Walk Away the Wiggles

I would never have thought it was possible, but the J-boys have even more energy than usual lately. It's as if the spring sunshine is creeping through our walls and soaking into them, giving them an irresistible desire to bounce off things--primarily my furniture and each others' heads. Tuesday afternoon after finishing most of our school work, I was getting tired of watching them build an enormous fort in the living room using ALL of our freshly-washed sheets and blankets. So I herded them all outside for a good, long walk!

I refused to tell them where we were going, despite being asked repeatedly. Truth be told, I didn't really have a set plan when we left, other than to enjoy the sunshine and give everyone some exercise. Boys are strange creatures--while they were bouncing around inside they had all the energy in the world, but by about the 5th block (that's a quarter of a mile, folks...not far at all!) They were dragging and complaining about how EXHAUSTED they were! Silly boys!



Riverside Drive overlooking 96th Street



Josiah has the perfect little perch. The white blanket is to shield Joanna from the sun, which was shining directly in her little eyes.



Yet another thing I don't get about boys...the incessant need to explore holes, to discover where they go and what may be inside. I'm sure these are for drainage off this bridge, but to the little boys they have so much potential...so much so that Jordan and Joey are fighting over who gets to peek through this one!

We walked down to 95th Street, then turned and headed over to Broadway. Once we hit Broadway, we continued on down to 72nd...mostly to see if we could make it that far and how long it would take. You see, 72nd Street is the closest handicapped-accessible subway station (read: elevator) and while I can carry our new stroller + Joanna up and down the stairs (yes, I've tried this with Jeremy along to make sure!) I cannot carry it with Josiah and he can't safely use the stairs. So one of my hopes for venturing out across the city again lay in our ability to walk to the 72nd Street station--in a reasonable amount of time.

It took a little over an hour.

It was almost 5:30, so we sat on a bench outside the station and called Jeremy. He agreed to meet us, and we would go ahead and grab something to eat. The boys, of course, had again found all that energy that had disappeared while we were walking and were jumping over the armrests on the benches. I didn't have the energy for a medical emergency (that same activity has caused injury before) so I got them up and we moved on to Central Park two blocks away.



Joshua posing on the Seventh Regiment Memorial Statue



Jordan



I quizzed the boys on the Latin phrase on this plaque...Joshua finally translated it, although I had to give them "pro=for" since they haven't learned that word yet.

We ended up at the Adventure Playground in Central Park at 67th street. In the summer, this park has a fun water feature, but of course it's still a bit too cold for water play! The boys also enjoy the treehouse and climbing pyramid, which are in what basically amounts to a giant sand box. They also love to walk around the perimeter of the sand area, which is a series of concrete walls and wooden beams of varying heights.



Jordan gearing up to slide down the pole on the treehouse



I love this view...in the summer you can be in Central Park and almost forget you're in the middle of Manhattan, but for now, with no leaves on the trees, when you look up you still see skyscrapers. This is looking down towards 59th Street.



Josiah



Joey has to slide down the hard way.



Jonathan sliding head-first! I love that you can see the reflection of his face in the slide.






Fun with Daddy and Josiah--Jeremy and our friend Brent had caught up with us at the park by now.

We left the park and headed towards Time Square. We decided to take the boys to a restaurant called Ellen's Stardust Diner on 5oth and Broadway. The waitstaff are all aspiring Broadway singers, and some of them are really good! The food is your average typical diner fare, and in true New York fashion is overpriced, but it's all about the experience!



We walked by the Ed Sullivan Theater and I had to take a picture...I looked like such a tourist with my Canon Rebel hanging around my neck! Funny thing is I don't have to wear my camera to look like a tourist--people always assume we're visiting when they see us out with all of our children...there just aren't many families here in Manhattan with this many children!

I mapped our route online and found we had walked over 5 miles! That might be a bit too far to do often, but it was so nice to get out and get some exercise. The boys managed to work out all of their wiggles for the day, and went right to sleep when we got home!