Thursday May 31

I can't believe tomorrow is the last day of school!!!!!!!

This year seems to have gone crazy fast!

It has been a good year for each one of the kids.

I am grateful for that!

So today, dad and I got the yard work done after we got our workout.

I got the raspberries weeded and got two rows of corn planted.....well, Port helped me do most of that part once he got home from school.

We also went and picked up some wrought iron fence for Bubble that she bought :)

And then this evening we had a fun night out with Bubble and Vern, Billy, Bob (Billy's Dad) and also Carolee (Bubble's daughter).

We went to dinner at Bardenay. 

Eldon is out of town for work, so he missed out.

But it was fun to hang out with them for s bit.

Now I need to get everyone's packed for tomorrow's trip to Utah!

Wednesday May 30

I worked in the office this morning for the last time this school year.

Dad started mowing the lawn, but the blades weren't cutting good...so he sharpened them.

When I got home, I had a YW pres. meeting.

Then right after that, Dad and I decided to have a lunch date :)

When we got home, he went and mowed the neighbors field.

He's such a great guy, always willing to help others out.

It's one of my favorite things about him ❤

I weeded my strawberries, and Madi mowed when she got home.

This evening we had a beautiful summer storm.

Brent and I sat together out on the deck and watched the rain and listened to the thunder.

Then we got a beautiful rainbow.

It was a lovely evening.

We also did a quick run to Walmart to get some shoes for Porter.

He had a real big hole all the way through the sole of his shoes....and he needed some running shoes for Field day tomorrow.

It was a very nice day :)

Tuesday May 29

We went to the gym again today.

I finally went back to the Combat class that I love so much :)

I think my shoulders held up pretty good.

Dad had a dentist appointment and while he was gone, I hung plastic around Bubbles deck.

Then when he got home, he got the deck sprayed.

It looks awesome....and took much less time to spray it then it did to paint the primer on with brushes!!!!

Now I think I will go get my deck sprayed :)

Bubble and I made sure to supervise and make sure he was doing a good job :)

I left and picked up the kids and then took Elsie to her last dance class.

There is a performance on Saturday, but we will be out of town......but that is okay.

I recorded the dance today so she can remember it.

After dance, Elsie got to go to her first school dance!

The 5th graders were invited to the dance at the middle school.

Cassi was there selling snow cones and Elsie and Lucia went and hung out.

That Lucia is such a good friend.

She had to leave earlier than Elsie did.

When she left, she pulled a couple Band-Aids out of her purse, and gave them to Elsie, just in case she fell when Lucia was gone.

What a sweetheart!!!!!

They have been friends since Kindergarten and it has been fun to watch them grow together :)

Monday May 28

We had a pretty fun family day today, in honor of Memorial Day.

Started the morning with Elsie helping me make some muffins for Breakfast :)

The Morgan's went home and the kids got ready for the day while Mom went running and Dad went to the gym.

We told the kids we would go do something fun, but didn't tell them what we were gonna do.

They kept trying to guess all the way until we got there and pulled up to the zoo :)

It's been a long time since we went to the zoo!

We had thought about going hiking, but with the rain storm last night, I am sure the trails would be muddy....

The zoo was so much fun, and it was a perfect day for it!

After the zoo, we went to Fancy Freeze and had way too many fries and ice cream :)

We got home and changed our clothes into paint clothes and we headed to Bubble's house to put some primer on her deck.

The Morgan's came over too.

We had a good time hanging out and then Bubble fed us pizza and salad.

We got the whole thing covered in Primer, and hopefully tomorrow, we will try the paint sprayer to do the coat of paint.

It looks pretty awesome!

She has been talking about doing this deck for years!

I am excited for her to finally get it!

After painting, we headed to the Morgan's for a dip in the pool.

It was a very fun and full day!

Back to school tomorrow, and it is the last week!!!!!!

