New York - Day 3

We went back to the Rockefeller Center for a tour of the NBC Studios. We saw them prepping the Saturday Night Live set for the live taping, the NBC Nightly News set and some other fun studios. Pretty fun, but we weren't allowed to take photos, so no picture memories

We jumped on the bus tour which is a hop on/hop off bus and rode it down to China Town, Little Italy, the site of the World Trade Center buildings and by Battery Park. We didn't think it would take so long to get around, but with all of the stops, it would've been faster to walk to where we needed to be.

We found our way to our last show, STOMP, which was playing off-Broadway. (When they say off Broadway, they really mean OFF Broadway...it was way out towards the southern part of Manhattan.) It was playing in this really tiny theatre. We had tickets in the 5th row and so we were quite close to the performers. It was a pretty good show, but Wayne, Jade and I had all seen it before. It was a loud performance, but Wayne still managed to fall asleep through part of it. I don't know how anyone could sleep when people are banging on garbage cans!

We made our way back to Times Square and did some more shopping for souvenirs. We went to a huge M & M store and the biggest Toys R Us store in the world.

We were all pretty tired and so we decided to just take it easy and had an early night. Some rest is definitely needed!

New York - Day 2

This morning came way too early! But there is so much to do...

We enjoyed a great breakfast at our hotel and headed out for the day. We made our way back to Times Square and over to 30 Rockefeller Center (home of the NBC studios). This is the place to get the best view of the city! The observation deck is on the 69th-71st floors of the Rockefeller Center. From here you get unobstructed views of the city, including a GREAT view of the Empire State Building! Central Park was amazing to see from above. The planning geniuses who conciously kept that large of a green space right smack in the middle of city...brilliant!

On our way out of the building, we stopped in at the gift shop and caught a quick glimpse of Jimmy Fallon as he was finishing up his appearance/signing. Our first celebrity sighting!

Wayne had planned for us to bike around Central Park for a couple of hours. There are a number of bike rental places around the park. We had reserved 2 tandum bikes, but when we got there, they admitted they made a mistake and gave one of our bikes away. So Wayne and I rode 'real' bikes and Mike and Jade took the tandum bike. As we were leaving the store, we noticed a sign that said "No Bikes Allowed on Sidewalks. It is illegal and dangerous." We kind of chuckled and joked that they thought the sidewalks were dangerous...but then the employee told us that it really is illegal to ride bikes on the sidewalks and that we would have to ride on the road. Are you kidding me?? Do they really think that riding a bike on the road with all of those crazy yellow taxis is safer than the sidewalk?? So a few deep breaths...and off we went to Central Park. We weren't quite sure where we were supposed to ride, so after getting caught for a brief moment in an intersection, I decided to just cut in front and cross the intersection to get to the other street. CRAZY!!!! I didn't get hit by a truck or taxi, but I did get honked at!!

We rode for almost 2 hours in Central Park. The park is huge! We stopped to see some of the highlights; the Bethesda Fountain, bridges that Wayne was hoping was from the movie 'Enchanted', an old castle. We even stopped to watch some hip-hop freestylers - one of which decided to do a little solo right next to me (and with me) while I tried to video tape him. Too funny! It was a perfect day...20 degrees Celcius, but by the end of the two hours, by legs were tired! On the way back to return the bikes, we found the Temple just a few blocks away. We'll be stopping there for church on Sunday.

While we were at a restaurant for dinner, Deb called us from our home and told me that the David Letterman show had just called looking for us. Our name was drawn in the lottery and we got tickets! We were supposed to call Jaime back and make arrangements. We played a bit of phone tag, but did eventually speak with Jaime. We asked her if we could get 4 tickets instead of just 2. It took her a while to check and talk to whoever, but she did manage to get us all tickets! We were so excited to get this call. The funny thing was that she had asked to talk to Wayne or Jasmine and Mike proceeded to pretend he was Wayne. In order to get the tickets, we had to answer a skill-testing question without any help from anyone else. Thankfully, Mike (as Wayne) got it right. Then Jaime needed to speak with Mike or Jade. Jade knew she didn't want to do the question so I pretended to be Jade. (Are you confused yet?) My question was about Allan Coulter and what he does at the start of every show....he is the announcer. It is a good think I am up late and have watched the show before! So our tickets are for a taping on Monday...we are on Jaime's Gold List!

