NYC Temple

And in the middle of it all there is a Mormon temple. Super cool!

Wicked

Tuesday January 31st Kelly took me to see Wicked for my birthday. It was amazing! I now get why Broadway shows are such a big deal. They are the best of the best. The best actors with amazing singing abilities. The makeup is out of this world. The set was to die for. Kelly, thanks for the greatest birthday yet! --emily

Kelly Rippa

Monday morning January 30th I had tickets to see "Live with Kelly Rippa". It is filmed in the ABC building a little jaunt from out hotel. It was a fun experience. Kelly is funny and interacts well with the crowd. Her co-host was ABC news correspondent Dan Abrams and her guest actor was Channing Tatum. Channing was so nice! There was a girl about 15 years old in the audience, her mom let here skip school for the day because her favorite actor in the world is Channing and it was her birthday. Channing took the time to chat with her and wish her a happy birthday. She was in heaven. Two thumbs up for Channing for being real and making a little girl's world. --emily

9 / 11

Sunday morning January 29th we took a taxi and ventured to the southern part of Manhattan island with a list of must sees in hand.

Kelly was interested in exploring the NY financial district. We checked out the Stock Exchange, the Federal building, and the Charging Bull.

We thought a good Sunday activity would be to see the 9 / 11 memorial. So we planned accordingly and got tickets in advance.

New York is an amazing place with tall buildings packed in on each city block unlike any city I have ever been to before. The memorial has been built down instead of up. This is a contrast to the rest of the city. The memorial is built on the footprint of the twin towers. It's now a wide open space set aside for family, friends, neighbors, sisters, brothers, fathers, and mothers for people who have loved and lost. For people who's lives are changed forever. A place to pause and take a moment to reflect.

The names of all of the victims were machine cut into the metal of the memorial. There were several names followed by "and her unborn child" as seen above. This was emotional to see. Being at ground zero was a humbling experience. We have so much to be grateful for.

This sculpture was in between the two towers when they went down. They pulled it out of the rubble with not much damage. The piece was abstract art to begin with. It is now on display in Battery Park with an eternal flame.

After taking our time in the 9 /11 memorial and museum, we jumped onto a boat for a tour around Manhattan.

We saw Lady Liberty!

This photo is the south end of the island skyline. The buildings still under construction were buildings damaged in 9 /11 and are still being repaired. Lots of damage was done to this pore city!

The Brooklyn bridge.

Empire state building. The worlds first building to be made of steal.

Cool old sugar refinery on the other side of the river.

This photo is mid left side of the island. The two small buildings in the foreground almost perfect center are the buildings that the twin towers were modeled after. In a much larger scale of course.

It was a great first day in the Big Apple. --emily

Our First Time in New York

Kelly had an opportunity to travel to New York City for a conference, so I tagged along. Kelly's mom flew to Seattle to watch our boys so that we could enjoy a fun week in the city that never sleeps.

We flew in to NY on Saturday January 28th. We didn't want to waste a minute, so as soon as we got checked into our hotel, we headed out to see the sights. Luckily our hotel was in close proximity to a lot of great locations.

Radio City Music Hall was just a few feet away from our hotel.
We had to stop at Rockafeller Center because it is iconic and because it is the setting of a TV show we used to watch a lot--30 Rock. There was a shopping center at Rockafeller Center, and we stopped in at the Lego store. We were hoping to get a Statue of Liberty Mystery Mini-Figure, but we couldn't find one.
We went to the Apple Store, which was beautiful.
We walked to Time Square and Broadway. --emily

Power Outage

January 19th - 21st we had a power outage. Thankfully we have a gas fireplace for warmth, a gas water heater for warm showers, and a gas stove top to cook on. We survived with play dates and parent games at our neighbor friends with a generator. The boys slept with winter hat on for extra warmth. Another experience to add to our adventure book! --emily

Still Snowing

Do you see we are the only people on the sledding hill? That is because the wind was so strong and the snow was more like ice. We all had a free microdermabrasion facial. -- emily

No-School Snow Day

We had an awesome day in the snow today! It dumped almost 12in. worth of snowy goodness yeah for neighborhood snow storms.--emily

Sledding

This weekend we had our first snowfall of the season!

I am hoping there will be more snow pictures to share this week. It is currently snowing up a storm :) So our finger are crossed for a no-school snow day, filled with sledding and hot chocolate. Yeah we love the snow. -- emily