I'm glad I came back sane!

On March 29th me and my friend MaLynda left for New York to babysit for my brother and his sister-in-law. I wasn't sure I was up for the task but it is hard to pass up a free trip.
Jeff couldn't make it to the airport to get us so we took the air train and the subway to meet him. I was pretty proud we made it to him without any trouble.
MaLynda had never been to New York so she had told Jeff some of things she wanted to see. We had a little bit of time that evening when we got there so we went and had some good New York pizza and then went and walked halfway across the Brooklyn bridge. That is actually something I had never done before either so it was kind of cool.

Then we drove to New Canaan.
My brother's in-laws all went to Rome. They left on the 30th. MaLynda and I were left with my niece Ellie who is two and her two boy cousins, Eli (2) and Samuel (4).
At this risk of sounding dramatic this trip was kind of life changing. There was a few things that made this job hard. Number one is that we had two two year olds. Number two that the house was so ginormous that it was hard to keep track of the kids. Number three that two of the kids I didn't even know (poor MaLynda didn't really know my niece either). About four days in I got a cold. Poor MaLynda again. Let me tell you how great walking the sixty something stairs in that house is when you are sick. My mom came home from her mission while I was out there and I missed it. Since she came home my brother moved out of her house and I didn't even know where to. The guy I had sort of been dating ended things with me while I was out there and I started a new job. I know the fact that I started a new job sounds funny but I am now a reservationist for the Zion Ponderosa and I just take calls from home. All of that happened while I was on my trip and I really kind of felt like I came home and had to get use to a whole new normal. Not to mention the fact that I was now questioning whether or not I ever want kids. I love my niece and even now care for those other two. But it was hard. Ellie had several great two year old tantrums. I will say though that they never fought us on bed time and nap time and I now know why parents love those times.
I felt really bad for MaLynda too. I felt like I brought her out with me so I could dump the kids on her, between me being sick, broken hearted and starting the new job. I am surprised she still likes me.
There were some good times too. My friends Danny and Bethany brought their kids over for breakfast conference Sunday and Danny cooked for us. That was a lot of fun and it was so good to see them.
Ellie also said some funny things of course. She is such a girlie girl and with all the nephews I have I love it! She always had to be wearing a dress or long shirts with leggings or a skirt. One day I held up jeans and a shirt and asked if she wanted to wear that. She looked at it and said, "umm, no thank you.". So I found a blousy shirt a mini skirt and leggings. She was good with that.

Filing her nails after watching me do it.

One of her cute girly outfits.

Playing outside.  She wanted "a backpack like Daddy"

I thought she was darling carrying her purse around.

One day I was painting her toe nails and I wasn't really paying attention to what she was doing. I had her sitting on the bathroom counter. She grabbed a toothpick and went to put it in the polish. She said to herself "I stick it in there? No? Okay." it was so funny. The other funny thing happened at church. Someone sneezed and Ellie started looking around and saying "Doggy? Is there a doggy in here?" I am almost positive the sneezer heard her.
After ten days Jeff and Erica finally returned. I was so happy to see them. They did being me a beautiful red leather purse from Italy.

Monday the 9th we went in to the city to see some sights. Jeff rode the train to grand central with us and then put us on a subway with written instructions how to get everywhere we had decided to go. He had to go to school so he couldn't come with us.
Our first stop was battery park where we could view the Statue of Liberty.

The blossoms were beautiful.

MaLynda's first view.

Then we saw Wall Street.

After that we walked over to the 9/11 memorial. You walk through a place that has pictures and signs people had posted about missing persons. There was videos going from interviews of people who lost loved ones. There was also things they had found at ground zero on display. Then we walked over to where the buildings were. Now they have big waterfalls there. It was neat. Plus they are rebuilding the buildings.

Then we took the subway to NYC to find Jeff for lunch. We bought gyros from a street vendor. That's all Jeff had time for then he had to go back to class. So then MaLynda and I went to Times Square and stood in line for discount broadway show tickets. We were able to get tickets to Phantom! We were pretty excited about that. Oh yeah and we saw the naked cowboy which I have never seen before in all my trips to New York. :)

That is not me or MaLynda with him just so you know.

