If anyone was under the impression that I achieve all the goals I set for myself, this blog publicly shot that down.  I did not finish the New York trip before Thanksgiving and then missed Thanksgiving, Miriam's Annie play, her class bachelor degree presentation, her dance, piano, and ukulele recitals as well as Bub's Little Ninja parent presentation.  Also missed all Christmas events and crafts.  The kids and I spent a fun and hilarious afternoon at a trampoline park...not documented.  

Queue overwhelmed sinking feeling.

It's not all due to my laziness.  Blogger says I am out of photo space, and since I like pictures more than I enjoy writing that takes out the fun for me.  Darin and I are working on how to get around this problem, but Christmas prep trumps blogging....although now I will have all of Christmas to catch up on as well.

Now hyperventilating.... 

You might say "let it go, don't worry about it" but Bub asked me just the other night if he had a memory book about being a baby and I LOVED that I could tell him yes.  The kids pour over pictures of themselves and this is the only organized documentation I have for the boys (Miriam of course has a cute scrapbook full of embellishments...oldest child perk).  Also, what if I forget that Soren yells "Hulk Smash!" and then jumps off the couch and punches the ground.  Or forget that Byron calls marbles "Dragon Lords" and if kept in your pocket, they can do all kinds of magical things. I don't want to forget that Miriam and her friend Mary spent hours sewing mini stockings to sell in their class store. 

During November we had everyone list something they were thankful for in a family journal before we had family prayer.  Every. Single. Night. Soren would say "States of America Flag!" we would say think of something new tonight and then he would say "Spiderman!" we would say think of something new Soren...so he eventually listed all the Hero Up Squadies.

Byron and I had a big discussion about marriage.  He said he thought he would like to marry his friend Olivia (since he can't marry his cousin Tatum) but he said he wasn't interested in kissing her on their wedding day (or on any day) and didn't know if you could be married without that kiss.  I suggested a hug instead, but he wasn't keen on that either.  We decided a big high five might do the trick. 

Miriam, after initially being terrified of her third grade teacher now adores the woman.  She is getting to do lots of fun extra things that make school fun for her...like the ukuleles  french lessons, and class presentations.  She did her Great Brain report on Cakes, and her Christmas Around the World report on the Philippines. I enjoy her descriptive writing.   I volunteer as a book discussion leader in her class.  I love getting to spend time with her among her peers.  She is a sweet, over-anxious kid.

So that's the story of my blog hiatus.
My first New Years resolution of 2013....get caught up on this blog.

The Big Apple Day 3

Must. Get. This. Trip. Posted. Before. Thanksgiving!!

Day 3

This was Miriam's big day.  The whole reason we started planning this trip 2 years prior was because Miriam asked for a trip to the American Doll store for Christmas.  We made it!!  Not by ourselves by any means, but we both put a lot of effort into saving $ for the trip.  It was one of those things where I sent my wish out to the universe and goodness came back to me in abundance.

Anyway.....we stopped at Financier Patisserie for a quick breakfast.  Miriam got a chocolate croissant, of course, and we picked up some macaroons for later.

We ooohed and ahhhed over the darling AG store.  Miriam poured over everything in that store trying to decided what to buy to document this monumental moment in her young life.

Then we went to lunch while we mulled over our options.

5 courses...while not necessarily gourmet it was very cute, and pretty good!

Just look at that cute dessert.

Miriam finally decided on a doll guitar and earrings, I picked up Caroline's nightgown for her.

We walked up 5th Avenue, right into The Plaza to peek in at Eloise and use the swanky bathroom.

And made it to the temple for the older girls to do baptisms.

Tami took us to tour a penthouse which was amazing!

 We were as high as the Empire State building but surrounded by lush furnishing and it was warm!

Then Tami (our New York guru) introduced us to the greatest stores.  Fishs Eddy and ABC Kitchen.

Best meal I have ever eaten.

Seriously. Ever.

Thank you Tami (she treated us!)

Then to Newsies!

Loved it, so much. I have loved it since Christian Bale, love it always, always will.

Miriam came right home and got the soundtrack.

The Big Apple Day 2

Thursday:

We were up bright and early to catch the subway to Battery Park.

Such a cheese ball picture of me, but our first NY subway experience must be documented.  We met THE NICEST people in New York and many times it was people on the subway. 

All the ladies (including Lady Liberty), this picture was taken by our tour guide.  

While in line for the boat over we met another mother/daughter New York group from Kentucky ..believe it or not they were even bigger than our group. We ran into them later on 5th avenue and I said "Hey Kentucky" and they yelled back "UTAH!" It was cute.  Also, notice how many blondes there are in our group.  More than one person commented on the "blond ambition tour" or the "Swedes".

