Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: Field Trips (Page 6 of 10)

What a weekend!

May 2, 2011 / / 2 Comments

Women’s Conference. The two words that conjure up images of thousands of women swarming the BYU bookstore, hundreds of pounds of BYU mint brownies, a silly skit my Mary Ellen Edmunds reminding us to turn our phones off, traipsing around campus with hundreds of other women hoping to get a seat in the JSB auditorium, and rain.

Robin came into town Wednesday night, and I picked her up at the airport after bells rehearsal. We got home by about 11:30. Thursday dawned bright and early, and we were out of here by 8:00 to make the trek to Provo and the hike to the Marriott Center. And for once it wasn’t raining or freezing. In fact, it turned out to be a beautiful day! Shock, I know!

I went to a wonderful class on parenting, and then hustled over to the HFAC for a class on patience, only to be greeted by a line that went out the building, down the sidewalk, made a turn, went in front of the Wilkinson Center, and up the ramp. Seriously. Perhaps this line IS the class, we joked in the line. I wish I had a picture, because it was QUITE the line. The class was supposed to start at 12:30, and at 12:25, I hadn’t moved forward all that much in line, and pretty much knew that I wouldn’t be attending this particular class on patience, unless they had an overflow room or were broadcasting it somewhere else. I guess all those ladies at women’s conference need to learn patience. Or at least they think they do. I was pleased that there were no impatient riots or shoving, especially when most of us were turned away.

Knowing that any class I wanted to get into had already started and was therefore full, I wandered over to the bookstore to do some browsing. I eventually ended up in the MARB where they have service and listening stations. I decided to sew “courage capes” while listening to a wonderful talk on being women of God. It’s fun to do something productive while listening, but then I have no notes. I stayed for the next class and finished two more capes. Such fun.

By the last session of the day, my brain is pretty much dead tired. But we sat through the talks on courageous and wonderful examples of early Relief Society sisters.

Robin and I had decided to stay the night in Provo instead of driving home. Then we could go to the evening of service and the fun concert put on at Women’s conference on Thursday night. But first we had to check into our hotel and ditch some of our stuff. We ended up sidetracked at the Spaghetti factory enjoying a FABULOUS meal. I sent a text to Ryan, who did not appreciate the fact that I was stuffing my face on Matzithra cheese pasta while he was attending the elementary school band concert. Sorry, honey. After our pasta binge, we checked in to our comfort inn, and flopped on the couch. We had every intention of getting right back up and going to the evening of service. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it. We did make it in time for the evening performance by the Shadow Mountain artists. But by the time that was over, we were SO tired, we wanted nothing more than for our heads to hit the pillows.

Unfortunately, no sooner had we snuggled into our beds, then our raucous neighbors decided it was time to run, shout, and slam doors. What the heck, people? It’s 11:30! Go to sleep. It took more than one call to the front desk and some asking to please be quiet before they calmed down. Some people!

In the morning, I woke up so dizzy I could barely turn my head. I made it to the bathroom, but felt like I might throw up from the nausea. I came quickly back to bed, and told Robin that I didn’t think I was going to be going to classes right away. I fell quickly into a nap. We worked it out so that Robin took the car and went to the conference, and my sweet hubby came and picked me up and took me back home, where I spent the rest of the day napping. I felt bad that I was missing a day of wonderful talks, and also that I hadn’t yet gotten my BYU brownie! But I was so wiped out and needed sleep to help me feel better. By evening I was feeling mostly put back together so I felt like I could possibly function.

Saturday morning dawned with 3 or 4 inches of snow. Seriously? I guess that kills our garage sale possibilities. But Robin came with me to go and get my bountiful basket, and then we drove around with hope in our hearts. Maybe, just Maybe, there would be some brave souls hosting garage sales. We did indeed find two garage sales and scored some cheap scores. My favorite–a mask/cape combination that looks pretty much like Megamind but with a green head.

John thought that was fun.

Later in the day we attended a cousin’s baptism and family party while Robin went to the temple, and then later we spoiled ourselves with our annual “women’s conference pedicures”.

Sunday we all attended church, and then had a nice dinner. We invited Julene and Italo to join us, and it was all delicious! Later, as we were watching Joe verses the Volcano (can you believe Robin had NEVER seen that movie?), I checked facebook and saw the Bin Laden news. We couldn’t believe that after all this time, they had finally gotten him.

It was quite a memorable weekend!

