New York

 Kyle and I had the opportunity to go to New York for 5 days.  We had a great time.  The first day we went to the lower East Side Tenement Museum which was really interesting.

 Then we walked around Little Italy and had lunch.

 We went to the Freedom tower and walked around the 9/11 Memorial.

 And then we hopped the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

 At the end of the day we walked by the water and looked at the Brooklyn Bridge.

 The next day we went to Rockefeller Center and to the Top of the Rock where we got a great view of the city.

 After that we went to Serendipity 3 for their famous frozen hot chocolate and then walked around Central Park.

 Then over the Brooklyn Bridge and we wandered through Brooklyn Heights.

 We stopped for a treat at the Brooklyn Farmacy and Soda Fountain where we had ice cream and their specialty egg cream which is milk, seltzer water and vanilla or chocolate flavoring.  It doesn't sound great but it is.

 Newsies was at night and had fabulous music and dancing.

 We walked through Times Square on our way home.

 The US Open was the next day.  Aurthur Ashe is in the background.

 We saw Sock,

 MacEnroe and Courier announcing,

 Murray,

 Federer,

 Verdasco,

 Blake,

 Roanic,

 Hewitt,

 Ferrer,

 DelPotro,

 Roddick,

 Mike and Jen for dinner, (we saw on Facebook they were in town so we got together)

 Almagro

 and Berdych.

It was a fabulous trip.  Nadal wan't there, however, so I suppose we will have to go again.

Mia's 3rd birthday and first day of school

 Ellie started middle school this year.  It was a sad day for me but exciting for her.  She is loving it so far.  She has a cell phone now, a locker, is allowed to chew gum and doesn't have to wait in line to get in the school.  Can life get any better?

 Brookie started preschool but, of course, Mia had to get in one of the pictures.  The first day of school was a little rough (by rough I mean screaming and almost ripping my shirt off of me) but she loves it now.

 Emma got the teacher she was hoping for, Mrs. Tindall, so she was one happy camper.

 Mia turned 3 on August 11th.  We were lucky enough to have Joshua and Traci and their kids with us for the party.

 Ellie is such a great big sister.  She uses her hard earned money to but presents for birthdays and Christmas.  This pillow pet was the present she bought Mia.