This is our new cat TT. She’s a four year old black cat with little white splotches and a white undercoat. We adopted her from an animal shelter a few days before Christmas.
I love her so so so so so so much! She loves to be loved and I love that. Every night she crawls into bed with me, curls up, and goes to sleep. Sometimes when I curl up on the couch she jumps up and sits in-between my legs. She loves it when I pet her head. She does not like to play much though. – By: Mara Ullan
For my birthday I wanted to go to New York City so we drove up on Friday and stayed till Sunday. It was a five hour drive each way but it was worth the drive!
One of the things I wanted to do in New York City, was go up the Empire State Building. Why I wanted to go up the Empire State Building is because I read the Percy Jackson series and the Empire State Building is featured in the books. Also, I wanted to face my fear of heights. So on Saturday morning, we ate breakfast and then walked to it. I was nervous at first but faced my fear and went the whole way up to the 102nd floor! It had a breathtaking view! I loved it!
After that, we stopped to get lunch and then walked to Mood. Mood is a fabric store that they use in Project Runway. It was way bigger than I expected and has a crazy amount of fabrics and other materials.
After all of this, we rested at the hotel and went down to the tip of Manhattan to see the Statue of Liberty. After that, we went to Little Italy and got some of the best cannolis that I’ve ever had.
The next day, we went to Central Park and my brother and I were climbing all over the rocks there. Then we went to Dylan’s Candy Bar. It had a lot of selections. Yum!
Then we went to Max Brenner’s for lunch and chocolate. Beckett and I split this crazy sundae and mom and dad split this chocolate fondue trio. It was gooooood.
After all of this, we went back to the hotel, packed up and drove back home.
Mara: Ever since I was 3 or 4, I wanted to the visit the Eiffel Tower. My mom promised she would take me there. I finally went at age 9. The first time I saw it, it was the best thing ever.
(Mom here: As Mara said, we started talking about the Eiffel Tower when Mara was 3 or 4. I don’t remember why exactly – if there was a book we read with the Eiffel Tower in it or what – but I do remember the conversation and telling her about Paris and the Tower. And I promised I would take her there some day. In fact, I even added it to my bucket list. Over the past 5-6 years, Paris got brought up more times than I can count. We’d always talk about going to Paris and I kept promising her that “some day” I would take her. So once we decided to spend 2 months in Spain, it became a no-brainer to fly up to Paris. By that point, Beckett was almost as excited to go as well.
Getting to Paris was only half of it. The REAL excitement was finally seeing the Eiffel Tower and seeing it up close. This was the moment we talked about over many years and Mara’s reaction to seeing it was priceless (see below).
Even though Mara is scared of heights, she was brave and went up it at 9:30pm at night. She was only scared for a little bit but quickly got comfortable and had no problems going to the tippy top.
THIS was the highlight of her, and our, trip to Paris. And it was worth the wait!)
Our first up-close view of the Eiffel Tower
Here are some pictures of us in front of the Eiffel Tower:
Mara: When we went up it, I was scared. But then I got used to it. It took an hour to get to the tippy top. But it was worth it. The views were amazing. It got so late.
This is pretty indicative of the night at that point – it was about 11pm and Mara was wiped and Beck was wired from being overtired
