I think there was just a lot of randomness this month. I don’t remember any big events. So here’s some random.
Oh, yeah. Austin’s preschool class went on a field trip to the Bean Museum at BYU. I didn’t want to go, because of what they were doing – EEWWW!- but they really needed help. I’m pretty sure my feet were on the seat and I went to the back when the snake came out. UGH!
Enjoying the park.
Carlos’ dad was here in February. We had free tickets to a UVU basketball game and the boys thought that was fun. Unfortunately for them, Carlos and I get bored way too fast at games like that, so we didn’t stay the whole game.
Valentine’s Day included decorations, yummy heart-shaped, coconut flavored cake ball treats, pink heart-shaped pancakes and a dinner of take-out Peruvian food for the family.
Though there wasn’t much snow last year, the boys did get a couple of snowmen built. Too bad there was some kid that kept knocking it down (same kid, no idea who). The boys were pretty sad when that happened and I was pretty mad.
I also had my DC Trip in February.
Here are a couple of other cute random photos from the month. Yes, my kids have carrots in their hands.
I’m going to try and do a quick catch-up of last year by month since I didn’t really post much. At all. We all know how picture heavy I can get, but it’s how I document things. I’ll try and keep it to a minimum.
We celebrated New Years with my family in Vernal. It included a little dancing and a piñata that was so hard to break, even the adults couldn’t do it, and some more silliness with the kids before sending them off to bed and them having more food and playing games as adults.
Zach had to clean the wall where he colored on it. As soon as he heard me gasp, he said, “I clean it!” and went to find something to clean it with.
Carlos was awesome and obliged yet another Pinterest-inspired idea for me. Our small laundry room had a small, not very useful closet. It’s the little area between our garage and dining area. So, we tore that out and he built in some shelving for me. Of course it ended up being more involved than we thought it would, as projects usually are, but we have loved it. Maybe someday we’ll put doors on the shelves, but it’s really nice to have open access to everything too. There is also now bead board and coat hooks in the larger open space.
We went to the Auto Expo and looked at all of the fun new cars, including “Bumble Bee” We waited in line forever for the boys to ride on these cars. Jaiden and I also went on the Jeep ride that consisted of steep hills, lots of bumps and driving at crazy angles. I only have video of that and it’s pretty boring so I won’t post it. Jaiden loved it.
This is for you, Dad!
We enrolled Jaiden in the city basketball program, which is called Little Hoopsters for the first and second graders. It teaches them skills and gives them a chance to play some ball too. He loved it and I was so pleased with how he learned to control his disappointments and with how much fun he had. The first three pictures are from the first “game” and the rest are from the last “game” as you can see, he pretty much had a huge grin on his face most of the time!
Austin and Zach had fun at the last game too.
Damaris dropped me off at the Reagan International Airport and I got checked in and waited and waited and waited. I was flying home through JFK and it was just a small commuter plane that would take me there. It had to come from New York and was delayed due to mechanical problems. We had to change gates a few time and waited several hours. The plane finally made it from NYC but they eventually cancelled the flight back because of the mechanical problems. That was fine with me, I’d rather it be cancelled than have problems! Well, they finally got me on another flight to NYC, I told them I really didn’t want to go down to Atlanta and back home (mostly because I’ve been to that airport plenty of times!). While waiting at one of the gates, I met Senator Hatch. He was very nice and spoke with me and let me take a picture, but it’s a horrible one of me so you don’t get to see it. I told him who we had visited with in his office and that I had left a picture of my son, so that if he saw it, he would know who it was.
We finally took off and, of course, I had to sit behind the same girl who had been fighting with people in the line when we were trying to get new flights. She was so obnoxious and would not put her seat in the upright position. I was actually behind and to the side of here but the man seated right behind her got so annoyed, he first told the flight attendant and then, at one point when she had put it down again, pushed the seat. She flirted in an obnoxious, rude way the entire time with the guy next to her. I was so glad when the flight was over, just because of her! The man next to me had the window seat and was more interested in reading the paper and covering most of the view than letting me peak at what I could! I did see that we flew right over the Pentagon as we took off and could see some of the lights of DC. He was nice enough, however, to let me have the paper when he was done because the cover story was of the funeral I had seen at Arlington the day before.