How many people do you know who get exited when looking at their reciept?

April 19, 2011 / / 1 Comment

I am loving Wal*Mart right now! It seems they will price match anything and everything, and, since there’s a Ridley’s Market that does double coupons on Tuesday, WalMart in Utah County will ALSO do double coupons on Tuesday. I went last Tuesday to check it out, after seeing word of this fun even on one of the coupon/money saving blogs. They said they would double anything up to 50 cents, so that the 50 cent coupon is worth $1. So, I got out my small coupons and went in. I also had a couple of larger value coupons for some personal item stuff, and since the WalMart price was good on those, I went ahead and used the coupons.

Imagine my shock and surprise when the nice check-out lady doubled ALL the coupons, even the $2.00 ones! Can I get an “Amen”? Oh, yeah. Now, our little WalMart in already an anomaly in the world of WalMarts. It’s never crowded. I’m not kidding. I never have to wait for a check out, and if I do, there’s only one person in front of me. It’s new, it’s clean, and it’s only about 2 miles from my house.

So, today I took a bunch more coupons, and spent some time figuring things out (couponing takes times, friends, don’t think you can just rush in there and save a bundle with coupons without putting in a little time), and when I checked out, I was EXTREMELY pleased that she doubled all of my coupons….AGAIN.

I had roughly $24 worth of coupons, and they doubled all those, that I got almost $50 off my haul. All that stuff on the counter (and you might notice I have a couple of baseball items–no coupons on those, and that added about $13 right there) and a few produce items without coupons, and I discovered the I needed bleach, since the one I had expired in 2008) only cost me….

$93.01. Probably not as good as you thought it would be if you had watched that extreme coupon show about ladies who buy truckloads of groceries for $4, but I only have one newspaper, and I haven’t bought any coupons off the internet.

This picture shows little different angle, and leaves out the basket of fruit, which I did NOT purchase at Wal*mart today, but from my bountiful basket on Saturday.

I hope they do the double coupons again EVERY week. On some items, it’s not worth it to use the coupon and buy the name brand, but sometimes, and especially if they double it, it IS worth it.

Spring Break Fun–or what we’ve been up to this week

April 15, 2011 / / 2 Comments

It’s our Spring Break around here, but we haven’t been totally slacking. Yes, there has been some sleeping in and some lounging around reading books, but we can’t do THAT all week, could we? Well, some of us could. Others are wanting to be more entertained.

Cole, actually, is the lucky one this week. Ryan’s brother called Sunday night to see if Cole would like to go to Disneyland with them the next day. Their son had invited a friend, who had to have emergency surgery and couldn’t go. So, Cole got to go. which is nice, since he didn’t go with us when WE went to Disneyland in January. So, he’s having a totally different spring break than we are!

Monday night we went to Provo to see the Carl Bloch exhibit at the BYU museum of art. If you haven’t taken the chance to see this FREE exhibit, you really should. We wandered through a few other exhibits, too. Strangely enough, the kids really liked the war posters.
We had to explain things about ‘saving fat’ and war bonds and things, but it was an interesting display.

We also liked this huge stack of books. Yes, it’s art. And very cool.

A $5 bucket of chalk is definitely a spring break necessity. The kids and friends spent several hours (on the one nice weather day) drawing with chalk. Yes, they’ll probably go through the whole box in one week, but that’s ok.

Colorful creations are always welcome on my driveway and sidewalk, even if they are just going to get rained and snowed on.

My girls wanted to go and do baptisms at the temple, so on Tuesday I took them there. The smaller kids and I did some errands and killed some time waiting for them. They said it was SO CROWDED and they had to wait a long time. That just makes me happy that so many kids were doing temple service during their spring break!

Wednesday we planned to go ice skating. I had checked the Peaks Arena website, and Wed was the only day this week that they were open early, so we got ourselves ready and over there by noon. Jenna, in particular, has really been bugging us to go ice skating. We tried a few weeks ago when we got an invitation from our mortgage company for a free night of skating, but when we went, it was SO CROWDED that we seriously couldn’t find anywhere to park. We just left. So, when we got there this time, there were hardly any cars in the parking lot! Which was encouraging, until we saw the sign on the door that said, “Due to mechanical difficulties, we will not be open until 2:00”. Ugh. That won’t work, as John had a baseball practice later in the afternoon. I had planned to skate from 12-2. There must be a curse on us that we can’t actually GO ice skating. Maybe roller skating would be better. Well, I was scrambling for something fun (and cheap) to do, so I picked up food and we went to a fun park in Pleasant Grove.

