WHERE have we been and WHAT have we been doing?!

No. We did NOT fall into a black hole and disappear into the oblivion. Obviously. We have just been busy with life changes and getting caught up in the hustle and bustle that we all call "The Holidays."

With that being said, a re-cap of our last few months is in order, so here we go.

Kenny:
In November Kenny changed jobs and is no longer working for BAE Systems. He is now a government employee and is spending eight hours a day surfing the web reading up on Tech and anything Texas working very diligently. He has a bit of a longer commute, but thankfully it is a reverse commute (meaning he travels the opposite direction from the rest of traffic). Things are going fantastically (is this even a word?) and he is really enjoying his new job and all the people he works with now. Ask him for work stories, he has a ton of very interesting and hilarious ones to share. Also, in January 2010 Kenny will be starting Graduate School at Virginia Tech University (in Alexandria, VA)! He should wrap up with grad school sometime in 2012 if everything goes as planned. He is beyond excited and looking forward to getting back into school studying until all hours of the night with bloodshot eyes and drinking way too much coffee and expanding is already enormous vocabulary and knowledge of all things.

Erin:
In early November Erin left PricewaterhouseCoopers and is now working for PotomacWave Consulting. She had two weeks of time off before starting her new job and spent every day doing something important (shopping, cleaning, sleeping, watching movies, cooking, etc). She loves her new job and is so thankful for the opportunity she was given! Currently Erin is working at the United States Coast Guard, and even though her commute is a nightmare long, she loves being back at USCG in DC.

The Benavides':
We recently took an ah-mazing trip to New York City over Thanksgiving and LOVED every minute we were there! The city is fantastically chaotic, mesmerizing, frustrating, energized, and beautiful. All at once. I do not understand how all those mix together so well, but they do and that is NYC. We spent all of our time in mid-town (Times Square area) and below, down to the bottom tip of Manhattan. Times Square is crazy, and you really see some rather interesting (read: weird) people down there. We ate at Serendipity 3 (featured in the motion picture Serendipity) a few times and if it were up to me we would have enjoyed dessert there every day. For every meal. We went to the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Tower), walked around Rockefeller Center, watched people make fools of themselves ice skate on the rink at Rockefeller Center, witnessed a brave man get down on one knee and propose to his girlfriend (of SEVEN YEARS) in the center of the rink and then enjoy dinner (talk on their cell phones) at the table right behind us afterwards.

She said yes.

We rode the Staten Island Ferry which took us right past The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (without the crazy fee or lines). We stood on the top deck of the ferry, appropriately named the Hurricane Deck.

Having never been in a hurricane I can only imagine that the winds we experienced were just like a hurricane, only much more cold. I'll post a picture of what I looked like after leaving the hurricane deck soon. But I digress.

We walked around the Financial District, took pictures at Wall Street, in front of a statue of George Washington, walked around and through Trinity Church, and tried to absorb Ground Zero.

Being at Ground Zero was heart wrenching. The buildings which surround Ground Zero are unbelievably tall, and I tried to imagine what it looked like before 9/11. The Twin Towers literally towered over all the other sky scrapers down there. It was very somber, but yet very much alive and moving. Traffic was bustling with horns honking and people yelling, pedestrians milling about, and then the tourists. It was very easy to spot tourists at Ground Zero, they were the only ones standing still. Some with tears, most with cameras, but all trying to absorb what occurred down there eight years ago. It is hard to believe that 9/11 was eight years ago, but it was. So much has happened between now and then, yet Ground Zero looks virtually untouched. It seems there is a "battle" on how the area should be re-built between the owners of the Twin Towers, the land, the local government and the people of NYC.

We also walked around a tiny Episcopal Church, St. Paul's Chapel, which is directly across the street from Ground Zero. In what can only be explained as the hand of God, somehow this tiny chapel escaped completely untouched from the falling buildings. The only damage this chapel experienced was ash and soot blowing into the foyer. St. Paul's was a resting area for all the workers, firemen, police officers and volunteers to come and find a place to worship, be still, be loved on, fed, and comforted. The entire chapel has mementos from 9/11 around it for people to read notes, see pictures, read about personal experiences from those horrific days following 9/11. They also sell an amazing children's book, The Little Chapel that Stood, which explains the events of 9/11 in a wonderful poem that is appropriate for kids.

We took a horse drawn carriage ride through Central Park one night (our driver was an immigrant from Cyprus) who told us about some of the buildings around Central Park and areas within the park. We returned to Central Park on our last day there and walked around reading about some of the monuments erected there and enjoying the people watching.

The highlight of the trip was the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Our hotel, The Millennium Broadway Hotel, was half a block away from Broadway so we had a great location to watch the parade. We woke up early and headed out to claim our parade watching spot with the rest of the city. Luckily we were able to get a great spot right on a corner on Broadway and ended up standing next to three other Texans! Clearly we know good people when we see them. The parade was fun, the police were great, the participants were fantastic. It was so fun to see in person what we have seen on television our whole lives. We highly recommend doing this with your children at some point if you can, it's fantastic.

After our six days in NYC we headed back home and back into the hustle and bustle of daily life. We will post pictures of our trip very soon, I promise.