Dates with Rob

 Rob and I have gone on a few fun dates lately.  We try to get out together more often now that our kids are getting older.  So we were excited when some friends invited us to go disco skating with them at the Classic Fun Center.  Yes!  I didn't really have anything to dress up in, but I threw on some sparkly earrings and a headband thing.  We got there before the disco skating actually started.  I thought the place was pretty crowded (I mean it was a Saturday night) and that it would clear out when the disco skating started around 10.  I can't remember if it was 9:30 or 10.   Anyways, I was totally wrong about that.  It got MORE crowded even though at that point they said only people who were 16 and older could be on the skating floor.  It was packed.  I got nailed right in the eye by someone who didn't know how to skate and was swinging his arms around to get balance.  It hurt.  So we skated around a few times and then we headed out.  It was getting late anyway.  But despite the crowds, it was a blast.

Sitting down trying to decide if we wanted to brave the crowd for another couple laps of skating.  I think we did. 

  And this is me taking a selfie and my friend Courtney photo bombing us.  :)

We also went to a Mardi Gras party at the Veridian near our house.  It was pretty fun.  There was some food, games, palm reading, animals to look at and dancing with a live band.  Pretty cool for a free event.  We had fun.  Then there was an embarrassing moment when Rob almost walked into the women's bathroom.  Oops!  We had a good time doing something out of our comfort zone.  

This is why they are cute....

 There is definitely a reason that babies and toddlers are so cute.  It's so that when they look at us like this:

And this: 

(That's string cheese hanging out of her mouth.) You forget that earlier that morning they did this:  

 Ha ha!  This really isn't that bad because I know for a fact that not 10 minutes earlier, this would have been a much bigger mess.  Fortunately before Rob left for work, he peeked into the kids bathroom and noticed that the toilet was unflushed and he flushed it.  Phew!  Thanks Rob!  You saved the day!

New York Part 2

 The next few days of our trip we went to church, which was interesting because we followed some sister missionaries in the door and followed them up a couple flights of stairs before I started to question if we were going the right way.  Sure enough, we got to the 4th floor and there was the chapel.  Weird.  Everything in New York is up.  I really enjoyed the sacrament meeting and listened to a young couple give talks about how they ended up in New York after attending medical school in Phoenix. After sacrament meeting we left.  We were standing outside the church when a homeless man came up to us and asked one of us to marry him since that was a church we were standing outside of.  We said no and hurried out of there to get a bagel for breakfast.  It was such a yummy bagel.  Funny how some things just taste better in New York. 

Then we walked to find the "Hope" and "Love" statues since they were pretty close and got pictures.  After that we figured out how to take the subway to the Brooklyn Bridge.  (thank you google maps...seriously.  I don't know how people did things with out it!  It makes things so easy!)  We got there and started walking.  We only made it about half way across the bridge before turning back because we were so cold. 

I believe after that we went to the Chelsey Market.  Or that might have been the day before.  I can't remember.  Anyway, we wandered around there and enjoyed some yummy Ramen and I bought my favorite souvenir.  A necklace with a round pendant and a rainbow heart in the middle of it.  I wear it all the time and I love it.  I didn't decide right away, I had to think on it for a night, but I'm so glad that I got it.  And Laurel got the same one.  They "never" have 2 of the same necklace.  At least that's what they told us...good sales tactic.  ha ha. 

We also hit up Stardust Diner.  It's a fun diner where a bunch of Broadway hopefuls work.  They sing and perform the entire night.  It is amazing.  I loved it.  It was one of my very favorite things we did while in New York.  Serious talent in there.  We did have to wait in a very long line to get in, but it was totally worth it. 

Something that we discovered after we booked our hotel was that it was smack dab in the middle of the fabric district.  Well maybe not the middle, but really close.  So on our last day there we hit up Mood Fabric.  Laurel watches Project Runway, so she knew all about this place.  I seriously need to watch that show.  It was amazing how much fabric was in there.  It's really overwhelming.  But I ended up getting a shirt there.  No fabric.  Although I did look for a specific fabric.  Couldn't find it because there was just so much fabric there. 

After the fabric store, we went and got 99 cent pizza and more Carlos Bakery.  So yummy.  Then we gave ourselves plenty of time to navigate to the airport because when we went to Paris, we came close to missing our flight home.  he he.  WE got to the airport like 5 hours early this time which wasn't bad at all.  It took us a while to figure out the trains to get there, but we did it and then we just relaxed.  It felt nice. 