I couldn’t see anything flying into JFK, and by the time I got to the terminal after a long walk, I thought I had already missed my connection. I took me a minute to get oriented, but I decided to try. I ran down there and they had just pulled away from the gate. So, because I had got in late because of the mechanical problems, they put me up in the Hilton close to the hotel and paid for the shuttle service too. There were several of us in the van and the driver got in a big fight with some other driver who claimed ours was stealing all the passengers. When we all came out of the airport, our driver was the only one there and like we know that we should wait around for another to come so that it’s fair for everyone! Seriously! I actually found it quite amusing, but they were really angry!
By the time I got checked in to the hotel and called Carlos, it was getting close to 10:00 p.m. I decided that there was no way I was going to stay the night in New York and not see anything! So I told Carlos (who was more than a little worried) that I was going to get a taxi downtown. I asked the concierge if he knew of a safe way to do that and he looked at me like I was crazy! He said, “Miss, I do not know where you are from but you cannot just walk around the streets here, this is the Bronx!” I told him again that I wanted to take a taxi downtown and if there was a safe way to do that.
He took me outside to some private taxis that work with the hotel and we negotiated a price. It took my all of the money I had and he really didn’t want to do it for me at that price, but he finally did. The driver’s name was “Jimmy” and he was from India. He eventually let me sit up front so that I could see things better. Jimmy drove me across the Brooklyn Bridge and to a place across from the Statue of Liberty where I got out to take pictures. I didn’t want to take too long, so a lot of my pictures are hurried. Most of them are from the car, at night, with not much warning to be able to take them. But I have pictures and can say I was there!
Jimmy stopped at Times Square and Carlos called just as I was getting out. Of course, he was worried about me, and was calling to make sure I was okay. I told him where I was and I think he was more than a little jealous because he’s always wanted to go to New York and Times Square. Someday we’ll make it back! I knew that I was going to be safe and protected though because I could feel it and knew that I was being given an opportunity to see things and couldn’t miss out on it. If I hadn’t felt good about my crazy venture, I wouldn’t have done it.
Just as I got there, there was a commercial promoting Utah on this big screen.
I headed back to the taxi but saw the driver was just starting to smoke so I went back to Times Square. When I had been leaving the first time, I heard someone say, “Excuse me Miss!” but ignored it. Well, when I went back this guy came up and said again, “Excuse me, Miss.” So I turned and saw the guy in the bottom corner of the picture. I didn’t know I was taking a picture of him when I took this, I was just taking a 360 degrees picture of Times Square. Anyway, he asked me how long I was going to be there and I told him I was leaving just then. I was being careful but he just said, “I wish you were staying longer because I think you are really cute and I would like to get to know you better.” Then he walked away. Maybe it was my wide-open eyes or maybe he just wanted kidnap/rob/…. me, I don’t know. But again, I knew I was okay.
The driver also stopped at the Rockefeller Center and I ran across the street to take a few pictures as well.
We finally headed back to the hotel. I don’t remember what bridge we took back but it was a different one. We arrived safe and sound and I had one more great experience to add to those in my life.
It was definitely time for bed, I had to be up somewhat early for my flight home!
The flight left around 11:00 am Eastern Time but I got to the airport early. Here is the hotel as we were leaving on the shuttle bus.
They had iPad stations all over, it was nifty!
Almost home!
Mom picked me up with the boys because Carlos was working. Thank you so much for all of your help and for staying an extra day! What an amazing experience!
I absolutely loved my trip and it was a much needed break. I was gone just long enough to rest and rejuvenate and start to want to be back home. My cute boys had made a welcome home sign and had little gifts for me. They had a blast with Grandma and we excited to show me some of the fun stuff they got to play with while she was there.
There is nothing like travel and there is nothing like home.
