You are currently browsing the daily archive for January 23rd, 2009.
On Saturday, we woke up to the wonderful smell of cranberry scones and coffee. We enjoyed a relaxing morning with Anne and Larry and were amazed by the wildlife in their yard.
Squirrels and ducks hanging out in the snow
David, Derek’s cousin, came over in the afternoon and Marc, Denise and little Brayden came in the evening for dinner. We had such a good time together, especially with the two babies. Brayden was born at the end of October but he is a tall boy who looks about as big as Adelaide. He is super cute and was just starting to notice his hands while we were there.
Brayden and Adelaide
Brayden and Addie noticing one another
Little Brayden
Denise and I sharing parenting tips
Adelaide and Brayden, who is bigger??
She's touching me!!!
Look at those proud Daddies playing with the babies
Denise reading Brayden's favorite book
Here is a video of the kids together:
On Sunday, Anne, Larry and David headed to the airport in the morning to spend a week in Hawaii. We were so glad we got to see them a bit before they took off for the warmth and sun! That day, we had originally planned on heading out to Chicago and stopping by Nathan and Tara’s on the way back for dinner. The weather, however, was not too cooperative, so we decided to stay in Grand Rapids, have lunch with Marc & Denise and then headed out for Watervliet, a small town where Nathan and Tara live (Nathan is Derek’s other cousin, who is married to Tara and they have a 4 month old boy named Bryce, and Tara has an older son named Tyler who is 11). During lunch with Marc and Denise, Adelaide got to try her first teething biscuit and she loves them! She loves them so much, she was in fact wearing most of the cookie!
Addie and her teething biscuit, yummy!
We then headed off for Watervliet and the roads were slippery because of the constant snow. It took us over 2 hours to get there but it was so worth it to see them. They had dinner all ready for us when we arrived and we spent the evening talking, playing Rockband and having fun with the babies.
Drive from Grand Rapids to Watervliet
Bryce and Adelaide
Adelaide, Derek, Nathan and Bryce
Bryce and Tyler
Sleeping boy
Baby Switch
Tyler with his dog Deacon
Happy Family! Nathan, Tara, Bryce and Tyler with the doggies Mason and Deacon
Adelaide and Bryce:
Monday was a relaxing day. Denise came over for lunch with Brayden, and then I headed off to my site visit with Grand Valley. The counseling center is beautiful and the staff was very welcoming, but I’m not sure that would be the best match for me. Most of their interns seem to go on to do private practice work, which is not what I want to do in the near future, and it seems like their training is geared towards private practice. Derek and I then headed off to Marc and Denise’s for dinner and Wii games! We stayed at their house quite late because we were having such a good time.
Adelaide and Derek
Adelaide in her command center, one of Brayden's toys
Marc, Brayden, Derek and Addie
Happy Family: Marc, Brayden and Denise
Smiling cousins
Tuesday marked the end of our trip. We headed back to Detroit around noon, returned the rental car and waited at the airport for our flight. There were no major delays and we were home by 11pm.
It was a wonderful trip and Derek and I wanted to thank everyone who helped us – either by getting us to airports, driving us around town, giving us a warm place to sleep, cooking delicious meals, and everything other generous gesture that was extended our way. It’s on trips like this one that we realize how blessed we are to have such wonderful families and friends. So thank you.
love,
Julie & Derek
On Tuesday, we woke up as late as the hotel would let us since we were both feeling pretty tired from all our excitement/frustrations in Brooklyn the day before. We walked through Times Square and Derek got to see some of the sight of the city. We had lunch and then decided to head to a museum since it was cold walking outside. We took the subway and headed to the American Museum of Natural History (the museum featured at Night of the Museum). It felt like a good place to be since it is a very child-friendly museum. Before heading in, we walked around Central Park for about 45 minutes. Addie had been a bit cranky so I picked her up as we headed inside and assumed she was hungry. We went to the museum cafeteria and I started taking off her snow suit only to discover she was very wet – but upon closer inspection, it was wet and colorful. I took her to the bathroom and changed an EPIC pooh! Luckily, we had plenty of wipes and baggies to store her dirty clothes. The changing process took a while and I soon realized I had to get ready for my phone interview with Grand Valley State College. So Derek put Adelaide in the Bjorn and I walked out to find a place to talk (the museum had no cell reception). After walking for 5 minutes, with nothing in sight, I headed back to Central Park and did the hour interview outside in the park. It was quiet and beautiful and so relaxing, even though it was a bit chilly. The interview went really well and the 2 interviewers were nice and seemed impressed with all of my experience. I returned to the museum and Derek and I spent another hour visiting. It is a gorgeous museum and I feel like I only got to see a fraction of it, so we will definitely have to go back.
