New York City pt 1

While I was in Utah for Trent's wedding Pam told me that she had an exhibit coming up at an event in New York City.  It sounded amazing and I invited myself to come along!  Pam had already booked her tickets so I knew the dates she would be there.  I looked at the calendar and asked Marna if she could join me for a few days before the conference began. It worked out wonderfully!  

We started our fun with the Natural History Museum.  I didn't expect to love it as much as I did.  We made a short list of things we wanted to see in our half day planned there, but we kept saying, "but wait - let's look at that!  It's so cool."  We watched a planetarium show, bought cheesy/nerdy t-shirts for each other and were wow-ed by the wonders of the earth, sea and sky!

We pried ourselves away because we also wanted to the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art).

The MOMA was AMAZING.  I took lots of pictures of the art, but I'll spare you all of those but this one because I took it for Harrison.  He had studied Van Gogh in school and I knew he would be impressed that I got to see the real deal.  I've been so lucky to see so many of these in person in the last year!

Marna loved the views of the city - the modern and the old together.  We looked and loved and we barely got started before they kicked us and the other 100's of people out. There was so much that we didn't get to see there too!  We really needed several days to see everything everywhere! This is pretty much how I saw the water lilies... blurred in a hurry as we were booted out!  

That night we went to see Wicked.  We had great tickets near the front where we could see all of the facial expressions and everything.  It was fantastic.  I know I'm behind the times, but I didn't know the story or anything so that was so fun for me!

Some of the scenery by our seats.

The next day we walked across Central Park to see the Neue Museum where the Lady in Gold is displayed.  It was a very small museum, but still one of my favorites of the week.  (maybe they were all my favorites though if I'm being fair.)

Marna left that afternoon and I had a whole day to myself.  I had a relaxing day... I got a pedicure, did laundry, read a book and took a relaxing long walk around the area.  I read that the restaurant from Seinfeld was close by, so I opted to walk that direction. I saw it, a nice park and Columbia University.  Across the street from the church where the conference was being held was the Grant Memorial.

June

Every June starts with my birthday!  Harrison was super sweet and made me a treasure hunt all around the house.  Each clue led me to another place and a message.  Jackson made me a huge breakfast and made me stay in bed so that it could be breakfast in bed!  Harrison later gave me a foot massage.  He set a timer for 10 minutes and made it all the way through that.  Too sweet.  I decided to buy some fabric to make curtains for the living room.  I was super excited about it, but then I found out that they don't sell the rods I wanted anymore.  Boo.  I don't know what to do now.

Just a cute picture from a youth activity.

I decided to have a little art class with my kids and some friends from the ward each Wednesday.  We made little projects and then swam afterward.  It was super fun!  Marcella took the kids on Fridays and did a science project too.  More winning!

We were all over the place in June.  Lincoln, Jackson and Jeff all went to scout camp for a week, Jeff went to Texas for a week and then I went to New York City (that gets it's own post, maybe more than one!).  What a month! While the big guys were gone Harrison and I got a great visit from Lesley and the ladies!  We met up at Incredible Pizza and found lots of fun things to do.

May

The last few months were full of travel and other business.  There was a lot to get ready for and recover from and I haven't taken time to write about any of it, so I'm trying to catch up now!  Our next trip was to Andy's concert.  Jeff was called as YM president and had to tend to those duties, so I went down to Texas with Aimee for a girl's weekend.  The concert was amazing, like nothing I've ever experienced and then Aimee and I decided what we wanted to do most in Texas... play!

While we were there I found out that Jackson broke his OTHER arm!

While I was in Texas my living room finally got painted white!  I've been painting trim white for a while now and I knew how much work it was going to be to do this whole room so I got smart and hired someone.  I love it SO much!  It is so much brighter and feels like a new room.

 He broke the left one the weekend before I left playing dodgeball with the neighbors and then 8 days later broke the right one.  His biggest concern was figuring out how to do his school work.  He thought his teacher was mean for wanting him to write the best he could with his left hand.  I don't know what else she would have done! 

I have been volunteering in Harrison's class once a week and I was really impressed at how he was putting words together, so I decided to teach him scrabble.  He beat me!  

We went to Yukon's Festival of the Child with Aimee and kids.  They have so many fun things for the kids to do.  We wished we had gotten there earlier as there was so much that we missed out on and the place closed down on us!

Harrison was very excited to have me come for Muffins for Mom's.  I love visiting the school, but not so much when everyone else is there too!  Still, it was fun for him to show me all of his projects and all around the school.

Here is an impressive work of art that he made!

A few weeks later I was on my way to Utah for Trent's wedding.  This is a pic Jeff sent me while I was away.

I arrived in Utah early so that I could help with preparations for the wedding.  It was also Mother's Day, so we had a family gathering at Pam and Jerry's.  Corey and Liz have a beehive there and decided to check on it that day.  I was standing at a safe distance, but still had a bee get caught it my hair.  That was an experience!

Trent's fiancee Kat had a lot going on with her family.  Her mom had been in and out of the hospital and her dad was on his deathbed at the hospital.  She was making her own dress and hadn't been able to finish with all of the things that were happening.  She brought the bodice of the dress to work on during mother's day dinner and I was really worried if she'd be able to finish it in time for Wednesday.

On Monday worked with Liz making all 17 cakes!  She had all of the cooking done and we just worked on frosting and fillings.  It took us 10 hours, but was a lot of fun.

While I was away Lincoln received a science award at school.

On Tuesday I was prepared to do whatever was needed and ended up making the veil.  It had been a while since I sat down behind a sewing machine, but it was fun and I think it turned out great.  She looked beautiful and it was a lovely day.  

One of Jerry's mission companions came and sealed them.  That made it extra special.  The spirit was so strong and I could have stayed there all day.  I was in the first row that was dismissed and I actually cried because I didn't want to leave.

I wish you could see how beautiful this is with the sun shining through.  It was so lovely.

We had a luncheon at Magleby's and then headed to the aviary to prepare for the reception. I had such a nice time catching up with family and enjoying the joy in the air.

My friend Marty Elmore is serving a mission in SLC and sent these fun 3d puzzles for the kids to put together.  

The last week of school I went to field day at both Harrison and Jackson's schools. Jack couldn't do much with two broken arms so we wandered around together just talking with people.  

On the way to the awards assembly on the last day of school I saw this bus in the ditch.  I never did find out what happened.  I assume no one was injured because it wasn't a news story.

We got a call and an e-mail that Jack was receiving a special award so Jeff even took off of work to be there too.

For Memorial day we headed back to Texas to the Gaylord and invited Loo and Andy to join us.  

We had a great time together wandering the grounds and playing at the waterpark.  We even tried out their spa options like the sauna, steam room and salt scrubs.