Kornberg School of Dentistry, Temple University

Alright, my midterms are almost over and so I thought I'd finally write a blog about the most upscale party Tyler and I went to last Wed. night. It was a posh party to dedicate our new school name. The daughter of Dr. Kornberg, Mrs. Abramson, and her husband (who was the founder and CEO of U.S. Healthcare Inc.) donated 10 million dollars to the school, supposedly mostly to scholarships (too bad I probably won't be able to apply for any of them). Anyways, we changed our school name to honor him (and there was more money involved if we did). So there was a party to celebrate this whole thing and I was able to sing with my group at the party. Only full time faculty, students in leadership positions and rich people were invited. It was pretty neat how they transformed the outside of our school and main lobby into this huge tent with chandeliers and black carpet and things.
Our two songs went well and I was able to eat caviar, duck, lamb, chicken with a little syringe in it with mango sauce in which you squirted into your chicken as you take a bite. There was all sorts of drinks at the bar (Tyler tried everything of course-wink,wink). They even had a seafood bar made out of ice. The desserts were divine! I almost had a shake with vodka in it. Luckily my friend stopped me and I was able to get a non-alcoholic one. As you can tell, I really liked the food and think I could go to more parties like this if there is food like this there. I talked with Mrs. Abramson and the president of Temple University (not knowing who she was). I heard a rumor she's mormon because she's from Utah and some of her kids are in my friend's ward??? I don't know. But Tyler accidentally spilled some rich lady's drink all over her and he said she looked like she wanted to kill him...poor Ty. Oh, and there was valet parking (yes, at my ghetto school) and everybody looked at us when Tyler's dented beater car pulled up. We had lots of fun at the party and were able to get two crystal boxes as take home gifts. I don't know what we'll use them for but they are nice.
And of course, I stayed up all night to study for a midterm the next day and when I decided to get an hour of sleep, I laid down and Tyler got up and threw up all over the bathtub! He had food poisoning (I think it was from the oysters). So now we've been lucky enough to have a baby Madi nasty accident in the tub and Tyler's throw-up. It's pretty funny. I don't know if I'll take a bath for a while though. :)

Grandma and Grandpa

For some reason, I can't find any pictures of us with Grandma and Grandpa during their visit to Philly a few weeks ago. Maybe Ashley has some that I can't find. Anyways, Grandma and Grandpa Church came to the East Coast and stayed with us for a few nights on their tour. The first night they came in and I unfortunately had to work the next day, but Ashley took the day off from school and took them to Amish country and downtown Philly. She said it was a lot of fun and she loved spending the day with them. On their way back from Philly, I met up with them at Valley Forge and gave them my famous car tour of the park. I think they especially liked seeing George Washington's quarters, where we were able to get out and walk around a little. After that, we went to dinner and had a great time. I had to leave again and go to scouts but Ashley took them to Ice Cream. I realize that Ashley was the one who spent the whole day with them so she should probably be writing this, but she is in the middle of her midterms and is still teaching seminary so it will be difficult for her to have much time to do anything.

The next day, Grandma and Grandpa left really early and drove into Ashley's school in our really nice traffic. Ash dropped them off at a scary subway station in the middle of ghetto Philly and left them to fend for themselves. Somehow, they managed to get all their connections alright and take the trains from Philadelphia to New York via Trenton. They then spent a couple days on Manhatten and made the same adventure train trip back to our house on Saturday. By the time we got home, Ashley had already left for the General Relief Society broadcast so it was my turn to spend some fun time with my grandparents. We decided to go eat dinner and check out the King of Prussia Mall (2nd largest in U.S.). When we got there, we realized that Grandpa had never had a real Philly Cheesesteak so he and Grandma got one at the food court. (I'm not sure if the food court cheesesteak was as good as the real deal, but they were more authentic looking than any cheesesteak you can get out west). We walked around some of the mall for a while and had a great time. On Sunday, they came to Sacrament meeting with us and left for Washington D.C. You'll have to talk to them to see how the rest of their trip went.

Ashley and I loved having them here and being around them again. We realized how much we miss them. We were spoiled in Utah to be able to live with them and see them so often. We loved being able to talk to them so much and really had a great time. We love you Grandma and Grandpa so much. Can't wait to see you at Christmas time.

East Coast Visit

One of the best things about living out here in Philly is that we have had just about everyone come and visit us and take a tour of the East Coast. This time it was Mom and Dad for a couple days and Trev, Summer, and Madi for 8 days. We had so much fun. I know Summer already mentioned a few things, but I thought I'd summarize the trips as best I could:

-Amish Smorgasboard
-Driving around Amish country and buying the nastiest Root Beer in History
-Playing Mao Master with everyone and having mom get mad at me for always giving her cards
-Reading Terminal Market/Liberty Bell/Independence Hall in Philadelphia
-Trip to New York for the Yankees game
-2 hours to get through the Lincoln tunnel
-Missing the Parking Garage, flipping a U-turn onto a one-way street going the wrong way, flipping another U-Turn in front of cops and oncoming traffic. Then, turning at next light to find that we were headed the wrong way through the Lincoln tunnel where we just came from, and flipping another U-turn to avoid it (scariest driving I've ever done).
-Yankees Game (My fav. part was the crowd letting that Red Sox fan have it as he walked by)
-Valley Forge and King of Prussia Mall
-Taking Friday off, sleeping in and playing Alhambra all day long
-Second trip to New York on Saturday- taking 3 laps around the parking garage before finding the entrance, Trev zooming in on the naked cowboy, walking down the open-air market and buying kabobs on gyros, getting soaking wet on our way to FAO Schwartz, seeing the South tip, Statue of Liberty, etc., Wall Street, Chinatown, walking up 15 flights of stairs to look at purses, seeing the Chinese ladies sewing clothes in a sweat shop, pizza at Patsy's in the Village, that old guy laughing at me when I asked him where the Lincoln tunnel was.
-Funnest of all, Playing with Madi (Seriously, she was the best kid I've ever seen. We dragged her all over and she didn't cry at all. We miss her!)

Thanks to you guys for the trip out to see us. I will try to catch up and tell you about Grandma and Grandpa's visit next time.