sad but true.

the rest of our new york pictures are gone...BOO! i had two more blog posts planned with our last 2 days in new york but sadly, they're gone.

why? because yesterday...

paul at best buy: (holds up windows 7 software) "so does this include the office suite, with word and excel?"

idiot employee: "yep, it sure does. gimme 200 bucks for it."

the next day...

me: (uploading windows 7 software...wondering why it's taking 45 minutes to upload the software...having a sinking feeling that something's not right...logging on and seeing that EVERYTHING on our computer has been deleted...totally empty...possibly saying some expletives. just kidding, mom...)

turns out we bought and i uploaded the windows 7 operating software which deleted and replaced the windows 7 software that was ALREADY on our new laptop. i did have everything saved on a backup drive so nothing was lost...except the brand new new york pictures that i already deleted from our camera. WAH!

to sum up, beware the idiots at best buy and double check everything you buy for your computer.

the last 2 new york days were pretty fun so i'll just giving a boring, picture-less summary:

second to last day (sunday):

we went to church with nate and claire in the morning...at the lds temple in manhatten! i thought it were very cool to go to church in the same building as the temple rather than a regular churchhouse.

[insert cute picture of me standing in front of the temple]

that evening we took a loooong stroll through central park and i loved it. there was so many people and i loved just sitting and people-watching. it was like a little amusement park, there were vendors everywhere, people and bands performing, and pretty fountains and bridges...

[insert pretty pictures of us and nate and claire in central park]

last day (monday):

we took a tour of nbc studios at rockefeller center, this was another thing that i really wanted to do in new york.

[insert pictures of me and paul standing in front of rockefeller center]

i loved the tour, we got to see inside dr. oz's studio (who cares) and inside the saturday night live studio! that was my favorite. that place is tiny! they make it look so huge on camera. it was crazy to see the place where steve martin and chris farley and will ferrell had done all their funny skits. and the pages who did the tours! ya know that guy on "30 rock", kenneth the page? that is EXACTLY what they're really like, all chipper and smiley and friendly. so funny.

that afternoon we headed out again to go to the natural history museum.

[insert cool pictures of me and paul in front of the huge t-rex skeleton.]

that place is BIG. we just wandered around for a couple hours and didn't even scratch the surface. then we grabbed some yummy shakes at the shake shack, which is right near central park. several people told us before we left for new york that we HAD to go to the shake shack. i agree, it was tastey.

[insert picture of paul in front of the shake shack holding up a shake.]

so that's it. we flew home the next morning and were reunited with penny-bug. oh, well. at least i have the first 2 days saved on the ol' blog here. i'll have to remember to be more cautious with vacation pictures next time...

new york {day 2}

last saturday was a fun day. we rode the staten island ferry (it's free!) in the morning and got to see the statue of liberty. this was pretty much the one thing i wanted to do for sure in new york. it was totally thrilling to see it in person. we didn't go on the actual island because it was super crowded, and the wait was forever, and the tickets to go up into the statue of liberty were sold out...so the ferry was our best option. i loved it!

boarding one of the ginormous ferry boats.

pulling away from the harbor.

waiting for the statue of liberty to come into view...aw, buddies.

thar she blows! it was so amazing to see in person.

(i may or may not have welled up a teeny bit...)

riding back...
i think the staten island ferry + seeing the statue of liberty was my favorite thing.
it was like seeing the effiel tower for the first time. so cool.

but! the day's not over!

for dinner we ate at a mario batali restaurant called lupa and it was SO GOOD. the prices were good, the food was so yummy - if we ever go back to new york, i'm definitely going to that place again.

we rushed through our dinner because we had tickets to see "west side story" on broadway! i don't have any pictures, too dark, too crowded - but it was so fun! we had good seats, the singing was awesome, i loved the dancing...i pretty much love all musicals.

all in all, an awesome day.

new york {day 1}

we took the red eye last thursday night and arrived in new york on friday at 6 am (4 am utah time). me and paul didn't really sleep on the 4 hour flight so we were kinda draggin when we got there. we took a taxi to nate and claire's apartment and i may or may not have been nauseous the entire cab ride. it's totally true! new york cab drivers drive like CRAZY people!

we said hi to nate and claire...and fell asleep for 5 hours.

when we got up we wanted to do something low-key but fun. on to the guggenheim museum!

walking through central park to get there.
outside...

inside...

i love the spiral format of the building. we just started at the bottom and wound our way up to the top.

after the art, the next best thing was the air conditioning! when you were outside, the humid air practically stuck to you. when we visited london and france a few summers ago, it was the same weather but none of the buildings had AC. it was so nice that all the buildings in new york had it. even the subways were air conditioned! fancy! actually, it's probably a neccessity. waiting on the subway platform was torture though. it was like literally standing in a steamy sauna + some stank. blech.

that night we hit times square. it was dang crowded!

and even though we went at night, it felt like daytime the lights were so bright.

we had so much fun and it was only the first day! i loved walking around and just people-watching. i think new york is a lot friendlier than the movies portray. i totally felt safe the whole time (even though i did keep a hand on my purse all the time just in case) and the people reminded me alot of southern california, particularly LA. i loved how there was always something to do and you just had to hop on a subway or walk and be there in 10 minutes. we really didn't even scratch the surface during our 4 days there.

we had a great time but i'm glad to be home with penny girl. i missed this little bug!

more pics to come!

pigtails!

little lady finally has enough hair for some good-sized pigtails. i can't believe how grown up she looks! i also can't believe she'll be TWO in september. that's only 2 months away! crazy.

it's so funny, she's totally giving attitude lately. crocodile tears and tantrums all the time...her mood swings are rediculous! hitting and throwing food (and then quickly looking at us to see our reaction) are also becoming quite common...little stinker.

i didn't take any fourth of july pictures but we let penny stay up to watch fireworks for the first time and she was ASTOUNDED to say the least. she just kept her finger pointed in the air at the fireworks like E.T. and said "WHOA!" every time one went off. i loved it. i didn't even really watch the fireworks, i just kept looking at her and grinning the whole time.

right now she's sitting on my lap while i type and playing with a box of floss. she keeps licking the end of the floss string and going "mmm! yum-yum!" that's gotta been beneficial somehow, right?

we've been saying prayers with penny every night before bed since about 3 months ago and the cutest thing happened last week. i wrapped up the prayer and said "we say these things in the name of jesus christ..." and then her little voice goes "ah-men." i about died! so cute! she just totally picked it up on her own. i love hearing her say new words.

i'm gonna miss this little bug while we're in new york...we fly out tomorrow night! so excited!

eclipse!

i went with my sister lana last night for the midnight showing and it was pretty fun. there was a cheesey eclipse party that was going on at the theatre so we strolled around for a few minutes.

posing with jacob, edward and victoria look alikes. lana has her eyes closed, haha. jacob had glitter on his chest, and i'm preeety sure those abs are painted on.

my favorite things about the movie:

- jasper! he was my favorite character to watch in this one! his southern accent was PERFECT, just a hint of it and not so obvious. i loved seeing him in his cowboy garb. and when he was instructing the training bit, he was way funny.
- riley! he was my second favorite character to watch. he was totally perfect, brain-washed but trying to be a leader. i thought he was really good for not having much acting experience. and his was the only vampire make-up that didn't look bad.
- all the newborn stuff was cool.
- jacob. i liked him tons more in this film, it seemed like he was really trying to get into the role and he had some good one-liners.
- the flashback scenes from the campfire scene where the tribe remembers the first "cold ones". that was really cool to watch.
- alice and jasper fighting for the wolves to watch.
- the tent scene!
- the look on victoria's face right before she and edward fight. bryce dallas howard was okay. she had a good intensity but she was in the film so little that it didn't really have a huge impact.
- but, seeing her decapitated body was cool-looking. very icy looking.
- the birds and the bees talk between bella and charlie! har har!

what was pretty bad:

- all of the romantic scenes between bella and edward were kinda flat. it was like, been there done that. i think edward and bella were having a contest to see who could speak in monotone the best.
- rosalie's back story was AWFUL. it really looked as if they filmed it in a couple hours, and was shot like a documentary. rosalie is such an awesome character and they already screwed it up by getting the wrong actress, and then when it was her moment to shine, david slade totally screwed up the dramatic telling of it. i mean, you saw her in her wedding dress dressed for revenge for like half a second! lame.
- carlisle's accent! whoa, he got all madonna with a bad english accent. "it means a bahtul, with loyves lohst" haha.
- everyone's clothing sucked. too boring and all greys and blues.
- speaking of color, the whole film looked so drab! and the focus was kinda filmy and almost blurry at times. and shaky during an action sequence. i'm not sure what the director was tring to do there...
- bree could've been more crazy.
- the volturi all have WAY too much make-up on, like more than the last one. jane even has this weird turquoise crap on her eyes at the end. it would look cooler and more scary if she looked more like a child and not all done up.
- the vampire trio that turn jasper could've looked better. the one time you saw them all, it was way too dark and they looked sweaty, just like ordinary people. i swear, david slade was filming with a dark lens on his camera the whole stinkin time.
- i didn't really like the music as much in this one.
- lady in the audience that came with a BABY. for pete's sake. we've all bought our tickets like a month ago, we're all excited, we came at midnight to stay up late to see this, but suuuure, go ahead and bring your baby and then when edward's proposing to bella and the theatre is silent, don't even try right away to quiet her. UGH.

overall, i don't think david slade had a very good grip on the romantic or dramatic elements. that stuff was kind of flat and stale. it was like he just filming it straight on, to get it documented, so he could get on to more exciting scenes. but the action was good, and i liked the humor in it. maybe i need to see it again. i'm just glad he's not directing the last two. bill condon is doing the last two breaking dawn movies, and the movies he's directed in the past have been both emotional and dramatic so i'm thinking he's gonna do a good job.

yes, i'm a big nerd and think way too much about this stuff.

nursery

i got assigned as a nursery worker at church, i.e. baby-sitter of kids 18 month - 3 years. i'm not gonna lie, it's kinda hard.

i think they put me in there so i could protect penny. i pretty much stick her in the corner and stand guard from the 3-year old beasties. ya know, the one's who'll knock over a 20-month old little girl so hard that her head hits a metal chair while in their rabid pursuit to catch some bubbles. i nearly had a heart attack when that happened.

there's this one kid who's pretty funny, he likes to give hugs. and i mean, HUGS. he goes up to another kid and squeezes and holds on for dear life like a little barnacle while the kid he's "hugging" screams and tries to get free. let's just say he's really strong and takes more than a little of my 25-year old strength to pry him off.

biting. it happens. every sunday. apparently, toddlers are caniverous.

i don't even bother to try to look nice for church. why? because i'm sweaty and my hair's in a crazy ponytail at the end of each sunday. and i'm pretty sure my eyes look pretty crazy, too.

i try not to give penny special attention. i'll set her down with some toys and wander off to go play with another kid but she's not fooled. she whines and crys and WHINES until i pick her up but then have to set her down again to pry the hugger off another victim. i'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing to be in there with my own daughter.

if i had a nickle for every child that screeches "mom-eeeeeeee!" when their parent leaves them in nursery, i would have a lot of nickles.

there's a favorite toy in the nursery: a plastic upright kitchen stove. they will fight to the death over it. they will knock the kitchen stove down on top of another kid to injure them and keep them out of the competition. there are tears. there is biting. there is nothing else in this world that matters more than KITCHEN DOMINATION.

but there's sweet moments, too, i guess. like when a rowdy little boy will sit in my lap quietly for 10 whole minutes while we have song time. in fact, they all kind of quiet down for music time. like the 3-headed dog, fluffy, in harry potter who sleeps while a harp is being played. because he is a beast, and beasties and toddlers like music.

at least i can say i burn some serious calories during church.

booth, booth, booth it up

i had so much fun today. it was the second saturday of the farmer's market and the weather was TONS better than last week. the very first saturday was cold, rainy and windy, but i still made a good amount of cash. today it was sunny and i made even more moola. NICE.

we bring penny straight from her crib to the car in the morning at 6:30am, she chills in the car behind the booth for an hour while we set up, and then paul takes her home. what a trooper.

the spread:

pillowcase dresses + hair clippies + burp cloths.

pocket mirrors + headbands.

i really love the display for the pocket mirrors. it took me a while to figure something out, because they couldn't just lay there on a table. paul helped me staplegun the jute strings to the backs of the frames and we bought some binder clips to keep them on. and none of them fell off. success!

it was a great day and i'm looking forward to all the saturdays this summer!