This belly + the man responsible are going to an island in the middle of the Caribbean.

24 weeks, on our walk home from Central Park tonight. Should I be embarrassed?!

Probably not I suppose, because Baby Boy is big enough at this point that Mike & I just sat on the couch & watched my belly pop out in different directions + felt lots of kicks as he had a little solo dance party for a few minutes. It was by far his best performance for Mike yet. 

I can't believe we're here already, but we're off to get some sun on our faces (& belly - I'm feeling great about the nautical style bikini I picked up a few weeks ago), + sand between our toes for the next week. My last two times flying - at 8 weeks & 14 weeks - were less than fun, so I'm grateful that those 20-ish (?!) weeks of nausea are a thing of the past. 

Vacation!

Friend Handbook 101.

(Last week, but I love this photo.)

I think that the new rule in the Friend Handbook (which I'm going to write very shortly) should be that you're not allowed to leave. Ever. For the sake of everyone involved, it should just simply be forbidden. I'm just saying. No more of this leaving New York business. I cried when Erin told me she had bought her plane ticket a month ago, I've cried numerous times since then just thinking about it, & I cried again on my walk home tonight. She's a friend that I just loved from Day 1, & now I love her like a sister. 

Like I said, it should be forbidden.

A few of us met up with Erin at Emack & Bolio's tonight for some ice cream - the last outing before she takes Fox & Indie to Utah for the summer, & then to Texas in the fall (until they move back to New York - right, Matt? RIGHT, MATT?! - or we could reconvene in a few years in Madrid or London). I'm pretty sure that there are few things in life better than talking & laughing with friends for a few hours (until they close the place down), covering far reaching topics including but certainly not limited to the absolute ridiculousness of the word huzzah. I mean seriously, who actually says that? Like out loud?* 

Here's to a future visit to Texas & to being lucky enough to know & love the Burtons. Even if it means my heart is breaking just a little.

*Apologies to everyone I just offended. Shoot.

Counting.

From Central Park on Sunday. Kelsey & Kylie. Love these sisters. 

8 more shots in my last roll of Polaroid film (then I'm taking a break from the $2+ per photo until prices come down)

4 more mornings of 6:30am Seminary

7 days until we move into our new apartment

11 days until we're on a beach in the middle of the Caribbean

34 days until I'm at Priest Lake 

36 days until Mike is there with me

129 days (+/-) until Baby Boy is done cooking

Reservoir.

Friend Erin & I went on a long walk around the reservoir yesterday, hoping that the fresh air & brisk pace might coax Baby Sister out. No such luck (yet), but it was pretty. I miss my runs at the park. Time to start up again, I think.

Christmas in the City: Good bye city, hello suburbs.

We're heading out this afternoon to spend the next few days with Mike's family (our second Christmas in a row staying back east). New Canaan is beautiful during Christmas & we're excited for things like caroling at God's Acre tomorrow night  & making crepes (a Hudson family tradition I've infiltrated them with) on Christmas morning. Dan, Dave & Cara are in town from Colorado, Utah & Washington DC & we get to talk to Bryan (in Honduras) on Friday. Fun. I'm happy that it's only a 50 minute train ride on Metro North to their home vs. a cross-country flight. I obviously (always) miss my family, & I wish I could be sitting in front of the fire at the cabin with a cup of hot cocoa, but this year - with all the storms & cancelled flights - I'm grateful to be on the East Coast.

(Next year, Washington. Promise.)

Christmas in the City: Washington Square Park & falafel.

We went & saw the tree at Washington Square Park last night, & then had some late-night falafel & shawarma at Yatagan Kebab House in the West Village. The tree? Not so impressive (they could have sprung for a few more strings of lights), but pretty with the arch. Yatagan? Amazingly good food for $5 (!!).

I was wishing that I had my (big + heavy) camera with me, & not just my plastic polaroid. It doesn't perform at it's best at night, but these worked.

Christmas in the City: Blizzard.

10 inches? 12 inches? I'm not sure what the official number was, but everything was sufficiently covered when we woke up this morning. I had hot apple cider & peppermint Joe Joe's for breakfast, because it just seemed like the thing to do on such a cold & snowy morning. And then - I smashed my finger in the window trying to take a photo of our snow-covered fire escape. Ouch, but at least I have documentation. Our travels between church & home were extra slippery & we've stayed inside all day since. It's been great. I'm supposed to venture out in 17 minutes for a little holiday gathering, & I'm just a little nervous for the 10 block walk.

One of the best things about lots of snow in New York? It's so quiet. Everything is wonderfully muffled & the majority of the cars & cabs stay parked (stuck?) in their garages & metered spots. Lovely.

(I shouldn't pretend that it's all lollipops & roses though. I read today that 800 flights were cancelled into / out of JFK yesterday & today. That's a total holiday disaster for a lot of people, including many of our friends trying to get home. We're happy that we're staying local this year.)

Rockefeller Center.

