New York City!

That's right. I just got back from a five day trip to New York City. This was my first time, unless you count the many times I have been through the airports there on my way to France. It was a great trip. I flew out late Thursday night, and arrived in New York at 10:00 Friday morning. Darcy came up from Baltimore on the train, and Kim and Carrie Eagar, and Carrie's friend Paula, all came to meet me too. It was so fun to see the city. I took a bus into Grand Central station, which is beautiful! It has gorgeous architecture, and I felt like I was in France being at an old train station. I met up with everyone there, and we headed over to Times Square. It was neat to see, but a little bit of an overload for me! It is huge, with bright billboards everywhere . . and tons of people walking up and down the streets. Darcy took us over towards Central Park to her favorite pizza place, Angelo's. It was delicious, despite the heat in the restaurant! That afternoon, we went and waited in line at the TKTS booth, where you can get half price Broadway tickets. The line was pretty long, but moved maybe a little faster than we would have liked, because by the time we got to the front, we still weren't quite sure which show we wanted to see. None of the huge ones that were top on our list were available. We designated Kim as our "representative" to speak to the agent and get a recommendation of which of the three we should see, to which the ticket agent curtly replied that she doesn't give recommendations. Kim hurried and threw out the first one on our list, and it ended up that we made our decision based on which one had four seats together. We got tickets to Curtains with David Hyde Pierce.

By then it was about 3:00, and I was exhausted. We decided to do the bus tour of lower Manhattan. It was great. We hopped on the top of one of those cheezy double decker buses and immediately knew we had made a good choice as our tired legs relaxed. It was great to see the city from the top of the bus as we learned more about the city from our tour guide. We saw the Empire State Building, the Chrysler building, Rockefeller Center, Ground Zero, Soho, Little Italy, Chinatown, and the United Nations building. We got off at Battery Park, where you can look out to see the Statue of Liberty. There were surprisingly several "Statue of Liberties" on the walk down to the real one as we saw people dressed up as the statue standing around for money.

We finished our bus ride back at Times Square, hurried and ate some dinner, and headed for our theater. After walking for awhile, we realized we were headed in the wrong direction and were running out of time, so we got a cab and relaxed as we drove to the theater. I guess one of us wasn't really relaxing though, because before we knew it Kim was paying the driver and telling us to hurry and hop out. We were only a couple of blocks away from the theater. Kim told us she just couldn't stand to see that little meter ticking up the price when we could just walk! :)

The play, although not amazing, was entertaining, and we all enjoyed the story and the songs. We took the train out to White Plains where my training was and our hotel. By the time we got to the hotel, it was after midnight.

Saturday, after my training, I took the train into town to meet Kim, Carrie, and Paula. We went to a Mexican restaurant called Maya. It was delicious! The best part was a three-sampler dessert that had bread pudding, chocolate flan, and caramel crepes. It was delicious! Afterwards, we met up with Darcy and walked over to the Rockefeller Center to go to the "Top of the Rock" as all of the signs advertise. We would have gone to the top of the Empire State Building, but the lines were very long, and we didn't have enough time to wait. There was no line to the top, so we went straight up. It was gorgeous on top! We could see all around the city, with everything all lit up. It was a great final activity for New York!

Eating at Angelo's.

Riding on the tour bus.

Me, Paula, and Kim in front of the Statue of Liberty.

On top of the GE building (Rockefeller Center)

The view of New York City and the Empire State Building from the top.

Carrie, Kim, me, and Darcy on the top looking down.

Happy 4th of July!

Today is the 4th of July. I think this is the first fourth of July we haven't spent with one of our families. We still had a good time, but it didn't seem quite like the fourth! We had a ward breakfast this morning. We got there about 30 minutes late though and couldn't find anybody! We're not sure if we went to the wrong place, or if the breakfast just ended really fast! We went to Village Inn instead and had a good breakfast there. Landon especially loved lining up all of the half-and-half containers along the edge of the table while we waited for our food.

For lunch, our friends the Roses came over. I had filled up Landon's alligator pool with water that morning, so it was nice and warm after lunch. Landon and Jackson had fun playing in the pool, and we had fun talking and watching the kids until it finally got too hot and we went inside. It is one of the warmest days we have yet this year today. Once inside, we took off the wet swimsuits, and Jackson and Landon had fun running up and down the hall in their matching Nemo swim diapers. They were pretty funny laughing and running around each other! I think Landon was just excited to have another kid around instead of just his parents.

Landon was pretty tuckered out after all the swimming and running around. He just wanted to lay on Shane once the Roses left, and then he took a little nap. It turned out to be a pretty good fourth, even though we did miss our families! Happy Fourth of July everyone! Be sure to let us know what you did!

(Whoops! I kind of got my toes in the pictures! I shouldn't have said anything and you probably wouldn't have noticed!)

Mowing the Lawn with Dad

Yesterday, we mowed our lawn for the first time in our new house. I think Shane was excited to get out his lawnmower again until he woke up this morning with awful allergies! Maybe I'll have to mow the lawn next time!

While Shane was out there, Landon decided he wanted to help his dad mow the lawn. We got out his little lawnmower, and he pushed it around the lawn after Shane. He would get a little nervous if the actual lawnmower got to close to him, but other than that he was having a great time! What do you think? Will he still love mowing the lawn when he is old enough to really mow it? :)

Carpet . . . Enfin!

