we all have something that was made by our grandma.

We drove by the house that my Dad grew up in.

Then we went to the beach that they always went to. Its called Ponquogue Beach. We had to drive over a long bridge to get there. On one side of the island is Shinnecock Bay and on the other side is the Atlantic Ocean. We saw some pretty cool shells and we got there at just the right time to see the surfers out hitting some waves.

We then had a fun backyard barbeque with the family back at the house. We played lawn games, blew bubbles, and had a hot wings challenge during dinner using the Hot Ones Season 14 sauces my Dad got for Father's Day.

These are the 5 that made it all the way the sauce number 10. Liz only went to sauce number 5. A bunch of other people dropped out at sauce number 7.

After dinner, the siblings and their spouses went out for ice cream at the local ice cream place.

The next day, some people went fishing in the ocean but we chose to go play at the beach instead.

Liz recreated a photo of her grandma Irma while we were there. Here is a side by side comparison

After the beach, the girls took Taylor out for her birthday to get manicures and pedicures.

This was a full service nail salon. They even gave shoulder massages while you waited for your nails to dry.

Afterwards we went to a Fox family reunion at Island Park. We had fish that the boys had caught that morning, grilled corn, clams, and other side dishes. We also had cake to celebrate Taylor's birthday.

The next day, most people went kayaking. Wyatt and Spencer did not want to go however so they had a quiet morning with mom and Mamu at the house. We did however convince Wyatt to get in a kayak with uncle Nick for about 5 minutes.

After lunch, we drove to Horton Point Lighthouse in Southold. There we took a family photo.

Then we drove to a beach in Southold.

That night we played virtual reality games at the house. We also had water pouring our of the air vents when the air conditioning drip pan overflowed. It was an exciting night.

The next day, all the other family was traveling back home but flights were cheaper for us to leave on Monday night so we went to Governor's Island. There was a cool place to wait for the ferry with lots of toys for the kids to play with.

Evan loved walking around on the ferry, especially while it was moving. He thought it was so funny.

On the island, there was lots of places for the kids to play. There where obstacle courses made of tree logs, ropes for them to climb, and slides on the hillside.

We took a quick hike up overlook hill to see the Statue of Liberty across the way.

There was also some great views of downtown New York City.

Wyatt legendary camera skills at work.

We even got ice cream after our ferry ride back to Brooklyn.

We stayed in a hotel that night and in New York fashion it was very small.

The next day we spent the morning at Coney Island Beach. It was a very nice beach that had a playground the boys could play at.

We then rode some rides at Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park.

For lunch, Liz finally got her hot dog from Nathan's.

We then headed back to the airport for our flight home.