Dance pictures

 Maggie had dance pictures the day I left for New York. Luckily I have the best sisters who were able to help me out by watching my kids, getting Maggie ready, and taking her to pictures. I was super happy with how they turned out. This was her Marry You dance costume. She is beautiful!

 

 

It would have been nice if they could have done a different background than white, but they still look darling!

New York - Day 5

 Wednesday we only had half of the day before we needed to go to the airport. This was not a very exciting day. We woke up early and went to the Live with Kelly and Ryan show. The guests were two people from dancing with the stars. I didn't actually know who they were though. The other one was the band Bare Naked Ladies. I did recognize one of the songs they played.

We went back to Chelsea Market to pick up a few last minute souvenirs for our kids. Then we headed to the airport. That was an adventure. I was the navigator and I totally led us astray. I didn't realize that I was leading us to an air train. So we ended up in a taxi, which some of the girls did not want to do, but we had no choice at that time. The traffic was terrible and we were late getting to the airport. And I was so car sick I was ready to throw up, our cab driver was terrible. I don't even think I tipped him because I had such a hard time understanding what he was telling me for the price and the toll and he had an accent. I felt bad about that.

At security, they nearly threw away the snow globe Ellie and I had bought for Marianne because it was liquid, but luckily, the lady scanning my bag was really nice! We were in such a hurry to get to our gate when we finally made it past. We had to ride a bus over there and got there when they were already boarding. I was so done by this point. My kids had called me and I started crying on the phone because I was stressed and missed them so much! I just wanted to be home! Luckily the flight home was so much better than the flight there. I watched two and a half movies and we were home. Matt Aardema picked us up and I was home about midnight.

It was such an amazing trip! I am so glad I decided to go. I initially wasn't planning on it because Claire was so young (I was pregnant when they planned it.) I am glad I changed my mind though!

New York City - Day four

 Tuesday was overall my favorite day. We started at the Manhattan temple doing initiatory, Madi did baptisms. I didn't even recognize the temple when I first saw it. Michelle finally told me to look up so I could see the statue of Moroni. Initiatory took a while because there were five of us. So they let us wait in the Celestial room for a while. It was so amazing to be in the temple instead of the craziness of the city. 

 We went to Serendipity for lunch. It was tiny, not quite what I expected and not very good food, but the restaurant was cute.

Then we did a bike tour of Central Park. I loved this! It took about an hour in two bike carts. They took us all through the park and we got to stop at the four most popular sites. 

 The tour was the best way to see Central Park. Our guides were awesome and would explain everything as we saw it. They had a little book that would show us all the movies that had the landmark we were seeing in it. I don't remember most of them, because I had never seen most of the movies, but it was cool. All of Central Park was beautiful and super busy. People running and sitting and touring everywhere.

This is the Friends fountain.

This bridge was amazing! There were two brides getting their pictures taken under it while we were there. I loved in New York how there was so many old beautiful buildings and structures right along side all the new huge Skyscrapers. 

 We went straight from Central Park to our Broadway show Anastasia. It was so amazing! I wish we would have done more than one show.

 To finish our night off we had dinner at Carmines. Delicious food!

NYC - day 3

Monday we started at the 9/11 memorial and museum. It was definitely a highlight of the trip. I loved everything we did, but this one was super unique. It was amazing and beautiful it was sad and unreal to see everything. We saw the freedom tower, which is what was built after the towers fell. It was super cool. It has eight sides to represent the sides of both of the twin towers.

The museum was incredible. We stayed for about four hours and still didn't see everything. The most heart wrenching thing I saw, well listened too, was the voice mails of one of the passengers that died on one of the flights. They had all the messages he had received that day of people calling to see if he was okay. There were a few from his mom that made me cry. I can't even imagine.

They had quite a few things on display that were at ground zero for a while. They had missing posters that were hung around the city for months. 

 This is one of the staircases that people were rushing down in order to escape from one of the buildings. The guide that was talking about these said that as people were running down the stairs firemen were running up. They made it to at least the 34th floor when they radioed to the station that they were still going up. The building then collapsed and they all died.

The fountains were awesome. They show the full acre footprint of each of the twin towers. It was sad to see all the names of people that died listed on the fountains. So many people. They put a white rose on a persons name if it is their birthday that day.

The majority of the day was spent at the museum. Afterwards we went to a cute restaurant called Eataly. We didn't go to very many fancy restaurants in New York because we were busy seeing everything, and learning to use the Subway. This restaurant was great though. 

