Our Trip Home Part 1- New York!

Dahl and I recently (Aug 20-27) visited my family for a week. It was so much fun!! Here's a summary or our activities from Monday and Tuesday:
1. Monday (Aug 20)- We flew to NYC! The flight was delayed, so we arrived around midnight.
2. Tuesday (Aug 21)- We woke up around 6:30 and hurried to catch the shuttle from the hotel to the Subway. 

Then we started our adventure! First we went to a strange, slightly sketchy place that apparently will hold your luggage for you for the day. We dropped off our luggage and rushed off to the Empire State  Building after grabbing a quick breakfast at a deli. I LOVED the ESB. It was so cool to me! Dahl is a huge fan of tall buildings, so whenever we go to big cities he wants going to the top of (one of) the tallest buildings to be part of our experience. This is my favorite one so far. 

They had this little iPhone where you could take a tour of the city from the ESB by going to different numbers in different locations around the viewing area. This cute little old New Yorker man would talk about the different locations you could see from that vantage point (Dahl and I shared one so we each got one earbud), and tell personal anecdotes about his ancestors and his life in NYC. I really liked that because usually I just look at buildings with no idea what they are or their significance, but this let us learn about the history and  it was so personal that it was really enjoyable. One thing I would recommend to anyone going to the ESB is GO EARLY! Dahl and I arrived around 8:15 or so (it opens at 8), and there was no line. When we first got up there it was really empty. But it very quickly filled up. I can't even imagine how ridiculous it would be to go during the middle of the day!

Next we went on a harbor cruise. Dahl found it for a really great deal on one of those deals sites, so we just took a boat tour of NYC. I really like to learn about the history of our country. I'm not really into a lot of history, but I love the inspiring stories of courage and sacrifice that allowed this nation to be built. It is nothing short of amazing to me. One of the highlights was getting really close to the Statue of Liberty! I love the Statue of Liberty! The tour guide told us this week was WAY cooler than the last few weeks had been which was nice because we were SO hot all day!

Next we went to Lombardi's- America's first Pizzeria!! It was SOO GOOD!! We would definitely recommend going there if you are in NYC. Some of the best, if not THE best pizza we have ever had! Then we went to Chinatown for some fun there... those salespeople are SO pushy, it was so funny! They would grab Dahl and pull him back into the stores to try and get him to buy things... it was a little ridiculous. I was really glad they didn't grab me!
Next we went to Katz, a famous deli. We got an amazing (although extremely overpriced) pastrami sandwich. I was a little leery at first, but I ended up loving it! Katz is probably the most confusing restaurant ever. It was pretty much pure chaos. You're handed a ticket as you walk in that you must return when you leave even if you don't purchase anything (they write the order you place on the ticket) or you get a $50 fine! The line is a mass of people, and it is pretty much impossible to find the end. Tables turn over so quickly, which is good because if not you would never find a table. It was so hard to figure out what to do first! Get in line? (Which part of the line?) Save a table? Get your food? When do you pay? (It's as you leave, handing them your ticket). Once we figure it out, it was fun, and very good!

Lastly, we went to Times Square and then over to Central Park. I really loved Central Park. We were only able to stay for maybe 15 minutes because we had to go grab our stuff and get on a bus, but it is so beautiful and peaceful compared to the rest of the city.

Then we rushed over to get our luggage and get on a bus that took us to Delaware. The first hour was really quiet, Dahl and I mostly just played stupid games on our phones/ the iPad and talked a little. The next hour the girl in front of us turned around and talked to us the whole time! She was SO chatty, but very entertaining. She complained about pretty much everything from working in customer service to the stupidity of people to customer service received to travelling... it was very interesting. We enjoyed it. She thought we were really cute and complimented us profusely on our wedding pictures.

I will finish our vacation in my next entry!!

Our Trip Home Part 2!

3. Wednesday (and Tuesday night) My mom (and Joseph, Jacob, Sarah, and the boys' friends Evan and Timothy) picked Dahl and I up in Delaware, and we drove to the beach! My wonderful friend Heather has a beach house in New Jersey, and although she was not there, she and her family graciously allowed us to stay there. 

  

Honestly, I think this was the funnest part of the trip! We played at both Cape May and Wildwood Beaches, both of which were beautiful. We started out the day at Wildwood. The sand there is SO soft, and we had a lot of fun playing Frisbee and boogie boarding. 

The waves were consistent but not super strong, but they were REALLY strong when we went to Cape May after lunch. Cape May has much rougher sand, but the waves are way more intense, although also less consistent. They break really close to shore, where there are a lot of little rocks that will scrape you up if you can't stop fast enough, but it was WAY fun! It was great to have all the boys around because then we could take turns watching Sarah and making sure everyone had a buddy. It was great! Dahl and I went to the boardwalk to look around a little as well. It is a really fun, cute beach. We had a blast!

That night after dinner Timothy treated us to a rousing read- aloud of Cinderella CTR, which is hilarious, by the way, and we went on a walk to a gas station. It was supposed to be  1.5 miles each way, but it ended up being about 3 miles each way... it was an adventure for sure!

Goofballs at the store we finally got to

Come on Jacob!

Jacob!!

That's better... kinda

4. Thursday: The next morning we went to watch the sunrise. It was pretty cloudy so we didn't see much of a sunrise, but we took some fun pictures and had time for cleaning up and getting on the road so I could be on time for some dental and eye appointments! They both thought I was awesome as usual, and it also gave my mom and I some time to go to lunch together. That night we went to DC to see the monuments at night with Nicole. She was an excellent tour guide! I love to see the monuments at night because it is less crowded, much cooler (temperature wise), and really neat to see them all lit up.

                                     

                                     

                                               

5. Friday: We hung out a lot around the house and eventually went down to the Inner Harbor with Joseph and Sarah. We took a ferry (that was free!) to the inner- harbor and took the kids to a yummy pizza place called Joe Squared. Then we met the whole family at the Orioles game! We were really blessed to get all student tickets so it was just $6 apiece! The Orioles won, and they got 4 home runs (3 were from the same player!) After that they had fireworks, which were really fun, too!
6. Saturday: we were supposed to go to Six Flags but that got cancelled due to super intense rain. So we ate  lunch in the car, went to Rita's as a family, and watched the Hunger Games together. Dad actually really liked it, so we were glad we chose it.
7. Sunday- We went to church together, it was really fun to see some old friends, especially Sister Walburger and Sister Hunter, my old YW leaders. It's sad because our ward has split up so much there were a lot of people I couldn't see, but I was glad I got to see some of them. After church we went to the temple to take a couple of pictures and the to my Grandma Connor's house. 

It was really nice to see her, she is doing so much better! We told her we expected to see her next time we come to visit for Christmas 2013. Is she not the cutest?! My mother in law, Brenley, says we have the same eyes, what do you think?? We were going to go to the zoo, but it was raining again so we just went home and had a delicious dinner of pot roast, mashed potatoes, crescent rolls, and jello, with apple cheesecake for dessert (made by Julie and me).

  

8. Monday- We said goodbye to everyone as they went off to their first day of school! It was a really fun vacation and we are so glad we got to visit! Thanks family and a special thanks to the Gallaghers for being so generous with their beach house!!