My polaroid came to Rockefeller Center last week & I took some photos with it. Unfortunately, I don't really like most of them. The close up of the lights in the trees? What was I thinking? Polaroids don't do detail, nor do they do the tree any justice (although I'll disagree with Al Roker saying it's the best tree ever. It's not. It looks a little mangy). But at just over $2 a pop, you'd better believe I'm doing something with these little instant prints (& that something is posting them on the blog).

I call it "cemetery" when I have a bad attitude, but this morning it was sort of fun.

I took this a few weeks ago. 6:15am. Just for fun, with my polaroid. Our building is so pretty.

This morning, the sky was racing. It really was. I can't explain it, except that I walked out of my apartment, & it was dark, but I could see these puffy, huge black & blue clouds (leftover from last night's torrential rain storm) just sprinting over the buildings & out of the city, almost close enough to touch them. It's nothing but blue skies now.

Some mornings, seminary comes very early. It comes extra-early when you're at a concert until almost 1am the night before. Oops.

We did scripture mastery this morning. I cut out photos of Kristen Stewart & Robert Pattinson's pretty heads out of US Weekly, stuck them on a poster board & then drew them nice little stick bodies (Kristen's dress was not seminary-appropriate, although very cute). I named them Wally & Molly Mormon. We broke out into groups (um, 2 groups since there was a grand total four students this morning), & made up stories / skits about Wally & Molly struggling with something or making bad decisions, & then used the scripture mastery verses to help them solve their problems. Even at 6:30am, I think we had fun.

Thanksgiving should always include things like guacamole, cilantro & pina coladas.

Thanksgiving dinner, at Fajita Republic in Nuevo Vallerta. Fajitas are one of my very favorite foods, & turkey is one of my least favorite foods, so this just worked out really well.

Harrison is missing from this photo because he was too sleepy to make it to dinner. Lots of boogie boarding & such.

More Mexico photos soon.

(By the way, can you even believe that it's December already?! I cannot, even though I forced myself to listen to Christmas music all morning. I accept it, but I'm not ready for it.)

My polaroid camera came to the Hamptons with us.

Oops. 

(Sometimes polaroids get owies when you touch them before they're finished. Or when they end up in your husband's coat pocket too quickly).

I routinely carry two cameras around.

Which is likely why my back always hurts. But it was a pretty day, & I was going to walk through the park (after Emma & I had lunch) to take some photos. Worked out nicely having both of them there, really. You know how I feel about documenting things (everything).

A story about an almost very sad day.

We took a train back into the city last night & felt quite untethered, me carrying only my purse & Mike carrying the heavy camera bag - we were sans luggage since it was only a day trip. I had brought my big camera bag - with everything in it just in case, including lenses, various accessories & my polaroid camera + extra film. Just in case. We had an uneventful train ride. It was crowded, so we put the camera bag overhead. Mike read. I napped. We pulled into Grand Central. We filed out of the crowded train, wandered through the terminal & went down into the subway tunnel, approaching the turnstiles to enter the station. I started going through the mental images of the photos that I took that day, when it suddenly hit me (rather like a ton of bricks).

The camera bag!!! 

Mike looked at me & my the single bag (purse) I was carrying, & looked at his empty arms. He didn't say a word, he didn't hesitate. He just turned & sprinted (reason #478 why I love my husband). He was out of view within 3 seconds, disappearing into the crowds.

I tried to follow him, but I really just felt like I was going to throw up. My camera. (Heart pounding) My very new camera. (Heart pounding) Worst possible scenarios were quickly & vividly imagined. (Heart pounding)

Quick ending to the potentially terrible story: I finally found the track that our train had arrived on, just as Mike ran out of the still-there train with a bag in hand. A man next to me cheered. Apparently he'd cheered Mike on through his effort, asking what he was sprinting for & then saying, You can do it!! 

We'll call the blame neutral on this one. It doesn't really even matter. We (Mike) found it. Nothing was lost. Catastrophe narrowly avoided. I'm calling my insurance company (finally) tomorrow. It's been on my to-do list for too long.

Phew.

Tonight, I'm happy to have a memory card full of photos & a few polaroids that were just fun, that I can put in a book & flip through. I like the one that Mike took, with me & my favorite possession (in the electronics category, anyway), even if it does weigh too many pounds. And it's okay that these photos are from an instant camera with technology from a decade ago. It's fun to mix things up. I like that polaroids are a throw back to days running around as a little girl in the early 90's. Maybe it's rooted in the fact that I had a friend in elementary school (Annie Crego, actually) who had a polaroid camera & I thought she was so cool. Older, with horses, a treehouse & a polaroid camera. I wanted to be her. I never did get a polaroid. It's fun that I do now, even if it's 20 years later. My parents (& my in-laws) still don't understand the current appeal. That's okay.

