Hello from New York City

Why hello from the Brooklyn Bridge!  I am out in New York this week for work.  I was able to relax at home for a whole <12 hours after getting back from Utah before heading to the airport again.  That was enough time to do laundry, unpack and repack my suitcase, and sleep.  Nice.  But it's been pretty fun out here and I've had time in the evenings after work to walk around the city and do a little sight seeing, such as having a chance to walk the Brooklyn Bridge.  I walked about halfway and then turned around as there wasn't really anything I was heading for on the other side, and the sun was about to set.

On Monday, here's Minghui and I riding the train from JFK to Times Square where our hotels were.  I booked early and sent my flights out to the group to see if anyone wanted to travel together and I got a taker!  It was nice to have a travel buddy.

We were on opposite sides of Times Square from each other hotel wise. So right when I arrived, I was right there in the heart of it all.

Minghui knew a good ramen place called Ichiran.  They only do ramen, and it's only this one kind.  I got a "deluxe" ramen, meaning I also got that tray of stuff on the side I could add in.  It was very good!  It was pretty fun too, as the restaurant is a Japanese style ramen house.  So if you're in a group they'll give you seats next to each other, but you essentially have your own little booth.  They had some signs up that I was reading and it's to allow you to block out everything else so you can focus on the flavor of the soup.  It was all about focus and being delicious, and it was.

I totally forgot there was a Nintendo store in New York, but walking back to our hotels we happened to walk by it and I just had to go inside.  Bowser was NOT happy to have intruders in the aisles and let us know!  It was a pretty fun store. While it had a big section of switches and games, it was mostly products you probably don't think of when you think Nintendo, like clothes, planters, sticker books, and stuffed animals.  I had a good time walking around, and even came back later in the week for a little souvenir shopping.

On Tuesday I headed into the New York office for the first time.  It's on the 36th and 37th floor, and right in Times Square. In fact, the view out the window was literally of the New Years ball.  There it is, waiting in the top of the building until Dec 31st.  Maybe I should travel out to New York for New Years sometime, it seems like this would be a fun place to watch from.

Meanwhile in Texas, an Aldi opened in Cedar Park.  I actually don't think I've ever driven by it, but it was close enough for Monica and Brooke to go take a look.

On Tuesday after work, I headed down to see the One World Trade Center and the memorial pools from the Twin Towers.  It was actually very calm there, and I really enjoyed it.  After looking around for a little, I walked over to the Brooklyn bridge, and then took the subway back to my hotel.

This was probably during toadstools, but it would appear we found a turtle.

Everyone at work was talking about nice places to go eat each night, and I told them I'd pass.  I did like Ichiran the first night, and that specific location didn't take too long. But I didn't want to spend my few days in New York sitting in restaurants, so Wednesday I stopped at a street vendor for a hot dog.

I ate it while walking to Central Park.  I did not go through very much of the park, as I didn't have too much time.  I think what I found most interesting about the park was seeing the tall buildings just over the trees all around.

After the park, I headed for my hotel to drop all my stuff off. On the way I happened across this building decorated like a suitcase.

I also walked right by a Lego store, so I jumped in for a minute.  They had lots of large scale Lego set pieces around the store, and I was able to finish my souvenir shopping.  Another part of why I needed to head to my hotel room was to drop things off.

Then I headed for the Empire State Building, and all the way up to the top.  No glass boxes so you feel like you're going to die at any second here, just a view over the whole city.  And I made it at sunset, so I got to see all the lights turning on, which is my favorite time to do these.  The Empire State building was really cool, but oh  my goodness I couldn't even imagine being up this high sitting on a steel beam building the thing.  YIKES!

Thursday evening we had a team dinner, and that ate up my whole night.  I should have taken a picture of us at dinner, but forgot.  Definitely not as exciting as the other days though.  On Friday I traveled back home, and it was good to be back.  While my New York trip wasn't crazy in any way, I don't really feel like I ever recovered from staying up so late every night in Utah. I also did a lot of walking around the city, so I was plenty tired by the time I got home.

