The Polar Express

PToday we went to Kingston NY to ride The Polar Express. Based on the book, it follows the main themes and plays out the story. Hot chocolate and cookies are served. The waiters dance. Santa joined the train and met all the kids and gave them silver bells. It was a lot of fun. Here's the photos:

Ethan's first dentist trip

So Ethan had his first dentist trip today. And boy, do American kids dentists know how to operate!

We went to a place called 'Rye Smiles'. It had a mini movie theatre (popcorn shaped) in the waiting room along with games consoles and lots of toys.

The dental hygienist was amazing with Ethan. He got to choose his sunglasses and his flavour of toothpaste. They had a tv screen for him to watch above his head. She explained Mr Tickle (the brush) and Mr Thirsty (the sucky thing). He got to pick goodies from a treasure chest at the end, got a favorite character themed toothbrush and stickers. Oh and a photo memento!

Unfortunately he needs a filling so we'll be heading back sooner than I'd like. And I'm not sure how realistic the advice is to floss daily (I consider brushing his teeth daily a win!). But it was an amazing service and Ethan was incredible.

I honestly don't know how he'll visit a normal dentist in the UK now!

Here's a picture of him and his glasses.

Advent adventures

The Christmas tree went up on Saturday and our advent adventures started today.

I've decided to do an advent book box, a new book each day (all Christmas/winter themed, this isn't as expensive as it sounds because I'm going to pack them away and reuse them again for several years!) plus they get a little bit of chocolate each in their calender.

The elf had also arrived again. He's here to have some fun with us and help get ready for Christmas. He puts the chocolate in the calender each night and delivers the books. You can follow his adventures below and I'll check back in with updates.

Thanksgiving weekend

Our third and final Thanksgiving long weekend.

We opted to go out for lunch to a favourite Italian on Thanksgiving so it was a fairly quiet day. Although it was preceded by a trip to the emergency doctor after Joshua spiked a high fever overnight.

On Friday we went into Manhattan and watched the 'Radio City Christmas spectacular'. A bit of a NY Christmas institution. Amazingly Ethan sat through a 90min show, Joshua and I made 50mins and that was only because he slept for the first 25! Ethan also met Santa.

On Saturday we had a quieter day at home. Although a great swim lesson for Ethan as he managed to swim the width of the pool without swim aids for the first time. And we put the Christmas tree up!

On Sunday we went to a Christmas fayre (where Ethan got to ride the train) and then Ethan and I went to the local theatre and saw a Curious George production.

We really enjoyed having the long weekend at home and having lots of family time together. Despite Joshua being sick and cutting molars we still managed to have a great time. Photos below.

Lunch... 

Meeting Santa

Cleaning Daddy's car

The Christmas fayre

Seeing Curious George

Stamford Parade

Last weekend (sun 22 nov) we decided to go to a large parade in Stamford. Parades seem to be well done out here and we hadn't yet been to one. I'd briefly considered the thanksgiving day parade in the city but quickly wrote that off. 

The parade was full of marching bands, dancers, police motorbikes and most impressively huge balloons. We watched for about 30 minutes before going to get lunch but it went on for another hour!

Here are some pics.

Ethan in awe!

Bear Mountain

We've started a bucket list of things we must do before we return. One of the places was Bear Mountain, about an hour drive away. It's a state park and has a reputation of being a good day out. So last Sunday we set off with Bruno in tow and packed lunches.

This was the mountain. 

We started off walking round the lake. I refused the first route as it looked far too steep with a child each on our back. So we picked an alternate and seemingly more popular route up the mountain. It was a tiring but great hike with worthwhile views. Here are some photos. 

The view from our lunch spot

Lunch... Eating outside with a 1yo is never easy!

Matt had the short straw on what/who to carry

View of the Hudson from (nearly at) the top

The boys enjoyed the playground afterwards. Ethan was too busy playing 'emergencies' for a photo. 

Autumn leaves

Still one of my favourite elements of autumn in the US, the leaf collection. Ethan will miss this!

Arizona - Bearizona

On the way from Williams to Scottsdale we stopped at a place called Bearizona. Yes such a place exists! A driving safari through some woodland with lots of animals including big brown bears! Ethan thought it was amazing. Well he thought it was fun sitting on my lap!

Arizona - Scottsdale

The last bit of our trip was to relax. So we spent 5 nights at a resort in Scottsdale. With a molar cutting Joshua it's fair to say it wasn't always that relaxing. But we had fun. Yummy restaurants, great kids pool and a huge sand pit with construction toys. What more could Ethan want!

Arizona: Grand Canyon

Our second stop was a place called Williams. It purely serves as a stop off for Grand Canyon visitors. We'd orginally been planning on driving all the way to the Canyon but then I discovered the train which I thought Ethan would like. It runs once a day, drops you at the Grand Canyon South rim village at 1145am and you depart again at 3.30pm. A perfect amount of time we thought with the boys in tow. 

It really was a spectacular place. Completely jaw dropping. The train was a fun way to travel too and eased the pain of more car seat time. And given Ethan had been up since 4.30am it helped keep  him interested in the day.

It definitely ranks as one of our favourite days in the US so far. 

Some photos below.

The train

The canyon

Us!

Joshuas first hair cut

Before

After

Ethan got his done too.

Arizona: Sedona

We flew to Phoenix from JFK on Sunday 11 October for our mini Arizona road trip. It had taken much deliberation to decide where to go this trip. My heart had been set on California but we decided to go somewhere new.

Our first stop, of three, was two hours drive from Phoenix airport. Sedona is famed for its red rock backdrop scenery.

We had one night in Sedona. After a large Mexican breakfast we went for a walk in one of the state parks. Scenery was spectacular. We then headed back to town for Pizzas and then onto Williams via the drive through Starbucks (had to be done).

Photos from Sedona are below.

View from hotel:

A man offered to take a family shot. He was from Erith!