Category: Uncategorized (Page 92 of 118)

Yes, I know you’re tired of reading about our trip, but I guess I’m not done talking about it, so here we go–just a few more pictures.
We saw the Late Show with David Letterman,
and went up to the top of the Empire State Building. and took lots of pictures of the city from way up there.
We melted in the heat and humidity and went to see the World Trade Towers spot.
Here’s me at Wicked, and at the Alice in Wonderland stutue in Central park, . While I was taking some pictures of children and ducks, Ryan was having a little nap in central park.
Even though most of our pictutes look like we’re just hot and tired, we did actually have a great time. Right up until it was time to come home. Since I’ve already blogged all about our frustration about that, I won’t go into details, but just show a few lovely pictures of us waiting. and waiting. to get a flight home.

Just a few pictures to show the highlights of our trip.
Here’s one of Elder Coleman giving us a tour of the Smith family frame home.
Niagara Falls was quite a great experience.
with our two different colored slickers to “keep us dry”and our “special shoes”

and the nice ranger lady who helped us start up the car when the battery was dead (it was raining in the morning, and then lights got left on all day–oops!

We had wonderful personalized tours of all the church sites by knowledgable and loveable tour guides, too.

We saw the Hill Camora and the “Hill Camora Cat”

We even went to an awesome concert by the Raleigh Ringers!

And in another post I’ll share some pictures from New York City.

So happy to be home, finally.

The kids seem bigger and more grown up, can they have changed in a week? I’ve never been away from my children for that long, and I was really missing them. It was really wonderful to see their faces light up and run to us when we came in the door. Maybe they do love us after all!

Oh, the excitement of traveling.
This morning, we woke up at 4:30 AM. (That would be 2:30 Utah time, by the way)
Caught a taxi at 5:00 AM.
Got to the airport (JFK) around 5:30.
Stood in line to check in until 5:50 or so.
That was when we found out from the lovely US Airlines lady that we were NOT listed on our 6:50 flight. Our names were in the computer, but there was no flight information attached to those names.
So, we stood there at the ticket counter (actually sitting on the floor some of the time) while Charmaine told us that every flight today was OVERBOOKED-it being a holiday weekend and all- and she couldn’t get us on any flight out. This is even after I called yesterday to confirm our flight and find out what time it left.
At around 7:30
***hold on a minute, are those nuns? I think I see some nuns in white with a blue stripe over there. The things you see in airports, huh?**
Anyway, at around 7:30, after standing there for about two hours, Charmaine finally tells us she’s got a flight for us on Delta out of Newark (that’s in New Jersey) leaving at 5:30 PM. Wow!
So, Charmaine called us a cab and gave us voucher for the drive from JFK to Newark. After our wild ride (cab drivers here are not known for their smooth driving) we got here to the lovely Newark airport, hoping to be able to be put on stand-by for an earlier flight. The lady at the check-in desk here practically laughed at us when I suggested the stand-by thing. She also told us we couldn’t check in until 6 hours before our flight.
So, here we sit.
Waiting.
Blogging.
I read my e-mail for the first time in a week, and that took about 20 minutes.
I do have a book, and we have the internet, thanks to Mr. Technology, so we should be able to pass the time without killing ourselves.
We just helped a cute Austrailian girl find the phone number for Malasian air so she can check on her flight out of Los Angeles (she’s been traveling for 6 weeks now–talk about being ready to go home!)
The good news is–we aren’t having to pass the time for 8 hours with 5 children.

In other news, we did get tickets to see Wicked last night and it was FABULOUS!! Amazing! Ryan really enjoyed it, too. He didn’t laugh out loud quite as much as he did in Spamalot, but he said he thought it was a better show. I loved it. I laughed, I cried, I sang along, and I’m buying the soundtrack as soon as I get home. I HIGHLY recommend it.

So, to recap our trip, we:
Saw all the Church sites in Palmyra–the Smith frame home, Smith log home, Hill Camorah, Moroni monument, Peter Whitmer farm and visitor’s center, the sacred grove, and the Grandin printing building.
We also went up to Niagra falls and did all the tourist things up there.
We went to the Raleigh Ringers concert, and it was AWESOME!
We went to 3 broadway shows and the David Letterman show.
We went to Central Park, the World Trade Center, and the Empire State Building.
We ate great pizza, a calzone as big as our head, and wonderful cheesecake.
And we’ve waited in three airports.

And we’re ready to come home.
May the stars align so that we can.

We’ve been so busy–no time to blog. Yesterday we spent a large part of the day aquiring tickets for the Late Show with David Letterman. First we stood in line to apply for the “lottery”, then they called to let us know we had tickets. So we headed back uptown to pick up the tickets. Then we had about an hour until we were supposed to be back, so we rushed to the 1/2 price ticket seller to get tickets for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, then back to the Ed Sullivan Theater. So, we got to see Dave! It wasn’t the greatest show, I must say–I didn’t know any of the guests, the band was loud and not so great, and it was a long wait to get in–but it was David Letterman, so it was still fun. Johnny Depp was the scheduled guest, but I guess he cancelled.

Today–it’s Central Park and try for Wicked.

We arrived here on Saturday afternoon, and after standing in line to be helped by the slowest possible rental car agent in the world, we finally made it out of the Rochester Airport. We drove to Palmyra and met up with my parents at the Smith farm Welcome center. So far, we’ve gotten “special personalized tours” of the Smith log home, the Smith frame home, the Peter Whitmer farm and the church that is now there, and a little bit of the Hill Camorah visitor’s center.

Today we’re off on a roadtrip to Niagra Falls!

I’m sitting here in the little lobby of C22. In the Airport. In Chicago. Did I mention that I don’t really enjoy flying? Well, the flying part isn’t so bad, what I really don’t like is the landing. Taking off I can hadle (sort of), and the smooth part is ok, but the landing just sucks. I get all sweaty, and my stomache jumps all over the place. Nausea sets in as I wonder if I’m going to throw up or not. And here I sit waiting to do it again.
The nice thing about the flying today is that I’m doing it without a bunch of little people to watch over, and I’m only schlepping my own carry on, not everyone else’s (still incredibly heavy!). But there’s another flight from Chicago to Rochester, and then we can start the fun.

Deep breaths. Relax. And board that plane.

–Take 3 kids to grandma’s (done)
–Take 2 birds to the neighbor’s house (done)
–Feed other friends’ birds while they are out of town for the last time (they come home tonight)
–Take 2 more kids to cousins’ house (soon)
–Return the Lost season 1 DVDs to my friend Sherry
–Take the summer fun calendar that I put together to friend Kimberly to copy and distribute
–Get insane amounts of cash out of the bank for taxis and food and everything else
–Pack the father’s day present for my Dad (done)
–Get a book that I think will keep me occupied for the flight (that entails starting about 3 books until I find one that I think is a winner, and then packing a back up book just in case–it’s a long time flying, and for once in my life I won’t have any children on my lap or beside me to entertain and keep from crying)
–Take all the sheets off the beds so the mattresses can “air”
–Clean the house (like that’s going to happen!)
–make sure there is no laundry either in the dryer or in the washer–that could be very very bad
–and, oh yeah–prepare to have FUN!

Some of you may have been wondering about the Hippy Vanagan that was parked at my house for several days this month. No, we aren’t crazy hippies, (not that there’s anything wrong with that) we just had friends visiting. But here’s a picture so you can get the full effect.