The Big Apple

Here we are in beautiful Central Park.



James and I had an awesome time in New York! Aflac definitely goes all out on these trips. I love that they have paid for two out of three of our vacations this year...it's great.

We tried to do everything we could and see everything we could see, but there is just so much to do there. I'm sure you could go over and over and never see it all. We stayed at the Hilton which was just a block away from 5th Avenue, across the street from Carnegie Hall, and just a few blocks from Times Square. I was definitely glad that James has such a good sense of direction, because I never knew where we were! Every time we got off the subway, I felt like we were lost. He only got us off at the wrong stop once, and we could still easily get to where we were going from there.

On our first full day, we went to the Museum of Natural History. We were hugely disappointed. James was livid! Turns out that "Night at the Museum" wasn't even actually filmed there. We went there expecting it to be exactly like the movie which we've seen dozens of times because Isabelle loves it. The movie was filmed in Toronto, and most of the characters and things from the movie weren't even there. The place was enormous and we spent a good while just searching for "Dum Dum." So anyway, we were sad, but should've known that nothing's quite like it looks in the movies.

We did all of the touristy things that we could do. We spent a morning wandering through Central Park, looking for spots from the movie "Enchanted," another favorite around our house. We went to the Plaza Hotel. We shopped in Chinatown. We went to the Empire State Building at nighttime which was beautiful! We went to a lot of the big stores in Times Square- the M&M and Hershey's stores, Toys R Us and checked out the Good Morning America studio and all of that fun stuff. It was fun just to be there and see all of the sights that we've seen in so many movies. Times Square was always packed, and I can't even imagine what it would be like on New Year's Eve.

Shopping was of course one of the highlights of our trip! How could it not be? We spent hours at an awesome department store called Century 21. We also spent a long time at the toy store FAO Schwarz, which was so much fun. We went to the Disney Store to get Isabelle some presents which kind of backfired, because apparently she thought we went to Disneyland without her, and felt really bad about it! We stopped into Tiffany's and picked up a little diamond necklace for me (just kidding, I wish! James didn't even offer and I was totally offended!) I got a fake purse in Chinatown, of course. I really think I would've done more shopping if I weren't pregnant, because there just isn't a lot to buy yourself when you are.

The thing we did most on this trip was walk. And walk, and walk, and walk. One day we actually walked for sixteen hours! That's an extra lot of walking for a woman who is seven months pregnant! I didn't want to stop though, becuase there was too much to see. We went to Ground Zero, but you couldn't see much of anything. They have it all blocked off, and are now building the memorial. They had a little store by it that sold souveniers and also showed all about the memorial they're building. We visited Wall Street and the Financial District. We spent a day visiting the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, which was really cool. It was so neat to see in person.

We went to see "Shrek the Musical" on Broadway. It was pretty good! I slept through the first half of it though. I was so exhausted and there was nothing I could do to keep myself awake! At intermission, I told James to go buy me some candy, and I made it through the rest of the show. I felt so bad that I paid that much to sleep! Before the show we ate at Planet Hollywood in Times Square, which has my favorite Cap'n Crunch Chicken. We sat next to Edward's suit from Twilight! I can't believe what a Twilight dork I am!

One of my favorite places we visited was Serendipity! It was so delicious! The frozen hot chocolate was one of the best desserts I've ever had. We had to go twice because I liked it so much. We sat next to Marilyn Monroe's table and saw the spots that they had filmed movies there. The girl said that Oprah and Jude Law had been there within the last week. It was just so yummy!

Aflac had a few events that we went to whild we were there. They had a huge buffet dinner where you tasted all of the famous foods of New York. They had a formal dinner and awards banquet, and the last night "Foreigner" performed. They were really good. I didn't know I knew so many of their songs. Everyone had a great time, and they put on a really good show. I had to move to the back of the room because we were right next to the stage because the baby wasn't loving it much! It was super fun though! They also had Bill Clinton and Mike Huckabee each speak one day, but we skipped out on those, don't think we missed much!