We had a fun time playing there for the afternoon, and got home in time to take John to baseball practice and the girls and I planted three tiny apricot trees in the yard. We still have three cherry trees to get to, but our days of sunshine and temps above 39 degrees have been limited.

Thursday we decided to go to Thanksgiving point, to one of our favorite places, the dinosaur museum. The kids can spend hours there, building, digging, and exploring. After 3 hours, we still had to drag John out of there. I decided on the way home that it would be a perfect date night for Ryan and I, so I stopped and picked up a couple of movies from redbox, and got tacos and pizza for them. Perfect! Then Ryan and I went to see Limitless. Not the best movie I’ve ever seen, but an enjoyable date night, nevertheless.

Today is Friday, and I’ve promised to take a certain daughter of mine to buy shoes. And she’s nagging me almost to death. She’s got talent for persistence, that one. We’ve also got to make dinner and take it to someone in my neighborhood, and Megan gets to babysit tonight. Natalie gets to take care of the neighbor’s dog while they are out of town. So, as you can see, there’s still lots of ‘excitement’ around here. I’m hoping I can find friends for the kids to play with so they won’t just be hanging around the house all day.

So, even though we haven’t done much, didn’t go anywhere, we’ve been enjoying our spring break week. Now, if we can just get a little bit more “spring” in the weather, that would help.

Spring Break 2011

April 9, 2011 / / 2 Comments

Well, our Spring break is starting off….cold. Snowy and 38 degrees isn’t my ideal weather pattern, but I guess we just enjoy our days off trapped together in the house. Sigh.

Friday night, the elementary school hosted a beach party. I wasn’t really sure what all that entailed, but the kids REALLY wanted to go. Hmmm.

We were hosting a party for Megan and her friends at 7, but I agreed to take Jenna and John to the beach party from 5-7. And then I wouldn’t have to make dinner because I would feed them an overpriced hot dog meal at the school. So, even though it was cold and snowy, we dug around and found whatever “beach wear” we could find, and headed off to the school after we picked up one of John’s friends.

After eating our “dinner” and I use that term VERY generously, we headed to the gym where the dance action was happening. Imagine a whole bunch of kids, all in their shorts and flip flops, hanging loose on the dance floor. And many of the parents were dancing, too.

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John was such a wild and crazy dancer that I couldn’t really even get a good picture of him.

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Jenna was gettin down, too!

She even started a congo line with several friends, and it seemed like they were really having fun.

The whole thing was put on not by the school or the PTA, but by the dance DJ, who had a discoball and everything. I think he brought the concessions, too.

When they did a ‘parent’s dance’, I found my kids and forced them to dance with me asked them to dance.

Whether they wanted to dance with their old mom or not.

It was a fun party.

We didn’t stay all that long, however, because at about 6:30, John’s little friend came and found me and told me that he wasn’t feeling well. Uh, oh. I definitely don’t want a sick kids on my hands, especially a sick kid who isn’t even my kid. So, I told the kids we would leave in 10 more minutes. Luckily, they got to do the Hokey Pokey before I had to drag them away.

When we got home, Megan was ready and waiting for her friends to come over. They did come, and she had a fun informal ‘party’ of snacking, laughing and movie watching. We joined in to watch Inception (weird), which went WAY too long. The party was supposed to end at 10:30, and the movie went until 10:45. Sorry, parents. And since Ryan was out of town this week, I didn’t even have him to man the late night activities. Thankfully, the girls’ parents all came to pick them up and I didn’t have to drive anyone home.

Saturday, we awoke to MORE snow. Ick.
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I told the kids to dig out the boots and snow stuff, because they were MAKING a snowman today! Less than enthused, they did actually go outside and have some fun there for about an hour.

And make a snowman they did. I have no idea how long this snow will last, or how long it will keep snowing. My hope is that it warms up by Monday so we can have a fun week of jumping on the tramp, riding bikes and playing with friends.

Hey, who said, “Good luck with that?”
I heard you.

How to do New York on the cheap

April 1, 2011 / / 3 Comments

We decided to keep track of our expenses in New York, just to see how much our “free trip” cost us, and Ryan whipped out a little program on his phone and REALLY kept track. Every souvenir, even snacks he wrote down. I was kind of hoping he wouldn’t be so vigilant about the record keeping, but it was interesting to know how much we were really spending.