PS - Special thanks to Kelsey for the frequent use of her scanner lately. Our very own printer / scanner is in the mail. We're real adults now, the almost-owners of an actual printer (which makes sense since we only bought our first desk 6 months ago, we live in 600 square feet, & have never owned a car as a married couple). 

My Dad was slightly east of the Mississipi so he came to visit me.

(Dinner. Central Park. Central Park)

My dad has the idea that if he's east of the Mississippi then he's in the neighborhood. As in the New York City neighborhood. This is fantastic for me, because it means we have a fairly regular (i.e. annual, if not semi-annual) visitor from the Hudson Family Tree. So when my dad had a Sunday meeting in Chicago the other week, he swung by New York Wednesday night through Sunday morning so that he could grab a few days with us. I love that my dad will go out of his way (even though he'll argues it's on his way) to come visit us. It makes me feel loved, & that's just a nice feeling.

While he was here? We ate quite a bit, per usual. Atlantic Grill (seafood) Beyoglu (Turkish) & Spigolo (Italian) - all on the Upper East Side, & all fantastic. Especially Spigolo, which we'd never tried before. Amazing. We also walked quite a bit (per usual) - all the way across the park one day, just for fun, grabbing lunch at Shake Shack on the west side. I seemed to only have my polaroid camera with me - which my dad found completely ridiculous - so these are the only three shots I have of his visit. Sad.

Next time I'm lugging the real camera along. My dad and my mom are coming in a few weeks. Two, to be exact. Then Tara (finally!) comes the week after that. Then we're in Mexico. November is a big Hudson month for us, which is awesome considering the other 11 months of the year rarely are.

Friday.

Polaroids. Last week. With our happy yellow balloon.

My dad & I spent the day wandering through Central Park, eating at Shake Shack & shopping (for him, not me!), finishing off with an epic trip to Trader Joe's. It's fun to have him in the city with us. Visitors are a little few & far between for us, so it's just... nice. Oh, & I should mention that we've already watched Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice & Glee together. Love that we have the same taste in television shows. And that the woman in a shop today asked if I was his daughter.

Tomorrow - I'm off in the morning to shower friend Jill who's about ready to pop (hooray!), followed by a few sessions of General Conference that I'm really excited about.

And Sunday? My dad leaves. And Mike leaves. For the entire week (!!). Who wants to play??

True love.

Us. From the US Open. Just because.

True love is when Mike basically performs an entire reenactment (off the cuff, of course) of a seminary lesson that I'm teaching tomorrow morning because I'm so scared & need his help figuring how on earth to do it. He's really good, by the way.

Teaching seminary kind of makes me nauseous. Some day I'm sure that I'll be able to say how much I love it. Until then, I think it's a good idea to skip breakfast in the morning.

Instant.

I've traded up for another model, & I'm selling this little number. So fun to see that the Impossible Project has been successful. I'm excited for more (& less expensive?!) film.

Email me if you're interested.

-- kathryn.h.whiting(at)gmail.com --
.
(Update: SOLD)

Sidewalk.

Yesterday. Polaroid. Sidewalk. Pretty.

Our family of two.

More Polaroids. I like how they turned out. I have one pack of film left. I'm not sure if I'll buy more. It's fun, but I'm not sure it's worth $2 a photo.

We had our family photos taken in Central Park last night (more on that later). Afterwards, we played with the Polaroid on Row Bridge. I love Central Park. I really do. It's so beautiful. And the weather - I sent happy thoughts up to the clouds, & they held on tightly to the rain just as I asked. It was nice & dry for the few hours that we needed.

After getting a little lost in the ramble - for the 2nd time in one day - we walked down to Bar Americain where we had dinner with friends the Egans + sister Kylie (our photographer extraordinaire). We weren't huge fans of Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill when we went a few years ago, but think that his Bar Americain is quite good. I especially loved the sweet potato gratin & the hot potato chips with the blue cheese sauce. Yum.It's 73 degrees today. I'm so happy.

Look at me, I'm artsy.

If I'm cool, I'll call them polas, right?

I finally dug out my Polaroid (that I haven't used in, oh, a year) + my final pack of film & brought it out to Washington last week. I loved the look on my dad's face when he saw it next to my DSLR. What is that?! I also loved the fact that all of the little ones had never seen a Polaroid camera (I'm obviously old). The novelty subsequently resulted in me being cool for about 2 hours. Totally worth the price I paid for it on Ebay ($23).

The happy ending? I came home to find another pack of film that I had forgotten about. Lovely!

*A special thanks to friend Jill & the use of her scanner. We really need one of those.

(1) Love birds. (2) Wildflowers in the nature preserve in front of the cabin. (3) Sun beams. (4) Pre-jump. (5) Mom & Dad + almost all of their grandchildren. (6) Love birds #2. (7) Aunt Kathryn + Parker, Spencer, Ellie, Harrison, Cameron, Hudson, Noah, Riley, Lexi, Avery. (8) Edwards family. (9) Welcome, welcome. (10) Huckleberry pie. (11) Jumping.