This photo was taken on August 7, 2009. I was organizing my photo folders yesterday and I stumbled across this photo, asking myself why I had not put it up before. I love this photo because it reminds me so much of the times we spend at Central Park during the summers. We always head to Central Park during the summer: it’s our favorite past time. And, every time we learn something new about photography, we can’t wait to test it out – so pack our stuff and spend some time in the park trying out our new photographic techniques.

Here is Monica and Danica on a very nice day:

Danica turned 3 yesterday and it was a definitely a birthday Monica and I will not forget. We decided to take Danica and JJ to Playland, located in Rye, NY; Playland is an amusement and water park all-in-one. To get there we had to take the Metro-North railroad and it was my first time ever taking that train so with as many precautions as I had already taken – hopstopped the directions, sent them to my phone, viewed a map of the town, checked the train schedules, checked the park rates and hours – I was still anticipating confusion along the way.

There is one thing we did forget to check, though, the weather… As soon as we arrived we ate our breakfast and the rain gladly greeted us with a cold welcome. It began to pour as if we were stuck in the middle of a rain forest! Either way, we decided to make the best of it. We ran like maniacs through the rain and it was amazing. We had the time of our lives

Although most of the rides were closed due to the weather we still managed to scare the living crap out of the kids in a haunted roller coaster ride lol. I just wished I could have taken pictures of their reactions while we were on the ride, but even at 3200 ISO my camera was only taking pitch black photos. Afterwards, they rode on an air-balloon-swing-around ride that Danica got totally freaked out on because she thought she was going to fall from it.

Next, after letting them hop on another coaster we walked on over to the swimming pool. The nice thing about being at an amusement park in bad weather is that there it is virtually empty. There was literally only 10 to 15 visitors, including us, in the swimming pool. We really enjoyed being in the pool because the water in the pool was much warmer than the water hitting us from the rain lol. The bad part about that was that the pool was only 5 feet high, at the most and we had to come up often or we would be kneeling most of the time. We had to leave the pool within 30 minutes of entering it because we began to freeze our behinds .

Forty minutes later we took the kids on another ride then headed to a boardwalk that was attached to the other end of the park and was also completely empty. We were the only ones there for at least 40 minutes. We took tons of pictures, but had to leave because the rain had subdued and we were afraid it was going to come down hard on us again.

When we arrived home Monica and I left the kids at home with Monica’s brother while we ran out to buy her a few cheap gifts and a birthday cake at Baskin Robbins. I will be putting up all of the pictures in a day or so but I do not have the time to finish all of them in one day. In the mean time, however, I only have a picture of the cake that I would like to put up and a picture of what Danica used to look like when she was a couple of months old.

Hello all,

A few days ago I went to the beach with Monica and the kids. We went with the hope that we would be able to erase Danica’s aquaphobia. This was an issue to us because last year, when we traveled to the Dominican Republic on vacation, we did not have this problem. Perhaps it is because the beaches here in the city are much dirtier and the waves are fiercer than of a beach in the Caribbean.

I remember the first time, when she had just turned two and she set her eyes on the ocean, she could not wait to go “swimming.” When we set out towards the water she flapped her feet like a fish wanting to jump back into the water. It was amazing and we couldn’t help but be proud of how glad she was to be there.

Now, we returned back to NY and when summer came we thought we would see the same reaction from her. I guess we shouldn’t have raised our hopes as much as we did because we needed to consider the fact that she was growing up, becoming more aware of her surroundings and they  potential risks that may lay ahead. She knows now that there is a possibility of drowning if you do not know how to swim and the tide sucks you inward.

Anyway, long story short; we took her to the beach a few times and every time we went we had to take her out because - if it was not the drowning or the waves she was afraid of – the frigid water took control over her body. And so, the day was August 4, 2009; we finally reached the moment Monica and I have been waiting for. One moment we are siting by the sand taking pictures; the next, Danica is running along the shore grazing her toes through the water; laying on the shore, waiting for the tide to come by and cover her with its cool, refreshing, body in the agonizingly hot and humid climate this summer has brought to us.

And now, here are the good moments I’ve captured for us to always remember this day by: