Happy Holidays!

Christmas this year was simply amazing. Not only did Chase and I get to go home and spend time with our families, it was truly a year to be thankful for many of life's blessings. Some of which include Nicole and her continued recovery, our wonderful families, and of course the below....

Ava and her "Mona Lisa" pose...

Emerson and his enthusiasm for "chasing trucks"....

And of course Caroline and all her style.

It was hard to come back to NY after such a long visit, but we know we will be home again in no time. Until then, have a happy New Year!

SNOW Day!

We finally got our 1st snow storm of the season in the city! Friday it snowed around 2-4 inches within the city...just in time for the holidays! Here are some pictures taken around the South Street Seaport.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

It's officially Christmas! As Chase and I were out and about today we took a detour to go see the Tree at Rockefeller Center. Even though it wasn't night time where we could see the lights, it was still pretty to see. AND we officially finished our Christmas shopping today! Go us! Thanks to some early shopping and our new best friend called the Internet, we have completed Xmas List 08. Now we can relax and enjoy the holiday season.

The Perfect Day

Shopping in SoHo, Seaport Christmas Carols, ToysRus mayhem, and ice skating in Central Park summarizes our Saturday afternoon. That and lots of Uncle Chase & Aunt Jordan quality time.


We took Caroline downtown to see our apartment and play with the kitties. On the way we thought we'd show her a few famous NY icons: the Bull, Wall Street, the Statue of Liberty, etc. Afterwards, we went down by the Seaport to listen to the Big Apple Chorus sing Christmas Carols.
After the Seaport and a mistake trip to ToysRus, we took Caroline ice skating in Central Park. She did great for her first time ever on any kind of skates! It even started snowing while we were on the ice and we turned around and saw a proposal no more than 5 feet from us! Below is a picture of the happy couple right after he got down on one knee.

Today we'll go back to just being Jordan and Chase and count down the days to Christmas when we get to go back to being Aunt and Uncle. :)

Bryant Park

Chase and I decided we would start trying to do a date night every now and then. First night was at Celsius Bar in Bryant Park by the holiday ice skating rink. It was a fun treat and we got a little shopping done at the same time around the area.

Happy Turkey Day!

Chase and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year spending time with Aunt Beverly and Matthew. They happened to be in New York for the holiday, so we spent Wednesday night going to check out the Macy's Day parade balloons being blown up on 78th and Columbus. We saw Snoopy, Dora, the Macy's Stars, the Energizer Bunny, and many more up close and personal!

Thursday, Chase and I enjoyed a slow morning eating a big breakfast and cooking Spiced Tea (a Bryan family tradition). We watched the parade on TV and cooked some Thanksgiving appetizers to enjoy ourselves.

We then met back up with Beverly and Matthew to enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Tony's on 83rd and 2nd. Dinner was delicious!! We ate soup, salad, bread, turkey, dressing, stuffing, sweet potatoes, greens, cranberries, pecan pie and more. All thoroughly enjoyed with a couple bottles of wine. Overall, a fantastic holiday spent with loved ones even though we couldn't make it home this year. We are so thankful for all our family and friends that we miss so much!

Cabo Cruise

This past weekend Chase and I went out to San Diego, CA to catch the Carnival Elation cruise to Cabo San Lucas. Just so happened Chase had to go for a work function and I got to tag along. We had such a great time just getting out of the city and enjoying beautiful, warm weather.

This is a picture of our ship, somewhat small for a cruise ship if you ask me. Nonetheless, we had a great time getting some much needed sun and meeting new people.

Since it was a work function, we were seated at dinner with another couple that happened to be in the same type situation as us. We ended up hitting it off really well (Rachel and Brian were their names) and we ended hanging out with them for most of the trip. This is a picture of us at a bar in Cabo called Squid Roe at 9:30am....yes, we started drinking rather early.

After a brief shopping trip in town, we headed straight to the beach where we bums the rest of the day drinking buckets of Corona. Chase and I managed to fit in some time on a jet ski before we headed back to the boat.

Now we are home and playing catch up with our kitties. Byron always gives us the cold shoulder when we leave for a few days. So it's catch up for a few days and then Chase is off to Miami for the weekend.

Hopefully we'll get some more pictures of the trip up on our website soon - wwww.JordanandChase.com. Keep checking back!

