The Lake & The Farm

Last week we went over to the Oquirrh Lake in Daybreak and fed the ducks.  Owen loved it.  Porter didn't quite understand what was going on, and just kept eating the bread.  (Good thing it was fresh this time).   It is so close, we need to do it more often!

Yesterday, my friend Marla invited the boys and me to the farm at Thanksgiving Point.  They have a wagon ride, a kid's play area, a pony ride, and of course lots of animals to feed!  We went last year when I was about 9+ months pregnant, so it was much more enjoyable this time!

Owen, keeping it classy on the pony ride.

Despite the somber face, he really did love it and told his pony "thank you" and "I'll see you later" when it was over.

Sorting veggies in the kid's play

Porter chilling in the stroller

Feeding some goats

Wesley, Owen, and Kaden.  (Porter was still in the stroller... what am I going to do when that no longer works?!)  Love their red faces!

My boys and me! 

Porter finally broke free of his stroller!  He loved pulling himself up and pushing this green button.  My little guy is growing up!  

New York City-- Part 2!

DAY 3:

Brad had been so busy leading up to this trip that he let me plan everything and didn't worry about our schedule until we were in New York.  When he looked at our itinerary for day 3 he about had a heart attack.  It was going to be a LOT of walking.  Later we heard a lady on the subway talking about how she had walked 12 blocks that morning (!!!!!) and we silently laughed because we had already walked

over 4.5 miles! :)

Here are some of the landmarks we walked to that morning:

We didn't do a tour of the Empire State Building (a "tourist trap" according to Brad!) but we walked past it frequently on the way to/from our hotel.

Macy's-- the "World's Largest Department Store"

Grand Central Terminal-- such a busy place!

The Today Show in Rockefellar Plaza.  There was a concert that morning but we were too tired to get up that early so by the time we got there (11:00) it was pretty calm.

FAO Shwartz-- I got to play the big piano!  Yeah!  Brad posed with a minion for Owen.  :)

Brad needing a little pick-me-up from our marathon morning!  So we decided to grab some lunch.

I had a whole list of restaurants to visit while in New York.  I mapped it out according to location, and if we were hungry while we were out, we checked to see what was close.  However, Brad's only request for the trip was to eat at Carnegie.  So although it was a bit of a walk from where we were, off we went!

That is a serious sandwich.

Where do you even start?  So much meat!  We ended up splitting it and eating it mostly with a fork and knife.  

"The Woody Allen" has been conquered!  Despite the picture, we both really enjoyed it.  :)

And off to the next adventure:

Radio City Music Hall

Manhattan LDS Temple

Our trip was during a 2 week cleaning period for the temple so we weren't able to do a session.  We were so bummed!  But we had to stop by still and see it.

After the temple we walked to the American Museum of Natural History.  We spent a few hours there... and weren't totally impressed.  Maybe because we were so tired!  So we walked across the street and spent a couple hours in Central Park.  We found a grassy hill and people watched.  It was quite entertaining!

Oh you know, just hanging out in Central Park!

(I didn't know Brad took this!)

Next it was time for the big game!  So we hopped on the subway and headed to the Bronx to Yankee Stadium!

The clouds looked so cool!  It is a really nice stadium, but in a very...interesting...part of town.  

The Yankees lost pretty bad, but it was still fun.  I loved bragging to my Dad & brothers that I went to a game in Yankee Stadium before they did!  

On the way back to the hotel we took one last picture of the Empire State Building at night from the rooftop "Pent House"  (weirdest name ever!) and then called it a night!

DAY 4:

Our last day in the city.  We only had a half-day until we had to head to the airport, so we headed down to Canal Street for some shopping and figured we'd slowly make our way back up towards the hotel until we ran out of time!

We had fun scoring some deals on Canal Street.  My favorite were the old Asian women on the side of the street who kept asking me if I wanted "Tiffany jewelry" or "Louis Vuitton purses".

After shopping we walked through SOHO, what a cool vibe!  It seemed really relaxed and trendy.  I liked it.  We grabbed lunch at Joe's Pizza (not bad!) and then walked through NYU campus as we headed to Washington Square for... you guessed it... more people watching. 

 

We stopped at a few parks that day (Washington, Union, Madison Square) and this was our favorite.  From the girl who clogged nonstop for over 45 minutes, to the guy playing a baby grand piano, to the crazy guy running in and out of the fountain shirtless-- there was a lot of excitement going on!

We found these guys at Madison Square Park.  This picture won't mean much to anyone else, but I laugh every time I look at it.  The younger guy on the right is totally mocking the guy on the left, who was legitimately trying to work out.  We watched the back and forth for about 15 minutes.  It was hilarious.

