NYC!

We started a tradition that we copied from our friends. Some people may think we are nuts, but that's OK.  We decided to take each child, when they turn fourteen, on a weekend trip of their choice. So, when Katie's birthday loomed near, she chose the Big Apple.  She also wanted to invite her grandparents along for the ride!  We were all so excited to go! 

Our first adventure took us to Brooklyn on the Subway.  Here's Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge once we got there.

We ate at Grimaldi's for lunch. Pizza was great, and the company was even greater.  We sat by and talked to some great New Yorkers.  They were so funny!

Next, we ate yummy ice cream at Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory and started to make our way back to the city across the beautiful Brooklyn Bridge.  It was so cool!

We stopped by Grand Central Station.  It was neat.  I've always described my house as Grand Central Station when my kids come home from school and all of their friends show up, and now that I've seen the real place, my description of home is pretty accurate!

Then, we finally caught up with Grandma and Grandpa and took a bus tour of the city.  It was nice to sit and see a lot of this amazing city!

The next day we went down to Battery Park to see Lady Liberty and Ellis Island.  Both were so great!  We also met up with our friends from home!

Our next stop took us on a hunt to find the best Lobster Roll in NYC.  I haven't tried all of them to know, but the ones we ate were SO GOOD!!! I ate mine so fast, that I didn't get a picture.  It started to rain pretty hard at this point, so Grandma and Grandpa went to the hotel, our friends went shopping, and Katie, Ryan and I went to the WTC museum.  It was so moving and I'm so glad that Katie could see it.  That night, we went out to a fancy dinner with Grandma and Grandpa to celebrate Katie's birthday trip. The three of us then went to Top of the Rock to see the city at night.  Our pictures didn't turn out great, but it was neat to see this amazing city from up above all lit up.

The next day we went up again, this time to the top of the Empire State Building.  Again, what a beautiful city!!  It was so neat to experience that with the people I love!

Afterwards, we shopped and shopped and shopped at the historic Macy's and along 5th Avenue.  We wore Grandma and Grandpa right out, so we went to Central Park and they went to chill.  Central Park was great!  Perfect weather and people watching!  The ice cream was good, too.

Then it was time to get ready for Broadway!!  Katie chose to see the musical Phantom of the Opera. It was a great show in a great theater!

So, that's our trip to the Big Apple in a nutshell.  We had a blast, and I'm glad we started this tradition with our kids. Braiden is already brainstorming over where he wants to go!

Finishing up Florida

Hello, folks! Boy, life just keeps truckin' along, doesn't it?  One of my many goals is to catch up and stay caught up on my little blog.  I have a lot of work to do! I want to finish up my Florida Vacation posts first since it was almost a year ago!!! 

One of the things we were most excited about visiting Florida was the chance to see one of the last Shuttle launches! So, to get us ready for the launch, we spent a whole day at the Kennedy Space Center a few days before.  We loved it!!  They were, of course, preparing for the launch and the shuttle was already on the launch pad.  We thoroughly enjoyed the museums, the tours, and we even saw a real live astronaut!

The boys were so excited about all things space after going to the Kennedy Space Center! We are glad we were able to get a good background before seeing first hand people going to space!  The day of the launch was kind of crazy.  It was scheduled for 5:00pm, so we left around 10am.  The drive is about an hour and we wanted to hit Cocoa Beach beforehand.....we almost didn't make it in time!!!  The traffic was so terrible, that it took us until 4:30 to get there!!  It was crazy!  At one point, I was so sick of being in the car and not going anywhere, that I literally got out and walked a little way until Ryan caught up with me in the van!  But, once we got to Titusville, we staked our spot and watched history unfold.  It was incredible to be there and see it with our own eyes and feel the earth shake and hear the rockets!!!   So cool!!

Next Stop...Hollywood Studios!

Disney's Hollywood Studios was such a fun park!  We watched an American Idol audition show, rode Tower of Terror, and played on the Toy Story ride.  We also ate at a fun restaurant where we were transported back to the 1950s where we supped at the kitchen table on pot roast and we were not allowed to put our elbows on the table and we had to stand in the corner if we didn't clean our plates!  So funny (and yummy!)

