What Else?

So besides going into NYC and attending Kyra's gradation, I know you are all wondering what else I did on my trip To PA. I ate out a lot, I went to Texas Roadhouse, The Olive Garden and the Sandwich Mill (best cheesesteaks ever).

I went to Rita's twice! I got a mango gelati once and then I got a raspberry lemonade water ice and I immediately regretted not getting Mango. I always regret not getting mango! I also just found out that Rita's is opening up in Glendale! I am the happiest person right now.

Hung out with Garfield and Toby and guess what?!?! I have been magically cured of my allergies to cats. Happy day. I used to get so sick whenever I would go home but this time I was fine!

I also hung with my BFF Dana :), watched "Where The Wild Things Are" (definitely an analytical movie. Those wild things are messed up big time). I went shopping with my sisters, did homework (yes I am awesome) and I got chocolate covered pretzels from Ashers. I even took my old ring and bracelet from an old BF to see how much a jeweler would give me. Sadly they were only worth $44 together so I did not sell them even though Matt would love to see them gone!

I was also home over Father's Day which was a nice treat. My Dad gave a talk in sacrament meeting and then gave the same talk in the Spanish Sacrament meeting that meets in the RS room. I listened to both but didn't understand a lick of spanish!

I bought Dad the shirt he is wearing. It says, King For A Day.

I miss PA and don't know when I'm going to go back again :( Matt tells me I say this after every visit but I always seem to make it back within 6 months!

The City That Stole My Heart

As a graduation present I told Kyra I would take her into NYC to shop on Friday. Crystal and my Mom were planning on joining us and my mom was going to drive so we didn't have to take the train. Thursday night Mom wasn't feeling well and decided she couldn't drive in. I didn't want to take the train because it adds an extra 1-2 hrs onto the trip so I bit the bullet and decided to drive (which I once vowed never to do!). Around 10pm Casey,Nikki, and Jenna decided they wanted to go too and we also discovered that Miley Cyrus was playing a free concert Friday morning in Central Park for GMA. The gates opened at 6am which meant we had to leave at 4am. So with 2 hours of sleep we ended up leaving at 5am and made it into the city by 7am. My dad gave me pretty good directions but once I got thru the Lincoln Tunnel I made a wrong turn. I ended up on the East side while the parking garage was on the West side! Because it was so early the traffic wasn't that bad and I was surprised at how easy it was to drive in the city! I now think I'm pretty awesome :)

The concert was a lot of fun and we even made it on TV! They showed me once and Kyra and Casey got on like five times! Bret Michaels was there along with Miley so that was an extra bonus. Kyra and Casey are going back in August for the Jonas Brothers concert.

After the concert we ate breakfast a cute little cafe in the middle of central park. Then we proceeded to walk thru the park. I had never been in the northern part of the park and I was pleasantly surprised by the Alice and Wonderland statue and cute ponds.

We made our way up the upper east side to check out the thrift shops. We went to two of them and decided $1000 dresses weren't on our shopping list for the day. We walked back down 5th avenue and went to H&M! Love that store. After that we caught a taxi back to 77th and met my friend Corinne at the Shake Shack for lunch. Corinne is one of my very good friends from Connecticut and I'm so glad she came down to see me even if it was only for 2 hours.

We decided to head out at 4pm to try and miss traffic. The keyword here is TRY. We failed. It took one hour to from 61st st to the Lincoln Tunnel (which is at 41st st). Cars were cutting me off left and right and one car even drove up on the sidewalk to cut me off! I didn't let him tho, I was getting angry!

It was such a fun day and we were so tired by the time we got home at 7pm. I'm just glad I conquered my fear of driving into NYC. I love that city and I miss it so much. Just glad I got to hang with my girls in the city that I love :)

Me and Corinne outside the Manhattan Temple.

Traffic!!!

All Grown Up

Went to PA to see Kyra graduate along with 987 other kids in her class! Kyra is headed to BYU-I in January! Congrats Kyra! Glad I could be home....8 years after I graduated from NPHS! Scary.

Family minus Lauren and Matt.