And now that I was back home, it was finally time to take care of that quartz we mined.  It was supposed to sit in the acid for 3 days, and was in there for a week and a half.  So definitely clean.  I feel like the water started to get a bit of a green tinge at the bottom, which I believe was from stuff that dissolved off the rocks.  I added in baking soda to neutralize the acid and got to enjoy a lot of bubbling.  I put the lid back on and left it make sure it all mixed up before starting to handle things.  Now that I'm writing this, I'm realizing I did this Friday night and didn't get back to getting the rocks out until Sunday morning.  And guess what, sitting in that liquid with neutralizing minerals, etc., yellow stuff started sticking onto the rocks... There's just no winning, but they are what they are at this point.

The kids were outside playing and came in worried about something "in the fence."  From what I could see there was a squirrel on the neighbors side of the fence that was making some random noises while they were playing,  I was able to scare it over into the gap where a post is and caught a glimpse of it's tail.

Oh, and this is a picture that Monica texted me while I was out.  This is Jelly, knowing it's bedtime and trying to figure out where I am so she can find a good place to take a nap!  Sorry Jelly, but these legs were in New York!

And here are my souvenirs I brought back for everyone.  I got Monica the Pikachu.  I didn't want to get a bunch of stuffed animals because only this one was "New York" style, but I really wanted it.  At the Lego store I grabbed a Statue of Liberty for the kids to share, which is the one place I wish I would have had time to go see, but the boats only went during the work day.

And that's a wrap on our week.  It's good to be home, and now hopefully I can recover a bit before whatever my next adventure is!

 

Welcome Home Mom and Dad!!

G'day from down unda! My mom and dad made it back from their mission on Thursday this week, and everyone surprised them and came out to welcome them home!  We waited all the way until a few days before to let the kids know to make sure they didn't accidentally say something and give it away.

Earlier in the week, some wonderful ducklings were seen. Quack quack.

It would appear that the longhorns were out and by the fence while the kids were driving back from preschool. Monica stopped to let them all go have a closer look.  Those are some pretty crazy longhorns!

Brooke held a snake at toadstools this week, and for some reason no one ever told me.  It's just a little guy, but I never know what my kids are or aren't going to be willing to do.  Could I see Winry holding a snake? Yes.  Brooke?  I guess yes now.

On Thursday morning we headed to the airport to head to Utah.  We stopped by our favorite store with the pink hand chair.  After we found seats at our gate, I went back with Grayson and we picked up a 1-up mushroom for him, and he shared the candy inside with everyone.

Here we are enjoying our flight.

When we got off the plane, there was a whole greeting party waiting for us at the gate, which was awesome.  I don't think I've ever been greeted at the gate before, and I wish it happened every time I flew.  Now that we were getting together in a group, it was naturally time for us to all get our kangaroo suits out.

We got to the gate where my parents plane was coming in a little bit before it actually arrived, so Grayson and I went over to watch for the plane from the window.  We slowly built up a crowd. In fact, the pilot could see us all there waiting and opened up a side window, stuck out his hand, and waved to us.  I didn't know you could open a window in the cockpit, but there ya go.

And eventually my parents walked off the plane to a surprise greeting of ~30 kangaroos, and a koala.  In addition to all of us who flew in in the morning so we could be at my parents gate, my sisters also bought cheap plane tickets so they could come through security and join us at the gate.  Pretty slick planning, and my parents were shocked to see us all there.

Here's our whole family together.  Brooke was the lone koala in the group.

After Grayson darted all around the airport, I just knew it was time to get my joey back in my pouch, but boy has he grown!

And Grayson wanted to collect everyone's flags.  He was really excited as he collected more and more.  He's also really loved playing a new game in the car where you count all the flags you see on the drive, so maybe it's related.  I'm just realizing that the flag counting started at spring break I believe, so maybe his love of counting flags led to him collecting them here.