The shows were great too!  We watched a darling version of Beauty and the Beast, and you can't beat Fanstasmic! We had a great time!

We were winding down on our wonderful family vacation, but the most magical place was still to come.  We loved the Magic Kingdom! Pirates, Jungle Cruise, Small World, Haunted Mansion....I could go on and on!

The most memorable ride was the Lilo & Stitch ride.  It had been talked up quite a bit, so we didn't want to miss it....We now wish we HAD missed it!  You are placed in this small auditorium, tightly strapped into your seat when supposedly, Stitch gets loose and turns out the lights and spits and jumps on you....not fun!  But we did laugh about it the rest of the trip.  If you are going to Disneyworld, skip this ride: consider yourself warned!

However, that was the only low point!  We had a blast, as you can see...

We finished the day with a wonderful walk down memory lane.  I grew up watching the Electric Lights Parade and this just took me back!!  I vividly remember the snail float and the music and watching it with my boys was so fun!! Disney Rocks!

We also visited the Orlando Temple on our trip (once with all of the kids, and then again to do baptisms with the girls).  What a great part of our trip!  It was neat to take a break from parks and nonstop fun to do something spiritual! And what a beautiful building!

As you can see, it was a FANTASTIC trip!!  I know I've said that over and over, but it really was! Our little family really needed it and I wouldn't trade the memories for anything!

End of School Wrap-Up

Well, look at me blogging three times in one week!! Are you as amazed as I am?

I'm slowly getting caught up on this little blog of mine, but I just thought I would catch you up on what we are doing in the Fall before we review Spring. We enjoyed our annual Jackson trip, celebrated Braiden's 9th birthday, loved General Conference, and I am finally getting over having pneumonia and a sinus infection for close to a month!  I'm glad that October is here and the holidays are approaching!! And now, back to the past...

In May,

-We discovered beautiful blooms at the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point.  We had never been and we loved the gorgeous explosion of Spring!

-We saw Carl Bloch's beautiful works of Christian art at the BYU Museum of Art.  Wonderful experience!

-Ethan graduated from Kindergarten!  AAAHHH! My baby is growing up!

- We celebrated the trio of birthdays (mine, Denise, and my mom).  Another year older!

-Ryan and I went to Milwaukee to celebrate Uncle John's Dental Graduation and Haisley's blessing

- I took a photography class! So fun!

- We FINALLY had a basketball hoop installed in our backyard! (The BBall court was poured before Ethan was born...we are so pathetic!) The kids LOVE it!!  We now have the entire neighborhood at our house after school to shoot hoops!

-I went on several field trips with the kids

-The Gittins came to visit for most of the Summer!!

-We watched a beautiful robin build a nest on our front porch and lay 3 gorgeous eggs!

-We enjoyed a fun, but very cold and snowy Memorial Day at Grandma Janis' house

In June,

-Lauren celebrated her last day of Elementary School!!

-We partied on the last day of school for everyone!  Bring on the Summer!

-We enjoyed another wonderful piano recital and Katie was asked to be the final number!

- Katie performed in her ShowStopper performance and sang a wonderful solo.  She did a spectacular job!

-Grandpa Blair, Grandma Geneal, Ry, Katie and I went to NYC!

-We walked the Brooklyn Bridge, saw the Statue of Liberty, WTC, Chinatown, Top of the Rock, Empire State Building, Central Park, and shopped!  A separate trip post to come.

-We saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway!

-We watched the robin eggs hatch, grow, and fly away!  We loved having these neat roommates for a little while!

-We played at Lagoon for Ryan's work party.  We love our friends from the firm and had a blast hanging out with them

-Braiden participated in Basketball camp and loved it

- We hung out at the Dinosaur Park with Grandma and the Gittins



-The boys had fun at Arts in the Park with Harper and Holland

-We rejoiced because we finally got our Expedition back from the mechanic!!!  Hallelujah!

-We had our ward swim party....twice because it was way too cold and wet to swim the first time!  What a crazy Spring we had!