New York City

Lance had to go to New York for work and so I tagged along! Thanks to my mom who watched the kids so I could go:) It was fun to get away and we had a few more days than last year when we went so we tried to see as many new things as we could!! It was very humid, cloudy and rainy most of the time but we were still able to have fun!! These are just a few of the things we did.......

Sprinkles Cupcake Bakery

The best cupcakes EVER!!!

Central Park is our favorite place in New York City!!

We discovered something new, Central Park has a zoo!! The park is so big that we didn't notice that last time.

Central Park "security"!!

We rode the train over to Hoboken, New Jersey. It was a little crazy since we didn't know it was the one day they were having a street fair!!

Had to try some "street" food (which I don't normally do)!!

We had to go to Carlo's Bakery again which was worth the wait!!

Doesn't everything look amazing!!

The goods!! A little melty by the time we made it back to our hotel in New York but just as amazing as always!!

Ignore our stalker in the background!! We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.

We went to Wicked!! I was so excited since we didn't go last time and I had really wanted to!! I wish they would make a movie (I am still a little confused) but it was so good!!! :)

Went to Serendipidy and had frozen hot chocolate...AMAZING!!! I am addicted, good thing you can't buy it here!! $9.00 for 1 was completely worth it!!

We got up at 4:00 in the morning (SLC) time to go watch the Today Show in the Pouring Rain!!! It ended up mostly just me since Lance had to go to his meetings:) 

There were not very many people as crazy as us so we were lucky and got a front row spot!!

They only came out for about a total of 5 minutes the entire show

Most of the time this is what we got to see:)

What you see is what you get!! Ann is just as nice, sweet and beautiful as she is on T.V. During the commercial break while Matt ran back inside, Ann went around and talked to as many people as she could.

She even shook my hand and I was lucky enough to get this picture in the 2 seconds she had left!! She was talking to the camera guys (the reason for the funny face) because they were saying she was going back on the air in 2 seconds!!  I had to stand in the pouring rain for 2 hours, and I look horrible, but how many people have a picture with Ann Curry?? She immediately went back on the air after this picture for just a minute (right in front of me), and then went back inside.

Sat on the banks of the Hudson River

 We went to the World Trade Center Memorial. It is fenced off so you cannot see the memorial unless you get tickets (they are free), then you have to return at your assigned time, wait in a long line, go through major security and then you finally can see the memorial!! It is really beautiful and worth the effort to go see!!

 There are waterfalls now where the two towers stood. Around the huge pools of water are the many names of all those who died. There are lots of people surrounding the waterfalls so we looked for an open spot to go stand at. When we got to our open spot we looked down and there was someone with the last name Gillis!! What are the odds??!

This is the only tree that survived the terrorist attacks on September 11th

This is what the grounds look like today

The Apple store is underground, you take the glass elevator to get their!!

We ate at Lombardi's Pizza (claims to be the first pizzeria in the United States).

Happy Mother's Day

 The beautiful Mother's Day flowers Cayden insisted on getting me even though Lance tried very hard to convince him that the "cheaper" ones were better!! Cayden's future wife is going to be very lucky someday:)

Red Sox

Cayden played baseball with his friend Brody for the first time. It was only twice a week (7 games total) so it was really short but he loved it and can't wait to play again next year!! He loved getting his own bat and ball so now he can practice:)

Dance Competition 2012

Carlie had her dance competition this year at 

Juan Diego High School

Her dance team took 3rd place!!!

Daddy Daughter Date

 Carlie loves the Utes just like her dad so she was excited to go to the Utah Red/White Scrimmage

 We have had 2 season tickets the last few years and she is always trying to find reasons why she should go instead of me!! Maybe this year I will have to share:)

A little sample....

Recently we got a little sample of what Spring might be like if it ever stays!! It was so nice being able to wear summer clothes and not have to wear coats anymore. Sadly it didn't last and right after this trip to the park we have had cold, snow and lots of rain!! We can't wait for Spring to be here for good!

Easter 2012

Our neighborhood has an Easter egg hunt every year, the week before easter! The kids were excited even though it was pretty cold.

Cayden filled his basket in about 10 seconds

No matter how hard I try we always end up decorating easter eggs at 10:00 P.M. the night before Easter (because my kids don't let me forget)!!

I think the Easter bunny likes candy a little too much:)

more Easter egg hunts

Pay it forward

Recently we were going on a late night ice cream run! We went through the drive thru at Arctic Circle. When we got up to the window Lance handed them his debit card. They said that we didn't owe anything that the person in front of us had paid for us!! Our first reaction was WHAT? Did we know the person? Why would someone do that? Then we felt dumb, afterall our bill was less than $6.00 (did we look like we couldn't afford that)?? :) Then we realized what a wonderful experience this was for our kids to see firsthand that there are nice people in the world! This person did not even know us and they were just doing something nice for complete strangers! We will never know who this person was or be able to thank them but we were able to teach our kids a valuable lesson. We can do nice things for people whether we know them or not. We may not all be able to pay someone else's bill while dining out or grocery shopping but we can always find ways to do nice things for others even if it is just taking a neighbor cookies! The only way we can "thank" this person is by doing the same thing and finding some way or many ways to PAY IT FORWARD!

Cayden lost his 1st tooth!!

Cayden was playing ball waiting for time to go to Kindergarten and his tooth just fell out! That simple, he was very proud:) He is so excited that it is finally his turn for the Toothfairy to come!

The dump and a movie....

Carlie's Spring field trip was to the dump!! I was thinking what could they possibly do at the dump (while imagining us all standing in the middle of the smelly dump)?! Surprisingly it was very interesting, and no we didn't have to stand outside!! We were inside the office building where they talked about recycling and what you can and cannot recycle. A few of the things we learned:

- just the Salt Lake Valley has over 8,000 pounds of garbage delivered to the dump EVERY day

-every 4.5 years they have to dig a new hole to start putting the garbage (we are a few months away from using the new one)

-the average garbage man picks up garbage from around 1200 houses a day

-if someone dumps GLASS in their recycling container it contaminates the entire garbage truck, so none of the contents can be recycled

-just because something says it is recyclable doesn't mean it is, some states recycle certain things and others don't (when in doubt just recycle it and someone will remove it)

-McDonalds cups or any paper cups that have that glossy coating on them cannot be recycled (I would have and probably have recycled those)

It ended up being very interesting and I learned a few new things:)

It of course was regular field trip weather (very windy, raining and COLD)!! Last year it was snowing so I guess we at least didn't have that! We were supposed to go to the park for lunch but I knew none of us were going to be getting out of the car so we just headed to the next stop which was the movie theater! I was wondering how they were going to justify going to a movie on a field trip!! We went to one of the few theaters left that still shows the movies the old fashioned way (with the reels). They got to go in the back room and see how everything works. Afterwards they got to watch The Muppets. It was good that most everything was already planned for inside since the weather turned out the way it did!