Our family, in paintbrushes :)

(Madi makes fun of me for doing this kind of thing...ha ha ha)

Sunday May 27

It was a nice Sunday today with the fam :)

We all got good sleep....

The big girls and I planned our lessons together.

We all got to teach, and so we picked the same lesson and went over it together.

I really liked doing it that way......having a nice discussion with them, it was pretty great.

But, since Cassi is usually the only Miamaid, they ended up combining with our class.

But she helped out with my lesson, so it worked out.

We talked about why we need the Book of Mormon.

We discussed the need for both the Bible and Book of Mormon.

In New York we got to go to the top of One World trade center.

Up there, we could see miles and miles away.

But we couldn't see one thing....we couldn't see Central Park.

Kind of an important part of New York.

But it was not in the range of where we could see.

Well, then we went to the top of The Empire State building.

There were at of the same buildings and places that I could see from up there that I saw from One World.

But now I could see Central Park, clearly.

So I compared it to the Bible and the Book of Mormon......

Both give so much information, a lot of it being the same, just different perspectives.

But you can't see Central Park from both places......they don't both have all the info.

It is only complete when you have the Bible and the Book of Mormon together, as a complete pair.

Anyway.......

After church, we had Bubble over for dinner.

Dad made an awesome stroganoff dinner :)

We had fun spending time with her, Eldon is gone for two weeks for work.

We player 'Cover your assets' after dinner :)

Then we went to check out her new deck....it is gonna be so awesome and big!

Pretty excited for her....she's been dreaming of it for a long long time!

We are gonna go help her get it painted tomorrow.

This evening, Porter and Cassi wanted to try tent camping outside in the orchard.

They invited Avery and Cannon too.

And Madi went to hang with Carley and Sydney.

Let the summer fun begin!!!!!!!

Saturday May 26 (add pictures)

I am home!!!!!

I am home I am home I am home!!!!!

There really is no place like home :)

Em and I started our day early at 3 a.m. (1:00 a.m. here at home!)

We got ready and got our stuff ready and took a car to the airport.

We waited and waited and then there was an announcement that the flight was full and they were offering $600 for 10 people to give up their seats for the next flight......

They got all the way up to $1800 per person who gave up their seats!

Crazy!

But Em and I were just ready to be home!!!!!

The flight was a good one.

We got to Utah about 10.

My next flight wasn't until 5:25

Soooooo......I actually went home with Emmy :)

It was great because I got a shower and some time to prepare my lesson for tomorrow.

Then we left to the airport around 3, got there shortly before 4 and got in and ready to board.

That flight was not so great....glad it was just a short flight!

It was bumpy, jumpy and they wouldn't allow us to get out of our seats.

But I got home!!!!!

My whole family waiting for me....with a sign that said "Welcome home from prison mom"....and then Porter had a sign that said "just kidding" :)

I loved it so much!

I was so excited to see them and be with them and hold them!

We all went to dinner at Olive Garden.

Back to normal life, with kids fighting :)

But man oh man....it is pretty great!

It was such a wonderful week I got to spend with Em!

We got to do so many amazing things together, and just have a great time.

Em was so much fun to be with and I will always remember the awesome time we had together in New York City as a very special time!!!!

Friday May 25 (add pictures)

Another great and full day!

We got up, I worked out and we got breakfast.

When we were all ready, we rode the train all the way to the end of the line and hopped on the ferry to the Statue of Liberty.

It was a beautiful day today.

The ferry ride was nice and it was so neat walking around and reading things about the Statue of Liberty.

After walking around there for a bit, we sat and ate lunch.

We made sandwiches again out of the PB and J supplies from breakfast :)

Then we hopped back on the ferry that took us to Ellis Island.

That was a neat place to see and so interesting to see pictures and read stories of the lives that came through there.

It was a beautiful building.

All these old building are just so amazing!

Then it was back to the ferry, back on the subway, and back to midtown where we grabbed some yummy pizza for dinner.

We brought it back to the hotel to eat and relax for just a bit.

