The rest of our trip

On the last day of our stay in New York city, we went to the Museum of Natural History. There was soooooo much to see in there. After two days of walking everywhere, I found it kind of hard to appreciate what I was seeing. I think I got to the point where I just didn't care because I was so tired. But it was cool to see none the less. My favorite part was the dinosaur exhibit. There were some strange ones! After we were done there, we walked back down Central Park to catch a subway. It started raining pretty hard. That was not fun. I was so thankful that it only rained right before we left NYC. The weather was so great the whole time we were there. It wasn't even humid either! After we got back to our hotel, we headed over to West Hartford, CT. As we were leaving the city, I was pretty sad to go. I had such a fun time there and I hope someday we can go back and see everything again :) I am not sad, though, to leave the thick, smoggy and incredibly stinky air or all the people and their crazy driving.

For the next three days, Austin went to his meeting and Kylie and I hung out at the hotel or we went shopping. We hung out with our friends Amber and Slade and their two cute girls one night. They live in this awesome house right next to this forest. It was awesome. Thanks again you guys for having us over! We also ate at the Cheesecake Factory one night. It was really good. Connecticut is such a beautiful state. Anyway, all in all it was such a great trip! We had to drive back to NY to drop off the car on Wed. and then catch our flight home. It ended up being like a 6 hour flight. Kylie did pretty well though, thank goodness :) So that was our trip!

Day 2

Day 2 began with a stop at the Empire State Building. What an impressive sight when you get to the top! It was mind boggling to see the hundreds of buildings all piled in next to each other. The only green you could see was from the various parks around the city. I felt like I could be up there for an hour and still not be able to take everything in. After we got done there we headed over to Macy's. I had no intention of buying anything, seeing as everything costs an arm and a leg, but it was still fun to just walk around for a bit inside. Our next stop was Times Square. Wow, what a crazy place! I can only imagine what it's like on New Years Eve. Later on that night we saw a like 3 blocks blocked off for a yoga class they were having in the street. There are so many flashing lights and billboards and shops...almost too much to take in. We then headed to Central Park. Can I just say it was so nice to see some grass! That park is so awesome and it would literally take you a day to walk around and see everything that they have inside the park. We saw Shakespeare Garden, Belvedere Castle (basically just built to overlook the park), Bethesda Fountain (sits in the heart of the park), Strawberry Fields where there is a monument to John Lennon and everyone in Strawberry Fields sells pics of him and sings Beatle songs, The Mall (incredibly awesome walk with the trees overlapping each other), and the Great Lawn. There were still several things that we wanted to see, but we just didn't have the time. After that we walked back to Madison Square Garden to catch the train. It was a LONG day full of nonstop walking, but it was probably my favorite day while we were there :)

Day 1 in NYC

Sorry if these posts turn into a novel, but since I don't write in a journal I want to be sure I remember everything that we did on our trip ;) So we eventually made it to a Costco and we bought a pretty nice camera for our trip (still can't believe we left our other camera in the car!). It had been a long day and I was looking forward to a quiet nights sleep. Boy, that sure didn't happen! There were these British girls who were on the other side of our room and there was a door that divided our room and you could hear EVERYTHING that they were saying. And all they talked about was shopping and the clothes they bought. And it wasn't like they were yelling or anything, just talking normally but it sounded like they were right in our room. Austin called the front desk and told them that our neighbors were being loud so they sent up security. That really didn't seem to faze them because they were still talking their heads off until 1:00 in the morning. Then they woke up at 6:00 and started right back at it! I tried stuffing toilet paper in my ears and sleeping with a pillow on my head....nothing worked. So anyway, I was kind of grouchy that morning. But I soon got over myself as we ventured out into that crazy city. We took a train to the city and we decided to do the lower half of Manhattan that day. Our first stop was the Statue of Liberty. We had to wait in line for about an hour and a half, but we were entertained during the wait. There was this man who played songs on a saw, another man singing to his CD player, a guy who had this huge snake wrapped around his neck, and of course the people dressed up as the statue of liberty. Boy oh boy, you see all kinds of people in NY! Anyway, we finally bought our tickets and then we took the ferry over and spent some time taking pictures of the Statue of Liberty and enjoying the wonderful view. As we were about to head back on the boat, we decided that we wanted to see the front of the statue again, but they had it blocked off because evidently someone had fallen off the base of it. So by that time word had gotten around that it was blocked off and everyone was trying to get back on the ferry. We waited for quite a while to get back on the boat (should have just gotten use to the fact that we would be waiting in a LOT of lines on this trip). Our next stop was Ellis Island. I guess I really need to brush up on my history because I don't think I would have known what Ellis Island was had it not been for the movie Hitch. Austin was telling me about some of his ancestors who came through there (and I'm sure I had some too...guess I need to ask my mom) and the place really took on a whole new perspective. It was nice to ponder a little bit about the sacrifices that our ancestors made to come to America.