Not pictured is Ellis Island.  I was too busy at the museum to take many pictures.

Looooved it.  So touched by the immigrants stories.

 Girls back row:  Rachel, Bella, Annie, Maddie (can't really see), Abby, Candice, Sophia

Middle row: Miriam, Anna, 

Kneeling: Berkley

Mom's: Me, Tami, Cristina, Rachel, Mindy, Michelle, and Cristin

911 Memorial

Survivor Tree 

St. Paul's Chapel

This is where I really felt the tragedy of 911.  It was such a reverent, sweet little church, I couldn't help but cry.  You weren't suppose to take photos in the church but I snapped a quick one of these papers folded into chains.  Each one had a note of sympathy and love from around the world. 

We had walked from Battery Park to the 911 Memorial and then to the Brooklyn Bridge, so we were in bad need of sustenance.  Luckily we found the yummiest waffle cart...nutella, speculoos, gingerbread ice cream...the stuff dreams are made of.

I thought walking the bridge was thrilling.
Sun was setting, it was windy, cars were zooming below....
I loved it!

Cute lovers tradition.  You write your name on a lock, lock it to the bridge and toss the key into the river. If I ever go back with Darin, this will be on my to do list.

I could have called it a day, but Cristina and Abby talked us into sightseeing and shopping around Times Square.  We saw everything, including 2 naked cowboys.

Miriam had her first taste of sushi.

She dove right in with the raw salmon.

That's my girl!

Halloween 2012

The Peacock Fairy (not the butterfly) scootering off to school.

Miriam's school costume parade.

Since Bub's costume came with ninja dagger things Soren decided Spiderman needed a weapon.

The web-slinger...pretty unmistakable.

The Ninja (not a marshmallow...I didn't know if he would put his costume back on after that comment)

I was impressed with the enthusiasm of Miriam's principal and office staff...the picture doesn't show their struts.

There she goes....paradein' it up!

Off to gather candy candy candy!

M's cute trick-or-treat buddies.

Witches Day Out

I have to interrupt the New York re-cap because Halloween happened!

I knew it was coming, but holy moly it felt like I was blindsided.

The week before the big day we met up with the Ray girls at Gardner Village for our annual witches day out. So fun to get together with the ladies to eat and chat.

The guys went to check out the new Scheels and then take my father-in-law out for a belated birthday lunch.  Bub was at a birthday party so I brought the S-man with me (thought he would have more fun with us than with the big boys).

He was good as gold!

Especially once I bought him a lick-a-cricket...not even kidding.  He didn't finished it but he got pretty far. I think he would have eaten the whole thing if others weren't freaking out about it.

The Big Apple Day 1

The mom and daughter New York trip did in fact happen. 

Weeks ago. 

It's just taken me a long to recoup after such an extensive trip.  Not only did Miriam and I have things to catch up on, our computer hard drive crashed. Luckily, because of my amazing technologically-savvy husband nothing was lost, but it did take some time.  We are back to some semblance of normal so it's time to buckle down and get this experience documented! 

Wednesday:

The first airplane ride Miriam remembers, she was 1 last time we flew.

She loved it, so did I.  We fly so infrequently it's still a novelty to me. I think we left at around 8 am and arrived around 4 pm.  We flew out of Provo if you can believe it.

Taxi from the airport with Mindy and her daughter Candice. 

This ride was madness, and right about this time I was wondering what we had gotten ourselves into.  We were driving into Manhattan during rush hour, and I felt very small, naive, and insignificant.  I did love talking to the taxi driver and getting a feel for the kind of life he led.  So different from my own.

We dropped off our bags at the hotel and then taxied to the...

Empire State Building

Which was cold, crowded and windy!

This was one of the things I had done on my last trip to NY (2001).  That time it had been clear, warm, and less crowded so this wasn't my favorite part of the trip.

I do love the fast elevator and the beautiful building.

M and A huddled in a free corner for warmth.

One of many pictures of all the cute daughters together.  These girls were wonderful - seriously, each one had a moment or two of the grumps, but on the whole they were delightful the entire trip.  

So sweet to each other.

By that time we were HUNGRY so we taxied to Vapiano's at Tami's suggestion.

As we were all waving down taxies a limo pulled up and offered a ride.

This picture doesn't look a whole lot different than the taxi ride, but oh my stars was it a different experience!  Vapiano's was wonderful.

A and M in the lobby of our hotel.

The Presidential.  Lots of white leather, and pictures of presidents. 

We had a great location in Times Square.