After being gone for 18 months, it was a little surprising to see just how quickly  my dad got back into the swing of things.  I can hardly tell he's retired AND gone on a mission. That desk nap just looks too natural.

Grayson does not want to take his kangaroo suit off, and that's been working pretty well as it's been cold here in Utah.  We actually drove home from the airport in a snow storm.  The snow wasn't too bad.  It never really stuck on the roads and wasn't quite enough for sledding, but it was nice to enjoy some cold as a kangaroo.

On Friday we went to see the new Mario Galaxy Movie, to Grayson's elation.  I mean, I think we were all excited to go see it, but definitely some of my excitement was from Grayson's excitement and seeing how he'd react, etc.  I thought the movie was great.  It was silly Nintendo fun, and all the kids had a great time too.  The theater had this Mario scene for us to take a picture at.

And this one's a little more galaxy like.  Andrew really loved spending time with Grayson and offered many times to let him come stay at his apartment at BYU for a week if we wanted.  Maybe next time we're staying at Gram and Pop's they can have a sleepover.

After the movie, Monica, Oriah and I did some grocery shopping and I just couldn't help but indulge in a Reese's cup.

While we were in Utah, Grayson lost his first tooth!  It's been wiggly for a while, but it was finally time for it to come out.  Fortunately, the Tooth Fairy was able to find us even though we were travelling.

Not only did we get to visit for my parents coming home, but it was also Easter AND General Conference.  What a great weekend to visit.  We brought our Easter Egg dying cups we've saved through the years, and a bunch of dye tablets too.  I'm realizing that we didn't go get clearance egg dying kits when we got home, so next year we might have to pay full price... yikes!  Oh, and one of our egg dippers broke.  It's like these things aren't meant to be used year after year.

Here's the egg dyeing crew, busy with their task.  I think people came and dyed eggs throughout the day as I know I did several after the kids were done.

One night we played telestrations.  To play, everyone writes a sentence at the top of a paper.  Then the next person draws a picture of that sentence, and then folds the paper back so you can only see the picture and passes it to the next person.  So it's like telephone but you keep going back and forth between words and pictures.  Anyway, I think this was probably the best/funniest of them all.

Grayson had the best time wrestling with his big cousins.  It was a pretty good combo because Grayson was too small to cause any real harm, and they were enough bigger that they were able to prevent any big accidents from happening.  I don't remember anyone getting hurt at all, but I do remember a lot of laughing.

Growing up, we always had to find our Easter baskets on Sunday morning. Because of the elevated count, there were baskets hidden all over my parents house this year.  At our house the baskets are usually out and eggs are hidden, but the kids really enjoyed searching for baskets.  The baskets were really hidden, making us have to dig through bins and closets and just about everywhere.  Brooke enjoyed it so much that she said she hopes the baskets get hidden at our house next year.  So maybe we'll have to leave out a note for the Easter bunny.

I went out to hide Easter eggs on Sunday morning for an egg hunt between conference sessions, and while I was out there I saw this lovely tree blooming.  This tree has a special place in my heart. As a kid mowing the lawn, I decided not to mow down a tree shoot for a week or two, and then it was too big to mow down... and now it's this tree in the middle of the lawn!  You're welcome mom and dad!

The kids enjoyed Easter egg hunting in the backyard.

The eggs were even all Mario eggs.  Or, maybe I should say Yoshi eggs. I guess that would make more sense.

On Sunday afternoon we flew back home.  We often just check our bags for convenience when we get to the airport.  Once we picked them up, the kids all insisted on pulling them along to the shuttle!  Like, what was I even there for?

We had a great extended weekend hanging out with my family and we enjoyed getting to welcome my parents home from Australia.  It was also awesome to be in the kangaroo krew bouncing up and down at the airport.  I also had fun with Andrew and Nathan in the evenings playing games and staying up too late.  Hopefully I'll be able to catch up on sleep next week... in New York...