For Spring Break, we took a trip to New York. After flying into JFK, we took a shuttle to our hotel in Murray Hill, the swanky Affinia Shelbourne. While in NYC, we went to the top of the Empire State Building, visited Central Park and it's zoo, visted Times Square a couple of times, walked the American Musuem of Natural History, saw a few historic churches, visited Ground Zero, and rode the Staten Island Ferry to get an upclose view of the Statue of Liberty. The food was amazing. The kids of course enjoyed the pizza. After 4.5 days in Manhattan, we were ready to be out of the city, and we headed up state for a relaxing 4 days in the country. On Friday, April 1st, we awoke to about 2 inches of snow on the ground. We had a snowball fight and made a snowman. It was the first time Evan and Drew were able to play in the snow and see it falling from the sky. It turned out to be the highlight of the trip for them! It was a very fun trip and the pictures are here.

February 2, 2011, was a very sad day in the Bak family. We had to make the very difficult decision to put Sunny to sleep. Over the prior 4 or 5 weeks, she had gotten really sick with what we found out was cancer. She basically had stopped eating and had lost almost half her weight. She was so sick that she no longer wanted to be around us, spending most of her days alone in her crate. Sunny had been Nik's and my pet since September 10, 2001 (one day before the 9/11 tragedy.) Sunny was a part of our life together almost from the beginning. Nikki found Sunny roaming the campus at Mandarin High School, her employer at the time, and her desperate plea to bring her home to our house for a day or 2, just until we found the owner, turned into almost 10  years. She became a member of our family and she will forever be missed. But having seen the pain she was in, we know we made the right decision, as hard as it was. Here are 2 pictures of Sunny. The first is a few days after we got her. The second is one of our last pictures of Sunny, taken around Christmas 2010.

Here in north Florida, New Year's Eve day was hot! Temps were in the 80s. With our newly received Jacksonville Zoo annual passes (thanks Pops!) Nik and I decided to take the kids to the zoo. They were doing a special kids New Year's Eve party, culminating with apple juice and noise makers at noon. And it could not have been a better day weather-wise. So after walking around the zoo with our friends the Marinas, seeing the giraffes, goats, penguins, and monkeys (among many others,) it was approaching noon, and time for the big countdown to "Noon Year's Eve!" The kids all had a blast! This was followed up by a little adult enjoyment - lunch at Kickbacks.

The adult New Year's Eve (the real party at midnight) was mainly uneventful and quiet. Our friends Erin and Justin stopped by and we watched the ball drop over at the Marinas, outside with a fire pit, good food, and real good beer! The next day, the weather was much like the previous - sunny and warm. What better way to celebrate New Year's Day than with a boat ride to the Jacksonville Landing for pizza and college bowl games. Evan's friend Beckett tagged along for the ride. As you can see in the pictures, we had an amazing sunset for the ride back to the dock. New Year's pictures...

Uncle Pat flew in from Portland the week of Christmas. The boys anticipated his arrival very much, and really enjoyed their time together. Evan is really into football right now; both watching it on television and tossing it around in the yard. Evan and Patrick played a lot of catch!  We hosted Christmas eve dinner at our house with Patrick, Pops, Randy Bower, Jackie and Joel. Christmas dinner was hosted by Jackie at her house and included Grandma Velva. The big theme for gifts this year was Star Wars...books, DVDs, clothes, action figures...you name it, the boys got it! Also, they each received lots of books, games, art supplies, and some cool gifts flown in from Paris! The pictures...

In November, we celebrated Grandma Velva's 89th birthday. The celebration turned into an entire month long event, concluding with the arrival of the Ambuskes and the Aufills the week of Thanksgiving. It was a busy week; lots of food and drink, leading up to the final event, Thanksgiving dinner. The kids both had school feasts on the final day before the short break, which we attended (see pictures.) Thanksgiving was hosted at our house. In addition to the usual fried turkey, we decided to try a second turkey, roasted in an oven bag. Both turned out great. Of course the meal was completae with all the customary trimmings. Present at dinner, in addition to our immediate family, were Mike, Emily, Grace, and Bennet Ambuske; John and Carol Aufill, Grandma Velva, and Chris's dad Jim. Click here for pictures.

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