We already had the most expensive part covered. The prize included the airfare and the hotel, which was the MAJOR expense.

Date Category Description Amount
21-Mar Travel 2 bags checked $50.00
21-Mar Food Lunch at DFW $9.00
21-Mar Taxis Taxi from LaGuardia to Hotel $35.00
21-Mar Food Long Room NYC $36.47
21-Mar Food Walgreens (Snacks) $11.46
22-Mar Travel MetroCards (2) $58.00
22-Mar Food Lunch at the Met $22.50
22-Mar Clothing Hat $14.62
22-Mar Entertainment CityPass (2) $158.00
22-Mar Food Oatmeal $5.99
22-Mar Food Hi-Chew $3.46
23-Mar Taxis Taxi to Nate Burkus Show $7.00
23-Mar Food Lunch at Mangia Salad Bar $21.00
24-Mar Food Lunch at Ellis Island $22.32
24-Mar Souvenirs Souvenirs at Ellis Island $12.84
24-Mar Souvenirs Liberty Bear $13.07
24-Mar Souvenirs Souvenirs — Empire State Bldg. $27.40
24-Mar Food Baja Fresh $20.46
25-Mar Entertainment Hotel Internet $19.37
25-Mar Food Snacks at Central Park $12.00
25-Mar Tips Bag handling tips, etc. $7.00
25-Mar Taxis Taxi to JFK $60.00
25-Mar Food Dinner at JFK $24.41
26-Mar Travel Parking at SLC Airport $35.00

TOTAL: $686.37

If you break it down into categories, we spent
$85 on checking bags and parking (could have avoided that $50 if we were flying Delta or Jet Blue, or if we had not checked bags, and the parking fee if we had had someone drop us off and pick us up)
$102 on taxis (if we really wanted to be frugal, we could have taken public transit to and from the airport, but that just sounded like a huge pain)
$162.15 on meals. We went out to dinner with an associate of Ryan’s one night, and he picked up the tab. That was our most expensive dinner and we didn’t have to pay! The rest of the time, we didn’t really plan our meals, but when we were hungry, looked to see what was around. While not cheap, our lunches and dinners averaged about $25 each. Our hotel did not offer us free breakfast, but we made oatmeal in our room and that was good enough for breakfast.
$26.92 on snacks. We stopped in at Walgreens and got some snacks to drag along with us, and I also had packed some snacks from home, including a few bottles of diet coke in my checked luggage. Everything in NY is more expensive, so I should have let Ryan pick out snacks here at home, and we could have saved on the snacks. But sometimes, you are starving and just HAVE to buy a hot dog and some nuts in central park.
$158 on the New York Citypass. This is a real money saver! It included admission to ALL the attractions we went to, and we did them all. There were also a few extras that were included, like the audio tour at the Empire State Building, which was included with the city pass, and even though I would never have paid the extra cost, it was really a neat way to view the city and learn. And it saved us standing in a few lines to purchase tickets, so it was WELL worth the cost.
$67.93 on souvenirs. Yes, we are totally cheap. I would have liked to have gotten a really cute purse, but I didn’t end up doing that. The only thing I bought for myself was a hat, and it was kind of a necessity because it was cold and windy. We bought some stuff for the kids, and that was it.
$58.00 on two week long Metro cards. Even though we were only there 5 days, the week long metro cards were worth it. Otherwise we’d have to buy a ton of single use cards for $2.50 each, and that would have cost even more money.
$26.37 misc. This includes tips and internet. We used Ryan’s loaner smart phone for most of the time, but did splurge on one nights internet charges (almost $20 for internet each night is so steep, we tried to do without it)

We didn’t see any Broadway shows, which would have seriously upped our total. We instead attended tv show tapings, which was also really fun.

So, there you have it. Our grand total for 5 days in New York City was under $700! How’s that for cheap?

Let’s talk art

March 29, 2011 / / 3 Comments

Let’s talk Art. At the MOMA, Museum of Modern Art in New York, one of the first pieces we came to was a collage of food packages that the artist had eaten in one year. It reminded me of our ‘garbage collage’ we had in college. But this guy sure ate a lot of frozen strawberries.

I may not be the best at modern art appreciation. So much of it looks like something a five year old could do if given a large canvas and some paint. But much of it was thought provoking, even beautiful.

I was very pleased to finally come to some famous artists.

