Countdown to NY

It is hard to imagine that in 4 days I will be here!



Long story short, a girl's weekend was scheduled to take place in San Diego with two of my best girl friends from high school (Katie and Mel). And due to unforseen circumstances, Mel had to stay put in Ithaca, NY, where she currently lives. So for some crazy reason Katie and I decided we should go surprise her in New York instead. Except we needed her help in planning, so the surprise factor went down the drain.

After many, many, many hours of scouring through the internet tryng to conquer the crazy world of "touring in New York City," my head is ready to explode. I am excited and giddy, yet terrified out of my mind! I have no idea what to expect and the fact that I will have my 1 year old in a completely strange city that I've only seen on tv doesn't help.

We are flying into JFK and staying in NYC for a day and a half before moving 5 hours eastward to Ithaca. While in NYC, we are staying at an apartment in Woodside (Queens) where a family rents out the master bedroom as a vacation rental (found through craigslist...an amazingly popular option for housing in NY). The End. That's as much as we have planned.

So here's the challenge: safely packing in everything we possibly can while in New York City (considering we'll have Logan with us) into a day and a half! Does anyone have ideas, tips, advice, warnings for us?

Technical Difficulties

I have been using YouTube to upload my videos rather than blogspot because it is much faster, but the videos have to be public in order for them to be shared here on my blog. I attempted to make them private, and that's why they weren't working for a period of time, but they should be back up and running now. So check out this post again to see the videos!

Home Sweet Home

Caution...lots of pictures

While we were in Washington for Ben's family reunion, we also got to be in Spokane for about 4 days and it was so great! I still consider Spokane home and it feels so wonderful to walk into the front door of the house that I lived in from birth to 18 years old.

My beautiful Mom with her flowers from their amazing garden.


I decided to break out my tap shoes and tap a little on my parent's wood floor (sorry Dad!) and my mom joined me in her shoes...I had no idea my mom could tap dance until that day! I think she'll kill me when she sees that I have posted this...





My nephew wanting to join in the fun. He's wearing my mom's tutu and taps.


One day we went to a children's museum downtown with my sisters and their kids and while we were there Logan and I rode the Carousel. I have so many memories of doing this as a child so it was fun to take Logan for a ride.

This is us getting on the horse.


While we were in Spokane Ben and I were able to escape for a day to venture to Sandpoint, ID for our 6th anniversary. It's a cute little town on a lake that has great little shops and restaurants.
While shopping, we saw a store called Eve's Leaves... it was a women's clothing store. I thought it was a great name for a shop. This was the great mural on the side of the store.


A HUGE thank you to my mom and dad who watched Logan while we were gone, and Mindy and Davis for helping too!

Isn't he handsome?


Scone Night...
We have a great tradition in my family of eating scones. My dad makes the best scones ever, so if we drop a few, not-so-subtle hints, we can usually get my dad to makes these scones when we come to visit.

Here are a few pics from scone night:

Manna from Heaven


Mindy and Davis


Part of the crowd that night


The master of scones


Erin, Cory and Mindy (sis, bro, sis)


We also got to go to the North Idaho Fair and that was incredibly fun. There's nothing like rodeos, greasy food, 4-H stables, people watching and live bands to end your vacation.

While there we saw a small Mutton Bustin' contest, where you pay to have your child (under age 6) to ride a sheep to see how long they can hold on. It was hilarious to watch. We got video of the child who held on for the second longest amount of time (don't blink or you'll miss it)




Who knew sheep could be so captivating?

My mom and I looked at the quilt contest and cast our votes for People's Choice award. Naturally I voted for the flip flop quilt. I thought it was very creative! Please ignore my stupid pose...

You Belong in 1953

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Over the river and through the woods to Grammy's house we go...

We just returned last weekend from spending a week and a half in Washington. Our first stop was Ben's family reunion in Ellensburg, where his Grandparents live.
Grammy and Pa's house is one of Ben's most favorite places on this planet and when I visit I can see why. Their property is absolutely beautiful. He's been going there since he was born, so of course whenever we visit, much of what we do is determined by past traditions, which is great!


We ate pizza in Roslyn


We danced


We crafted and created scrapbook calendars...nonstop



We showed off our talents (don't try to find me in this picture...these are my in-laws...oh I mean this is ABBA making an appearance at our talent show.


We laughed, cried and stayed up way too late



We picked flowers


We took rides in Pa's Model A


Babies played in the water


One day we even took a day trip over to Seattle. It rained all day and it was lovely! We went to Pike's Market, ate lunch on the wharf (delicious fresh seafood!) and went to the Seattle Aquarium. It was so nice to be somewhere a little more diverse than Provo, Utah for a day. :-)

Who can resist taking a picture with this guy? This was down on the wharf where we ate lunch.



The family crowd eating lunch.


Family picture by the Aquarium


My two deep-sea divers inside the aquarium. I love that Logan is actually smiling in this picture, a rare occurrence these days. :-)



Shopping at a jam and pickle stand inside Pikes Market.

Thank goodness for swimming diapers...

Just in case you were wondering...

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This was at Ben's family reunion. Logan was put in the kiddie swimming pool before I could put his swim diaper on... man this thing blew up! You should have seen the poor guy try to walk in it.