We wanted to go and see the sunset from the Empire State building tonight.

So we headed that was again about 6:30.

Another very cool building, very art deco chic :)

We went to the 86 floor and then onto the 102.

So very cool to be up there, and look WAAAAY over at the Statue of Liberty that we were just at a few hours earlier.

Pretty amazing!

After checking those floors out, we went to the gift shop to check stuff out.

Then when it got close to 8, we went and grabbed a good spot to watch the sun set.

We got there just in time before the big crowd followed us.

We got fun pictures and it was a perfect way to end the trip.

Actually, the perfect way to end it was with the waffles we went and got after we left there :)

Unbelievably good!

We ate it while we looked up at the Empire State Building, all lit up in red, white and blue for Memorial day.

It was a beautiful night!

Back at home, Cassi got an award today at school for her GPA.

Good job Cass!

And this evening, Dad took Cassi and Porter to see Solo, while Elsie played with Sierra and Madi went with friends.

I think they are excited to see me........

I am so overly excited to see and be with them!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow!

It is gonna be an early morning though....so I need to get some sleep!

Thursday May 24 (add pictures)

We slept in a bit :)

We walked to Rockefeller center.

Got tickets for Top of 30 Rock.

Walked around waiting for our time to go up top.

Went to Tiffany's, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and SAKS 5th Ave.....where we saw the most expensive pair of jeans I have ever seen....$1125!!!!

Insane!

Went back to the Top of The Rock and saw the great view from up there.

Then we walked to the MoMA and got lunch there.

Then we walked around.

I got to see the REAL 'The Starry Night' by Van Gogh!!!

I mean that is so cool to me to be able to see that!

We also saw several well know pieces, it was pretty great.

We were there for a few hours.

Then we walked to Studio 54, which is where the play was that we were gonna go see, but not until later.

We walked around, sat on the steps in Time Square.

We did a little souvenir shopping, and grabbed some dinner from Walgreens :)

We went back to the theatre and watched the play "Children of a lesser God".

Not a musical this time....but still great.

We grabbed some gelato after the show and walked back to the hotel.

Then we remembered that we needed sunscreen for tomorrow, so we ran to CVS real quick.

And tonight, the Empire state building was lit up red for 'Red Nose Day'.

Back at home they had a fun family project helping Elsie with her book report :)

Dad also took the little ones to the book fair.

I am missing that amazing family of mine!!!!!!

Wednesday May 23 (Add pictures)

We went to the Museum of Natural history today.

Lots of fun stuff to see.

And a few in particular, because that was where the Night at the Museum is about :)

So we found some of those characters

We spent a few hours there, and ate lunch there.

Then we took the Subway back to the theatre district for a matinee showing of "Dear Evan Hansen".

It was a very emotional musical!

Then we went to a souvenir shop, and went back to the hotel for a little bit.

And then back to another theatre to see "Wicked"....which was AMAZING!!!!!!

It was so much fun to watch and the story was so fun how they put things together from the Wizard of OZ movie.

Loved it.

It was a late night, so now we are headed to bed.

We were gonna do the Today show tomorrow morning, but we both feel that getting sleep, but sleeping in, is a better idea.

I also decided that I will wait and add pictures to the blog when I have a 5 hour lay-over in Salt Lake on the way home :)

Tuesday May 22 (add pictures)

It's late, so here is the play by play of today :)

Got up and ran and had breakfast and then got ready.

We caught the bus to THE MET.

Got there about 11, and stayed for well over 4 hours....

So much to see!!!!!

It was amazing!

We ate lunch there, and then went and saw the second MET Breuer museum, which was much smaller.

They had a cool exhibit of how the human body has been portrayed over the years.

Some really cool stuff....also some strange stuff.

Some guy froze 10 pints of his own blood, then he carved a self portrait out of it.....it was encased in a refrigerated case.

And then walked to Central park to look for the Alice in Wonderland statue and also the Hans Christian Anderson statue.

