NYC in 31,600 Steps

Emma, Kate and Jane came home for UEA weekend.

(In Utah, there is a fall recess so the teachers can attend a training workshop- that exactly zero teachers I know attend. Teachers need a break, too.)

Since it was just a short trip and the weather was going to be amazing, we packed a ton of things in our two full days together.

 I love, love, love  street art.

Bryant Park

We caught the morning bus to Midtown and spent Friday sightseeing, shopping and visiting the Museum of Natural History. 

Yes, this guy is famous. 

No, we did not get his autograph because he's a statue and doesn't actually come to life and ask us for gum-gum.

Also, he doesn't like to be touched by fans.

Worst. Dinosaurs. Ever.

19,600 steps- over 9 miles of walking that day. 

In the past month, I've been committed to getting my daily goal of steps in. The dog is going on way more walks, and go figure, he's managed to get house trained. He fought going outside, but since I wasn't going to turn around and return home until he went potty, he  gave up and quickly realized that going outside got him a treat.

Smart dog- feisty and bratty, but smart.

It took him about 4 days of consistent long walks and going outside to discover the joy in marking things.....every 10 feet. He also attempts to pee on any dog that he isn't trying to bite.  

We're very popular with our neighbors who have dogs.

Walks with Badger are not super fun right now, but he's getting better.

This is why you tall people should never date short people. 

I was glad to see that after a solid month of walking every day (except for when I was sick) I was able to keep up and it wasn't even that hard for me on Friday. 

Saturday was another story.

We all had Jell-o legs, but we also had theater tickets, so we forged ahead. 

We were able to get tickets to Phantom for a really low price and everyone had a wonderful time.

I will be forever thankful to my friend, Wendy Koller for showing me how to get the cheapest theater tickets, so that now, when we have guests, we can actually afford to go to shows. 

It was fun seeing each of the girls connect with and react to different scenes, I was crying during my favorite scene, where Raul's life is being threatened unless Christine vows her love to the Phantom. 

Emma & Jane have been to three Broadway Shows, Kate has been to four and Romy has been to two. I've lost count, but I think I'm at six or seven. 

Five years ago, I'd have sold a kidney for the chance to just attend one Broadway show in my lifetime.

It makes me so happy that my kids get to experience it and that they know we're all very lucky and blessed right now to be able to do this. 

We had Doughnut Plant for breakfast, NY cheesecake for lunch and Popeye's for dinner.

Super healthy.

It's a good thing we got in all of those steps.

We made a Popeye's convert out of Kate. KFC is lovely, but oh, Popeye's.... 

There isn't one close to our house, thankfully.

The girls flew back to Utah on Sunday, and Kyle and Rebekah came over in the evening to play games. 

We barely defeated the zombies, but Wanda had to die, in order for the rest of us to escape.

RIP Wanda, the roller skating waitress who had no weapons save a frying pan. 

You had to die because you sucked.

I' m not dead yet.....

We sure do love Kyle and Rebekah and can't wait for their baby to be born this spring. 

I might possibly go crazy with baby gifts for them, and since they are like younger brother and sister to us-- I get to be Auntie to their baby and Aunties spoil children with presents they don't need.
That's the rule.
 I read it in a book somewhere.
Probably the Bible, so it MUST be done.

Today, a cold front has blown in and the kids are bundled up in coats and I have to figure out how I'm going to get those steps in when the weather is just too cold.

Matt has finally succumbed to that awful sickness I had 2 weeks ago and he is home, in bed, coughing and dying. 

I've got 50 pounds of apples that I'm going to make pie filling with and can this week, and we have the big ward party coming up this weekend. I'm in charge of decorations, so I'll be busy making Halloween crafty messes all week.

Life isn't quite the same now that the kids are getting older. 