I'm probably missing some stuff, but it was just such a fun trip.  Quick but perfect.  Now on to the pictures which are all out of order.  So i'll just type about them. 

Empire State Building.  My kids loved the movie clip I showed them of King Kong climbing up this building.  

 Brooklyn Bridge.

 It was so cold.  I looked like this except for the brief moments I took my hood off for a picture.  

 We tried Ramen for the first time.  The guy who made the noodles was hilarious to watch.  He was stretching out the noodles to the Taylor Swift.  He was totally getting into it.  I loved the ramen.  It had beef that was delicious, but I couldn't eat it all.  Not even close.

 Stardust Diner.  If you go to New York...you have to go here.  So entertaining.  

 This guys sang a song called "Cellophane" i think.  He was stretching that plastic wrap and wrapping it all over himself.  It was hilarious. 

 I got the yummy nachos and Laurel got a hamburger.  Those nachos were good.  

 Just trying to document the lights and hustle and bustle of New York.

The picture on the left is from another store, but the one on the right is at Mood Fabric.  Doesn't Laurel totally look like she knows what she is doing?!?!  She should become a seamstress.  

 The picture on the left shows what trash day in New York city looks like.  Just mounds and mounds of garbage on the street.  Then the garbage trucks come by and have to load it by hand.  The picture on the right shows me eating my 99 cent pizza.  So greasy and yummy.  And one dollar.  Perfect.

 The Love and Hope sculptures.  Pretty fun.  I think I want to frame this one.  :)

 Fun pillar we found.  We both thought it was beautiful. 

 Central park.  We walked here on Sunday.  I forgot to write about it up at the top.  But we kept taking pictures of the tunnels like this because it reminded us of Home Alone 2.  We wanted to show our kids.  We also came across the zoo and saw seals performing.  In the middle of Central park.  It was cool.

 Left: Me pointing to the Empire State Building.  Right: Laurel and I getting warm inside the Stardust Diner.  We were freezing waiting outside in line for a good hour at least.  Then we got to skip ahead in line because they had 2 seats open at the bar.  So we sat there.  The only drinks we had were our milkshakes though.

 More Brooklyn Bridge.

 Mood Fabrics.  So cool to be in there.

 Building in the background.  Pretty cool.

 There were so many people at the bridge.  I feel like these pictures don't make it look that way.  But there were so many people.

 Look!  I grew the Empire State Building out of my head!

 I'm just amazed when I think about how people figure out how to make things like bridges.  

 Cool Balloon baker guy.  

 I don't think I posted this picture of myself in front of the love wall.  

 We had to document our first time eating ramen. 

 Our Mood gear.  I love that we both bought the same necklace and basically the same shirt for souvenirs.  (her's was white mine was black.) 

 We also hit up the M&M store.  I loved all the rainbow backdrops.  I didn't actually get any M&Ms.  I just took pictures of them.  :)

 More Brooklyn Bridge.

 Central Park with the buildings in the background.  We stood here for a while watching the Seals do tricks.

 Who knew M&Ms could be so pretty??

 Subway Entrance.  They were everywhere.  The underground subway system is pretty cool.  I'm fascinated by it.  It is also pretty stinky.  You could always smell when you passed by one.

 Outside Stardust Diner.

 Another Balloon person outside that same Bakery.

 City buildings.

I mean this was just one aisle at the fabric store.  I wonder how long some of those have been there.  1 year?  5 years? 20 Years?  Who knows?

Also at one of the fabric stores we went in, there was a sign that said something like " more fabric downstairs".  So we turned to go downstairs and saw this long stairway with a dirty door at the bottom.  It was taped closed with masking tape.  That's for sure going to keep it from opening.  It was pretty creepy.  I wonder what was behind that door.  Not enough to actually look, but I'm still curious about it.  Such a great trip!  Thanks Laurel.  You are the best travel buddy!

New York!! Part 1

 While I was in AZ for my brother's wedding I got a text from my friend Laurel.  It went something like "Hey...how do you feel about going to New York in February? Specifically February 15th to the 18th?"  I thought about it and read it out loud to Rob and of course he was like "Yeah! You should do it!"  So on February 15th, I got on a plane to New York with Laurel.  :)  It was a fun weekend trip but it was just perfect.  We made a list of things that we wanted to do, and we did everything on that list.  It was pretty awesome.  These pictures are kind of out of order, but I'll try my best to tell what's going on.