Derek by a wooden horse
The great blue whale
Addie enjoying her visit at the museum
After the museum, we headed off to Penn Station to be back in Monroe on time for dinner with Klaas and Ada and Peter and Trisha. Unfortunately, we got stuck on the train for well over an hour without moving because a train was stuck in the tunnel ahead. We didn’t get to Monroe until close to 8pm and by then Peter and Trisha had returned home since they were both working early the next morning. We had another wonderful evening with Klaas and Ada, discussing current events and politics.
On Wednesday, we got up and packed all our suitcases since we were heading off to Meghan and John O’Sullivan who live in Midtown Manhattan. We took lots of pictures and promised to stay in touch before we see each other next at Marika and Will’s wedding in May.
Adelaide and Ada
Julie, Ada and Adelaide
Derek, Ada and Adelaide
Ada, Adelaide and Klaas
Julie, Ada, Adelaide, Klaas and Derek
We then headed out to Meghan and John’s place in Murray Hill, right in Midtown Manhattan. Their condo is beautiful! Here are a few pics of their place and their amazing view.
Living room
Dining room
View from their living room, day and night
We had a great time with them and the kids were so much fun. They have three boys, Nyhan (5), Ian (3) and James (1). They got a kick out of Adelaide and each sat around her asking for turns to hold her. We were able to enjoy the great food of Manhattan – Thai on wednesday night and Cuban sandwiches for lunch on friday.
James, Adelaide and Ian
Ian, Nyhan and James
Happy family - taken by Ian
The boys playing with Adelaide
On Thursday, I took the subway to Pace University in downtown Manhattan for my interview at their counseling center. I totally fell in love! The staff was amazing, the program has a huge emphasis on training their interns in supervision, they offer great supervision and training and the site just “felt” right. I got back to Meg’s that afternoon on such a high, feeling like something had really connected and that I found the place I am supposed to be – now as to whether it will happen, that’s something I will find out on Feb 20th!
On Friday, I left again early in the morning for my interview at Columbia which is on the Upper West Side. It was really cold, but luckily, the subway exit was at the corner of the hospital. I had 3 30 min interviews and they went well, although the first one was slightly off putting – she said she had been very busy and knew nothing about me, which I thought was a bit weird. The rest of the interviews went well though, but I have a sense that if I went to that site, I would be really busy and stressed – there’s just lots to do. I headed back to Meg’s, we had lunch and then Derek and I packed our suitcases and headed off to LaGuardia to fly out to Detroit. I’m sure most of you heard about the plane crash into the Hudson from La Guardia and that crash occurred on thursday, so this was the next day. Everything went smoothly though and we landed in Detroit at about 8:30. It was sooo cold! In fact, it was -10F!! We picked up our car, a Dodge Journey (which ended up being quite handy since we drove in snow quite a bit) and headed to Anne and Larry’s, Derek’s aunt and uncle, who live about 2 hours east of Detroit in Grand Rapids. We arrived pretty late because it took a while for us to get going – Addie was pretty hungry, as were we! Anne greeted us and Addie had a good time snuggling with her.
Adelaide and I walking out of the airplane
Anne and Addie
Post break!
We made it back to California safely and were thrown right back into the routine of the everyday life – Derek returned to work on wednesday, I worked on wednesday and had an interview on thursday. I am so happy that there is nothing on my schedule today so I can relax, do laundry, catch up on all the TV shows I missed and allow Adelaide to get to know her toys and room again! The interview on thursday was with Kaiser and it went well. I drove down with Elizabeth since we were both interviewing the same day. We got stuck in terrible traffic on the way back which was frustrating but thank goodness we had each other to talk to!