(Getting the call confirming our tickets for the David Letterman show)

But tonight is what I've been waiting for...'WICKED'!! If you haven't heard about this musical, you need to become more culturally informed! This musical is about the two witches from Oz and how they became who they were. We'd been listening to the soundtrack at our house for the past 3 or 4 months, but to see the music with the set and costumes and the rest of the dialogue...it was PHENOMENAL!! I have been lucky enough to see quite a few musicals, but this was by far, the BEST one I've ever seen! I just kept thinking about the girls and how much they would've loved to have been there! Both Jade and I were teary eyed at the end...it was so overwhelmingly spectacular! (I honestly don't think there are enough words to describe this musical!) If you haven't heard the music from this...it is a must-hear. The music alone is moving! I would definitely pay the $125/ticket to see this one again (and again...and again!)

New York - Day 1

I have been waiting for this trip for a very long time. This year, we finally decided to do it! It has been in the planning phase for about 2 months and I am more than ready for some time away...without kids!

We had a very early start to our day, waking at about 3:15am to make the 2 1/2 hour drive to Great Falls for our flight. We flew out of Great Falls at 7:30am and had a very short stop in Denver. When we landed, we had just less than 20 minutes before our next flight started boarding and it was just our luck that our next gate was at the complete opposite end of the terminal! We were running...where are those courtesy carts when you need them?? We made it just as they were boarding passengers. Unfortunately, our seats weren't together. The ticketing agent told us to just wait until the very end and she thought she could get us seated together since another flight was delayed. We really lucked out as we were upgraded (slightly) to seats with a bit more leg room.

We flew into Newark, New Jersey. Everything went smooth getting our bags and finding our shuttle to the hotel. However, the ride to the hotel was a bit scary. Everyone talks about 'those crazy New York' drivers, well, it is more than true! We were inches away from hitting pedestrians and side-swiping cars! We were swerving around traffic so much that Wayne and I both started to get nauseated. Then to top things off, the driver took us to the wrong Hampton Inn!

Once we finally made it to our hotel, we were beat!We had just a couple of hours to re-group, eat and then head over to our first Broadway show! Our hotel was PERFECT! It was just half a block from the 2 Broadway shows that we had tickets for and just 1 block away from the hub of Times Square.

Tonight, we went to the August Wilson Theatre where we saw "Jersey Boys". It is the story of Franki Valli and the Four Seasons. The music and singing was amazing, but it is set in New Jersey in the 1960's, so the language was a bit rough. I really love the music from this era and I often think I should've grown up in that time period!

After the show, we walked around Times Square and was amazed at how bright it was at 10:30 at night! All of the neon and signs just illuminate those city blocks like it was noon day!

Jade and Mike arrived shortly after we made it back to the hotel. It is going to be a fun few days with them. I'm excited for the next few days to come!

Our New Addition

We always knew that one day we would have a Grand Piano. Wayne says it is easier to be more creative and inspired on a grand piano. So now that we have a house that will fit such an instrument, there wasn't anything holding Wayne back.

We had tried quite a few pianos on our last couple of trips up to Calgary. (There is not much to choose from here in Lethbridge). Wayne was the main "test driver". He sampled Yamaha, Boston, Steinway & Sons, Baldwin, and others, but none of them compared to the Hai Lun. This is a Chinese made grand piano with the engineering of Steinway behind it. It is the new 'up and coming' line of grand pianos! The sound was amazing, the tone was great and the touch was the one that Wayne fell in love with.

So a month ago, he ordered one. A 7 ft. 2 in. concert grand piano in black ebony. The dealer here in town gave him a really great deal that he could not refuse. They found one in Kentucky and had it shipped up here to Lethbridge.