Flatiron Building, a wedge-shaped skyscraper built in 1902.

And then it was over!  What a trip!  Thank you to Brad's parents for watching our boys and allowing us to spend this time together!  We missed them, but enjoyed being able to spend time just the two of us.

New York City-- Part 1!

At the end of July Brad had to fly to Jersey City, NJ for a business trip and we decided to make a trip out of it!  He was starting his 2 year MBA program at BYU the next week, so this was our last "hoorah" before his schedule got crazy busy.  We were there for 4 days and had a blast!  Of course, there's always more to see and do, but I think we did a lot in 4 days.   

DAY 1:

Brad had a full day of meetings, so I had the day to myself!  Originally I thought about flying in this day, but we decided to just fly together and that I'd just kill time while he worked.  This ended up being one of my favorite parts of the trip!!  I slept in, went to the gym, walked along the Hudson River Walkway, went shopping, ate lunch in peace & quiet, and overall enjoyed the "me time". 

The first 2 days we stayed in Jersey City while Brad worked.  It is right across the Hudson River from lower

Manhattan.  This is a picture of  the new Freedom Tower they are building to replace the Twin Towers.

Once Brad was done with work we hopped on the PATH and went over to Chelsea to explore The Highline.  It is a  linear park built on an old elevated New York Central Railroad!  It was very modern and really cool.  

All of the benches were made from wood

You take stairs or an elevator up to the walkway.  It is about 1.5 miles long, but we only went about halfway before heading back to dinner.

Dinner was at a yummy restaurant recommended by Brad's boss.  After we ate we hopped on the Subway and headed down to the Ferry Terminal to take a ferry ride over to Staten Island.  It was sunset by this point, so we got some awesome pictures of the skyline & the Statue of Liberty.  

Ferry building

Lower Manhattan as we pulled away from the dock

Statue of Liberty.  I love the American flag flying in the middle.

Lower Manhattan as we pulled back in

After that, we grabbed some dessert from a food truck (just okay... should have waited for a Wafels & Dinges), hopped on the PATH and headed back to our hotel.

DAY 2:

Brad had to do a few morning meetings, so I got up and enjoyed breakfast along the Hudson Walkway again.  The weather was unusually cool (mid-60s... unheard of for this time of year) so it felt really nice.  After Brad got back, we loaded up our stuff and headed into the city.  We checked into our new hotel in Manhattan and then headed out for the day.  

First up was taking the subway over to Brooklyn and then walking across the bridge back to Manhattan. 

It's hard to pick a favorite activity in New York, but this was Brad's.  We really loved it!

These "love locks" were all over the bridge!  So fun.

Once we made it back to Manhattan, we grabbed some NY pizza slices and then started our walk down Broadway to lower Manhattan, eventually to end up at the 9-11 Memorial.  

We walked through City Hall Park, which had this fun fountain.  

Stopped at the Stock Exchange for Brad, my business man.

Federal Hall

Federal Hall was the very first capitol building, and was the site of George Washington's inauguration as the first President of the United States.

We stopped at Trinity Church, St. Paul's Cathedral, saw the charging bull at Bowling Green, and then finally made it to the Memorial.  

We ended up standing at the area that was listing all of the First Responders who died-- those firefighters, police, etc. who died while trying to save others.  There were so many.  It was very moving.

After that we hopped on the subway, headed back to our hotel and got ready for our evening!  Dinner & a Broadway show!   I knew we would walk through Korea Town on our way to the theater, so I told Brad we could have Korean food.  He was so excited, especially when he saw this restaurant:

He lived in Wonjo, a smaller town south of Seoul for almost half of his mission.  That solved that!  

(Funny story: when we walked in and asked for a table, Brad told the Korean hostess that he lived in Wonjo.  She responded "It's a real place?"  Haha... she didn't even know what it stood for.)

After dinner we walked through Times Square as we went to the Theater

Brad let me pick the show and I chose Phantom of the Opera.  It's the longest running show on Broadway!  How could I not?  Plus I'm a succor for a love story.  It was amazing.  I loved it.  Brad enjoyed it too!

After the show it was about 11:00-- the night was still young by New York City standards!  We went across the street and picked up some NY cheesecake at Junior's and then headed over to Times Square to eat.  

The cheesecake was so yummy!  (Carrot Cheesecake-- I definitely recommend!)  and we really enjoyed people watching while we ate it.  Between the street performers and the tourists we were highly entertained!

After eating, we walked around for a bit.  We explored the M&M Store, the Disney Store (and picked up a little something for the boys!), and just soaked in the experience.  I think Times Square was my favorite part of the trip.  It was so different from anything I've ever done before!  

Read here for part 2 of our trip!