We walked around to find the Bethesda Terrace, a cool fountain.

It was a pretty rainy day!

We wound our way through the park and found the Subway to take back to where we would see Hamilton!!!!

The show was amazing!!!!!!!

And even more fun, we went to the door after the show and we waited for actors to come out.

Thayne Jasperson, who I went to High school with, was in the show......

Brent knew him too, his family lived in Wyoming before moving to Utah.

Anyway, he came out and we talked to him and got pictures.

Em told him that she listened to a podcast he was on, and she really appreciated when he talked about his faith.

Pretty cool.

Then a few more actors came out and we got autographs.

And finally the guy who played Hamilton came out.
He was so amazing!

And Emmy was a total fan girl!!!!!!

She told the actor that the way he played the role made her forgive Hamilton for what he did to Eliza.

And then he totally started having a conversation with Emily about how he prepares for the role and how he chooses to portray him.

It was so cool.....Em couldn't believe she was having this conversation with him :)

So cool!

Then we headed home.

I called and video chatted with the little ones so they could see the downtown lights.

Now I gotta get to bed!

Monday May 21

Another fun day here in New York!

Back at home, it was a rough night for Dad last night.

Port was sad.....missing mom...

So he slept in there with Dad.

Then Cassi came down at about 2, I think he said, because of her shoulder hurting so bad.

Then, it was bout that time that Mater started barking again, and Dad found a skunk in the trap!

No fox, but once less skunk is good anyway.

He will try again tonight for the fox.

The kids went to school good today.

But Dad had to pick Cassi up early, maybe try and get her in to the doc sooner.

But he got an appt. for her tomorrow morning.

Hopefully they can do something for her.....

I am hoping tonight goes better for everyone there.

We had a busy day.

I started at the gym.....ran 5 miles on the treadmill.

Then once we were both ready, we headed down for breakfast and then headed to the 9/11 memorial.

It was so amazing and quite an emotional experience.

All those feelings I remember having that day.

Seeing the actual things that happened.....the actual force that it took to bend these huge beams like they were make of rubber!

And then reading everything about the first responders......knowing that without a doubt, Brent would go in to rescue, just like those guys did.

We spent 4 hours in there.

There was just so much to see!!!!!

We saw the actual footings of the towers.

The museum is actually under the 'reflecting absence' pools.

I didn't realize that!

It was so amazing to see the work that went in to the recovery and cleanup and rebuilding.

It was a beautiful experience.

We ate lunch there by the pools.

We had snatched some PB and Jelly from breakfast and brought some bread with us and made sandwiches for lunch :)

Then we went to One World Trade Center Observatory.

Which is the tallest building in the western hemisphere.

It was pretty amazing.

You could see out to everything across the city.

So cool!

After we finally found our way out of there........we had to go through PATH.....which was an amazing structure that was mostly underground.

The white columns were very modern and futuristic.

We were a bit lost for a bit....but eventually found ourselves in the right direction.

We went and saw the St Paul and Trinity church.

Trinity church is where Hamilton and his wife are buried......so we got to see their headstones.

Afterwards, we were so tired......so we took the long subway ride back to the hotel.

We grabbed some pizza on the way home and then ate it in the Hotel.

Man oh man....I am sure tired!!!!

Tomorrow we are going to the MET museums and then in the evening we see Hamilton!!!!!!

So excited!

It will probably be a late night, so I may not write.......

But I will catch up, I am sure :)

 Statue of Liberty in the distance

See the pools at the bottom of the picture........where the twin towers used to be.

PATH building/structure

Hamilton grave

 Mural on the side of the fire station.

Cool tiles down in the Subway

Sunday May 20

Happy Happy Birthday Emmy!!!!!

We've had a pretty great day here.

We got up and got ready and had breakfast here at the hotel.

We left a little after 10:30 and rode the Subway to church.

The church is in the same building that the temple is.

It was pretty cool.

