Yellowstone and Autumn

Hello everybody!

It's been a long time since we last gave you all an update, the last couple of months have been very busy. We had an amazing holiday in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, Lyn is pregnant, I've been working hard, Sam has started school and Max is growing up fast.

Lyn is now 13 weeks pregnant, and little Bollen number three is due in the middle of May. We're very excited and looking forward to meeting the next member of our family. The whole US medical thing is a bit scary, but we've found a nice midwife centre and hopefully will be able to have a midwife led delivery in the home-from-home section of the hospital. Lyn is now starting to bloom and we had a 12 week scan last week and everything seems to be going well. We'll be finding out whether it'll be a boy or a girl just after Christmas.

I'm sure you've probably already seen our Yellowstone and Grand Teton photos. If not, here is a link. It is an incredible place. We flew from New York to Salt Lake City and then drove to Grand Teton where we stayed for two nights in a lodge on Jackson Lake. In Teton we did a few hikes, watching out for bears, and hired a speed boat which Sam and Max drove round the beautiful lake with crystal clear reflections of the mountains. We then went on to Yellowstone, where we stayed at Lake Yellowstone Hotel, then log cabins in Mammouth and then Old Faithful. Every day was action packed and we saw bright coloured volcanic springs, bubbling pools, geysers, waterfalls, canyons, buffalo, elk, bears and an eagle. The only slight blot on the holiday was that Lyn fell over on the penultimate day and had to have 15 stitches in her knee. She's fine now and just has a very impressive scar to show for her pains, but it meant that she was immoblised for a few days, and in pain for a few weeks.

There were so many highlights and this would be a very long blog if we listed them all. Seeing the geysers erupt was amazing, as was watching two bears face off over a carcus. It was like watching a David Attenborough documentary. In fact the holiday was like being in a 7 day BBC nature extravaganza. I would strongly recommend it to everybody as somewhere to visit - the world's largest supervolcano and America's serengeti.

Sam started school just after we got back to New York. He is really enjoying it and it seems to have given him a real desire to be independent and more grown up. It's great when he comes home and tells us the things he has learnt and done, or sings American children's songs. It's a lovely sociable school, the children are gorgeous and Sam's teacher seems brilliant- very calm, experienced and warm. The children are allowed to play in the playground (the yard) for 15 minutes after school has finished which gives all the parents a chance to chat. Also, because of the vertical nature of Manhattan living, the geographical catchment area is very small. We live 15 minutes walk away from school and we are at the end of the catchment area. So we bump into Sam's classmates all the time. In fact, about a third of Sam's class live in our building. A lot of them have little brothers and sisters too. This all means that Sam, Max and I are broadening our social circle which was long overdue!

Ann, Doctor's Mum, came to stay for a week in September which was really nice. We did a lot of touristy things with her and she spent a lot of time playing with the boys which they really enjoyed.

Since then we've been enjoying Fall in New York. We went to Bronx zoo with Paul which was fun. The boys loved seeing the animals again. We went out to Long Island to Sam's friend's Khadeejah's birthday party, at her grandparents' house. It's always nice to get out of the city and they put a lot of effort in, with organized activities and farm animals in the garden. Sam and Max had a ride on a pony and we saw a huge preying mantis - very strange animals.

Two weekends ago we took the train upstate and went apple picking. It was fun, although the place was busy and we had to use a pole to get the only apples that were left, high up the trees. We got a big bag and have lots of apple puree in the freezer to make pies with. Also the fresh apple donuts that they make are delicious. The leaves had started to change colour and it was very beautiful.

Last weekend was Halloween, which is a lot bigger here than in the UK. On Thursday evening Sam and Max went to a party in the nursery at my work, while Lyn and I went out for dinner. On Saturday there were parties in the World Financial Center and the park. The boys dressed up, Sam as a fireman and Max as a gorilla! On Sunday we went trick or treating in our building complex and we bumped into a girl from Sam's class and did a bit with her. If you put your name on the "we welcome Trick or Treating list" you can get hundreds of kids visiting as they photocopy it and a six page document gets handed out to all the apartment blocks in the area. There were teenagers walking around with pillowcases full of sweets! You can also trick or treat in shops, fire stations, restaurants and the place goes candy-mad. One corridor in our building did a haunted house, with all the lights out, dead people lying all over the floor and others jumping up out of cardboard box coffins. Sam and Max were probably the least scared, as they had no clue what was going on! After the trick or treating we headed up to the Halloween parade in the West Village. The best bit is getting of the subway and seeing a platform full of people dressed up as everything, not only scary costumes, but also animals, superheros and drag. It showcases New York creativity and is very friendly and entertaining.

This weekend we went to the Bronx Botanical Gardens, which was inspired by Kew. It's another one of the things we can get into for free thanks to my work. The autumn colours were beautiful and the boys really enjoyed running around the trees and kicking the leaves.

The weather has been mostly good, although it's starting to get cold now. New York has a lot of blue sky days. When the clouds build up either the atlantic wind blows them away or there are big thunder storms, which are great to watch (see this photo on the bbc website).

We've put some more photos up on the site and here's a link.

Hope you are all well and planning your NY visits!
Lots of love,
Tom, Lyn, Sam and Max

Editor's note: Most of this was written by Tom. Some has been written by Lyn, and in these bits she talks about herself in the third person. The longer we've been away from England, the more she's turning into the Queen!