Jet Blue loved my luggage

Have you ever been at baggage claim and seen a busted bag roll by and you start laughing and making "sucks for them" comments? Well we have and did last night in the San Diego airport. Oh but wait, as the busted bag came around again we then realized that it was OUR busted bag! Oh yes, stuff spilling out everywhere on the belt.

Sorry Dad, it was actually your bag. But no worries, Jet Blue gave us 2 new luggage bags. :)

Off to sail the seas to Cabo. Hope you have a fabulous weekend.

Southern Miss to the Top!

This past weekend I headed home to the Southern Miss Homecoming game vs UAB. The weekend was absolutely perfect from beginning to end. No flight delays, safe travels, and saw tons of friend I hadn't seen in over a year and a half. Oh, and we won the game 70-14!

Saturday was spent in the District Tailgating, eating at La Fiesta Brava, and visiting with friends. This is a picture of some of the girls at the football game.

Sunday morning Courtney, Adrienne, and I headed out to Paul B. Johnson park where my Dad and Ellen were camping for the weekend. Not only did they have Rotel (the most amazing cheese dip for those of you who don't know), but they had eggs, bacon, and pancakes- all my favorites. Oh and to top it all off, we spent the rest of the morning sitting by the campfire enjoying the weather/view while sipping on mimosas.

Overall a very delightful weekend full of close friends and family!

Zoo Boo 08

This Sunday we headed up to the Bronx Zoo with some friends. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves spending a total of 5+hours there. That is no small zoo! We saw lions and tigers, elephants and monkeys. We rode a shuttle and a wild safari monorail. We ate food and we saw animals eat. Overall a beautiful day spent in the Bronx.

Joosy Bro & Show

So far Chase and I have had a pretty laid back weekend just running some errands and staying indoors with the rainy weather. While trudging through the wind and rain we did find one beacon of light...Please notice the corner of 23rd and 8th in Chelsea. Yes, that is a JoshHaileyStudio sticker hanging tough! Go Joosy bro!

Speaking of Joosys', in case you missed it Nicole's first national TV appearance aired last night on PBS. You can check out the video at this link, it's called Nurses Needed. Truly an amazing video- http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/442/index.html This picture was taken at Nicole's recent "Boo Bash" held in her room at Methodist Rehab.

All Work and No Play

This past week I went to San Francisco (and Burlingame) California for a All Hands meeting for work. Overall a great trip and I had a wonderful time doing some sightseeing in the area. I took this picture of the Golden Gate Bridge, but also got some great pictures of the city, Alcatraz, Lombard Street, and the works. While I was in California, Chase was in Las Vegas for work. They had a Travel Expo where he pitched Tripology to 400+ travel agents. He had a great time, even though he broke even in Blackjack winnings.

We both got home to NY later Friday night and then spent the rest of the weekend babysitting Elizabeth's dog, Sam. (Don't let the cuteness fool you...)

JDRF - Walk for a Cure

Sunday morning = 6 miles of walking. Monday = going to be painful.

Good Old Fashion Cookout...sort of

This weekend Chase and I went to one of his coworker's [Michelle] apartment in Queens. Not only did she have a beautiful view of Manhattan (picture above), but her apartment building was amazing. It was 40+ stories, with a pool and the entire top of the parking garage was a roof deck. It was amazing to see the amount of space you get even when you step 2 feet over the water outside of the city. The roof deck not only had fake grass, but also picnic tables, chairs, ping pong, foosball, and most important grills! So we cooked hamburgers and hotdogs and such. Almost felt like a good old fashion cookout...minus the fact it was freezing!! Okay, maybe low 50's, but still rather frigid.

Too Cute for Words

*you know we had to add the kitties :)

Happy Birthday Sylvia

Last night Chase and I headed up to the Bronx for a birthday party of one of our friends. We had such a great time eating, drinking, and playing different games. We started off the evening with some Golden Tea. Then we broke off into 4 teams for a good game of Cranium. For those of you who have never played Cranium you are truly missing out on one of life's greatest games. The teams: (1) Long Island (2) Bronx (3) Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens...and last but not least (4) The South. That's right, the South consisted of me and Chase, our two friends also from Mississippi, and Jay from Tennessee. Let's just say we warned them the South would rise again...and we did. We kicked butt. Mississippi may be trailing the nation in education, but we sure showed the New Yorkers what was up with Cranium! After the games, we ate dessert, played some Mario Cart and Guitar Hero and then finally began the trek back home around 2:00am. Verry fun night.

