Phil and Jaime Visit!!

Look how happy Phil is to be in Times Square!!

Just kidding,

Phil warmed up to NYC and New Yorkers really warmed up to Phil.

Time after time after time (seriously) people from all walks of life came up to him to compliment him on his black Cowboy hat.

It was a chilly boat ride to Liberty and Ellis Island

Beautiful views in Box Elder County; but nothing quite like this...

We were so GLAD they came to visit!!

While I'll not post photos of everything, together we saw:

Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Matt, Al, Anne and the Today crew (Phil was actually on TV), we went to the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, ate at a TERRIFIC deli in the financial district, visited the 911 Memorial - so humbling, took a bus tour of Manhattan, spent time in Central Park, made it to the Manhattan Temple, ate Matzoh Ball soup at Junior's Diner, had the BEST cheese cake ever. And that was just the first day.

Thank you Phil and Jaime for coming we love you and we love visitors:

Open Invitation to our Friends and Family:

Come on out!!

Halloween Connecticut Style

The 2011 Crowther Trick-or-Treaters

Abby as a surgeon

Grayson as an Oxford (our town)Little League Baseball Player

Lindsey as a Cheetah

We have learned that "country livin" has it's advantages, and disadvantages. Trick or treating is tough when there are only three houses on your hill.

Solution: a chauffeured four wheeler

Once we knocked the first door and were told that trick or treating had been cancelled in our town due to the crazy snowstorm (the officials were worried about all the downed power lines and closed roads) so we took to the "city" - a local shopping center, to try our luck there…by the time we arrived, most every other kid in central CT had already been there and the pickings were slim. So we went to a friends neighborhood in another community with tons of homes close together (the only real "neighborhood" we've even seen in CT) where our kids promptly collected more candy than any other Halloween night, and it was Lindsey leading the charge from house to house.

The best part of any Halloween night;

notice Gray's attention to organization

counting up the spoils

She'll be eating this for a month

Philadelphia

With basically the whole state of Connecticut out of power due to the recent storm our children had the entire week off from school. Their schools had been turned into emergency shelters for the hundreds of thousands without power, water, and heat.

We decided to take advantage of the time off of school and made an impromptu trip to Philadelphia.

Valley Forge was so beautiful and inspiring:

General Washington's Headquarters and home during the Valley Forge Winter:

A memorial to the soldiers who were so loyal to our new country:

The Liberty Bell was fantastic:

No trip to Philly would be complete without a visit to the "Rocky" statue:

The home of Flag Maker Betsy Ross:

This is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, buried here at Washington's feet is an unidentified soldier who died in the cause of the American Revolution.

The monument reads:

"Freedom is a light for which many men have died in darkness"

The entrance to the cemetery where Benjamin Franklin is buried:

Philly absolutely impressed us as a beautiful and historically rich city!

What a terrific and very educational trip for our little family