Troublemaker

Wesley pretty much spends every minute he is awake crawling and climbing around looking for things to put in his mouth....

....and today he discovered the refrigerator.

Traditions

New Christmas Eve tradition?

Frying crab wontons on the balcony because Tori doesn't want the house to smell like oil.

No Better Sunday

We love to visit downtown Salt Lake City, and this Sunday was a great time to go.
Rachel and Wesley loved seeing the lights at Temple Square and talking about our Savior. Lately, Rachel has asked me to tell her scripture stories particularly the Savior's birth and crucifixion and resurrection. It is really neat to share these moments with her.

The highlight for Rachel from Temple Square was the water.

Digital Nativity

I love my children!

picture by Sharon Johnson

picture by Sharon Johnson

They are so different from each other, yet I can see their sibling relationship growing. The sibling bond can be strong and a great tool for life. My relationships with each of my siblings is so valuable to me. I hope my children build similar friendships with each other. It is neat to see the personality mixture when they interact. Rachel already protects him, and Wesley adores Rachel's singing and dancing entertainment. I'm sure they will not always be cheery with each other, but that is part of the process. For now, I'll just enjoy their innocent and pure love and imaginations.

Salon

What a good Daddy to sit and let Rachel "work her magic."

Gingerbread

Not quite like the one on the box:

....but better than last time

Big Sister

Little Miss Mermaid

Miss Rachel started PSA swimming Level 3. Apparently this is the the level before actual swimming. She did really well and is becoming quite the mermaid. I have to say I love her instructor. Ms. Carol is great and pushes the students.

She loves the water which is a huge leap from the beginning of the summer when she was afraid to simply jump in the pool. Now, she is all over the pool and swimming well.
I only had my little camera to shoot two short videos and my batteries were running low, so this is all I have of her swimming.

Finished.

I can finally move on with my life now that the AIC Exam is behind me.

I realize that nobody even knows what that is, but it took 7.5 hours to finish and just so you can all feel a little of my pain, this was the study guide that I've been lugging around for the last four months:

Now, if you'll please excuse me, I'm going to set it on fire.

Halloween 2010

Solid Food

Rachel Birthday

Rachel turned 4 while we were in New York. Her Aunt Tiffany helped her celebrate without us with friends at the park. I bet Rachel didn't mind that we were absent as soon as she saw a cupcake. She is my sweet tooth girl.

Her cousins Tommy and Caleb even bought her a cute gift for her big 4 years on earth.

Although it was October, Arizona sun and heat allowed for her last chance in the water and sand.
We love our little girl so much. She is so smart and beautiful and makes us both very happy and proud to be parents. I wonder what we did right to be blessed with such a vibrant spirit. I hope we don't screw it up!

Can you guess which one is homemade?

This:

is my interpretation of this: I'll never make fun of the people on Food Network Challenge again.

New York Trip #1

We spent our first night of the trip at a cheap Casino in Mesquite. It cost nearly as much to send an email from their "business center" as we spent on the room. When they charge $0.49/minute for internet, there's little incentive to upgrade beyond dial up and it took almost 15 minutes to send an email.

We stopped at Hoover Dam on our way to AZ to drop the kids off at my brother's house. We thought Rachel would be terrified of the drop looking over the edge, but she loved it. Maybe she was just glad to be out of the van. It was a grand sight, and the new bridge they are building over it is HUGE.

The Mike O'Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge in all its glory:
(worst bridge name ever)

We came very close to volunteering to be bumped from our original flight as we could have picked up $800 in future flight credits, but the delay would have cost us half a day in New York so we stuck to our original plan. An overnight flight to Philly and a 2-hour drive to NYC looked like a great idea on paper six months ago and saved us a lot of money over flying directly to New York, but it made for a very tiring start to the trip. The mayor of Philadelphia personally greeted us at baggage claim. How thoughtful:

We spent approximately 20 minutes sightseeing in Philly from the comfort of our rental car. City Hall:

We stayed in Jersey City to save even more money. The hotel was about 50 feet from a PATH station, so we could be in Manhattan in 10 minutes but paid less than half of what a similar hotel would cost on the other side of the Hudson:

Just seeing the skyline of Manhattan was very exciting. Here we are walking in a park on our way to the ferry for Ellis island and the Statue of Liberty. No one told us that the shuttle from the train station to the ferry doesn't run on Saturdays, so we walked about two miles. The sights were amazing from here.