This picture is our play piece for the Cranium game. I mean how perfect is our little dude representing the South!

Dafe

Tonight we headed up to 107th street to support our dear friend Odiri as he performed at Underground Lounge. He did an amazing job and we are just waiting for him to hit it big. Congrats Odiri on the record deal!!

Weekend Fun

This weekend was a pretty packed weekend. Saturday, I woke up early to play soccer in a Jersey City Sports Day with some co-workers to help raise money for kids recreational sports. After that, I helped Josh pack up Nicole's apartment and then headed up to the hospital for the evening.

Sunday, Chase and I headed to Governors Island to ride bikes. After standing in line for about an hour, we finally got two bikes and enjoyed one of the most beautiful days we've had in a long time. It was a great way to celebrate the last 'official' day of summer.

J-E-T-S Jets! Jets! Jets!

Sunday, Sept. 14th - In theme with our sports weekend, Chase, Brittany, and Lee got up early to head to the Sports Museum of America while I did some work. Then we all met up to head out to the Meadowlands to see Brett Favre take the field as a NY Jet (still strange he isn't a Packer). Even though they did not come away with a win against the Patriots, it was still a very exciting game. Always a good day when you get to see Brett Favre play, right?

Only 9 games left....

Saturday, Sept. 13th - Lee and his fiance, Brittany, came in town for the weekend. They ended up getting tickets to the Saturday Yankees game, so we headed up to the Bronx for a fun [hot] day of baseball. Even though they lost, it was still fun to see one of the last games played in the stadium. That night we went for dinner and drinks at a place called P.J. Clarks in Midtown.

And so we Remember...

Today was the 7 year anniversary of 9/11. There was a ceremony at World Trade Center this morning where McCain and Obama paid their respects to the families. In addition they had two lights shown up in the sky representing the Twin Towers which you could see pretty much anywhere in the city. We took this picture on our way back from dinner tonight at the end of Wall Street. It's really powerful to see.

Tonight we also went and met up with Elizabeth and Josh for dinner at our special spot, Spice. Dinner was of course delicious and it was good to visit and learn about the upcoming wedding plans. Good times.

Labor Day 2008

This weekend Chase and I headed up to a few New England states for a Labor Day adventure. Total states visited: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, & Maine

Friday 8/29, Our weekend began with a fun bus ride to Boston where we then picked up our handy Zip Car and headed straight to Salem, MA.

Saturday 8/30, we walked around Salem and went to 3 museums on the Salem Witch Trials + 1 on pirates. Learned lots and got spooked from some of the museum displays (some were rather graphic). Then that night we attended a "Haunted Pub Crawl" if you will where they took us around town in a trolley and told us stories of ghosts while making some pit stops at a few haunted pubs.

at one of the bars

Sunday 8/31, we got up early and headed to Kennebunkport, ME. As advised by most New Englanders, we took a more scenic route along the beaches on our way. The weather was absolutely wonderful (no Gustav up here) and the houses were simply beautiful. I think we ended up taking more pictures of the houses than anything else. Once getting to Kennebunkport, we went to the beach for a little bit, walked around town, ate some delicious fudge, and then headed to Portland for dinner.

Kennekunkport, ME

George Bush's House

Portland, ME

We ate some lobster

Monday 9/1, we ate breakfast at our Bed & Breakfast, drove around one more time, and then headed back to the Boston area to catch our bus back to NY later that afternoon. Since we got back early, we decided we would take a pit-stop by Cambridge, MA and walk around Harvard University. Who hasn't always wanted to do that, right? I feel smarter now.

Harvard's campus

Then we caught an early bus back to NYC and ended our lovely weekend. Overall, a very successful and fun trip. Check out our other pictures from the weekend at: http://photos.jordanandchase.com/GalleryThumbnails.aspx?gallery=119788

Fairwell to Kickball

Last Night our summer kickball league ended with a loss in the playoffs to a team of professional "bunters". Overall, it was a great season of kickball and flip cup fun. AND we got to experience Hoboken! Fun times.