Afterwards we went to the Oculus. It is a huge underground shopping mall. I was curious what this wierd shaped building was while we were in line for the museum. It connects the world trade center buildings underground. 

While we were on the boat tour on Sunday Michelle's phone fell in the toilet so we had to stop here to let her buy a new one. We just walked around the mall while she did that.

That night we went to the top of the Empire State Building at dusk. It was pretty hazy so it wasn't anything like sunsets here at home, but it was still amazing to see. We went at a pretty good time because I didn't feel like anything we went to was too busy. There were definitely a lot of people, but I guess not compared to the huge tourist season.

This is me putting my phone out on the top and taking a picture straight down. It is still crazy to me how many buildings and things can be crammed into one city.

This night everyone headed back after it got dark. It was still pretty early so Michelle and I headed into times square to do more shopping. I bought Maggie and Claire shirts, Corbin a hat, and Kent a hulk poster from a street painter.

NYC - day 2

 We started Sunday off at an amazing cathedral. The detail in the carvings were incredible. We stayed for their procession, which was super cool to watch. The opening hymn was All Creatures of our God and King, but it had a few extra verses we don't sing.  

We went to the Top of the Rock observatory. Which is a view point on the top of the Rockefeller Center.

 It was so crazy to me to look off of such a high building to see a city completely covered in buildings.

 

 To see the Statue of Liberty we took a boat tour. It was the coldest windiest day we were in New York, but it was still fun. It was really cool to see the Statue of Liberty. That is what Corbin and Maggie were most excited for me to see. They just kept reminding me before I left to take a picture. 

We saw three bridges, but the Brooklyn Bridge was m favorite. It amazes me that people could build things like this so long ago.

  After the boat tour we walked around the city and up Fifth Avenue just to see what we found. The Library was really cool. We walked in it for a minute, but then it was closing. Inside the children's section was the original Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals that were the inspiration for the characters. 

I thought it was kind of wild that the trump tower is guarded 24/7 just in case President Trump ever decides to just stop by. 

 We saw Tiffany & Co. and even saw the Tiffany Yellow Diamond, which was huge!

 

New York City - Day One

 Meri's daughter Madeline is graduating High School in a couple weeks. For her senior trip she, her mom, and four of her aunts (including me) went to New York City for her Senior trip. It was such an amazing girls trip! I loved the whole thing. 

We left Friday afternoon and flew into the JFK airport. Our flight their was a rough one. I was so sick by the time we finally landed. We waited in the airport for almost two hours after we landed for a shuttle from our hotel. When it finally picked us up we then had to pick up five other people. It took us another hour to get to our hotel. We finally got to the hotel about 2:00 am. All six of us stayed in the same hotel room, which made it super fun!

Thursday morning we woke up and went to Chelsea Market. It is just a cute mall type place with a lot of places to eat and shop. They had a way cute grocery market downstairs. We had minneolas which we had never heard of, a mix between orange and tangerine. They were delicious!

Meri's friend told us to stop at the Doughnttery. It was a great find! I loved the doughnuts there, they were so fresh!

 That afternoon we stopped at Grand Central Station. On the subway some boys asked where we were going. We said Grand Central Station and they asked why. It made us wonder if it was worth stopping for, but it totally was. It was super pretty and cool to see. 

Then we went to a Yankee's game. I loved that! They were playing against the Cleveland Indians and won. It was so fun and they weren't even playing a good team. I can't imagine if they were playing like the Red Sox. The energy would be even better.

 We visited Hi line, which is an old railroad track that was made into a walking path. It was cool because it was up above the road and they left the railroad tracks in and planted trees and stuff around them. It was a fun little walk. There were street vendors set up all around. 

 At night we did a Big Bus night tour. We road on the top of a double decker bus and did an hour long tour of the city at night. It was so cool. We saw a ton, the library, empire state building, Brooklyn bridge, and times square. It was cool to see it on the tour because the guide was so knowledgeable and told us about everything we were seeing. 

Running on four hours of sleep, I was tired by the end, but day one was a good one!

Piano Recital

Corbin had his second piano recital the last week of April. He did a great job learning his song, The ants came marching. It was hard for him to play it as fast as it should be played, but other than that he did great! It surprised me the he didn't even seem nervous at his recital. He absolutely hates piano right now and it is a huge struggle to get him to practice and learn his songs. He really did a great job!