Boy on a two-wheeled Bike, as happy as can be

Where are you going Boy? Please wait for me!

(from Michael's favorite book, "Bear on a Bike")

New York City- the impossible blog post

I can't believe we left for New York nearly a month ago. I have put off blogging about it because it has seemed impossible to go into enough detail, but tonight I pulled together a little checklist for YOUR next trip to New York (plus a little high/low emotion here and there).

One of my high points was the surprise! I like to say that our trip to New York was more everybody else's trip before it was mine. Mike was not particularly subtle about who he told about about his surprise trip for Alissa, so I'm surprised I never found out about it. This is not a fault of his, but rather brilliance on his part. He told the people at the elementary school to get Adelyn excused from classes, he told his spanish student so he could miss a day of tutoring, he told family to make arrangements for babysitting and general ideas, he told the primary president so she could fill in for me, he told... well, you get the idea. He was thorough in getting all the smallest details planned out so that nothing would be left undone when we left. I think the #1 comment from women AND men has been, "you packed for her???" He did, and I think he did a great job... there is makeup and deodorant available in New York. The surprise was a huge portion of the thoughtfulness, and I think he knew it would make the trip that much more meaningful for me. It was a full-fledged, wonderful surprise... wham!

Day 1:
--A plane ride with Harry Potter books and a snowy, delayed landing.
--We were way lucky to get to our show because of several delays. We didn't have time to change, eat, or look at ourselves in the mirror on our way to see the broadway masterpiece, "Wicked!" We both loved it!

--Strolled around Times Square on our way home--Had New York Pizza for dinner
--Mike's pulled a chunk of his tooth (#31 for those with a dental background) from his mouth at the hotel that night. Try not to add this to your agenda.

Day 2:
--Snowy trip through Chinatown. We didn't realize it was a "BYOB" (bring your own boots) kind of place, so we left a little early. I could not find a place to step that didn't put me in snow up to my knees.
--rode the subway (love the convenience of the subway, plus, it was kind of cool to see a rat scurrying around down there once. It kind of summed up the whole "subway" experience for me)
--got off in Brooklyn where we tried out a whole bunch of shoe stores for the perfect boots, found them at "cookies," a kid's department store
--walked the Brooklyn bride back into town- should actually say something like "pushed our bodies against the howling wind for 30 chilling minutes, our faces freezing off, not being able to talk for fear of our lips falling off and being bombarded by icy mists from the river below, which I still do not care if I ever learn it's name. Quite honestly, it was the most beautiful bridge I've ever had the privilege of walking.
--Walked around what I like to call: "the New York Skyline" on our way to,
--Battery Park, where we passed Wall Street and
--Ground Zero: World Trade Center(in construction) and hopped on the
--Staten Island Ferry to see the
--Statue of Liberty, after a yummy
--street vendor dinner: gyros.
--For dessert, Serendipity's specialty: frozen hot chocolate.
--Took the self-guided tour at Grand Central Station (mike had printed it from the Internet) Day 3:

We set our alarm for 5:00 a.m. so we could stand in line for standby tickets to see
--a live taping at NBC studios
--ate Black and White cookies and bagels with schmear for breakfast
--saw Chinatown for real
--found a geocache (although our GPS worked very poorly around all the tall buildings)
--ate at Katz deli where we had the best sandwich in the world and ran into hundreds of star-struck fans as we all watched Jake Gyllanhal come out of the bathroom 5 times trying to get the perfect "candid" shotSome candid shots of our own:
--ate gelato
--fabric shopping in the garment district
--took a walk around Central Park--continued the walk to Carnegie Hall and Rockefeller center
--saw the live taping we'd stood in line for
--New York Cheesecake at Junior's

Day 4:
--took a taxi
--went to church where the ward was being filmed by a crew from Salt Lake for a future training video
--walked around the temple
--headed out of the hustle and bustle to visit Rachel and Ben in Maryland.

We missed a ride to the top of the Empire State Building. We figure visibility would have been...zippo. But this is a nice shot, no?
We loved our trip, and can't wait to go back sometime in the spring, sometime with the kids once they're old enough to mind the gap at the subway station, sometime when we accumulate enough flight miles again, sometime after we've seen other highlights from the world map... sometime.

Spring Fever

We have had a few days of fun, warm weather... and we're hoping it'll last. Yes, we had snow this morning, but I see a bright future on the horizon.

We have all freshened up our rooms in the last few months in preparation. We all moved around our furniture, and Adelyn added some of her own art to her walls. I decided to buy curtains and finally hang some pictures in our room. It seems as if our own room is always the last place I worry about decorating.

It was a fun project. I wanted to do a wall collage with lots of colors to match all the colors in the painting. I love colors.

I wanted to do a "little" quilting. I did a whole quilt a couple years ago, and that was a bit much for my personality. The pillows were a great project though.

Just a fun little change... and much easier than moving, finding a new job, or having a new baby :)

Family Olympics

Adelyn- "I was China and I went down the mountain for skeleton sledding and I was (named) Tao Tao."

Michael- "I learned how to do the Wii Ski jump at Grandma's house. We did the darts in the backyard (biathlon). I was Russia."

Joey- We gave Joey the Kazakhstan flag. He did a great job in the opening ceremonies, waiting until his name was called to come down the stairs and wave his flag. He was very interested in helping light our "torch." He was nervous to go sledding, but we pushed him down anyway and he LOVED it!

Mike- Played an incredible game of hockey. His dart throwing... well, we are still hoping we can find a few once the snow has all melted. He was awarded the Bronze medal behind my brothers.

Alissa- I was lucky to have been on Mike's team for hockey, but was only average in everything else. I was only a few points away from a medal, but isn't that what the Olympics is all about. My favorite part is that we bought the Olympic theme and fanfare song from iTunes and we can listen to it all the time now.

The "real" competition is over now... Mike enjoyed a short season of basketball coaching for some great 5th and 6th graders.