It was crazy to go from the crazy, busy, noisy outside, get in an elevator, and instantly be transported to a regular church building!

Pretty neat.

It was a pretty large ward.

Lots of young families.

It was a really great meeting.

There has been a lot of talk of love lately....loving others that are different, loving those with mental sickness, loving those with addictions.

And todays talks were a lot of that kind of stuff.

And how we can love better.

After church we walked to Central Park.

It was a really nice day, a little overcast for a bit, then the sun came out.

It was really humid today!

But maybe that is always how it is :)

Anyway, the park was nice.

Then we went and had lunch at Ruby Tuesdays

We hopped back on the Subway to go back to Time Square, so we could get to the Gerald Schoenfeld theatre.

We went to see 'Come from Away'.

Oh it was just amazing!!!!!

We had really good seats and I felt like I was just part of the show.

The story is about the small town of Gander.

On 9/11, planes were diverted there.

They doubled their population in just hours.

The town fed, clothed, and gave beds to them for a few days.

It was a great story about the good people of Gander, but also the stories of the passengers.

SO GOOD!!!!

After that, we walked around.

We went to Bryant park, that is kind of the backyard to the New York Public Library.

Just hung out there for a bit before we decided to go to whole foods and get some snacks to have in the hotel, and grab some dinner as well.

Now we are back in the hotel, hoping to get to bed at a good time, so we can start again tomorrow :)

Sounds like things went good at home.

They even sent me a Sunday picture....so sweet!

And a picture with Everly at church :)

Saturday May 19

Here I am, in New York with Emmy!!!!!!!

It is a pretty foggy and rainy day, but it is still pretty magical!

But first I gotta start with our early morning.....

Mater started barking at about 3 a.m.

We have been tying him up at night because we caught him sneaking over to Vern's during the night because he smelled the dead chickens they were using for bate for the fox that has been getting their chickens.

Anyway....

So Mater has been tied up.

We went out to see what he was barking at, and Brent shined the flashlight right on the fox, who was walking at the top of the coop.

Brent ran and got his 22 and tried to get him.

The shot was too far, and he ran away.

We tried to go back to sleep, but a few minutes later, Mater started barking again.

We went out ready to get him....that is when we noticed that he had already killed a chicken and that he was coming back for it.

Again, it was too far of a shot.

So Brent told me to just go get ready to go to the airport....because we were planning to go there around 4:30... and he was gonna camp out there and watch for the fox.

Well, I got ready, and then we headed to the airport.

This evening he put a cover over the open top on the coop and is going to rig a trap to catch him tonight when he tries to come back and get the chicken.

Fingers crossed it works!

Dang fox has eaten too many chickens around these parts!

So I got on the plane and sat next to a retired firefighter, who was quite a talker :)

Before I knew it, I was in Salt Lake.

I met up with Emmy, and we got some breakfast before heading to our plane.

It was about a 4 hour flight to get to New York.

It was a bit of a bumpy ride, but not too bad.

I think I got a little nap here and there.

Between the pampering you get in first class.....hot towel, snack of your choice, and we also got a meal.

Super spoiled....it was fun :)

When we got here, we took a taxi ride to our hotel, which has a great view of the Empire State Building.

We got our stuff into the room and then we headed out.

We walked around......we went into the lobby of the Empire state building.

We will go up to the top when the weather is better.

Then we walked around, walked to Time Square.

Then we found some New York pizza to eat.

Now we are back at the hotel, getting ready for bed :)

Back at home, Dad taught an extrication class all day.

I am sure he was SO TIRED!

But he said that it went really well, so that is great.

Cassi had her state Rugby game.......and came away with a dislocated shoulder :(

Hopefully now that Rugby is over, her poor body can heal up!

Madi was with Porter and Elsie all day.

They cleaned the house and went outside and played.

I know Port hung out with the boys too.

Right now they are at Elsie's baseball game :)

Dad took them to Panda Express for dinner, which was a big hit, of course!