It was a fabulous vacation and I'm so glad we got to go. It was a lot of fun spending so much time with my hot husband. We definitely missed Isabelle and talked about her a lot. We called her many times each day. She did really well at home though. The family said she cried for me once each day. I cried a lot more for her! She's quite an independent little girl though, so she did great. My dad brought her to the airport to pick us up and it was so exciting to see her. She just hugged and kissed us over and over! We were so happy to get to go to one of the places we've been wanting to go, and just have fun before the baby comes, because I'm sure it will be our last vacation for a while!

This was just across the street from our hotel. I thought it was cute.

These next few pictures are at the Foreigner concert and dinner. I changed my clothes after the concert started, because my feet were killing me in heels!



The formal dinner night

Eating at Serendipity. Why is that weird guy in the background?

On top of the Empire State Building

Here I am with Edward's suit at Planet Hollywood!

Fall Festivities

Here are just a few pictures of some of the fun fall things we've done. We spent a crisp autumn day at the pumpkin patch and a perfect day at Frightmares. We've certainly enjoyed our Lagoon season passes this year, and definitely plan on getting them again next year. Isabelle has enjoyed every minute we've spent there!

Someday soon I will post about our awesome trip to New York, but this is all I have for now!

I love this face!

Pickin' pumpkins with Daddy

Frightmares! These are all of the grandkids on my side. They were trying to pull scary faces. I took probably ten pictures of them all and didn't get one where they were all looking. What can you do with 7 kids under 8?
Brayden, Jill, Ike, Emma, Brielle, Isabelle, Gracie



My little bumblebee

Posing as pirates

Another Birthday!

Today I turned 26! Yay! That sounds so much older than 25. I had a great birthday. We started it off last night with dinner with my parents at my favorite restaurant, PF Chang's. It was delicious! Tonight we had a party with family. Isabelle made me a pink Cinderella cake, all her idea. She helped Daddy with baking the cake and was very worried when it didn't come out pink. Luckily we fixed it with pink frosting and sprinkles, and she topped it off with some of her princesses. She totally thought she made the whole thing "her own self". I loved it! I got some great gifts and it was a really fun birthday! Funny story... Isabelle and James went shopping for me last week, and later that day, she and I were in the car and she said, "I got you presents Mommy." Then she proceeded to tell me, "I got you a pink shirt, and earrings, and a necklace, then we went to Target and got you one thing." I thought it was hilarious. Can't keep a secret with a two year old around! I'm always happy to celebrate my birthday. I'm just grateful each year to be healthy and so blessed.

Today I had my thirty week doctor's appointment. I just love to see our little one! I will now start going to appointments every two weeks! I can't believe how fast time has flown by and how soon baby "Pink" will be here. The doctor almost gave away the sex of the baby today, like thirty seconds after I reminded him that I didn't want to know! Good thing I can rarely see anything on the ultrasounds unless it's pointed out to me. I think I may have an idea what I saw, but I don't know. The baby is looking very healthy. It is a very busy little person. There is rarely a time I'm not feeling it move, which I love. I suddenly feel ginormous today! I accidently laid right on my stomach tonight, and it hurt so bad. I seem to be taking up a lot more space than usual today too!

This weekend James and I are heading to New York! He and four other Aflac agents/managers from Utah won the trip (it's based on sales performance, so I'm very proud of him!) I am excited, but I'm a nervous wreck! I have been bawling every night about leaving Isabelle. I know she'll be in good hands, but I've only spent one night apart from her in her life, and she was with James the night of my brother's liver transplant. I seriously hope I can make it. I've tried to talk to her about it, and she just wants to come with us. I know she'll have fun, and I'll be the one who has a harder time, but she is a mama's girl, and she love, loves her Daddy. I am literally sick to my stomach just thinking about being away from her. I hope I don't get to New York and have to turn around and come home. I am, however, excited to go to the Big Apple. When James and I got married, we had a list of vacations we wanted to take, and this is one of them. We've been lucky enough to make it to all of our other destinations, and this will top it off!

The two people who made my day super special!

This is my princess cake. Isabelle did such a great job!

My cutie...she melts my heart!

Here's my huge tummy. I took a side view picture nearly every week of my pregnancy with Isabelle..this is only my second for this pregnancy.

James and Isabelle made me this special card. I love it! So crafty!

My birthday dinner at PF Chang's. It doesn't get better than this!