NYC!

Last week we got to go to NYC. Jared had some business meetings, and flights were so reasonable that I tagged along. My wonderful parents took Halle and the dogs for us. Hopefully she'll post about their fun adventures. We left Monday around 12:30 AM (our flight was delayed because it hit a bird upon landing in SLC and they had to clean it up and make sure the plane still worked okay). We arrived around 6 and had a guy with a sign holding our names (I've never had that before, so I thought it was cool). We got to the hotel around 7:30 and headed to Jess and Joan's room to sleep on the couch pull out bed until Jared had to head to his first meeting. We slept for a little over an hour and then we got up and Jared went on his way and Joan and I planned our day. We decided to head out to the Statue of Liberty. We took the subway (my first time!) down to the Statten Island Ferry (free!) and just went past the Statue and other touristy stuff instead of paying to go out to them.

The Manhatten skyline was so pretty.

Ellis Island

After arriving on dry land we headed for lunch at Angelo's Pizza (you can see the sign for it right underneath the big Late Show sign). We shared a delicious pizza with fresh mozzarella (not the shredded stuff you get out of a bag). Great recommendation, Joan!

Then we walked along the side of Central Park and found this beautiful church.

We had also called information for the address of the LDS temple, so we went in search of that. At first we were totally blind to it. We knew we were in the right place, but just weren't seeing it because it looks like any corner building, or like a theatre. Then I looked up and saw the Angel Moroni and had an ah ha moment.

It was so pretty! They have this beautiful stained glass inside and were even going to let us go inside even though we were wearing jeans and a t-shirt. We considered it, but Jared was almost done with meetings and I thought he might want to come also. So we headed back to the hotel and got minorly distracted by FAO Schwarts (the GIANT toy store with the big piano).

After arriving back at the hotel we called the temple for information on times and found out that there was a 45 minute time period where we wouldn't be able to do anything because they were having a shift change. We would have needed to go right at that moment if we were going to have time to get to our play at 7, so we unfortunately had to pass. Instead we took a much needed one hour nap after checking into our own room. After our nap we went out to eat. I was stuffed from my huge pizza with Joan, so I just ate a side. Jared ordered this pizza.

The picture doesn't do it justice, it was HUGE.

Us in the restaurant.

After eating we headed to Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre on Broadway.

I saw it in Chicago last year and Jared saw it in New York on Broadway last year, but it was still totally worth it. We didn't want to spend more than $100 per ticket for something we weren't sure we'd enjoy, so we went for something we were absolutely certain we would love. And we did! Oh man, I love that musical. Everyone needs to see it some time. After the play we headed to Carnegie Deli (which is open until 4 AM!!).

If you aren't familiar, they have these HUGE sandwiches. You get a piece of bread with at least 6 inches of meat, and I'm not even exaggerating. We weren't that hungry, so I just ordered some potato skins with cheese and bacon. I should have known. It was like they gave me 5 whole potatoes, not just skin. It was skin with 1/2 inch of potato, smothered with another 1/2 inch of bacon and cheese. While they were incredibly delicious, I can't eat 4-5 potatoes in one sitting. Jared helped as much as he could, but he was still full from his giant pizza. We also ordered a piece of Torte Truffle Cheesecake. DELICIOUS! This place only takes cash, and we were so lucky we decided to run to an ATM on the way to the airport to grab some cash, or I don't know what we would have done. We headed back to the hotel and slept until 9 the next morning. Jared got up for more meetings and Joan and I headed to 5th Avenue to look around. That was fun, and I even tried some sale stuff on at Bloomingdales. I couldn't believe how huge Bloomingdales was! (That's where Rachel from the show Friends worked.) It was I think 11 floor and took up a full block, and even had a restaurant. I didn't end up buying the clothes, but they were a reasonable price that I could have if I really wanted.

After Jared's meeting (which ran about an hour late) we rushed to Blue Man Group. We went in a taxi, which was my first time in a taxi, and very expensive. We were apparently the last people to get there because as we ran in the guy said, "Emily?" and handed me our tickets. That was a lot of fun, and they have this little scroll screen that you read out loud and they put people's names up. Well, my name got up there and they said "We heard Emily Hurtado has a headache. Let's help Emily Hurtado feel better." The entire theatre said aloud to me to close my eyes, think of a cow, then kill the cow, and pull it apart into little pieces. It was weird. Luckily they didn't make me stand up like they made the other people do after reading their names. Then we took the subway back by our hotel and went to eat at this Greek restaurant. It was different...

By that time it was already time to head to the airport and a Limo picked us up!!! How cool is that? Maybe not that cool unless you've never been in one like me! We took pictures.

Then it was time for the long flight back and we got in at 1 AM and headed to my parents to sleep, and then back to work. Next fun vacation...Cedar City for a family reunion sort of thing. Joan rented two cabins and family is flying in from California. That should be a lot of fun! Then, after that CANCUN!!!!!

Today's Dinner

Tonight I made these yummy hamburgers. I put two thin patties together with a ton of cheese in the middle (you can see the cheese seeping out). They were delicious, so I decided to take a picture.

While I was at it, I took these pictures of Halle. What a cheeser.