We got in around 8pm or so, so we figured out where our hotel was (we took and Uber...it was my first ever Uber and we didn't get kidnapped or anything!) After we dropped off our stuff at the hotel, we went outside to find some food.  We ended up at a pizza place and got some yummy pizza and then we walked over to Carlos Bakery for dessert.  It was all so delicious.

The next morning, we went to see the Statue of Liberty, the 9/11 memorial, ate at Max Brenner's restaurant, and then we saw STOMP that night.

I'm a little bit embarrassed to admit that I didn't know that NYC was not in the middle of New York.  Silly me.  It's right next to the water.  DUH!  ha ha  This is a picture from the plane.  We flew out over the water and then turned around to land at the airport.  

 Our first pizza in New York!   We later discovered that the 99 cent pizza places that are on every other corner are just as good as the pizza we bought here for 7 bucks a slice.  99 cents for a yummy greasy slice of pizza...yes please!

 Carlos Bakery did not disappoint!

 In New York!!

 This is what we got at Carlos Bakery.  A lobster tail, a cannoli, and a cheesecake dipped in chocolate.  When I was eating the cannoli, it was my favorite, but when I was eating the lobster tail, it was my favorite.  My mouth is watering just looking at this.  We went back again and Laurel got another cannoli and I got another lobster tail right before we went to the airport.  

 Exactly how I pictured NYC in my head.  Crowded, loud and so many things to look at!

 Times Square

 We liked looking at all the fire escapes on the buildings.  

 We found a cool area near the 9/11 memorial where they were doing construction (I think)  Instead of ugly fences they had this fun art all around it.  This was my favorite part of it I think.  I just loved the colors and that it said love.  

 A fun mosaic tiled wall.  Whenever we took a selfie, I had to stand on this side of Laurel because she took most of the pictures with her phone.  Mine just doesn't take great pictures.  

We went to see ths Statue of Liberty.  When we got there, somehow we walked in such a way that we saw nobody there.  We walked toward a boat that we saw in the water wondering why we were the only people there.  I was thinking something must be wrong for there to be nobody else on a Saturday morning going to the Statue of Liberty.  Sure enough when we walked closer and the building that was blocking our view was no longer blocking our view, we saw tons of people waiting in line.  I don't know how we missed it before, but we laughed at ourselves and got in line.  I knew it was going to be cold because we were on the water, but it was SO COLD!  I wished it had finished crocheting that hat that I brought on the plane but didn't because Laurel and I talked the ENTIRE flight.  :)

Here we are with Lady Liberty.  And the door handles to the gift shop were fun.   

 This was our delicious food at Max Brenner's.  I still think about those yummy churros with the chocolate dipping sauce.  They were so good. And I don't usually love churros.  So they were good.  I got a crepe with bananas and Nutella and caramel ice cream.  So yummy.

 At stomp.  It was seriously so good.  I loved the whole thing, but the scene where they are all holding newspapers made me laugh the most.  It was loud enough to keep us awake since we were pretty tired.  

 This was another part of the wall around the construction area.  I thought my kids would really love this.

 New York is behind us!  

 I don't know if this was a train station or what, but it was really close to the 9/11 memorial.  It was such an interesting building in the middle of the city.

 We stood around trying to find the best person to take our picture for us...they were so nice and took one.  Just barely missed the torch.  Oh well.

 9/11 memorial.  I really appreciated the peace and quiet around the memorial.  I was thinking there would be vendors there but there were none.  We were able to just take it in.  It was nice.

 More Carlos Bakery.  I loved watching Cake Boss and always wanted to try some of his stuff.  My dreams came true!

 I noticed that I had a hole in the armpit of my coat when I got there.  It went through all the layers too.  It would let the breeze in when we were outside.  I still need to fix that hole!  

 The city

 I also cut off her torch. ha ha.  I think I actually got one with her torch too, but I accidentally uploaded this one so that's what we get.  ha ha

 9/11

 More of that fun wall.  That spaceship is where we took our picture.

This one was around the corner of the space ship one.  

I accidentally took this picture, but I love it.  It has the sewer and my Statue of Liberty bag in it.