NYC in December

Jeremy and I went to New York to celebrate our 4 year anniversary (which was in November)....I wanted to go to NY, but wanted to go in December so we could see what "the city that never sleeps" was like at Christmastime! It was festive, cold, fun and magical....

Here we are at the Rockefellar Center Christmas Tree. It is really HUGE and pretty. I think they said it is 30 years old and somewhere around 72 feet tall. We were going to go ice skating, but it was raining. We ended up talking to these guys and asked one of them to take our picture. We talked to them for about 30 minutes (where are you from, what brought you to NY, do you like it, blah blah....etc.) We were talking about the show Wicked and the guy told us to go see a particular one, he got out his phone to check where it was playing and there was Robert Dineros picture under his phone number. I said something like, "oh your friends with Robert Dinero?" and he said no, I am cousins with him. The funny thing is I was thinking he looked like him. This guy lives in Lond Island and just came to look at the tree and go to dinner. When I found out he was from Long Island, I asked him if he ever sees Billy Joel and if he still lived there and he told me he sees him often and that he is "crazy rich" and "a real nice guy". Then they asked what we were doing for the evening, inviting us to dinner and Jeremy quickly said we had plans before I could say "we would love to hang out with you guys, how about we drive to Billy's house and see if he wants to join us for dinner!!"

Trump Towers

In front of Trump Towers

This building was cool, it had lights on it to look like a present all wrapped up...

Another festive building...

There were about 8 of these nut-crackers in front of this building. They were huge!

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to NY is because I wanted to see Wicked! It was soooooo awesome, I would have gone to it again the next night! The theater it was in was pretty (the picture is a little too dark to tell) and the props were amazing!

We didn't plan on seeing another broadway show since they are kinda pricey, and neither of us are that into musicals, but since Wicked was so good and we were in NY, we decided to see Mary Poppins. This was another terrific musical. I was surprised at how much I liked it.

This was the theater Marry Poppins was in, there were these fun little private seat things (forgot the name), but Jeremy and I talked about how that was a little too Abe Lincolnish.

We took a feri boat over to Staten Island and got a close view of the Statue of Liberty.

Jer and I in Time Square. It really is the city that never sleeps, I think this picture was at midnight after one of the shows we saw. We never went to bed before 2 am, by the time we were done having fun, we had to take the subway back to our hotel.

We went to a museum next to Ground Zero and saw the drawing and plans for what they are building there in place of the Twin Towers. This statue was covered in flags and notes and all kinds of memories from 9-11.

We took a long walk across the Brooklyn Bridge with all the other tourists :)


I think the temple there is really neat, it's just one of the building surrounded by a million other buildings, but it stands out in it's own way.

Jeremy in front of the temple

One of my FAVORTE things about being in NY is the musical numbers on the streets and especially in the subway stations!! One night we stopped and listened to "The Meetles" at about midnight. They were really good and actually sounded like The Beatles. The best part about it is, they were a bunch of old men who were missing teeth and probabaly homeless or addicted to alcohol/drugs and they reminded me of several of my clients, but they were doing something pro-active and actually working for money. Of couse we dropped some in their bucket because we would much rather give to them than to the drunk, homeless men in McDonalds that were begging for money and then go outside to swig on their Jack Daniels.

We saw pleanty of Santa Clause wanna be's, but this one was the best. I had to laugh that he was on one of these things! No wonder Santa is FAT :)

So I told Jeremy I wanted a picture with the Minnie Mouse imposter to show Cameron and I said I bet I will have to pay her. Jeremy said, "duh why would you have to pay?" I told him that pretty much people would do anything to make a buck and they expect you to "donate" to them. So sure enough after the picture, he/she pointed to her Christmas stocking and I gave here some money.

These guys are amazing. I saw them last time I was in NY. They were drawing crowds of spectators and made tons of money. We put in a few bucks, and the guy next to me dropped a $20 in the hat, apparently he really liked these guys! We guessed them make about $600 or more a day.

I was on the front row cheering and dancing....I tell ya, I get into this kind of stuff. I LOVE the atmosphere of NYC, it reminds me a little of my other favorite place....San Francisco!

We walked around Central Park (well around the outside of the inside...LOL) and Jeremy climbed onto some rocks so we could see the building behind him.

There were carriage rides going through Central Park, that would have bee fun to do but it was raining and we were headed to one of the Broadway Shows

The famous piano from the movie "BIG" in FAO Swartz. Some workers played a musical number on it and then they let anyone who wanted to jump around on it.