What I Do For Disney

Back in March we went to Disneyland for free by participating in The Give A Day of Service program. I just found the pictures from the service on my phone and wanted to share. Here's what I wrote about that day on my spring break post,

Thanks to the Phoenix monastery we got in for free (to disney). A few weeks back we spent 4 hours cleaning up fallen palm tree branches which included many dead pigeons and a live bat that flew at me.

So here are the pictures to prove it!

Fun Times With Family

We love that Matt's brother and family live nearby in Tucson so can get together often. Kevin and Matt found out that McCain and Romney were holding a town hall meeting in Mesa last Friday and they just HAD to go! So Cynthia and the kids came over to the house where we proceeded to go shopping!

Emma LOVES Gus Gus and Lovee. She has named some of her stuffed animals Gus Gus and Lovee and her dolphin floaty is named Gus Gus!

Friday night Matt and I decided that making Kevin and Cynthia sleep on our couch for the 3rd time just wasn't very nice so we went and bought a king sized bed! I am in heaven, no lie. We had a king when we first got married but it was destroyed in the Queens flood of '07 (that's a story for another day). Ever since then we've had a queen and Matt and I don't like to share space so it's been a constant battle! Anyways we got the softest, biggest bed we could find and I'm just so happy! We moved our queen bed into the guest room which I think will entice people to visit more than the couch...even though the couch is quite comfortable.

Saturday we went to Peter Piper Pizza to play games (for the kids of course). We were having a blast playing the game where you shoot your token and it can land in either a 4, 10, 20, 40, 50, 100, or 500 ticket hole. Well Cynthia kept getting it into the 40 ticket one so we were all excited about that and then Matt tried with his last token and wouldn't you know it, he got it into the 500 ticket one! We were all yelling and being loud about it. It's funny because you can get like dollar store prizes with 500 tickets! That's why I don't love those places but Matt gave his tickets to our niece Emma and she got a fishing game. Matt was pretty proud of himself, as he should be!

Took a picture with my phone so we could show our future kids!! We take these things seriously.

Island In The Sun

Last week our friends, Steven and Alexa, invited us to go Apache Lake (the same lake we passed while driving and almost dying back in sept). Luckily Matt had off work and since I don't work anymore we were game. We had so much fun playing on the lake and trying out new toys. Matt tried what's called Sky Skiing where you sit on what looks like a chair, strap yourself in and then get pulled behind the boat! So crazy and apparently very hard. Matt was able to get up a few times but only for a few seconds....better than nothing! I'm proud to say I never fell off of the huge tube and my arms hurt for three days afterwards because I was holding on so tight!

I love the mountains around the lake....Arizona defintely has some beautiful landscapes.

Another Year Gone

It's crazy to me how before I know it another year has gone by. Last September I started working as an aide at an elementary school in Phoenix and before I knew it school was out! I really enjoyed my job and I loved working with the kids. On the last day of school one of my girls came up to me, hugged me and said, "I love you Miss Ami". I just about cried!
My job consisted of working one on one with some kids and an hour of recess duty each day. The picture above is me during duty. I had little helpers that would scout the playground for kids being bad! We had to take a picture of our 'you're in trouble' pose! I'm sad that I won't get to go back next year but hopefully I'll be able to visit.

Lazy Weekend

After being alone all last week I was ecstatic when Matt decided to come home early from his California hike. Since he still had some days off of work we decided to just be lazy for once. We sat by the pool almost all day on Friday and Saturday, slow cooked some ribs on the BBQ, saw Iron Man 2 and discovered Texas Roadhouse via Steven and Alexa (sorry J and L we never had faith in you! Our bad!) It was a really nice weekend.

I started school today!!!!! I had to get up at 5am to catch a ride with Matt and then I was in class from 9-5. This program is going to be crazy intense but I'm ready for it; I am a lot more confident than I was in my bachelors program. I was so excited to find that in my class of 22 people there are 2 other BYU alums and 1 BYU-I alum! It's nice to have some familiarity. So now I'm officially a MSW student! Honestly didn't know if I had the guts to do this but here I am and the tuition's been paid. Wish me luck.

Updated picture of my little girl...she is completely independent now, thank goodness.