We saw Morgan Freeman......Okay he was wax.

Then we had to book it down to get on a boat to go on our circle line tour. Jeff's sister-in-law bought us the tickets to that as a thank you for babysitting. We were able to see some pretty cool stuff. We got pretty close to the statue of liberty.

Then we rode the bus back to meet Jeff for dinner before the play. Phantom was amazing of course!
Here is some other views of Times Square at night.

Then we went straight to the gym Jeff cleans and helped him clean it. We didn't get home until after 2. I should win sister of the year.

The next day we went to the city again. We had to say goodbye to everyone because we were not returning. Ellie wasn't very happy. I think she kind of likes me. Since we were flying out that day we only had a few hours. We walked through Central Park.

The flowers were soooo pretty!

Then we went to Rockefeller center.

I have never seen this when it was still a skating rink.  I usually see it as a cafe in the summer.

Then we ate pizza and saw some other sights.

Columbia

Restaurant they show on Seinfield of course.

Then we saw the temple. We met some missionaries and one of them happened to be from Cedar City. Small world.

Then as we were driving out of town we took some final pictures.

Then Jeff dropped us off at the airport on his way home. We had a layover in Chicago so we had pizza for the second time that day. It was entirely different though. Then we flew into Vegas where my Mom and Neal were waiting. It was the first time I was seeing them from their mission. It was very exciting! Kind of like a missionary homecoming at the airport only I was the one flying in.
I was so glad to be home. I felt like I had to get used to a new normal though since so much had changed. The first few days back I walked around in a fog. I am better now (for the most part). I am just glad I came back sane! (I guess that might could be debated.)

The Sweet Spot

How often in your life time is the sweet spot of an eclipse less than 15 miles away! My friend Libby's brother was nice enough to host a BBQ and eclipse viewing party at his home in Kannaraville. It was a pretty amazing site. Not only the ring of fire but the thousands of people that were in town for it.

We thought this poster was pretty cool!

Me, Erin, Libby and Kyle getting ready with our awesome glasses!

Amazing!

Trying to leave town afterwards

Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years 2011

Jeff and Erica flew out from Connecticut for Thanksgiving this year.  It was so good to see them!  It was actually the first time we were seeing new baby Adam.  Jeff, Erica and I had dinner with Suzie's family.  It was a great little dinner.  Lyle and Andrea's family came the next day.

Everyone IS Thankful for her!!

Ellie loves her new brother

 Following tradition I spent a lot of time watching the Turkey Tournament basketball games.  Lyle did the book for me one of the games so I didn't have too.

Jeff at the clock and Lyle at the book.

Owen at the sidelines.

Family team at a time out

The family team played for the championship but was not able to win. Better luck next year.

Little Adam was blessed on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  Owen blessed his baby Luke that night too so we had a big, fun family get together.  We missed my Mom being there and she was a little homesick to be with her kids that day too.  We of course missed Scot's family too.

Such a handsome little guy

Christmas

It has been a tradition for a few years now to look at the Santa Tracker on Christmas Eve.  My nephews love it.  Well wouldn't you know it there is an app for that.  I happened to be looking right when Santa was in Cedar City, which I thought was cool.  Luckily the kids were in bed so Santa could come.  

Christmas morning was pretty fun at this house.  

When Shelayne saw that stroller, she let out a squeal and tried to push her brothers out of the way.

Santa found these boys for sure

I think they were all happy about their presents

Anyone that knows my brother knows he likes to tease.  I opened my present from his family an it was this:

A SIGNED copy of his latest research paper.  Tucked inside was a 25 dollar american express card.  He is a dork.
Later we drove over to Orderville.  The boys were tired after getting up so early.  My Grandma had a potluck dinner that night so we got to hang out with a lot of my cousins.  It was fun.  We stayed the night at Suzie's.  

Jeff and Erica didn't come out.  Erica's family went to the Dominican Republic on Christmas day.  Jeff sent this picture of Ellie walking through the airport.  She is so darling.

New Years

I'm not sure if this picture was really new years eve but I thought it was cute.  

She loves her Daddy!

We ate a lot of good food and played Yahtzee until it struck midnight.  It was fun.

Towards the end the kids were getting a little tired.

