Ben and Jenelle DOT COM

We haven’t had a lot of super-exciting things to write about lately. So, until the next post, have a great summer! 🙂

It’s officially summer, which means that somebody is celebrating another milestone today. For that reason, I’d like to post an answering machine message we received one year ago today.

Birthday Wishes from Grandpa Milt

Jenelle here…

It’s been a while since I’ve written to my loyal, devoted fan base, so I thought I’d fill you all in on some fun stuff we’ve been up to lately.

A week and a half ago, Mom and I took a short trip to New York for Mother’s Day weekend to see some of the sights of the big city. Mom and I always enjoyed watching Mary Poppins together when I was a kid, so the highlight of the trip was seeing Mary Poppins the Musical on Broadway… but more about that later.

First, here’s a quick look at our trip:

Friday
I met mom in Chicago on her layover from Portland to New York. We hopped on a plane and headed to LaGuardia. It was pouring, but we made it to our hotel just fine, found an umbrella at Duane Reade and began wandering the streets of New York City. We stayed at the Westin Times Square and overall thought it was great! The first highlight of the trip was when an angry New Yorker swore at Mom for getting to close with her umbrella. It was hilarious! We spent Friday walking around Times Square, doing some touristy shopping, and just taking it all in.

Saturday
We got up Saturday morning and headed to Battery Park, on the southern tip of Manhattan to board a ferry for the Statue of Liberty. When we arrived at the park, we were so grateful we had purchased our tickets in advanced, because the line was at least 1/2 mile long. We went through security, and boarded the ferry for the quick trip to the island. The view from the boat was incredible – we were both awed by the incredible statue. It was so fun to see the statue, visit the monument, and even climb up the pedestal to see the view from Lady Liberty’s feet.

The trip didn’t take nearly as long as we expected, thanks in large part to avoiding the long line, so we arrived back near Times Square in time to pick up tickets to another show. We decided to see A Chorus Line. I didn’t know much about the musical, but liked the idea of singing and dancing. We both decided the musical was good, but not wonderful. And it didn’t have nearly enough singing and dancing in it. One funny note – Mario Lopez played one of lead characters. I think he was much better as A.C. Slater in Saved By the Bell.

Sunday
On Sunday, Mother’s Day, we slept in a little and then grabbed a bite to eat at a cafe around the corner from the hotel. Then, we headed off to see Mary Poppins. I cannot begin to explain how amazing this production was. We both thought it was absolutely fantastic. I won’t give away any of the secrets if it comes to your town any time soon, but it was so much fun to watch. The singing and dancing was so impressive, and the set design was so fun to see, and there were definitely a few fun surprises as well. I was so excited to see they had a great rendition of Step in Time – my favorite part of the movie, where all the Chimney Sweeps tap dance.

We had an absolute blast and it was so fun to see this with my Mom on Mother’s Day!

After the play, we tried to get same-day tickets to Hairspray, but they were sold out. So we thought we’d do some more touristy things. So we walked to the Empire State Building and took the elevator to the top. It’s really nothing like they picture it in Sleepless in Seattle or an Affair to Remember. There’s security, and separate elevators and all kinds of hoops to go through just to get to the top. But once you’re up there, the view is great. We could see for miles and felt pretty proud of ourselves that we could identify all the major buildings.

After that we walked some more, past Bryant Park, Grand Central Terminal and down 5th Avenue to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, over to Radio City Music Hall and back to Times Square. We did a TON of walking. We also stopped along the way for dinner and some shopping.

Monday
Monday morning we got up early and headed to Rockefeller Center to try and get our 5 seconds of fame as a plaza-dweller on the Today Show. And I’m happy to say that we made it on the show! I have it on our DVR, so we’ll try to post it to the blog soon. (UPDATE FROM BEN: Here’s the clip!) We also took pictures of ourselves with Meredith Viera – she’s very nice and stops to talk with nearly every fan.

After that, we walked back to St. Patrick’s Cathedral to see inside (the doors were locked on Sunday – go figure.) The inside of the church is so beautiful. We had lots of fun staring at all the stained glass windows and beautiful stone carvings all over the walls.

Then, we went to the Museum of Modern Art to get our fill of culture for the day. We checked out Monet’s Water Lilies, Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Warhol’s Soup Cans and much much more. Although some of the “art” we didn’t quite understand.

Our last stop was a quick walk past Carnegie Hall and then through Central Park. It was starting to rain a bit, so we didn’t walk very far but it was neat to see the park and the cute bridges and beautiful trees. We then stopped at a cafe for lunch before walking back to the hotel to grab a ride to the airport.

Our flight was delayed, but we were able to grab an earlier flight to Chicago so that Mom wouldn’t miss her connection back to Portland.

Overall, we had such a fun trip. It was really great to spend some time with my Mom, who I don’t get to see as often as I’d like. And it was great to get to explore a place and do some of the touristy things that I hadn’t done before.

We took LOTS of photos so I’ll hopefully have those posted to the blog soon!

Earlier this month, Grandpa Milt (my dad’s dad) passed away at the age of 91. A special thanks to all who provided comfort and sympathy for us.

For those who like to know more about Grandpa and what he meant to me, I’ve put together the following web page:

Remembering Grandpa Milt

You’ll find a variety of information on Grandpa Milt, including a photo slide show, his obituary, and an audio file of his memorial service. I’ve also uploaded some messages that Grandpa Milt left on our answering machine. Two are humorous, and one is especially touching. I hope you enjoy it.

I’ll end this post with a quote from Grandpa Milt, as delivered at the end of his 90th birthday celebration video:

“Bye bye. Be talking to you.”

We had a lot of fun celebrating our wedding anniversary over the weekend. On Friday evening, we had a nice dinner at Sebastian’s, a classy place on the north side of Racine. On Saturday, I made breakfast (waffles, bacon, etc.) for the two of us.

Saturday night brought some great group fun. Kenosha Bible Church was having a “Wii Night” for young couples. It was great to meet and get to know lots of other KBC couples our age. Despite never having played anything on a Wii before that night, we managed to finish second in both the Wii Tennis and Wii Bowling tournaments. Lucky us. 🙂

What’s that in the BenCam? It’s not the best picture, but it’s Jenelle standing in front of the Prius, and the Prius has a KAYAK on top of it! We bought ourselves a Malibu Two XL sit-on-top tandem kayak rather than exchange anniversary gifts. We’re really looking forward to warmer weather so that we can take it out for a paddle or two.

Are we turning into one of those “active” couples that are always busy exercising? Only time will tell.