It's strange how much time and energy went into just managing the chaos when they were all small and home all of the time. Now, people have routines, jobs and everyone wants some alone time to decompress each day. The house is quieter, there aren't toys to trip over and plates of cookies don't get eaten within 20 minutes of my taking them out of the oven. We work out where the cars are going to be and aim to have at least one night a week where we can all be together, but usually we can only manage to have most of us together.  We are all very busy with our individual things and it's a strange season. 

I guess I think they are all strange.  I'm one of those people who wakes up every day and life still surprises the heck out of me.  

I always have the same sense of wonder at how each miraculously ordinary day unfolds, even when things are terribly predictable and obvious to others. 

Eh, I don't hate that about myself. 

The world is crazy wonderful, even when it's quiet and boring and cold.

Cousins

 

 

Matt's cousin, Lisa, came all the way from Renton, Washington to visit us and to see New York City for the first time.

Because it was the first week of school, we couldn't go into the city every day, but we did manage to go in enough times that I think we all had our fill of the noise and traffic. Matt and Lisa hit the city one of the days, I went the next day with them and we saw the Museum of Natural History until we were all so sick of walking that our legs nearly fell off.

 

 

We made her play board games every evening. We taught her how to play Small World, Ticket to Ride and Munchkin, as a thank-you to our family for having her stay, she surprised us with a gift of Dominion and Set.

 

 

We've really just gone over the deep end with our board game geekery, but what a happy deep end it is. Lisa kicked our butts in most of the games, but I did manage to dominate in Flux that last night she was here.

While she was here she made her family's favorite recipe for orange biscuits. Sweet yum, those were fantastic.

We talked her into making them twice. :)

 

What a nice visit we all had, it was a hectic week with school starting, but Lisa was really nice about going with the flow and we had a great time with her. 

I was a real mess that first day school started and it was really helpful to have someone here to keep me grounded. I also got a call from one of my amazing other mothers, Joie and one of my new friends in our ward, Tara, invited us to go have lunch. I swear these women were all inspired to hold my hand and keep my head on straight while I worried myself into knots that first day of school.

So, that's two house guests we've had since we moved-- when are YOU coming to see us?

Thrifty

I have attempted to post three times in the past two days and accidentally deleted my post and dumb blogger saves the change within a nanosecond of my deleting the post.

No, it isn't an issue that can be solved with control +Z.

It's probably not even a blogger issue, but I need to blame something.

I'm tired of rewriting the same darn post, so I'm just going to make this one quick and get it published before I hit whatever key makes it vanish forever. I know it's a user error, but this user has had enough of it.

My cousin Marla was in town this weekend, she's our first houseguest here in New Jersey.

We hit NYC, but got sick of it after a couple of hours, so we weenied out and spent the rest of the time in New Jersey.

We did hit the famous Magnolia Bakery, though.

Meh, they have nothing on Meghan's Creme Brulee cupcake from the Sweet Tooth Fairy in Utah.

She was doing a job out in DC and was able to tack on a couple of days to come and see us at the end of her trip. She lives in Japan with her sweet family and we had a great weekend hitting all of the big fancy American places like Target and Michael's.

We also ate a ton of wonderful pizza.

I think I am converting to NYC style..... so amazing.

We also hit the goodwill.

The goodwill here is nothing like the DI back in Utah. It had rack after rack of random, weird knickknacks and it just cracked me up.

I think some one got an "F" in horse painting class......

Ah, memories of that awesome trip you took to Gudeloupe........

I just want to know the back story for this one.....

"All I did was have lunch with that crazy woman and she gets all weird and MAKES ME A PLATE."

I wonder if there were cookies, or if it was just a plate to thank someone for meeting them...face to face.

Why is Obi Wan Kenobi so angry at Jesus?

Thanks Marla for soming to see us. I love you so very much and I appreciate your joyous laugh and patience with me as I wind own nerves up in a giant knot over so many silly things. Thanks for being such a great cousin and more than that, a great friend.

Matt and I both love you to bits and hope you have a safe flight back to P & J.