The last week of summer we did the usual — lots of doctor’s appointments interspersed with outdoor time! One day the kids took me to all their secret spots at the Rye Nature Center.
Blaine and I drove into the city for his annual doctor’s appointment!
One day we found this neat park in Harrison in between PT and a makeup Swim Tank lesson for Sarah.
On the evening of September 1 we were hit by the remnants of tropical storm Ida, and the area received its worst flooding since we’ve lived here. We were alarmed to see the rain was filling up the window well egress from the basement.
Our portable Everbilt pump was running for 24 hours straight but wasn’t able to manage the water rushing into our basement! It got up to 11-12 inches in the deepest part.
The next day was beautiful! Sadly we were expecting a visit from Mom-Mom, Aunt Molly, and Uncle Fran, but they weren’t able to make it thanks to the traffic from all the flooding.
But they were able to make it the next day, Friday! Hooray! Here we are having lunch at bartaco in Port Chester. From there we went to Rye Playland where we were somewhat appalled by the crowds and didn’t end up going on that many rides (though we did make Uncle Fran ride the grown-up size “Whip”!).
I liked how Molly’s mask could double as a stylish headband.
We also enjoyed some Carvel!
Andrew made his famous lamb curry which Mom always envies when she hears he is making it! He even made the roti to go with it — delicious. The next day we took the group over to Manor Park for a walk and to enjoy the view.
When we returned to the cars to drive back to the house Mom found that her car wouldn’t start! She called AAA and they were able to come by and found the battery had died. They jumped it and then Mom and Andrew drove around until they found a replacement battery at the Honda dealership! Meanwhile, the rest of the group got ready for the Labor Day celebration at the beach.
Mom and Andrew met us there and we were finally able to relax and enjoy a beer.
We’re not sure if it was a coincidence or if Blaine put in a request but he enjoyed the rendition of one of his favorite songs, “American Pie.”
That night Andrew made fish for dinner and we had smores on the patio! The Mahoneys left early the next morning; it was a brief but fun visit!
After their departure, we got back to dealing with the basement! 🙁 The builders had made some poor choices and all the materials seemed designed to soak up and retain the water! We started out removing the baseboard, then moved on to the beadboard and top molding. Then we cut out the bottom of the drywall and pulled out the insulation which was still dripping wet. At that point the dehumidifier and fans were really able to do their jobs.
It was a sad experience to be ripping out all the finishing on our “finished” basement, and to realize that it’ll probably be awhile before we can get the work done to fix the water problem and get it back into usable shape. Oh well! At least Andrew and I were able to do it quickly, figuring it would be awhile before we could get a contractor. The kids got a lot of video game time. :/
School was scheduled to start on Thursday, 9/9, but ended up being delayed until 9/13 due to the flood damage to all the schools. So I took the kids on some end of summer outings. On 9/7 we went to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibit at the NY Botanical Gardens.
We had some frozen yogurt at Frost for an afternoon snack. I’m with Sarah on this one, we didn’t think it was the best froyo ever. Blaine enjoyed it!
A friend invited us over to swim in their pool on 9/8 and both kids managed to get onto this bull-riding floaty.
Sarah also had her first practice for the local rec league soccer (LJSL); she is on team USA.
On 9/10 we went to the Bronx Zoo! We had not been in a long time so we visited all our favorite spots. We went on the monorail, did the ropes course, and went to the Children’s Zoo.
We also happened to catch some giant tortoises in a romantic moment, not pictured to respect their privacy.