There was VanGogh’s “starry Night”, and works by Picasso and Dali and Warhol! So close I could touch them (but I wouldn’t even try, since there was security EVERYWHERE, and they would tell you to step back from the painting if you got to close).
That was amazing. But we could only take so much Modern Art, especially when we had already walked a bunch and been on our feet for hours.

While Ryan looked up directions for the next leg of our adventure, I actually laid back and closed my eyes on a padded bench thingy for just a couple of minutes. It felt like heaven.

I appreciated the art at the Met art museum more. I tend to gravitate toward the beautiful colors, the landscapes, and the flowers.

And there were so many works of art from all over, and from so very long ago.

We could have spent days there. Or weeks, even. It was truly amazing. And I’m glad it was the first museum we went to–before we were “museumed out”. There were tons of school groups there, and I felt a little envious of the New Yorkers who could come and see this amazing museum anytime they wanted. Not that they all do. We tend to not always appreciate the gems in our own backyard. Which reminds me, have you gone to see the Carl Bloch exhibit at the BYU art museum? We are going next week. I’ve heard it’s amazing. And it’s right here local, and it’s free. So we don’t have to travel all the way across the country to experience breathtaking works of art.

Hey, isn’t that Paige on the Late Show?

March 28, 2011 / / 4 Comments

Yes, we were on TV on the Late Show with David Letterman. I hadn’t seen the clip, because I didn’t stay up late enough to watch it that night, and a certain son of ours forgot to set the machine to record it, even though I asked him to. So, Ryan found it online and cut it down to just the clip that we are in, so we can show our kids and our friends.

Coincidentally, the song that they are playing in the background is one we have played in bells. I can’t remember what it’s called, but I know we’ve played it.

So, there you have it. Our big Late Night debut.

Someone at church mentioned that they had seen us on tv, and my sweet young neighbor came up to me and said, “Sister Erickson, were you really on the David Letterman show?” I had to explain that we were in the AUDIENCE, not guests on the show. Maybe someday.

Live from New York, It’s Thursday night!

March 24, 2011 / / 1 Comment

It doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it? But we are sitting in our hotel room, exhausted from a long day of walking, walking, walking, and we are now kicking back watching the BYU/Florida game. Go Jimmer!
We finally paid the $16.99 for internet tonight, so I thought I would blog a little bit about what we’ve been doing here in NY.

Oh, New York! We’ve been having a wonderful time in NY!

Monday, we arrived here, exhausted from our long day of flying, took a taxi to our hotel and checked into the Marriott Marquis. It’s a far cry from the run down Comfort inn (or whatever it was) we stayed in when we came before. We were so tired, but we went out exploring. Our hotel is right off of Broadway, and there we were in times square! Look- the Adams family is a musical on Broadway! Oh, look, it’s a show about Alice in Wonderland, hey, there’s all the lights of Time’s Square! It was chilly as we walked around, and we soon realized we were pretty hungry. We’d split a sandwich that we bought in the airport in Texas, and were both on the hungry side. We ended up eating in an Irish Pub called Long Room. Oh, look at the beer list! We’ll have water, thank you. I ordered a sandwich called “Thanksgiving dinner on a ciabatta,” and Ryan had the fish and chips. Very good food! After our dinner, we explored some more, but not too much, because we were really dog tired. We did find a Walgreens and got some snacks, and came back to our room to crash. We felt kind of wimpy calling it a night so very early. It was “early” by New York standards, but we called it a night anyway.

Tuesday we planned on getting up and out of here early, but didn’t leave until after 8:30. We wanted to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but had to find how to get there. After a few wrong turns and a backtrack, we found where to buy metro cards, then found the correct bus stop to take us uptown. It was fun to take the bus instead of the subway, because you can actually see where you are going. We took the bus up 5th avenue and saw all the designer shops. We found the Met, and made our way inside. Where to go? There’s something like six floors with about a million wings each. We started out in the European artists, and saw many, many paintings of Mary and Jesus. Chubby cherubs with halos and all that. We saw the Egyptian exhibits, sarcophagi, musical instruments, early armor and furniture. Wow! We had to take a break for some lunch about then, and ate in the museum cafe. We were running out of time, but really wanted to see the 19th century European artists, so we hurried quickly to the other side of the building and up a couple floors. Wow! Renoir, Matisse, and Monet! Degas, Manet and more…. Amazing!

