Oh, what's that?

I'm the worst blogger ever? I know. Yell at me. Put me in the corner for time out. But I have a 10.5 month old, which means my days are filled with doing attempting to do laundry & the dishes. So, blogging sometimes takes a backseat to vacuuming and trying to decide what Layla is going to be for Halloween because HOLY SHIT IT'S FREAKING OCTOBER.

I promised ya'll some pictures of the 9/11 Memorial and I'm going to deliver right now.

So, obviously I brag about flying for free quite often. I'm uber proud that we can just hop on a plane any time our little hearts desire and fly away. We were wondering what to do for our first anniversary (Sept 26th) and toyed with the idea of going to Boston for the day. The day before we were going to leave I got time slot tickets to the Memorial and decided lets go back to the place we got married: New York.

With Daddy (making a silly face as usual) waiting for the A train from Howard Beach to downtown Manhattan

My beautiful girl

1 WTC view from a dock on the Hudson

Memorial wall across from Ground Zero

Mr G and L looking at the retaining wall

South pool

Explaining to Layla that 10 years ago two beautiful buildings stood there.

Flowers <3

Tritons

1 WTC

North Pool

Layla all "Really? You're my parents?"

& for good measure, a video. Please ignore Mr G at the end being all, "wha?" He didn't know I was filming.

Going into the Memorial I had mixed feelings. I thought that walking through everything would feel heavy, not at rest & just ... not peaceful. So many lives lost, so much grief, violence and death in one place, I figured how could this patch of land not make you want to run in the other direction? But the Memorial was, for lack of a better word, gentle. The harmonious flow of water steadied your soul and quieted your mind. It brought peace and restfulness back to a place where chaos ensued.

Running my fingers over the cut bronze names brought what happened 10 years ago to reality. I was standing where it all happened. I was standing where thousands of people met their angels and were carried peacefully away. There was no feeling of hated here or of sorrow. All there was was calm. Closing my eyes, the sound of the fountains behind me, I saw hope - of our children sitting on a bench near the North Pool, 1 WTC towering over us, while Mr G and I tell them the stories of heroism and faith. We'll tell them how proud they should be to live in American & to have New York in their blood - because I am. Every single day.