After Ellis Island, we went walking uptown. We say Trinity Church (again, wouldn't have heard of it had it not been for National Treasure) which was AWESOME! It had incredible stain glass windows inside and a really cool ceiling. After that we went and saw Wall Street and then the Charging Bull. Then we headed to Ground Zero. It really took a lot to not burst out into tears looking at the sight that has affected this country so much. It is now a huge construction site, but it still holds a powerful feeling.

After Ground Zero we caught the subway back to Penn Station and then headed home. You know, riding the subways and trains really aren't that bad. It's not that confusing either (although it might have helped to have Austin there who seems to always know where we are and where we need to go. I probably couldn't last 5 minutes alone in that city!). That night we swam in the pool and just relaxed. We changed rooms that night and I finally good a good nights sleep. What a fun day!

What a Day!!!!

I don't think Austin and I really knew what we were getting ourselves into. As I write this we are going through the Holland Tunnel in Manhattan. Before I go any further, I must note that we got to the SLC airport on time this morning, only to find as we got off the shuttle bus that took us to the airport that we had left the camera bag IN THE CAR!!! We had only 30 minutes to check in, go through security, and get to our terminal. Nothing like going someplace like NYC for the first time and forgetting your new camera. Anyway, we decided that we would just go to Costco and buy another camera for me to use after our trip. Lets just keep on raking the money up!!!! Anyway, back to my story. We flew to the JFK airport and arrived about 3:30. We had to take an air shuttle to get our rental car. After that hooplah, we then turned on our lovely GPS unit and it proceeded to take us through downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan....IT WAS SCARY!!! And let me just say that no one can say Utah drivers are bad (or even Californians) because New York drivers are INSANE!!! They cut you off, don't use turn signals, and just go wherever they want. We saw a motercyclist riding on the sidewalk!!!! Anyway, it took us 2 1/2 hours to go 20 miles. Ahhhhh!!!! Anyway, hopefully we can get to Costco tonight before they close. I need a massage....

Father's Day

Father's Day was such a great day. It was a day to reflect on the wonderful husband that I have and for the great father and grandfathers that have been such a blessing in my life. I am so happy that I met Austin. He is such a great husband and father. I bought him a bunch of clothes for Father's Day. You're looking good hon! After Kylie took her nap yesterday, we went down to this trail by Utah Lake. We saw a lot of cool looking birds. Kylie seemed to enjoy herself. She looked so cute in her hat :) After our walk we went up to his parents house and had an amazing Father's Day dinner. Wendy is such a fantastic cook. We had shish kabobs, bean salad, passion fruit mousse, and cheesecake that I made. We ate oustide and I think we stayed out there an hour after we got done eating because it was so relaxing. Overall it was a fantastic day!

Kylie and her daddy

I love this picture!

She's like, "Get this thing off my head!"

A few birdies along the way

Austin noticed this sweet sailboat out on the lake

Brazilian Night

Austin had this amazing idea to have a Brazilian night at his mom and dads house this past Saturday. I was soo excited to try some of the foods that Austin and Jordan had all the time on their missions in Brazil. Each couple had a food assignment. Austin and I made Feijoada with rice and Pudim de Leite (really hard to explain, but you can see what it looks like in the pictures). Jordan and Ashley made Pastels and brought Guarana. Wendy made Passion Fruit Mousse and Cheese Empanadas. Oh man, it was heaven! Everything was sooo extremely tasty. Thanks you guys for such a fun night!




Going clockwise we have the Guarana drink, the Passion Fruit Mousse, the Pudim de Leite, the Pastels, and the Cheese Empanadas.

Springbar Tent

Last week Austin and I picked up our Springbar tent. The tents were on back order, so we had to wait a month before we could pick it up. We are soo excited to have this tent. We used his parents springbar the last time we camped and it was so nice to have room for all our stuff, our sleeping bags, and Kylie's pack n play. We decided to break it in, so 2 nights ago we slept out in it in our backyard. It was a lot of fun! I can't wait to take it camping!

Fun in the Sun!

On Monday I bought Kylie her first swimming suit and little pool. They were having a great sale at Old Navy, but it was hard to find a suit that wasn't a bikini! I finally found this tankini for her and I think its adorable :) (I think Austin likes it because it's not pink). She loved being in her pool and she didn't even mind that the water was freezing. Anyway, she had a blast and I was kept busy catching her as she would fall over the side of the pool trying to touch the grass. Crazy girl...

Kylie's Photo Shoot

So on Saturday I had Austin take some pictures of Kylie for these two online baby contests that I entered her in. I picked the one of her holding her little dog up to her face. It's sooo cute! I don't really have anything exciting to write about, so I will just let you enjoy the pis!