So this is going to be a long post because I want to update everyone as to our trip! I will pick up from where I left off on thursday January 9th.
As I said, we went into the city that day. We took the train from Monroe, NY to Penn Station in Manhattan. Addie fell asleep as soon as we got on the train, which was a trend for all modes of transportation on our trip – whether it was the train, subway, bus, car or plane, Addie was gently rocked to sleep. We did a lot of walking that day and it was pretty cold. We started off by going to Times Square and took in all the giant screens! We then walked to the Empire State Building and went up to the top. The winds were so bad up there that Addie and I looked at the view from inside the observatory deck. Gen went out there and took beautiful pictures – unfortunately, we have not gotten together yet to share our pics. We then walked to Saks on 5th Avenue and had lunch at their cafe. It was delicious! We looked around the store but very quickly realized our wallets could not afford their prices. Gen did get a kick out of picking up heels which cost over $600 though! We then stepped out of the store and visited St-Patrick Cathedral. It was so beautiful!
St-Patrick Cathedral
Praying candles inside the Cathedral
We then walked all the way to Central Park and walked around the Park. It was so beautiful!
View of the city from the park
Adelaide and I in Central Park
After Central Park, we were pretty cold so we went inside the Time Warner building which has lots of shops and got coffee and a cookie. At that point Adelaide was pretty hungry so we tried to find a place to sit where I could nurse her, but alas, there was no where to sit. I decided to just sit on the ground and nursed her there. About 1 minute after I started, a security came up to us and told us we could not sit on the ground and pretty much asked us to leave. I was so shocked and kind of upset since there was no place around that had enough room for me to sit and nurse. We ended up walking a few blocks and found a pizza place where we had dinner and I was able to feed her. We finished our Manhattan stroll by going back to Penn Station to take the train back to Harriman in Monroe.
Here was our route for the day. I think we walked over 7 miles around the city.
We were picked up by Klaas and had a delicious dinner (as always when Ada cooks!). We had a good time talking we discussed the plans for the rest of the weekend.
Adelaide
Adelaide watching tv
Genevieve and Ada relaxing
On Friday, I had two phone interviews. The first was with Cal State Sacramento and it went really well. They were really nice and I felt the vibe was really fun and relaxed at that site. The downside of that site is that they are currently going through accreditation and they will find out in March (which is after Match day). APA accreditation is important to me because I would like to do a PostDoc. Later that afternoon I had an interview with UC Santa Barbara. That interview also went really well and I really liked the people – unfortunately, 3 of their staff members, including the training directors, will no longer be there next year – some are retiring and others are relocating. We had dinner that night with Peter and Trisha (Peter is Klaas and Ada’s son, and Trisha is his wife). They are currently expecting and she is due the first week of April. As I downloaded my pictures, I realized I did not take a single picture of Peter and Trisha…which is a real bummer. So friday was a more relaxed day. Ada took us to the outlet mall in Monroe between my interviews and we did some shopping.
On Saturday, Genevieve, Addie and I returned to the city. We spend about half the day in downtown Manhattan, visiting the World Trade Center site, a few churches and we walked around Battery Park. We originally thought about taking the ferry to Ellis Island, but the weather was so bad that we decided to skip that. The memorial to the Twin Towers was really emotional. St-Paul’s church faced the World Trade Center and they had a tribute to the firefighters and cops who lost their lives on 9/11. The church itself also had a lot of history, with burial grounds from the 1800s.
St-Paul's facing what used to be the World Trade Center Towers
St-Paul's
After visiting St-Paul’s, it started to snow, so we took shelter at an Au Bon Pain and had lunch. We then walked to Battery Park as it snowed and it was so beautiful. We walked around for about 30 minutes before determining that it was too cold and too snowy to stay outside. We then took the bus back to midtown and hung out at FAO Schwartz, to Miss Adelaide’s delight! Here are a few pictures of our afternoon.
Battery Park
Our view of the Statue of Liberty (it's the darker area in the middle of the picture)
View of downtown from Battery Park
World Trade Center Memorial with the eternal flame
New York Snow!
