Lunch and Window shopping

Of course we slept in the next day. Our 36 hours in New York were quickly coming to a close but we'd packed in a lot the day before so we had a slow start to the day.

 

We checked out of our hotel and then met Jake at Patsy's Pizza for lunch. This quite possibly was the BEST pizza I've ever eaten. Pepperoni and I don't even like pepperoni! It was fun to catch up with Jake and I was glad he had a few minutes between working on a project to meet us. Thanks Jake for meeting us and thanks for suggesting such a wonderful place!

We then headed down to 34th Street to see the famous Macy's store. This was an experience all its own! There's a reason that it's called the biggest department store! I'm not a shopper so I was a little overwhelmed. We stayed just long enough to get a little taste of the place.

A whole floor of cosmetics.

The biggest section of nylons I've ever seen!

Apparently it's wasn't big enough so they had to build in 1/2 floors. This was fascinating to me!

I dropped off my wish to Santa. I love that Macy's theme this year was Believe. There is a lot to believe in at Christmas time!

I loved their Miracle of 34th Street windows. This is my favorite Christmas movie and the windows were scenes from the original movie.

All of the other Macy windows told the famous Christmas story of "Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus".
They were really cool complete with audio. I bought the book they were selling to help me remember how fun it was.

We walked up 5th avenue and enjoyed looking at other windows and ventured into Sacs 5th avenue. I was scared to even look at price tags in this store. The Christmas decorations were fantastic and I was overwhelmed by again a whole floor of cosmetics!

I decided the Christmas tree looks much better from a distance.

We picked up a treat at Magnolia's bakery. We'd done a lot of walking and like I said before a trip to New York isn't complete if you don't do A LOT of eating.

And here we are after we landed in Salt Lake. Just about 48 hours from the time we left. The flight home was quite eventful complete with a guy throwing up on the flight attendant right by our seats as they were trying to get him to the bathroom. Tricia and I must have warped sense of humors because we thought this was highly amusing. It must be the fact that we're school teachers. We decided that we'll take students puking and calling the janitor any day over the poor flight attendant who had to wipe it off and keep working. -Yuck!

This trip was so much fun and I'm so happy it worked out for us to go! It definitely won't be the last time I'll fly to New York to see a show. 

New York - Lion King

After a very wonderful hour and a half nap we walked the 3 blocks from our hotel to the Minskoff Theatre to watch my first ever Broadway show. I've watched Disney'e animated movie several times and love the songs and story line. Though I knew that I'd enjoy this I had no idea just how much! The opening scene started and I had goosebumps! I was in awe and was instantly hooked. I loved the live music, the costumes, and the whole experience. I was so happy that we had decided to get tickets to a second show- definitely a good decision. 

This mask is used in the scene where Simba sees and talks to Mufasa in the stars. It is all so fascinating!

Here is Scar's costume. The costumes were so fantastic! Really! you have to see them to believe it!

Time Square and Dessert

One of the things that I definitely love about being a tourist in New York is Time Square at Midnight. I love to stay up no matter how much I need sleep or how hard I try to be good and go to bed early. So the fact that the fun just gets started in Time Square around ten is great. However, it is a lot to take in and I'm always left with a feeling that I'm overstimulated and it is a relief to get inside a store or back to my hotel and get to sleep. Basically it's a lot of fun and I like the lateness but I wouldn't want this to be my every vacation or even part of "regular" life. And I do realize that if you live in Manhattan you probably rarely hang out in Time Square. 

We spotted this delicatessen you don't have to look hard to find food anywhere in New York in fact it's one of my favorite parts about New York there's always some fun new place to find food.

We treated ourselves to a little treat - we shared a warm brownie topped with ice cream. I was glad we decided to share after all it was midnight and who needs that much sugar before getting some sleep - the lights already had me feeling like it was the middle of the day. 

On to a wonderful evening!

After Lion King we headed off to dinner. We didn't go anywhere special just TGI Friday were everything was 6 dollars more expensive than it would anywhere but Time Square. Then we had about an hour before we needed to walk a few blocks to the Gershwin Theatre to watch Wicked. 

We went into American Eagle in Time Square and I found this stellar hat that I just about bought. I would have been sold had there have been different letters on the side. :)

This is a much happier picture than the last one we took outside of the Gershwin. I never blogged about this part of our trip last June for a couple of reasons - the biggest being I deleted a bunch of pictures on accident and I was trying to forget about it. The short version of the story is Tricia and I thought we had tickets to see Wicked on Saturday night when in reality it was Friday. We discovered our mistake on Saturday morning which meant of course that we'd missed our chance to see it. We bought tickets to an off broadway show which we both really enjoyed. But for the last 6 months we've been looking for the opportunity to see Wicked to make it up to ourselves. We found cheap airfare, bought tickets, and booked a hotel in Manhattan's Theater District. Mainly to see this show as well as celebrate our 30th birthdays. I was so excited to finally get to see the play I'd heard SO many good things about!

This is a smaller version of part of the set of course we had to get our picture by it.

Tricia and I both had huge smiles when it started to settle in that we were really going to get to see this fabulous play!

After the play... the signs above the doors made me smile! This play was more than I had hoped for. I loved it just as I loved Lion King but for different reasons. I loved that I knew basically nothing about the story line and it unfolded before me. I loved the music. Live on Broadway really is a neat experience. I loved the sets. I loved sitting and taking it all in. So much fun!

And of course it should be said that I'd give this play and experience two strong thumbs up!

New York - Getting there...

The Airport!

 I love the red eye flight! I'll admit that I'm a little out of it the next day but it beats a day wasted traveling. I sleep on the plane and after a little nap life is great!!

