Some New York Pictures...

As promised here are some pictures from New York - I'll be doing a couple more posts later with a few more pictures in meantime I hope you enjoy these.



Here are a few of the kids at a park in Syracuse. The playground was insane - it looked like a wooden castle. It proved that it was built for kids only. While trying to follow Liberty and Kassel around (the structure also made it a little difficult to keep a visual path on the small ones) I got stuck a few times in the doorways and tunnels that the structure was made of. (Admittedly my belly didn't help...)


Here are a few pictures at the beach along one of the Finger Lakes in New York. The girls loved playing in the sand and water (what child doesn't?) A couple favorite points were Liberty getting sand on her tongue who then tried to wipe it off with her sandy hand - it was a vicious cycle until I was able to wipe it off for her. I also couldn't help laughing when Emmuska enlisted the help of some unknown adult to build her mud cakes (she prefers cake to pie apparently) somehow she managed to talk this nice lady into scooping up wet sand to pile up on the dryer parts of the beach. Leave it to Emmuska to talk a stranger into some random task.




Here are the pictures of Chuck's graduation. I couldn't help comparing it to the few military graduations I've been to. While I've never been to a basic training graduation I've been to a few for additional training as well as a commissioning and other military events each time they encouraged family to stand up and take pictures of their service member, moving around as necessary (there was one graduation where the commander waited to continue to ensure that one mother was able to get a good picture of her son). So it was quite a different experience to be told at the beginning of the ceremony that under no circumstances are you allowed to stand up and take a picture - if you want pictures you need to be in the designated picture area (which was not the best place to get a picture but at least there was that...) Here family members are receiving their doctorate, a once in a lifetime event, and the visibility of the audience (who in all likelihood are only there for one or two people themselves...) is more important than catching a picture of the moment. It just seemed like a reminder that the event was less about the graduate and their families who had worked hard for this moment than the 'pomp and circumstance' of the institution. But that could just be me...



And just a few more fun pictures...over all a great time had by all and a good chance for family to get together and get to know each other better.