On Monday, we finally got it moved into our house after a week or so of tuning down at the music shop.

Our "piano room" has gone from this...

To This...

We have been very blessed that Wayne has a great job that allows us to gain such magificent pieces of art and furniture as this is. I know it will be lovingly played by many hands for numerous years to come.

Deals

When we lived in Utah, I LOVED going shopping with my sister Jade and finding the best deals we could. It varied from $0.47 clothes from Old Navy to a case of bananas for $3.00! The better the deal, the better my day was.

The deals are not near as exciting here in Lethbridge, but once in a while we will get a $0.94 clothing sale...again, it is only once-in-a-blue-moon-while.

I have a friend that is living in Florida. In addition to being an amazing photographer, she is now my coupon hero! If you are interested in how to save a couple of bucks (or in her case...almost $800 to date), you can check out her blog here.

Knowledge is power...and in this case, extra money!

Reflections

The other night, Sawyer woke up crying in his sleep. I usually let him work it out himself, but he didn't seem to want to calm down. So I quietly went into his room and picked him up. He settled right down and snuggled in. As I rocked with him in the darkness of his room, I started to contemplate on how blessed I have been to have the priviledge of holding FIVE sweet, sleeping babies in my arms. Yep, FIVE of them!

This got me thinking about each one of my children and how truly blessed we were to have five HEALTHY babies and to have them here with us still; to watch them learn and grow and mature.

As Sawyer is our last, I thought back on all the months of being sick with morning sickness (that only happened at night). Gaining 35 lbs with each one and not quite loosing it all in between each one. Hearing that first heart beat...five different times. Getting ultrasounds done and being surprised with the announcement of what gender each baby was at birth...NOT at the ultrasound.

This also brought back the scary memory of being told that baby #4 (Cardiff) had a choroid plexus cyst on the right side of his brain, found during a routine ultrasound. I remembered how terrified I was that something would be wrong with him. These particular cysts are often signs of genetic diseases like Down Syndrome or Trisomy 18 (which is always fatal). Again, I was calmed as I remember going to the Temple with Wayne and feeling comforted that I would be able to take care of and raise this baby and that things would be all right.

As soon as he was born, almost before the doctor could say "It's a BOY," I asked, "Is he okay? Does he look all right?" He was...he was perfect just like the others. What a blessing Cardiff is to us. And today, I took him to his first day of pre-school. He was so incredibly excited!

After rocking my last baby back to sleep, I put him back in bed and gave thanks for a home filled with joy, laughter (usually) and the smiling faces of Emmy, Azia, Parker, Cardiff and Sawyer. Oh, how I LOVE them!

First Day of School 2009

FIRST DAY OF

SCHOOL 2009

Wow, when did my children get so old? This year Emmy moved up to Middle School! YIKES! If she is old enough to be in middle school than I must REALLY old! Wayne took Emmy to her first day at Gilbert Paterson Middle School. She is in grade 6 this year. She didn't want him hanging around too long and making a big deal of things, so as soon as she saw her friends, she said to him, "I see some of my wierd friends, you can go now." She has always done so good on her first days...never a tear or any apprehension.

Azia moved up to Mr. Roesler's grade 4 class at Agnes Davidson. Since there is only 1 class of each grade in the English track at the school, she knew almost all of the kids there already. There were some new move-ins and she quickly made some new friends on the first day.

Parker makes the jump to full-day school in grade 1. His teacher is Mrs. Simons and she seems very nice. Like Azia, he too knew most of the kids in his class from Kindergarten. There were some new faces, but he was thrilled to see his school friends again.

So that leaves me at home with my two little guys, Cardiff and Sawyer. I figured Cardiff would soon realize how boring it is hanging out with me all day, every day, so he will soon start in pre-school. Cardiff will be busy with his own school activities 2 afternoons a week. I think this will be really good for him...both socially and verbally. The pre-school he is enroled in has on-site speech assistants and pathologists. I know this will be a huge asset in continuing his progress with articulation. Unlike the other 3 kids, I think his first day will not be as smooth...but I guess we'll see.