Jer standing by some Starwars guy (I don't know who it is because I have never see it!), but it was pretty neat all made out of Legos.

Lego land had some neat creations, this was a giant Lego Santa. Although FAO was impressive, we thought Toys R Us was much more exciting, and a lot bigger of a place!

This buidling was across from the ginormous tree in Rockefellar Square and every 30 minutes or so it played music and had these snowflakes and bubbles projected onto the building. I only got a few seconds of the show and wished I had filmed more, but I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. We had a great time in NYC and I can't wait to go back!!

Thanks to Michele and my mom and dad for watching Cameron. We couldn't have gone if it wasn't for you guys. Although I missed Cam a ton, I knew he was being very well taken care of. He loves his Aunt Michele and his Grammy and Grampy and I know he had fun with them. These pictures say it all...Grampy put a rope on the laundry basket and pulled him around the house. He laughed the whole time. It was nice to come home to a clean house and a happy, healthy boy. We thought about Cam the whole time we were there and I laughed because we actually spent most of our time shopping for him in stores like FAO, Toys R Us, and other toy stores.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a lot different this year. It was Margo's year for her family to eat with all of us (they switch everyother year with her in-laws), but since her accident she isn't able to ride in a car for 3 months. So we missed having her family with us for dinner, but we went to her house after for dessert. I think my family reflected more on our blessings this year and we are all so thankful that Margo, Rick, Lindsie, Troy, and Mallory are all still here with us and that their accident wasn't worse! I know it made me more grateful for my family and the gift of life.

Daddy, Cam, and Mommy before the big feast

It's so fun to see how excited Cameron gets when he sees Grampy and Grammy!



Jeremy's grandparent's Paw Paw and Maw Maw are always there on Thanksgiving. Paw Paw always brings the sweet potatoe casserole, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it!

Grammy taught Cameron a fun trick....what kid (and some adults still do) doesn't put olives on their fingers at Thanksgiving??

What you talkin' about willis??

Hanging out on the bean bag watching the cousins play Wii

Janessa and Spencer playing a mean game of bowling. By the look on Janessa's face, I would wager she is losing :)

Dessert time!! We all went to Margo and Ricks for the good stuff. Cameron is sharing with daddy because mommy doesn't share her dessert!

Lindsie, Cam, and Mallory. Troy and Spencer weren't interested in dessert, they wanted to play.

The fam, including Jeremy's mom Theresa aka "Grammy T", she came to visit for a few days! We always love having her come.

It's hard to get a good pictue of the 3 of us! This one was cute though, Cameron was laughing and trying to jump off my lap.

We all went down to the theater room to watch a little video. Janessa and Lindsie played pool and Spencer and Troy were playing Wii so I didn't get any pictures of them :(

Grammy T always takes the grandkids to Build A Bear when she sees them. I think that is such a cute tradition/idea!! I helped Cameron step on the peddal to fill up his moose. He loves Moose (or is it Meese or Mooses??) anyway, he says it soooo cute!

It was taking awhile for Grammy T to stand in line and pay etc. so Cameron had fun looking around. I didn't know where he was and went around the corner looking for him and this is what I saw. He had climbed up the stairs and was just sitting there blabbing to himself. He is so good at entertaining himself...and the things he thinks to do crack me up!


I am thankful for this adorable, smart, funny, loving, cute, happy, good, creative, active, wonderful boy!! I am thankful I get to be his mom! I am thankful for families and for the gospel, to know that I get to live with my family for eternity is a comforting thing. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Bye Bye Cast

We went back to Primary Children's today for Camerons appointment to get more x-rays and see if his broken leg is better. The x-rays showed that the break is not completely healed, but new bone has grown around it and the Dr. said that it will continue to heal. She said the cast could come off!!! They wanted to put a walking boot on, but didn't have one small enough for his foot. So she said that he might not want to put a lot of weight on it at first and it could take a few days before he started walking again....obviously she doesn't know Cameron!

She took out this circular saw and said "now this makes a loud noise....most kids cry, so sit him on your lap and hold him still." Cameron really isn't afraid of noises or much of anything actually, but I didn't know how he wouldl react. He just sat there staring at her cut the cast in half. Of course the Dr. was shocked and said she hasn't cut off a cast that a kid didn't cry or at least act scared.

Cameron pointing to his foot without a cast. We put on his other shoe and left there....hopefully to never return again (but I kinda think that might be wishful thinking with this kid!)

He took off so fast from the elevator I had to turn off the camera so I could chase him! Then I started filming again...he ran to another waiting area where the wall was all painted.