We could have stayed there for 9 days, but alas, we had to move on to our next adventure.

Feet starting to ache, we waited quite a while for the bus in the cold wind. We needed to navigate our way back to midtown to check in with the Late show, so we could get our tickets. We stopped in quickly to see Rupert Gee at the Hello Deli, and then got in line. Yes, even the people ‘”on the list” needed to stand in line. We got up to the front, checked our name on the list, and eventually got our tickets. Then we had an hour to kill before we had to be back. We moseyed across the street to the Europa cafe, where it was warm and we could share a hot chocolate and use the bathroom. We ended up staying there for nearly an hour, but they didn’t seem to mind. We didn’t want to get too far away and then have to come back. We had to line up in the “yellow line” and then get in numerical order. We were number 96 and 97, whatever that means. Once inside, we had a lot of time to stand there in line, so we got pretty chummy with the people in line behind us. The lady lived here in NY, we think her friend said something about being from Afghanistan.

When we got inside, it was all fun and clapping to the band. They tell you to laugh and clap at everything, even if you don’t think it’s that funny. ‘If Dave tells a joke, laugh now and think about it on the way home,’ they say. When Dave finally came out, he was indeed funny. At a commercial break, the three people in front of us were asked to leave their seats, and three other people came and took those seats. Huh? We knew something was up, because there was a camera aimed right at us. Sure enough, Alan (the announcer) came out in the audience, and ripped the moustache off the man who was sitting RIGHT in front of Ryan. We haven’t seen it yet, but I’m told we were on camera! Cool, huh? You might be able to watch that episode here, if you are interested.

By the time that taping was over, we were ready to get out and walk again. We headed over to Rockefeller center for a “top of the rock tour”. You get to go up to the top of the building, kind of like at the Empire State Building, but not so high. I was hoping we’d run into Alec Baldwin or Tina Fey while there, but no such luck.

(Sorry there are no pictures here, but we haven’t downloaded the pics from the camera yet. Don’t worry, there will be plenty of pictures in the future.)

No, we did not pay $20 to ice skate, but we did watch some skaters.

I’m going to end this post now, because the BYU game is tied with two minutes to go. I must watch the game and quit the typing. But don’t worry, there will be MUCH more about the trip in the next couple of days!

Here’s to the Big Apple

March 18, 2011 / / 4 Comments

Back in November, I was lucky enough to win a contest. A big contest, actually. A ‘shopping trip’ to NYC! It was during a promotion of four weeks of fly-aways from a local country station (101.5 the Eagle, to be specific). There were four different trips to concerts, etc, and honestly, I won the best one! Because it wasn’t associated with an event, I was able to push the trip back to a time when I could actually go, hence the after roadshow scheduling. When I was talking with Stacey, from Stoney Creek Records, she was great about the scheduling. The prize was supposed to be two nights hotel and the flights, plus $500 spending cash. But when I was scheduling, she told me she could just pay for two more nights of the hotel instead of giving me a giftcard, if I wanted. YES! Especially since the hotel is $300 per night! So, it should be a pretty fun trip.

I bought City Passes for us, so for one price we can now go to:
The Empire State Building
American Museum of Natural History
The Museum of Modern Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
and then we can choose either ther Top of the Rock tour or the Guggenheim, and chose The Statue Cruise or the Circle line Cruise

And if that weren’t enough to do, I’ve got us tickets to see the Late Show with David Letterman for Tuesday (so you could tune in Tuesday night and maybe catch a glimpse of us in the crowd!) I was a little worried when I got the call from the Late Show, and they told me I had to call a guy named Jack and answer a trivia question before they would let me have tickets. UGH! What kind of trivia question? Do I have to watch teh show every night? Do I have to know who the guest was the day before? So I googled something like “trivia questions for Late Show tickets”, and read up about other people’s experiences. I also took a quiz to prepare me. (Questions like ‘where did Dave go to school (can’t remember), what is the name of the production company (worldwide pants), who is Biff Henderson, what is the name of the Deli nearby (Hello Deli), and who runs it (Rupert G) and stuff like that. I read a few different web pages about Dave and the history of the show, and then I gathered my courage to call Jack. He put me on hold for a minute, then asked me the big question, “Alan Kalter has been a part of the show for many years. What is his job?” I knew that one right away! He’s the announcer! And it’s a good thing they didn’t ask me, “who is the announcer”, because while I would have said Alan right away, I don’t think I could have come up with his last name. So, tickets we have!

