Nostalgia

Goodbye, New York!

My mom came and picked me up from New York!

...meaning, I'm back!

My mom and her friend flew in on red.

So, of course, they took quite a nap after I picked them up from the subway.

Then we went to the MET.

My mom was SO excited to see the actual paintings of some of her favorite artists for the first time.

Wouldn't it be bliss to spend your afternoons painting pictures of paintings in the MET?

I think so.

Yeah... taking pics of the naked status to text to their husbands...

More excitement!

We searched all over for Madame X. Somehow we happened across a storage room and wandered through just to LUCKILY find Madame X in STORAGE!

This amazing sampler was stitched by a 14 year old!

And not only that, but she was experimenting and developing new stitches.

I want to do this!!!

After our sophisticated afternoon checking out the MET, we decided to take some time in my neighborhood. And here's what Harlem had to offer.

Bath salts anyone?

As part of our Harlem experience (besides watching my mom get surrounded by about 10 men with bongo drums and dreadlocks), we rocked out at the Apollo Theater!

My mom spent most of her subway time looking for rats.

She said she had to see one to feel her New York experience was complete.

My mom's friend wanted to go to the American Girls Doll store.

I sat around for about an hour before I went exploring and found these...

Doll hooks in the bathroom!

Of course! How would every little girl in that building carrying their doll use the potty if there weren't doll hooks?!

Every accessory imaginable for every spoiled child there.

WE SAW WICKED ON BROADWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A. M. A. Z. I. N. G.

My mom liked listening to my neighbors fighting in a cool African language.

She just so happened to listen in the dark bathroom while hiding behind the shampoo...

We took a gypsy cab to the air port, and I got my last look at the city.

We flew stand-by and there was little chance of getting out of New York the first few days, let alone catching our next stand-by transfer flight to actually get home to Utah.

However, in spite of our plans to sleep at the air port for three days, blessings upon blessings upon blessings got us on the first available flight!

And on the next!

We ended up getting home by 3am New York time, but it was all in one day!

All of my sisters took turns putting in a letter for our "Welcome Home" sign. However, someone apparently missed their turn in putting in the "e." And Grace said they got tired by the time they got to the coloring, so only the first letter got coloring.

But I'm home.

Back in Utah.

Things I've noticed in the few days I've been back:

-There are so many white people here.

-The sky is so big.

-It's really quiet at night.

-We can't "just walk"--anywhere.

-You don't have to wake up sweaty from the humidity.

-I had forgotten what stars look like.

-I lost 6 lbs. over the summer.

-I still hate Utah mosquitos.

Ready for adventure the next!

Standing Room Only?!

As a last goodbye with the New York roomie, Jen and I went to Phantom. One thing though, there were only standing room tickets!

We stood from this spot (behind the railing behind the $100 seats) for TWO AND A HALF HOURS!

My legs hurt so much, but it was so worth the $25!

Last Day

Nearly cried.

Said, "Goodbye."

Nearly cried.

Walked away.

No, walked forward.

Forced a smile.

Got a hair cut.

"If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere."

Big wide world, here I come!

Crying.

Road Trip with Dad Part 1

My dad and I started our road trip Friday evening at 6pm. The plan was to drive over the George Washington Bridge, a bit through New Jersey, and then back into New York. We were to arrive at approximately 9:30pm, and then wake up bright and early Saturday morning to explore this wilderness part of New York and then go into Pennsylvania.

At least... that was the plan.

Step 1: Drive over the George Washington Bridge.

Step 2: We're lost already??????

Apparently I'm not a very good direction giver.

We were heading south.

We were supposed to be heading north.

Finally my dad just took the directions from me.

After about 30 minutes of driving south (there were no exits to the road we accidentally got on!), we were stuck in traffic.

This sign wasn't so cute when we were at a dead stop. And do you see the sign next to it? The Holland Tunnel is on the south side of Manhattan!!! What did we do??

OOh, look--another bridge. Too bad we had to stay on that road--still going SOUTH--for another HOUR!!!!!!!!

Yup. Still south...

We're not in the city anymore.

Now we're in SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY!!!

Finally we could turn around.

Back through all the toll roads...

Look. There's Manhattan again.

Wait, it's already 8:30pm.

Through the Holland Tunnel.

Funny, didn't we pass this OVER AN HOUR AGO?!?!

By the time we even started heading north (with the rest of the Manhattan island to go before even getting back to our starting point) it was 9pm.

We hit a rain storm that made it nearly impossible to see the road. And driving in New York is tough enough without this added mess. I loved the rain though, and it almost made coming back to the city after getting lost worth it. The video is a bit long, but I was trying to capture the lightning bursts. You can see them about 40 sec. in.

After that it was too dark and we were too frustrated to take pictures.

Eventually we got back to the bridge, and guess what?

We somehow got off at the wrong place again!

Lost.

Again.

In the dark.

In the rain.

At 9:30pm.

Lost.

AGAIN.

Oh, aren't we supposed to be pulling in by now?

Eventually we jumped on some random high way, with my mother's expert help (on the phone describing Googlemaps to us), a little luck, and a lot of blessings, (and no help from me) my dad managed to figure things out.

At 1am we arrived.

Honestly, in spite of getting lost and being tired, my dad and I had a wonderful adventure in getting there--and we hadn't even started the adventure of our exploration yet.

We had wonderful conversation and made lasting memories.

Besides, this is a much better story than "and we went to the motel," right?

Road Trip with Dad Part 2

The graves of Emma's parents, sister, nieces, nephews, and son.

Headstone for her unnamed child.

Headstones for Emma's parents, Elizabeth and Isaac Hale.

Memorial marking for the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood.

I signed us in to the registry so we will always be in the book as having been there.

This is the place Emma and Joseph built their first home together.

Archeologists are still exploring the Hale property at this time, but they believe this to be the well for the Hale home.

This is the current focus of the archeological dig. They've found a lot of tools and other household items; however, they believe the items date after the time of Joseph. So they're still exploring the area for further information and findings.

Joseph hid the gold plates in this wooded area while working on their translation.

Here my dad explained this foundation for the milk house. There are several divides in the foundation because the milk would have been stored in one portion but would have required running cold water from a well to keep it cold, thus the other sections.

This is what's left of the ramp that went to the upper level of the storage house on the Hale property.

If you look closely you can see the pattern of horizontally running sticks. These have been uncovered as the remanence of the storage house. They believe the logs were either supports for the upper level of the house or part of the roof.

The wheel and axle and other parts of farming tools.

Ladder frozen in time by the passing of time itself--this tree grew right threw the steps.

Next we took off trekking for the Susquehanna River.

Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were baptized in these waters.

According to my dad, the stripped bark on this tree indicates the height the water reaches here during flooding and spring run-off.

I couldn't help but get down and stick my fingers in the cool water.

We went off-roading!

(Good thing it was a rental car...)

Driving through minilakes won't hurt a car, right?

It wasn't only the car that got dirty...

Dad was ready in his slacks and tennis shoes to explore the wilderness.

I just tried to keep up!

On our drive back, I really felt a longing for the countryside; but instead we were already headed for the city.

Dream house.

My dad said these viaducts were historically significant.

Can't remember why though.

Umm... a lake and fountain in your front yard?

I want!

Then we officially left the land of green for the land of gray.

Good thing I have tickets to Wicked this week!!!

...I can say I still love this city!

But it was sure nice to surround myself in the beauty of God's creations for a weekend.