NEW YORK

"Skippy! You just graduated! What are you gonna do now?"

"I'm going to New York!"

So here's what you can accomplish in NY in 5 days with out 2 little tag alongs.

-Yankee's game
-Wicked on Broadway
-tons of site-seeing
- loads of eating

On a sad side note- we forgot our nice camera, so we were forced to buy a few disposables. It was absolutely humiliating taking pics with a disposable camera... So here's what we got with our little 35mm disposable with limited flash and no zoom:

A scary theater somewhere off of 42nd street

Times Square- if you look straight down from the P in Pontiac, you can see Skippy.
The tour bus- it was crowded and at one point, the tour guide was scolding some poor boys over the microphone. Yeah, only in New York.
A VERY exciting Yankee's Game. Instead of guys walking around selling treats and hot dogs, they walk around selling beer... THAT'S why their fans are so crazy! They're ALL drunk!
To Skippy's disappointment, we didn't see any Rockettes.
Famous Ray's Pizza--- SO GOOD!!!
Lady Liberty- She's big, She's green.

"Remember me at Harold's Square...."

My personal favorite: Little Italy... I need to go back and spend about 4 days just going from restaurant to restaurant.



Empire State Building- our hotel was just around the corner- it made for a good beacon when we were lost.

Gray's Papaya Hot Dogs... YUM! it's a hot dog/juice stand in Greenwich Village

BTW-there was some great shopping in the Village and in SOHO.. I just needed some girls to do it with.

Ground Zero- it was pretty sad to see the giant hole that was once huge buildings filled with people.

I have to say that while being with out the kids was fun and we were able to accomplish a lot with out them, we missed them terribly. We were so excited to return home to them.

GRADUATION !!!!

It all started about 3 years ago with a conversation like this,
"Honey, why are you taking classes at LB city when you just graduated from Devry?"
"I don't know"
"Okay, are you just trying to spend as much time as possible away from me?"
" I really hate my job and don't want to work in telecommunications and think I want to get a degree in History and then go to law school"

Well, here we are, 3 years later- Skippy graduated with honors from UC Irvine with a BA in History. He has loved every minute of going to UCI and will truly miss it. We have gone through many trials and have witnessed many miracles along the way. We have had so many people bless our lives with service to make this goal attainable. It's amazing how our families have really supported us in this, we have the best families! I am so proud of Skippy for deciding to do this. It took so much courage for him to quit his job of 7 years and to let go of being the manly provider of the house. (If you know Skippy, then you know how hard that was for him). He has gained so much faith and self confidence, I am just so happy for him.

Friday night we attended the Latin Honors Convocation- Skippy graduated Magna Cum Laude (he has a 3.92 gpa) What a smarty-pants!

Skippy and the Dean of Humanities- She LOVES him!! - Who doesn't??

Skippy and his proud parents. We couldn't have done this without these people- They've given our family a wonderful home to live in. Thank you Mom and Dad!


I made these cute shirts for the kids for graduation day-
If you can't read it, it says, " My dad graduated from UCI with honors- what did your dad do?"


Proud wife and 2 cute kids.

Belen said, "When I get bigger and I'm 4, I'll go to school and get a medal too"
My mom and Grandmother with the Thy-guy. My dad was there too, just didn't get a pic. Thanks for all your support through the last few years- we love you!

We took everyone to Sonny's down in San Clemente. YUM YUM!

The look-a-likes

Aren't we cute??

Thanks to everyone who has helped us out through the last few years. We're giving you all a year off and then we're gonna have to ask ya for another 3 years :) LOVE YOU!

Just some bath-time fun...

Aunt Trena

Aunt Trena and Belen had fun making sugar cookies the other week. Belen got a Starwberry Shortcake cook-book from Nonni (my mom) and she had been dying to make something from it. I loaded the photos in reverse order... oops.

Grandma Andersen

When Skippy and I were first married, we use to go visit Grandma Andersen at her home in La Habra where Skippy's dad grew up. We would look through old albums, hear stories of Denmark, WWII and her escape to the US with her young family. We always took her out to The Hungry Bear restaurant and then go to Rite-Aid for ice-cream. As the years went by, she slowly started forgetting who I was and Skippy would re-introduce me at each meeting. She was eventually diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The thing that keeps me from being too sad about it is that she is happy. She is always happy. Her English is gone, and her danish is scrambled and broken so it is pretty hard for her to communicate. She seems to still recognize Skippy and his dad and she loves to see the kids. This picture is us visiting her about two weeks ago-(in her care-home in HB) she had so much fun watching Belen and Thyssen. Her face just lit up as soon as she saw them.

Here's the whole family

Belen and Great-Grandma- age difference: 90 years

She and Belen were playing a game, it was really sweet.