I also requested tickets for the Nate Berkus Show on Wednesday (not sure when that will be televised, but I’ll let you know). Isn’t he the cutest?

He’s the guy with the good hair, not the other guy who works at Lowe’s, by the way. Ryan may think I’m challenging his manhood a little by making him go to a ‘design show’, but he’ll just have to deal with it, and my tiny little crush on Nate, since I won the trip and I’m taking him as my guest.

I tried to get tickets to see Rachel Ray, but haven’t heard back from then. There’s always stand-by, I guess, if we decide we want to try to do that.

Just today I got a call from ‘the View’, since I had also requested tickets to that show. But they aren’t taping on Thursday, and we couldn’t do the time they offered us on Tuesday because it would conflict with Letterman’s show. No problem. Ryan is relieved, and said he “dodged a bullet with that one.” What? I was requesting tickets so I could have options, people.

We have actually been to the Late Show once before when we went to NY in 2006, but this should hopefully be a little bit slicker process, since we already have the tickets. When we went before, we had NO plan for our three day adventure, and literally just started walking around and ended up at Spamalot. This time, I’m trying to figure out how to use our time wisely, not just wander around aimlessly. And I don’t have the burning desire to spend hundreds of bucks on theater tickets. I’ve seen Wicked twice, otherwise that would be at the top of my list.

I’m also not too concerned about all the great FOOD in New York. We won’t have a lot of time to eat at fancy places, so we’ll probably just stop and eat when we are hungry. Except for one night, when we have a dinner invitation to eat with a Control4 dealer that Ryan works with. When Ryan told him he was coming to NY, he invited him to come and see his business and that he would take us out to dinner. Well, I’m all for free dinner, so I’m on board.

Ryan’s not much of a shopper, either, so we won’t be spending hours touring the garment district and looking for clothes. But, if we should happen upon cute purses or shoes, or see a store that’s especially inviting, I might just have to pull him inside. Hopefully there will be a chair or a bench where he can sit. But I’m such a cheapskate, I can’t see me forking out big bucks for some designer clothes, unless it’s a knock-off. We’ll have to see.

I have a lot to do before we go, so I don’t really know why I’m sitting here blogging, but I am. Since I will be having people come here and help with the kids, I’ve got to get the house in decent condition, make sure there are enough groceries, make a few meals for the freezer, return all the library books, catch up on all my primary stuff, clean the bathrooms, make the schedule, make sure the kids are caught up on homework, clean our bedroom, and pack. And I can’t just pack any old schleppy clothes, I want to look nice. Especially when the email from the Nate show specifically said, “Colors photograph best and we ask that you please refrain
from wearing anything all white or all black We all know that Nate has
great style and we expect the same from you! /Think Chic! /Absolutely NO
athletic attire or sweat suits, sneakers, oversized jeans, hats,
sunglasses, shorts, t-shirts with logos, busy patterns or casual tank
tops will be permitted in the studio. Men should wear nice pants with a
button-down shirt, sweater, or blazer.” So no jeans and t-shirts for that show, I guess. Then I don’t know if it will be warm, cold, rainy or sunny, so I’ve got to watch the weather for next week and pack for all possibilities.

So excited!

So stay tuned for pictures, because I’m sure we will be taking LOTS of them!!

Disneyland!

January 22, 2011 / / 1 Comment

Oh the fun! Oh the joy! Oh, the walking! Disneyland was such fun!! Monday was kind of crowded, with it being a holiday and all. I was walking along headed to the Indiana Jones ride, and I saw a guy who looked like Kelly. Kelly and Kristi are our Disneyland friends. For the past couple of times we’ve gone to Disneyland, their family has met us there. Seriously! Of course, they go to Disneyland practically every other weekend, so I guess it’s not a huge sacrifice to meet us. I hadn’t told her about this trip, because I didn’t want to bother her and make them think they were obligated to meet us there. But there they were!

What are the odds of actually finding a friend there, on the crowded day, when there are two whole parks where we could be? Pretty cool. We chatted for a few minutes while my little ones whined and asked ‘aren’t we going on that RIDE?’, and it was fun to catch up!