Almost time.

Marshal (6) is a little obsessed with calendars.  It was 12:04 am when he said "We need a new calendar."  It was pretty funny.

The holidays were fun but it is kind of nice to get them over with and get back to normal life.  

Road Trip November 2011!

A couple weekends ago(Nov 18-20) me and three of my friends took a road trip to Flagstaff, AZ.  SUU was playing football at NAU and we decided it would be fun to go watch the game and spend some time in Flagstaff.  I had never been there and had heard good things about it.  On the way there we hit a wind storm that was blowing tumbleweeds allover the road.  It looked like a game where you were supposed to try to avoid them.  But we weren't able to.

Libby and the tumbleweed.

We had some problems finding our motel when we got there.  The GPS on my phone led us to a place that looked like a motel converted to apartments.  They looked pretty dumpy and we were really hoping that was not where our reservations were.  We finally found it.  The motel ended up having nice beds and I slept pretty comfortably. 

The next morning we went to historic downtown and did some shopping and looking around.  They had some really cool stores.  All of the store clerks were incredibly nice.  We decided that everyone we talked to in Flagstaff was.  It is just a nice place.  For lunch we ate at a place called Brandy's Restaurant & Bakery.  It had been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives so we decided to try it.  I really liked my food. 

Garlic Fries and Quiche

This is where Guy Fieri sat

 After lunch we headed to the game.  NAU has an indoor football field.  It was really nice.  There was actually quite a few people there cheering for SUU.  NAU scored two touchdowns right at the start and I worried that wasn't a good sign.

Libby and I

At half time I was able to see some friends that live there in Flagstaff.  Brant works at NAU.  I know them because of our mutual friend Natalie.  So we took this picture and sent it to Natalie and asked if she was jealous.  She was.

Me, Rianne and Jana

Kyle, Libby and I.  Camaree wouldn't get in the picture

The game ended up being really good and SUU won 27 to 24! It made it worth the drive.   It was probably the football game that I paid the most attention to. 
After the game and shopping at a goodwill store (another wrong turn because of GPS) we ate at Stromboli's.  It is a pizza and pasta place one of my clients told me about.  It was pretty good.
That night we played girl talk.  It is a game that I remember from my childhood and Camaree still had the game.  Yes Kyle was a good sport and played with us.  If you fail the task you get you have to wear a sticker zit.

Camaree had zits too but she wouldn't get in the picture.

Don't ask me what Kyle was doing here.

Sunday we decided to take a detour to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  I have only been to the North Rim and that was only once.  I know, it is a shame considering how close it is to where I grew up. 

It was breathtaking!  I was really glad we went.

This is what Libby and I did while we  were driving.  Yes we are like old ladies.

We also stopped for a minute at Lee's Ferry.

We had made a road trip CD and I think the two songs that ended up being the themes from it were "Meet me in Montana" and "Let's here it for the Boy".  They were the fun ones to sing along to.  Kyle didn't love the latter but he was a trooper with us three girls so we dedicated it to him.  We finally made it safely home and I think we all ended as friends still.  :)

My Favorite Picture of All Time

 

This picture is of me and my Dad.  I don't have a date for it but I assume I was three or four. I post it today because today is the day he died thirteen years ago.  I'm not looking for sympathy I mostly just wanted a reason to post the picture because I have been wanting to make sure I preserved it.   The first time I ever laid eyes on this picture was the night before my Dad's funeral.   My Aunt and Uncle found it in their collection right after my Dad's passing and made a copy for me and my Mom and brought them to us.  It has become quite famous in my family.  My Grandparents wanted a copy and I think most of my siblings got one too.  It has hung on my bedroom wall ever since.  My niece was about that age at the time of my Dad's death and she looked a lot like me.  We displayed it at the funeral and people kept saying what a cute picture of my Dad with his Granddaughter.  I corrected them, don't worry.  I mean looked at those awesome sunglasses in my hand! Those were so 1983 not 1998.  :)
I love the emotion you can see in his face.  It makes me feel very loved.  I've always thought that I must have been thinking, "Yes, I have him wrapped around my finger."  I think about him a lot and especially this time of year.  He is a good man and I miss him everyday.