Thursday

Matt took off work on Thursday and went into the City with Karen and Amy. They went to see The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, The Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street and later met up with Ami to see The Phantom of The Opera.

Grand Central station.Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island ferry.


Brooklyn bridge.
In the Majestic Theatre seeing The Phantom of The Opera.

After the show.......so good!

The 10 Days of KA (Karen and Amy)

So finally we have some visitors.....(well technically speaking we have had Aunt Lez, Megs and my parents and sisters). We had our first real visitors come all the way from California for a visit with the East Coast Moffitts. We are having a blast! I have never seen so much of NYC.....it has been great to get out and be a true tourist.

I will now post pics and stories of their trip...day by day....this is mainly for family as anyone else is probably bored by now!

I guess see posts above ^

Happy 4th

Karen, Amy, Matt and I went into the city for the fireworks.....it was drizzling a bit but overall the weather was nice. Fireworks near the East River in Lower Manhattan


How we felt after a long day....waiting for the subway train...

Don't Miss a Beat

One of the things we miss most about BYU is the Daily Universe. We loved to read the captivating stories, the controversial opinion section and most of all the Police Beat. Here are some of our favorites.

"Police Beat on June 12, 2008 A blind deer was found by a resident at the Wymount Terrace. Provo Animal Control was called and they came and took care of the animal. They knew it was blind because it was running into things."

"Police Beat: Aug. 2, 2006 A parking officer reported an open container of alcohol in a vehicle near the Harris Fine Arts Center. Upon investigation, police determined the container in question was in fact an empty bottle of maple syrup." (Our all time favorite!)

"July 3-18: A package of Oreo cookies and two cases of compact discs were reported stolen from the WSC Ballroom. One of the cases contained CD's and DVD's with EFY resources on them. The other contained personal CD's. No arrests have been made." (This police beat just made my day....I really want to meet the person who reported Oreo cookies missing.)

"Police Beat: March 19, 2008 A male student posted fliers in female dorm halls asking for dates to satisfy a dating requirement for his marriage preparation class. The fliers not only violate BYU policy but were disturbing female residents. Police discovered that the student was not enrolled in that class and the professor he said he had has retired."

Click on the following link to read student opinions on Cloak Boy and the Terrace piano. http://newnewsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/67667

Birthday at The Empire State Building

Yesterday was my 29th birthday, and as you can see by the picture below, I am still in great physical shape. We spent most of the day in the city beginning with Times Square. We bought tickets for Phantom of the Opera and The Lion King, and we put our names in the Wicked drawing. We didn't win the drawing but we had a good time anyway. We'll see Phantom and Lion King later in the summer.

When we arrived at the Empire State Building the line was very long. The Flatiron building is about ten blocks south of the ESB on Fifth Avenue so we strolled down to take a few pictures.

I can't remember what church this is but we thought it made for a good picture with the ESB.

This lego ESB is in one of the gift shops. If you look closely, you'll see a lego King Kong at the top.

This is the ESB observation deck entrance on 5th Avenue.

Empire State Building looking up from 34th Street.

This picture was taken looking south to Lower Manhattan from the 86th floor observation deck. Broadway and Fifth Avenue intersect to form the "V" shape. The Flatiron Building is at the tip of that intersection. In the background you can see the green suspension cables of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge which connects Staten Island with Brooklyn. To the left you can see the suspension cables for the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge. The Hudson River is on the right, clearly dividing New York and New Jersey.

A beautiful picture of Ami with New Jersey in the background.

This is East Midtown. Notable buildings include the Chrysler Building on the right, the Met Life Building in the middle (the one with the bright marquee) and the Citigroup Center with green lights towards the back. Grand Central Terminal and the Hyatt are next to the Chrysler building but are too short to be seen in this picture.

Also in Midtown is Rockefeller Center with the GE Building aka 30 Rock at the heart of the development. This building is home to NBC studios and the famous Rainbow Room.

The bright lights are from Times Square. For all the BYU CM and FM graduates the Worldwide Plaza is just left of center (remember the video from Bro. Burr's class?). Note the GE building on the right.



Grand Central Terminal, The Grand Hyatt New York and The Chrysler Building from the corner of 42nd Street and Madison Avenue.

We also went on the "SkyRide" at the ESB. It is kind of like Star Tours but with New York City. It was really fun. Sorry, no pictures of that.

Happy Birthday!

Today is a great day because it is the day Matthew graced us with his presence 29 years ago! It is 10:45 am and I am still in bed........I am a horrible wife.....I had planned to make him breakfast but my wisdom teeth are giving me a horrible time and I have no energy.....However he is out right now so I will clean the house and make him breakfast for lunch.

Matthew is my best friend and he is a friend to anyone he meets. He is kind, patient, compassionate, funny, caring. In fact just last night when he got home from work he found me lying in bed (seems like I live in bed) and no dinner on the table. He went straight out and bought me dinner and a present to make me feel better! He is so sweet.....never complains. He is extremely smart and creative. He knows everything....it's not fun to watch Jeopardy with him. He is not afraid to share the gospel and in fact he is not afraid of anything! He is extremely selfless....you can always count on Matt to help out.

If you don't know him, you are missing out!

Love you Matt and happy birthday!

Riding Out the Day's Events

Saturday was a full day for Jordan and I as we celebrated our birthdays with golf, swimming and a Rush concert that rocked Philadelphia from the Wachovia Center all the way to the Museum of Art. Jordan got us floor seats for the event which lasted almost 3 1/2 hours and had our ears ringing for days. The band played classics including Limelight, Tom Sawyer, and Natural Science, and a handful of songs from their new album, Snakes and Arrows. It was a spectacular display of lights, lasers, pyrotechnics, and music. Take a look at the sweet pictures I took with my phone.

This is a pretty good shot of Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee. You can see Neil Peart's huge drum set in the middle. Peart played an extremely long and complex drum solo towards the end of the concert.

The visuals were awesome throughout the show.

This is a picture of the band with a man in a chicken suit. The chicken man is the yellow guy on the right. He's checking the chickens cooking in the rotisserie oven on stage.

Here is one of Geddy Lee hoppin' around the stage in his Phillies shirt.

Jordan and I before the concert in our Rush shirts.