January 2012 Including NYC

January was a pretty busy but fun month for us. Chris had been working a ton and with his job he travels a lot as well. It is also my birthday and my Dad's birthday as well. For my birthday Chris took me out to a new restaurant. He also told me that for my gift I could have the kitchen cabinets painted! But not just that, also that I could get the railing painted and a mantle for our fireplace! I was so happy because those are things I have never enjoyed about our house. And doing things to improve the house makes me happy. :) So that was a nice surprise! But that wasn't the only surprise in January. Some of Chris' co-workers were going to New York City to attend a conference and he told me they were taking their wives. Chris didn't have to go and he doesn't have clients in NYC so I didn't even think about it. But later that week Chris surprised me again and told me that he had a client to go see in New Jersey so he wanted to fly  me out to NYC and meet me there and we could spend a few days there! I was SO excited! I have wanted to go back to NY for the longest time. I went when I was 12 years old, but I went with my best friend and at that time I was far more concerned with having fun with my friend than actually paying attention and appreciating that I was in NYC. (Not to mention we only stayed on night). So it was a super fun month for us. Below are some snapshots of the month.

Here is Clara at her cousin Alayna's princess birthday party. She loved it because they painted nails, put makeup on, and did their hair. She was in heaven!

Clara and Liam playing together (nicely, so I had to take a picture)

Snow! Finally! Even if it was only a bit Clara was so happy

The loves of my life! Chris is such an amazing Daddy, and the kids love him so much

Below-Clara posing in her new swimsuit! Haha! I promise I did not teach her this!

Painting a giant Birthday card in the colors of camo or Papa's birthday.

They sure love their Papa! And Papa sure loves them! Liam is especially fond of him and wants to be his little buddy wherever he goes. I think Papa is so happy because Liam already loves Bucks and knows what a bow and arrows are. He has to go look at the bucks every time he goes over there. (Notice the Camo pants Liam is wearing, Papa bought those for him).

Liam and Clara at the library, ususally they would just read books, but they saw the other kids playing games on the computer so they now want to be on the computer every time. But it was super funny, Liam thought the mouse was a phone (since we don't have a desktop computer), so he kept putting it to his ear and saying "ello?"

And here is NYC! I flew in with the other wives and one of his co-workers and met him there. I am sure glad I was with them because although I would probably be fine it made me feel much better to have them there. Here was the view from their hotel, it was right in time square!

We called for a cab to take us to Serendipity, and a limo showed up!

The ladies

The gentleman

There was a $1000 dollar Ice Cream Sundae with real gold flakes in it! YIKES!!

I got frozen hot chocolate and it tasted just like how it sounds! Yummy. Below- the upper floor where the movie Serendipity was filmed. I was totally the classic tourist and made an agenda to visit these kinds of places.

Here we are ready to go to church on Sunday...little did we know there were Subway closures so we missed it. At least we tried right?

This was the view from the front of our hotel.

On the Subway. Man I don't miss that I could barely handle the smell

The most  delicious burgers can be found here!

Alana and Shelby

Here we are ready to see WICKED!!! This is what I was most excited for,and for good reason. It was AMAZING!

We also visited Chinatown and little Italy. It was interesting to say the least!

It was also Chinese New Year so we got to witness some pretty awesome parades and celebrations going on!

We also visited The World Trade Center Memorial. It was a really neat experience. I was able to go to the WTC on my previous visit to NYC when I was just 12. It is actually the part of NYC that I remembered best. It was just the year before they were attacked. So it was really quite a humbling experience to go back there and to remember what had happened there. I was amazed at the amount of security you had to go through just to get in! It was worse than the airport. If you plan to visit get your tickets in advance, that is the only way we were even able to get in.

There were two imprints of the buildings with waterfalls around the edges and all around were the names of people that were killed that day. It was actually really amazing because on of Chris' co-workers had a relative that was killed and we just happened to be standing right in front of his name!

The only tree that survived.

Chris and I in front of the memorial. Below- Deboro and Mike (Look back to the Hawaii pictures and I have a picture quite similar to this one. This is what happens when you let Mike hold your camera).

That night we went to Wall Street. Chris and Mike had been on a previous trip and had run into the "Occupy Wall Street" camp in D.C. They had the best time walking around and listening to these people. They were amazed and entertained at with most of the people. So they were dead set on finding the HQ of Occupy Wallstreet. We ran into some guards and they said that when it got cold everybody went home (haha). So the boys were pretty bummed, but then he told them that there were a few die-hards left in a meeting hall. So off we went to find them...and we did. If you don't know much about the Occupy movement just watch the Steven Colbert report segment with a girl named Ketchup. It is awesome. If I hadn't seen the clips before we went I wouldn't have had near as much fun watching the meeting. They started the meeting out with a call to dis-ban NATO. It was awesome! Haha

Chris had to get a picture with one of the guys. And when we were leaving we had saved some pizza for Mike's wife Shelby because she wasn't feeling well and headed back to the hotel. But before we left a couple of guys told us to give them our pizza. We declined saying it was for Mike's wife, and they got so mad at us. It was really strange, but I do have to say VERY entertaining. Although Chris and Mike enjoyed it the most, they couldn't stop talking about it for hours!

Chris on Wall Street

The famous Bull

Then we stopped to watch some pretty cool dancing going on in the Subway. It was super fun

Since Time Square is open until the wee hours of the morning we decided to stop and do some shopping. Here is a picture in the Disney Store I took for Clara.

Our creepy faces next to the creepy signs! Although as far as creepy goes I would have to say Chris takes the cake.

One of my favorite pictures from the trip, I love the reflection!

Apple. He loves his Apple.

Sorry it is a bit out of order...but after we didn't make it to church we decided to at least find the LDS temple and then stroll around Cental Park.

The Temple! It was really comforting to see it there in the middle of NYC.

Chris under a bridge.

So even before I went to NYC I knew I wanted to get a sketch done at Central Park of Chris and I. My mom has a wall of NYC sketches. So talking to her I knew it would be $15-30 dollars to get one done. Se we sat down to get our sketch! And sat and sat...

So he finally finishes the sketch and tells us it will be $200!!! WHAT!! Are you kidding me?! So I was a little upset and surprised so he so kindly lowered it to $150. Oh my goodness I can't tell you how much I wanted to just walk away and let him keep his sketch. For heaven's sake, I didn't even look like I was the same ethnicity in the picture! I wasn't happy with the sketch to say the least, but the price killed me!!! But Chris is too good of a person and paid the man. I was so mad and disappointed. I wanted a quality sketch for a reasonable price and got neither. I was actually in tears (and I don't cry often). Chris offered for us to get another sketch, but I wasn't about to re-live that experience, besides I was far to cold and upset to want to sit for another hour. (I was SO DONE being so cold at this point, since there are buildings all around there is absolutely no sun and it was freezing the entire time).


So later that day we went with everyone to Canal St. it was fun just to walk around and see all of the people and fun little shops.  It was really a fun trip to NYC we did a lot of shopping which I love to do but most of all I love spending time with Chris. We had a good time. Although a realized I definitely glamourized New York a bit too much. I have had my fill for a while. I want to visit many more places before going back. But I am so grateful for the opportunity. We have been so blessed and it is so nice to be able to take a little break and have fun with my wonderful husband!

So here are some pictures I took of the sketch after we got home. Look at my crooked eyes and my nose and lips! I really look like I am Indian or something.

I told my mom to keep the sketch because I didn't want it in my house. (My wounds were still fresh). They just laughed.

I was super happy to come home and see my sweet kids again, although a little break is nice I can't go long without them, I missed them so much! I LOVE MY BABIES!!