New York

In October Matt had to go to New York for a 1 day training and I was able to tag along.  We had a really nice time while we were there.  The first night we got there we ventured to Little Italy to eat at a little restaurant we had fallen in love with the last time we were there.  The food is so good I am getting fatter just thinking about it - yum!  The next day while Matt was at his training I decided to go to the top of the Empire State Building, something that I hadn't done before.  I'm not going to lie the subway system is pretty intimidating to someone who is as directionally challenged as I am, but by some small miracle I made it.  It was so cool, I almost felt guilty Matt couldn't go. I could actually see his building from there so I at least waved at him (the arrow in the picture is pointing to his building).  It was really windy up there, but the views were spectacular! You don't realize how tall the building actually is until you're at the top.

 

 The Times Square ball:

 In case you didn't believe me that it was windy....

 A sweet little foreign lady offered to take my picture - proof I was there!

 We decided since we had been to New York before we would do something we hadn't done before.  We rented a car and drove upstate to Palmyra to see some of the church sites.  I was supposed to be the navigator, which didn't go so well.  I got us lost more than once and instead of driving straight there via freeway we ended up taking the scenic route - it only added about 3 hours to our drive.  Matt was really nice about it though and it helped that the drive was beautiful!  All of the leaves were changing, it was amazing!  We made it to the Peter Whitmore farm with minutes to spare.

 After a quick stop at our "hotel" (if you can really call it that, it was pretty bad) we hurried to catch the last session at the Palmyra temple.  I was feeling pretty good because despite our delays we got there a little early and had a few minutes to look around and take some pictures, or so I thought.  As we were getting ready to take a picture I asked Matt where his bag was - he had left his temple clothes at the "hotel" so with 15 minutes until the start of the session we raced back to get his clothes and raced back to the temple.  We made it to the session with seconds to spare - it was just one of those days where nothing seemed to go right but things still worked out.  Because of our mishap it was dark when we finally got a picture.

 The next day we woke up to a big temperature drop and rain.  We didn't let it get us down though and we started the day off at the Hill Cumorah.  One good thing about the weather is that we had the place to ourselves.

 View from the top of the hill:

 Then we went to the Grandin Press where the first Book of Mormon was published.  I secretly thought this would be pretty lame (don't tell Matt) but it turned out to be really interesting and one of my favorite spots we visited.

 Luckily the weather started to clear and it stopped raining in time for us to visit the Joseph Smith farm and Sacred Grove.  This is the view of the temple from the farm.

 The log home they first built:

 The frame home they later built:

 After we toured the two sites we were able to go through the Sacred Grove.  Again because of the weather we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  There was one other family there that had two little kids with them.  They took a picture for us, but they didn't last long because it was so cold.  But that made it that much better for us because we were the only ones there. 

 It was very still and quiet.  The entire floor of the grove was covered in leaves, there was no wind, no animals or birds or bugs....just quiet.  We walked around for quite awhile, until we couldn't stand the cold any longer.  It was bittersweet to leave the peacefulness.

 The next day we made the trek back to Manhattan.  This time I did a little better as navigator, I only got us lost once and we were able to correct our course pretty seamlessly.  I snapped this picture on my phone just before we went through the Holland Tunnel.

 Driving in Manhattan is pretty intense, not for the faint of heart.  We got checked into our hotel and got ready for a night on the town, it was my 30th birthday after all!  We went and had a deliciously sinful dinner and then saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.  It was an awesome birthday and took a little of the sting out of the turning 30.

 Right after this picture was taken I had my first celebrity siting!  I saw Melanie LaPatin - you know the red-headed ballroom choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance.  Google her, you'll know who I'm talking about.  She said, "Excuse me" as she walked past me.  It's probably as close as I'll ever get to meeting a real celebrity so I thought it was worth mentioning.

We flew out the next day.  It was another close call between traffic delays and one of the security scanners at the airport breaking down.  We literally got to the gate just as they were starting to board the plane.  We had such a great time, but we were glad to get back and see the boys.  Don't worry, the boys had a mini vacation all their own, more to come on that.