Well, it's official. We finally got our carpet! It was quite a day on Wednesday when the carpet came. The carpet guy showed up around 9 in the morning. He came alone and began tearing out the old carpet right away. Landon and I hung outside while he was working. After about an hour, Jose (our carpet guy) came out and asked me if it was okay if his friend came and helped him get the carpet in because this was a big job (or I should say yob). The only hold up was his friend had recently arrived from Mexico, and if the store asked, I was to tell them Jose did the work alone. I didn't care, as long as it gone done fast and well!

By about lunch time, I called Shane and asked him to bring Landon and me home some lunch. It had been about four hours at that point. It was Landon's naptime, so we built a little fort in the backyard with blankets and chairs and tried to sleep under it. I could have fallen asleep fine, but Landon didn't go for it.

By five that night, Landon and I were getting pretty tired of being outside. It had been a long day. And they still weren't done!!! They told us that Landon's room was done, so Landon and I went and hung out in there for awhile. Shane brought us home dinner, and we got Landon ready for bed. Shane handed me the crib pieces through our bedroom window (they were now in the living room working so we couldn't go through that way) and we got Landon bed all set up. We put Landon to bed at 8, and they finished just after, around 8:15. Whew!!! It looked great though! Before, in the living room, there was a big strip of linoleum that took up about 1/3 of the living room and went all the way down the hall too. Now it's all carpeted. The carpet is really soft and thick, so we think we'll like it! I took some pictures of the living room and dining room so you can get an idea of what things are looking like. (The washer/dryer area has a door, but we have it off to paint it).

Moving Frenzy

Well, it's official. Actually, it's been official for a little over a week now, but we've been a little too busy to post on here. We are now in our new house in Beaverton. We have had a couple of crazy weeks as we painted, tiled, packed, and moved. Shane's parents came out for a whole week to help. We don't know what we would have done without them! My mom came Friday night after preschool for the weekend to help move, and stayed on a little after. We love our new house, especially our yard. Landon has already figured out how to turn the hose on and off, so pretty much every day we end up taking his clothes off because he gets them all wet! We're still busy doing lots, mainly finishing painting the doors around the house. The most exciting thing though is that our carpet finally comes tomorrow! Yipee! It took a lot longer than we had originally expected. I bought a ice cream package with ice cream sandwiches and cones at Costco to keep in the freezer for treats during the move. Landon likes the cones! Here's a picture of him on Saturday while Shane was painting and I was sanding doors. I don't know how well you can see, but he has a nice chocolate mustache! Landon is definitely enjoying life, even if we're busy working! I'll have to put up some more pictures tomorrow once we get our carpet.

Humpty Dumpty

I just got home from Landon's 2-year doctor's appointment. The doctor said he was healthy and progressing as he should! He is in the 75th percentile for his height and weight, and still off the charts for his head circumference. Unfortunately, we had a bad accident when we got home. I was following Landon up the stairs outside our apartment, holding a gallon of milk in each hand. We made it up the stairs and in the front door. Landon went in ahead of me, and I set the gallons of milk down on the kitchen table (just inside the door). I turned around and Landon was already out the door and headed to the steps. I told him that he shouldn't go down without Mommy. Unfortunately, I think that made him think he had to get away from me, because then he started hurrying down the stairs, not holding onto the railing or anything. Sure enough, after only about five steps, Landon did what I have been fearing he would the entire last year we lived here - he tumbled forward, hitting his head right on the cement step just down from him, and rolled over and continued to fall down about six or seven steps. Fortunately, he hit the side of the stairs, and that stopped his fall for a second and I hurried and grabbed him. I was screaming as he fell, and he was of course crying. Luckily, he didn't seem to lose consciousness (as I heard him crying the whole way down and after, I don't think he did). He got a bad bump on his forehead, scraped up his nose, his arm, and his leg. He cried for awhile, but not too bad. A man came over from across the street to make sure we were okay. He said he thought for sure that Landon had broken his head open. I felt so grateful that nothing worse happened! I will be so glad to not have those stairs anymore!!! I took a picture of his scrapes, but you can see he's still smiling, so I think he'll survive!

The Wedding Whirlwind

Last week, we had a whirlwind trip to Utah for David's return from his mission and Becky and Nate's wedding. It was a wonderful trip, and we had a great time visiting with friends and family. Landon and I drove out Monday with my parents, and we stayed with Jake and Stacey in Provo that night. Landon loved seeing his aunts and uncle. Tuesday, we ran some errands, then Tuesday night, Landon and I went to pick up Shane at the airport and drove up to North Ogden to stay at the Malans for the night. It was fun to see them, even if it was for such a short time! We are glad they will be coming to visit us soon. Wednesday, we left Ogden in the morning to be up at the airport to welcome David home at 12:49 p.m. It was so great to see him! He looks great, or course, and it was fun to visit with him and hear more about his mission. Thursday was the big day, with Becky's wedding at 2:30 in the Bountiful temple, pictures, and a dinner that night. We then celebrated Jacob's birthday on Friday morning, and ended the day with Becky and Nate's reception that night. Luckily the weather was beautiful! We had such a fun visit with family, and it was so great to be with Becky and Nate on their special day. I'm putting a couple of pictures here on the blog, and we also added some to a slideshow. http://www.sjmalan.com/cheese.htm