Brooklyn

 Last weekend we went to Brooklyn for the first time and had the best time. It was our first time driving into the city and while the girls missed the novelty of riding on the train and subway, it was so slick driving in. It took about 45 minutes to drive from our house through Manhatten and across the bridge to Brooklyn. We found free parking easily, near the corner of Dock Street and Water Street. 

Also, we took a million pictures! So here goes...

Little boy in a big city! 

 Our first matter of business was walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a hot day, so it's good we did this early. It was a fun walk and the views of NYC were fantastic.

 We then walked over to Main Street Park, which is near the Manhatten Bridge. We spent the whole time in the Dumbo area of Brooklyn and we loved it. Part of it was probably that we had a really loose schedule, so we could just wander around and stop at playgrounds or whatever else the kids wanted to do. 

 Skipping stones..... a.k.a. hurling all the rocks they could grab into the water

 Tate was napping in the stroller at this point, so the rest of us dipped our feet in the water to cool off. 

(Right above the girls' heads you can see Jane's Carousel, which is a fun carousel right on the shore.)

 Loving the carousel!

I love this picture. Mya is really camera shy and doesn't normally smile for pictures, but she was so happy on this ride that she couldn't hide her smile. 

Next we walked to Julianna's pizza, which had been on my NYC bucket list for a long time. I thought my expectations were going to be too high, but it turned out to be just as good as I'd hoped! We loved it! It was pricier than our usual NYC meal at Shake Shack, so this was our "splurge" of the Brooklyn day. Yum!

 Enjoying Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory ice cream on the pier

 Playing at one more park - I think it was the Pier 1 Park?

 If you look closely you can see the Statue of Liberty in this picture. 

Next time we go to Brooklyn in the summer we will bring swimsuits for the kids! There's a fun splash pad right off the pier and it was perfect for a hot day. Our girls ended up getting totally drenched in their clothes because the water was just too tempting!

We had planned to drive to Prospect Park and go to the Brooklyn Zoo, but we were having too much fun in the Dumbo area to leave. 

We'll be back, Brooklyn! Thanks for giving us our favorite NYC family day that we've had so far!

Alstede Farms

Last week we had a fun morning at Alstede Farms with a few friends. This is such a beautiful rural area of New Jersey, about half an hour from home. Bryn and Mya had such a fabulous time running around with their friends...

 Sunflower maze

Waiting for the hayride

 Picking peaches

 Playing in the fields

Petting the donkeys

Such a fun, fun day. We'll be back in the fall for their apple picking, pumpkin harvest, and corn maze!

Stitches

 The day after we got home from Utah we had our family's first experience with stitches. It was bound to happen at some point!

We were downstairs in the basement, putting away our luggage and organizing some things, when Bryn took a hard fall and smacked her forehead on the rim of a paint can. The cut went right down to the skull and I could tell she was going to need stitches. My sister in law watched Mya and Tate while I took Bryn to the ER. Thank you, Tyra!!!

 Bryn was so brave throughout the whole thing, even when she was getting the stitches. 

Pre-stitches. Ouch! 

 Stitches

 Post-stitches

A week later.

We were planning to cut bangs (Bryn was actually quite excited about it) because we thought the scar would look a lot worse, but the scar actually doesn't look that bad so we're holding off on bangs for now :)