Genevieve hanging out with Lego Darth Vader and Chewbacca at FAO Schwartz
We then returned to the Vogels, had dinner and waited for Derek to arrive. Even though there was a lot snow (I think we got about 7 inches), Derek’s flights were not delayed. It was so nice to see him! Addie got a big hug with her Daddy and it was so nice to all be together again.
On Sunday, we went to church at Westpoint, which is the Army Academy. We then had brunch at the Officer’s Club with Klaas and Ada, and Peter and Trisha. We then spent most of the afternoon at Peter and Trisha and had a great time talking and spending time together. We had dinner with Klaas and Ada and then spent the whole evening by the fireplace, staying warm!
Monday was a big day. Genevieve was flying out at 2:30 (allegedly) but was delayed until 5:30 and did not get into LA until 9:30. Derek, Adelaide and I took the train from Monroe to Penn Station leaving at 6:58am (Eeeckk!!) and got to experience first hand rush hour traffic in the train and subway. We were in a rush because I had a phone interview with the University of Illinois at Chicago at 10am and then an in-person interview at noon at Kings County Medical Center in Brooklyn. So, idiot that I am, I assumed Brooklyn would be like Manhattan and there would be a cafe/Starbucks/Duncan Donuts at each corner. My hope was that we would find one of those cafes and I would do my phone interview and then cross the street for my in-person interview. Not to be… There was NO WHERE for us to sit and do my phone interview, so we ended up going to the hospital’s cafeteria just a few minutes before they called me. Of course, 30 secs into the interview, a group of about 20 nurse assistants came in for their break and were super loud. Since I could not hear, I stepped outside and did the hour interview outside in the cold. When I say cold, I really do mean COLD – I think it was in the low teens, like 12F and really windy. The interview went really well and again, the staff was really nice and welcoming. I finished that interview and stepped inside the cafeteria to thaw and have breakfast/lunch. Adelaide had been doing great but Derek did not want to spend the next 3 hours in that cafeteria (understandably) and had located a Barnes and Noble about 1 mile away. As I walked to my interview, he headed off to Barnes and Noble (or so he thought…more on that later). My interview was with Kings County which is a County hospital and the psychiatry building was really old and frankly, falling apart. Perhaps an example would illustrate my point more clearly. I walked into the building and had to head up to the 6th floor. I located the elevators and tried to find the button to go up. Alas, no button to be found?!?! Someone must have seen that I looked lost, and they told me I had to knock on the elevator. I wasn’t sure if he was kidding but I did it anyway. Instantly, the doors opened and a short lady asked me which floor I wanted to go to. She then used odd tools and yanked wires and up the elevator went. So clearly, state of the art building!!
The interview began with a tour of the new building (thank God!) which was really nice, and ultimately, redeemed the site because it was definitely not a selling point. I had three interviews which went really well and I am really excited about all the training opportunities, especially in neuropsych testing.
After my interview, I called Derek to get directions to Barnes and Noble, thinking that’s where they were. He informed me that what his Iphone identified as a B&N, was in fact a small bookstore from the local community college. He proceeded to walk in the cold to Prospect Park (a large park which was built to be the Central Park of Brooklyn) thinking there would be more near that popular spot. In fact, he found the botanical gardens which had an indoor greenhouse and as he approached the building, he saw the entrance was free (bonus!). As he got to the door, he read the sign which said “closed on mondays.” Desperate to find somewhere warm, he crossed the street and spent 3 hours or so at Wendy’s. Luckily, he had his Iphone and was able to entertain himself to a certain degree for the bulk of the afternoon. After my interview, I walked to Wendy’s to join him and we called Hari (high school friend who is completing his residency in Brooklyn). We tried to hunt down a taxi to take us to his place to no avail – apparently cabs from Manhattan are not to keen on picking up customers who want to go elsewhere in Brooklyn. Hari ended up picking us up with a Zip car (a program that allows you to have a car anytime you want by paying a monthly fee) and he drove us to his apartment and a bit around Brooklyn. We then headed to Grimaldi’s a famous pizzeria underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. We spent the night at a hotel by Times Square, ready to explore the city the next day!
Post Break!! The rest of the trip will be detailed in the next post so that your eyes can get a break!
love,
julie
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