 We were trying to get a great picture of us waiting in line to get on the plane and the captain was laughing at us. I tried to get him in but the one that you can see his face isn't a great one of us. I had on my Human Race t-shirt and he was giving me a hard time about being a part of the "Human Race." As we were scanning our tickets he walked through and said to the ticket lady - I've got my seat. It made me laugh and I was happy he was getting me to my destination while I slept soundly.

We flew into JFK around 5:30 a.m. Eastern time. By the time we made our way into the city on the subway it was about 8. We stopped by our hotel and checked our bags. Which was an experience because the guy at the desk just left them on the floor in front of the desk and we said that'd be hilarious if we got back and someone had stolen them. They eventually got put in a secure room because they weren't where we left them when we returned. We had about three hours to kill so we decided to have some breakfast and see a few sites.
Tricia and I are wondering where the city of Manhattan keeps these Christmas decorations. I'd like to see the underground storage unit:)

And here I am in front of the Christmas tree. I was a little bit disappointed. I thought that it'd be decorated with bulbs and something like tinsel. Nope just lights and it looks a little bit ragged. Maybe I was a bit sleep deprived and that's why I was so critical.

Our hotel said we could check in early at 11:00 a.m. Bless them is all I have to say! We were able to take a quick nap which was very much needed! 

Thanksgiving and a Race

I spent Thanksgiving this year with my roommate Tricia and her family. I decided that I didn't want to go anywhere for the short holiday and they were nice enough to take me in. When the weather was so nasty I was happy I'd made the choice to stay put. 

 I made a pecan pie to contribute to the festivities - I still have a lot of work to do in the perfect pie department but this one turned out pretty good. The filling was great but I didn't like the crust. Still this didn't stop me from eating way too much of it!

Some friends and I decided to run a 5k on Thanksgiving morning. It benefitted the Utah food bank - definitely a great cause with the bonus that it got me out of bed early and I worked off all the calories I'd eat later in the day  It was about 10 degrees and I was wondering what I'd gotten myself into but it turned out to be really fun. This is Kerri, Brett, and I before the race began huddled in the huge crowd. 

 Tricia's whole family participated in the race as well. We had to get a picture of us by the turkey.

This really was a fun way to begin Thanksgiving day and I think I'll be looking for a race to run on this day from now on!

M2

Liz this is Whoa... it took me about 4 months to figure it out. And for the record Preston - I love that you read my blog!!

Not really that bad...

On Tuesday I turned 30! I'm not thinking about this too much because if I do I might start to feel old and really I'm not old I've really just begun to live! 

 On Monday I checked the mail to find two packages in the mail from my mom. This made me very happy and I was very excited to open them up the next morning. She got me exactly what I wanted a button jar (actually she sent me three.) She also included a variety of buttons from her own collection as well as ones from my grandma Joyce's and a promise to add some that she had from my grandma Helen. I can't wait to have my very own big jar of buttons that my nieces can play with anytime they come over. I loved playing with buttons when I was a child! Maybe I am getting old since a highlight in life is acquiring my own collection of buttons. The funny thing is I don't care and the prospect of it makes me very happy. I was telling my friend Kris at work about how excited I was to get this gift and she was so excited too we talked about how her grandma always had a button jar and that she has one now. Then the next day in my mailbox in the office Kris had left me a bag of buttons from her collection to add to mine. This was so sweet of her and I thought you know this is what life is all about finding pleasure in the simple things in life. Also, good friends who add to those simple pleasures by giving good gifts.

 Darlene and Annette provided me with birthday cake at lunch. They are so sweet and made me feel so special. I love going to work each day because of the wonderful people who enrich my life with their personalities. I've learned so much from these women and I'm thankful I get to call them my friends.

When I got to work this is what I found - my sweet roommate had gotten to my room way too early in the morning and along with my friend Raegan had decorated. A while ago Tricia and I had been in a party store and saw these huge balloons. I commented that if I got those for my birthday I'd giggle like a little girl. These balloons made me happy all day every time I looked at them and they have continued making me happy because they're still floating in our kitchen. Now the secret is out to make me happy give me a bag of buttons and a helium balloon. I'm not to hard to please.

My plan for my 30th birthday was to head to the temple right after work, then have dinner at Texas Roadhouse with some friends, and then finish the evening with cake. Unfortunately, there was a forecast blizzard and the media had everyone in panic mode. I grew up where you weren't having fun until it had snowed 2 feet and was blowing. On Tuesday we didn't have any snow and the storm brought about 4 inches. It did blow pretty hard for a good three hours. Still it was a lot of hype and I had to settle for a night at home eating pizza, watching a BYU basketball game, and enjoying cake with friends.
This picture is really great because I had Liz, Gracee, and Emme, on the webcam watching and helping me blow out my candles. When it was all over the little girls were really sad that they didn't get to eat any cake. Liz said Emme woke up the next morning and was still really upset that she didn't get any. So in the future maybe showing them cake they don't get to eat isn't such a good idea.

Brett and Haley enjoying some cake.

I pulled out my camera a little too late and Kendall had already finished his cake but he was a good friend to take a picture with me anyway.

And of course I had to get a picture of my stellar balloons with Tricia!

And yes this is what the storm of the century brought to us. Funny because we are currently getting a lot of snow. Now if it would blow for a week we'd get a taste of a real blizzard! 

It was a wonderful day and I was reminded once again that I have some pretty wonderful friends that make my life very fun. Thank you to every one who remembered me on my "special day" and made feel like the most loved person in the world!