Anyway, so I ate like 3/4 of the hamburger and then went to help Halle with something. I came back to clean up my plate and be a nice mommy and share a little with my sweet innocent puppies. This is what I came back to:

(That's my empty paper plate on the floor.)

Guess who the culprit was.

PATCH! If it had been Rameses he wouldn't need the plate on the floor, he could just eat straight off the table. In reality I caught Patch a little sooner and held him back while Rameses ate the rest. What's not to like about meat, cheese, and tomatoes, right? So, the whole family got to enjoy my dinner. How nice.

Disneyland - 3rd and final day

On our last day at Disneyland we did the early open thing and got there at 7. The Finding Nemo submarine ride always has a good one hour wait, so we headed there first. Halle really enjoyed it. This is her looking out the window of the submarine.

Then it was our final time on the Matterhorn (aka Scary Monkey Ride).

And of course the 'red roller coaster' in toon town. I think this was Halle's favorite. Just like her mommy, loving roller coasters.

After the late night of Day 2 and early morning of Day 3 Halle was a bit of a disaster going back to the hotel for her nap.

Back at the park we got popcorn (Halle's favorite snack) and headed back to the red roller coaster. In line Halle bit my finger while I was feeding her the popcorn and I bled for a couple of hours and had a huge scab the next day. Ouch.

Through all of the lines (though they weren't too bad) we were so glad to have little video clips on our phones.

It was an awesome trip and I was so glad my parents were able to enjoy it with us. Halle loves her grandmas and grandpas and we love having them around for fun times like these.

Next to come are pictures from our trip to New York that we got back from on Thursday. That was a fun one!

But now I've got to go help Halle find the Easter Eggs. This is our third time hiding and finding them...

Disneyland Day 2

On our second day in Disneyland we headed straight for California Adventure the second it opened in order to get on the new Toy Story ride in order to avoid the 2 hour wait later in the day. We still had to wait about 20 minutes, but that's nothing compared to later in the day.

Here we are with our cool 3D glasses

Then we headed for a Bug's Life land where they have lots of fun stuff for little kids. These are the ladybugs that spin like the teacups.

And these things fly in circles in the air:

Then there were these awesome bumper cars. I was going to go too, but once I saw how slow they went I just couldn't bring myself to enjoy that embarassment. If Halle had chosen me to ride with I would have gone, but she chose Grandma. Jared had fun though.

This is the 'watermelon train'. It's Heimlich from a Bug's Life and you go through watermelon and water sprays on you and you go through a box of cookies and he talks about some of his favorite foods. The watermelon and cookies really smelly like watermelon and cookies. The ride has been one of my favorites, and Halle really liked it too.

We traded off going on the big roller coaster, which is SO much fun! Here's Grandma and Grandpa (they are in the middle of the picture):

Then we hurried over to a Playhouse Disney show that we knew Halle would love because they had the same one in Disney World last year. We had now idea that people apparently had been waiting in that line for quite sometime and we were put in a kind of stand by line. Luckily we made it in or else Halle would have been a disaster. After the show we walked out and found Handy Manny. Halle was so thrilled!

Then we saw that Minnie Mouse was right next to him and of course Halle had to hug Minnie. She tried so hard to be patient in line:

We finally go our turn.

As we left Minnie we heard singing and dancing and just down the street Woody, Mickey Mouse, and Cinderella were performing on the street. They headed inside afterward and we followed closely behind to get a good spot in line. We didn't have to wait long, which is a miracle for Mickey and Cinderella. The princesses usually have a line in Disneyland (not California Adventure) and that line is so terrible we never even attempted to stand in it, so it was great to see Cinderella since Halle had been watching the movie at the hotel earlier that day.

That's all the pictures for day 2. We finished that day up in Disneyland and headed to the hotel around 11 after walking to McDonalds for a very late dinner.

Day 3 soon to come, there are even less pictures than day 2!

Jared again. We had a great Mother's Day with Emily. On Friday Emily asked me, "What are you making me for dinner on Sunday." My first thought was, "Why would I make you dinner on Sunday." So now in a slight panic I began going through all of the important days in my head. Birthday - no. Anniversary - no. Valentines Day - no. Dia de los Muertos - no. Mother's Day - YES. So now in more of a panic I had to think of things I could make that she would like and would show some effort on my part. I can make breakfast, spaghetti, mac and cheese, Hamburger Helper, and...well that is pretty much it. I didn't want to do spaghetti again because I always do that. I started thinking, "Well maybe I could take her out to one of her favorite restaurants on Saturday or buy something at a restaurant on Saturday and reheat it for her on Sunday. Something like Joe's Crab Shak. Then it hit me, I can make crab! What is easier than crab, you buy it, heat it, melt some butter. Excited by my new plan, I bought 2 1/2 pounds of crab at Harmons on Saturday. It ended up working out great! Emily + snow crab + melted butter = happy wife = a happy life, and it all required me to do hardly anything in the kitchen. Man's Game!

Halle and I did our best to make Emily comfortable for the whole day. Emily isn't hard to please actually. All she needs is time to take a nap. Which she did while I watched the playoffs and a little golf. Also, Emily and Halle wore matching outfits to church. There aren't a cuter mother daughter combination around.