Girls Trip to New York

In May I went to New York City to meet up with two of my high school friends.  They were both living in Ohio, so I flew in while they drove and we met up there.  I was on a red-eye flight so after checking in super early to the hotel and crashing for an hour or so, I got up and went exploring on my own while they were driving.  First stop was the Brooklyn Bridge. 

I follow a blog of a girl that lives in Manhattan and she loves the Fro-yo at Bloomingdales, so after the Brooklyn Bridge I went wandering through SoHo and stopped at Bloomingdales for a "healthy" lunch! 

I loved all the classic New York architecture in SoHo. Once again, having fun with the color filter on my camera.

 Lauren and I had been watching Project Runway, so I found the fabric store, Mood, where they always do their shopping - I can't believe all of the fabric they have!

Wendy and Tiffany FINALLY arrived (traffic was awful) and we were super late, so I had a car waiting for us at the hotel and we RACED to make it to our first show on time - our driver was great - there was some traffic about two blocks from the theater and we decided it would be faster to run the rest of the way, we got out and got about a block away when our driver pulled up again - the traffic had cleared - so we jumped back in the car and he took us the rest of the way.  We got in our seats just as the first number was ending!

The first show we saw - Nice work If You Can Get It - with Mathew Broderick!  He is so adorable!

After the show we found a random piano on the street!

Then we wandered around Times Square trying to find a place to eat - we were all starving but couldn't find a place that wasn't just fast food you could get anywhere and fit in our budgets! 

We ended up at a pizza place getting New York style pizza (nothing like pizza at midnight!)

The next morning we got up and went to the Manhattan temple - it is so wonderful to be in the temple and feel the peace that is there - in the middle of a crazy busy city!

After a quick lunch from a sidewalk vendor, it was time for the main reason for the trip - 

Newsies!!

Such a great show!  The dancing was INCREDIBLE!

Julie and Dan love So You Think You Can Dance, so I had to get a picture of one of the stars from that show - Alex Wong (he was amazing in Newsies also!)

We found an amazing place to have dinner - Juniors!  Tiff and I were braved and tried one of their specials - it was AMAZING - potato pancakes with roast beef, au jus, and applesauce - I crave it now!

Of course, the only reason to go to Juniors is for the dessert.  I got the classic cheesecake with cherries, Tiff got the carrot cake cheesecake, and Wendy got the chocolate chip cookie sundae.  

  

We made ourselves ill - but it was SO good!

I finished all of mine!!

Wendy just couldn't do it.

We saw a spectacular sunset

And took about 20 pictures trying to get the perfect shot of Tiff with the big needle and button statue.

After a quick, and somewhat scary walk through Central Park - it was time to get off our feet!

The next morning we went to church and did a little more sightseeing before we had to check out and Wendy and Tiffany had to leave.  I did a little more wandering around Times Square before heading on the subway out to the airport. 

My flight left just as the sun was setting and I had the most incredible view!

We chased the sun for a lot of the trip. It was the perfect end to a perfect trip!  Thanks Girls!

Oops!

In my excitement to finally get caught up on my blog I missed a trip to Disneyland!!  I'm not sure how I could miss this - so - before Dan's graduation, and before my cruise - surprise surprise - we went to Disneyland!

This time around we even got to meet Aladdin! 

And Dan got to meet his Disneyland crush - the evil queen from Snow White!

Waiting for my favorite - Space Mountain

The view from the Astro Orbiters.  It was so fabulous to be there in February when it is cold and dark in Salt Lake and beautiful and sunny in California!

I was enjoying trying out all the fun features on my new camera.

Lauren did a photo shoot for me so I could have a cute profile picture (ugh, online dating stinks!)

And we both had to get our picture with all the fun Valentines decorations.

 We found a new favorite place to eat - all you can eat BBQ was a great Sunday dinner.

Finally a good sibling picture in front of the castle.

 On our first ride on Big Thunder Mountain, Lauren's cell phone went flying out of her jacket pocket an into a little pond.  We kept calling it and taking pictures of it that night because you could see it light up in the water.  The next day when we went back on the ride, we could see it more clearly - dead.

Waiting for World of Color to start

I enjoyed using my color filter during the show

After one last sibling picture (notice the bulky coat I am holding - it is hiding Dan's graduation present)...

Dan and I raced back to Splash Mountain and rode it about three times before they closed the park down. It was a great trip!

Dan's Graduation

In May 2012 Dan, FINALLY (according to him) graduated!  We bullied him into going to graduation - we were just all so excited to see the baby of the family graduate!

Being "Mother #3", I took it upon myself to make sure we got lots of pictures of him during the ceremony.

Of course grandma kept us all entertained whenever things started to drag.

This is his, "Sister would you please stop taking pictures of me" face.

Hooray for a fake diploma!

Grandma was so proud of her grandson!

  The proud family!

I was really touched that Dan gave me his "stole of gratitude" for all my help in getting him through statistics!

Of course, you graduate, you get presents.  Julie and I were sneaky and got ours without him knowing while we were in Disneyland.

It was the Buzz Lightyear sweatshirt he had been eyeing every time we went, but was too expense to buy! 

Congratulations Dan! I am so proud of you!!

Cruise - the Finale

The next morning we got up bright and early for one last breakfast on the ship.  

We were so sad to leave!

We dropped our luggage off with a service that would take your bags from the dock to the airport and hold them there for you so we could enjoy the city without dragging bags with us.  Then we jumped on the trolley and headed into New Orleans.

Everyone we talked to about New Orleans told us that we had to go to Cafe Du Monde, so that was our first stop to try the amazing beignets.  

They were so delicious - and SO covered in powdered sugar!

We all had it all over us by the time we were done.

Then we wandered the city, of course we had to try on mardi gras masks :)

We took a long walk up to one of the cemeteries in the city - it was definitely worth it.  It was pretty cool to see all the old tombstones and the water line from hurricane floods.  Unfortunately my camera died at this point! I forgot to charge it before we left the boat :( so, I don't have any other pictures.  But after the cemetery, we wandered the city some more and then took a carriage ride around.  We had a delicious lunch - I love the food in New Orleans!  And then caught a shuttle to the airport to head for home.  I can't wait for my next cruise!!