The Statue of Liberty was beautiful! I loved the spirit of sailing up to the statue. Knowing that so many immigrants passed this lady with such aspirations for a better life was overwhelming.

This terrible picture taken by a fellow tourist is proof that we were there:

Some other random tourists on the ferry. This girl later fainted and we saved her life by giving her a bag of grape Jolly Ranchers (we'd already eaten all of the better flavors, but beggars can't be choosers)

HUGE city! I can't wait to return but with the kiddos next time. Tyler was in heaven with so many tall buildings to admire.

This is the piece that was in the plaza between the WTC towers. Seeing the damage was incredible.

The memorial is still several years from completion but we stopped at the small preview museum around the corner from the site. Surprisingly, the museum was very quiet and tranquil as videos of people recounting their experience that day played in the background. There was also a display of New York City's streets and views of them as they looked on 9/11. It was very eye opening. The building rising here is the new World Trade Center Tower:

Yumm-O! We didn't actually buy anything in the m&ms store, but we did buy some m&ms right outside from a street vendor for $1 (inside they were charging $13.99/lb.)

We didn't go inside Radio City, but the signs in themselves magnificent.

6th Avenue:

There's probably an explanation for this that I'm unaware of:

Rockefeller Center:

This is Central park from the Rockefeller Center observation deck. It is beautiful view, but it is even more beautiful eating lunch right in the middle of it next to a pond. Breath taking!

Empire State building from the Top of the Rock. The lines were too long for us to go to the top of it, but we saw the outside of it from all angles.

This is a view from the Brooklyn Bridge at night. We walked the bridge while we waited for our movie. It was awesome to see city lights.

After meeting in Times Square for the official 10-10-10 photo at 10:10AM, we spent Sunday with Tyler's high school friends. The next group meet-up is already scheduled for 4-3-21 at 12:34 PM:

So wish we had more time to see the art at the MET. It was a beautiful building and would take days to see and admire it all:

BEST PIZZA EVER!!! They don't take reservations and we waited in line for 2 hours for a table for 7, but after waiting ten years to have dinner together, it was worth it. I've never had such great pizza. Their host to seat people was entertainment in himself.

Here it is! Sweet thin crust---perfect sauce---perfect amount of cheese---best toppings. We ate the WHOLE thing.

The gang (-Jon) on the Brooklyn Bridge:

Here we are at the top of the Brooklyn Bridge. We actually walked over it twice. It was fantastic.

This would have been a better picture if we didn't have a crappy camera:

Because it was Columbus Day, the Manhattan Temple (normally closed on Mondays) was open and we got to attend a session:

We didn't have time to visit the Sea, Air and Space Museum. It's on the list for our next visit.

Entertainment at the Subway station:


We got tickets to a taping of the Late Show which will air tomorrow (Friday) night, so stay up late and watch for our network television debut. We were sitting behind the lady from Regina, Canada that they kept showing during the monologue.

We so wish we found this place sooner. The environment was very New York and the food was incredible. I ate the best Cheesecake ever right here.

Here it is. Yep, that is one piece, and I ate all $10 of it. Yum! The topping was divine. In the back you can see Tyler's borscht. Yes, he ordered Russian peasant food for dinner. It was delicious too.

The best part of the trip was seeing Mary Poppins on Broadway. We both had our jaws dropping throughout the show. It was just spectacular. The part we wished we skipped was eating at Bobby Flay's restaurant. It was good, but we'd rather have eaten more authentic New York cuisine. The part we wish we had more time for was the Museum of Natural History. Again, I could spend two days in that place. It was fascinating.

I missed Rachel and John Wesley terribly, but spending time with Tyler in a fascinating place that we both always dreamed of visiting was priceless. Thanks for a great vacation, Tyler.