By 5 we were all tired. We decided to go check out our lovely (and free!) room at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel. And Grand it is. The 8 of us (6 of us and my parents) took a few moments to lay down on the beds and couch and thought we might never get up. Now to decide what to do. Do we rest up and go back to the park? Do we call it a day? Do we go swimming? (The kids had already gone swimming both nights previous at the pool in Las Vegas and at the Residence Inn where we had all spent the night before. Even if it’s not really warm enough to swim, they are just so thrilled to be ABLE to swim in January, they’ll take anything.) Well, we decided to take a swim. Since two of the girls were staying with Grandma and Grandpa at the other hotel, that meant Ryan had to drive the grandparents back to their hotel, and have one of the girls run up and get swimsuits, then come back to our hotel. Thankfully, Ryan never complained about his job as chauffeur. He’s a great guy that way.

We braved the cold (when the sun goes down, it’s no longer the balmy 76 degrees we were so enjoying) to check out the fancy pools. Would you believe it? The fancy hotel’s fancy pools were NOT warm. And no hot tub. What?! The kids jumped in and had no problem, while the old farts (me and Ryan) took some convincing to get in. We ended up having fun swimming and playing in the cold water, but couldn’t last all that long. We still had to do something for dinner, and we were SO tired. We changed our clothes, John had a big melt down, and a time out, and then we finally got moving and ended up at a nearby restaurant for dinner. And by the time we dropped off the two girls at the Grandparents’ hotel, John was asleep in the back seat.

Day 2 at the parks dawned nice and early. We had our world of color fast passes, we had our plan, and we headed to California Adventure. It was just a short walk through the secret gate from our hotel. It was amazing. We walked over to Soaring and RAN through the line. There was NOBODY in the park!! We felt like the special people! After that we waited for the rest of the park to open so we could head with the rest of the crowd to Toy Story Mania. We weren’t at the front of the line, but it was only about a 10 minute wait. It was such a fun ride, we turned around and did it again!

The whole day was so nice! Hardly any lines, no crowds! The biggest crowd we encountered was in going to the Alladin show in that huge theater. If only we hadn’t all been dragging and tired! After we did every ride we wanted to in California Adventure, we ate, browsed the shops, then went back to our hotel to take a little rest and get our jackets before we came back to see the World of Color show.

While it is an amazing show, the fun was dampened a little by all the waiting and waiting. We were all sitting comfortably when they told us we’d all have to stand up to make room for more people. What the what? Don’t you people know we’ve been standing and walking all day and our feet canNOT stand for 60 more minutes? That’s when we started getting grumpy. We should have brought our camping chairs, or laid out a blanket and sprawled out on it like we do when we watch fireworks, instead of STANDING scrunched up with 70,000 of our closest friends.

Yes, the show was spectacular, but imagine how great it would be if you watched it sitting down?

Our third day at Disneyland we started out with no plan (big mistake). We let the kids chose the rides they really wanted to go on, which included some that we missed and some that they wanted to do again. John and I rode King Triton’s Merry Go Round many times. (I could only handle three times. Two consecutive. That is my merry go round limit. Any more and we may enter barfing territory). Ryan and kids rode California Screamin three times in a row, bringing their total up to 5.

Because the crowds were still down, we were able to squeeze in a few more rides after lunch, but by then it was getting cold. Of course, on the day that we didn’t wear our sweaters. By 5, we were getting down right cold, and had really had enough of the park. We had to do a little shopping, because Grandma wanted to buy the kids their birthday presents there at Disneyland, if there was something they wanted. Unfortunately, the things they wanted were spread out throughout the park. Megan wanted a Bolt dog, but not the ones with flowers in their mouths for valentines day. Natalie wanted a specific Grumpy shirt that we had seen in the shop by the Grizzly bear ride, John wanted a light saber, Jenna didn’t KNOW what she wanted. Grandma wanted a certain purse that she had seen in the gift shop at California Adventure. We split up, with Ryan taking the boys and Megan to the other hotel, then coming back for us 15 minutes later, after we had quickly finished our shopping.

So that was our trip wrap up. It was a fun trip! But before we go to Disneyland again, Ryan and I need to both lose 30 pounds so that all that walking and climbing and fastpassing doesn’t sap all our energy and we can keep up with the kids.

Now we’re back in Utah where a high of 37 seems balmy when the sun is shining. Oh, well. It was great to get out of the cold and wonderful to spend it with family.

Cole, by the way, was well taken care of. Yes, he did miss us, and was pretty lonely at home, but with dinner appointments every night and fun things to do all weekend, he didn’t score too badly. And now he won’t be struggling to get caught up like some other people I know. Can you say science fair?

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