NYC

I'm not sure I have the days straight, but I'll just type what I know for each picture!

Amanda eating Famous Ray's pizza by the Nat'l History Museum

 New York Streets

 The girls had a dance class that morning.  This was for contemporary and the moms sat in the studio because it was bigger. It made the girls feel intimidated and the choreography ended up lecturing them.  It was more about feeling and dancing to the music and not to the counts/beats.

 I love watching Amanda dance and when she finally got what the choreographer told her, I cried! Right there in the studio, I cried!  The class was over soon after that and I told Amanda that I was proud of her and that her dancing was beautiful and so she cried!  Soon, she left to change her clothes and I ran into the choreographer and I thanked him and told him I was so glad that he pulled the emotion and dancing out of my daughter as well as the other girls and we chatted and he gave me a hug....ha ha! What a mom mess I was that day!!

 After the dancing we went to Central Park.  It was nice to have the guide with us because as many times as we have been there, we saw things we've never seen before....like this Alice in Wonderland sculpture.  Here are the moms, grandmas and Sammy Lunt who is a sister of a dancer.  We ended up getting to know so many great people this trip.  Sammy, her mom Nicole and Grandma  were among our favorites because they loved to have fun!  We spent a lot of time with them.  We got to know Kelsey Zundel and her mom. Kelsey (laying down) is new in our ward and it was so fun to get to know her.  Such a sweetheart!  Heather Terry whom I first met as we volunteered at Centennial Jr High during lunch activities.  Her grandma died while we were there and she was very close with her.  The family was going to have the funeral while she was gone, but luckily they waited until the day after she got home. Lorie, who's last name is escaping me, but I always thought she was a little snobbish, but she is the nicest, warmest person!  Her missionary son has been suffering with kidney stones and during the whole trip she was waiting to hear if he was going to be sent home.  Andria Berry, heart of gold.  Lisa Gunther and Jill McBride so fun....I was so grateful for this opportunity to meet some new people!

 Look at this gorgeous girl!

 Jumping pictures....we'll have a lot of these, but they are cute and fun!

 A larger view of the Bethesda Fountain...

 John Lennon memorial.  Brandon LOVES the Beatles, so we made sure to get a picture of this and of his apartment (below pic). The whole top floor of this building is John & Oko's and she still lives there from what I hear....

Super cute jumping picture! Amanda, Kaitlyn, Chaylor, JayCee and Erynn

 Some pictures from the Nat'l History Museum. The Komodo Dragon below is for Brandon because he did his 3rd grade report on it.

The 'Give me Gum Gum' guy from Night at the Museum. Also, from New Zealand :) There was a line to take a picture with him....

Dinosaurs and a darling daughter!

That night we got to see Newsies!  It was awesome! Our seats were terrible-ha ha, but we expected that.  Afterward, we stayed outside to meet some of the cute actors.  Nico from So You Think You Can Dance was their favorite. I have pictures of he and Amanda....

New York New York!

It's no secret that Amanda LOVES New York City!

When her dance studio said they were doing a trip in July, she begged and begged to go.

Even when I said no car for your 16th birthday.

Even when I said no big party for your 16th birthday.

She didn't care, she just wanted to go!

So we scrimped together the money and she and I went to New York July 14-19, 2014

We took a red-eye out on the 14th and arrived about 7:00am.  After grabbing the bus and dropping our luggage, everyone was up for breakfast.  We traveled as a group looking for food and the main group when to Panera.  Mike and I always try to avoid places we have at home when traveling and so we kept going with two other mom//daughter groups and got bagels from a street vendor and sat on a plaza for our first breakfast in the city!  Look at that smile!

It started raining and raining and raining.  Amanda and I decided not to hang with the group and hopped the subway to go tour Madison Square Garden.  I took this picture because we have one similar from Amanda's first trip to NYC when she was 8.

So between the rain and the humidity and the no change of clothes, we stopped in at Old Navy and bought socks and a cheap tshirt so that we didn't look like we came from the desert!  We were so proud of ourselves for navigating the subway by ourselves.  Everyone in our group was so scared to try the subway! Even the people who had been here before…..whatever….Amanda actually did better than I did.

The tour was really cool.  The Garden has been remodeled recently.  They have a 'moment in Garden history' circling the arena walk area with everyday represented.  This one of Michael Jackson was his last public concert.  They  had Justin Bieber, as well as the first Rangers game after 9/11.  Pretty cool.

Wayne Gretzky's last game...

 At one point we were the only group in the entire arena. It's so big!  There is suspended bridges with seating and a restaurant. We walked on it and it was triply.

This is us sitting in the 'president's or someone special….the private seats.  Never get to sit there again ;)
It was a good time and really interesting and something we haven't done before. When we met back up with the group, some of our friends said they should have gone with us because the big group just went shopping at stores we have in Utah….what a waste of time ;)

I love this picture of Amanda and Chaylor :)  We went back to the hotel to 'freshen up' (this phrase was our tour guide, Tim's, favorite thing to say…it got so annoying!  The girls had a dance class to go to, so they changed and it was pouring rain!! We walked a couple of blocks to the studio huddled under umbrellas!  Good thing I remembered to pack them ;)

The mom's just sat in a small crowded hot hallway, but we caught glimpses of the class. Amanda is in black in the middle on the far side. So hard to see her, but the class was fun.  What an opportunity to take dance in NYC!

The teacher, 2nd in from right back row, was darling.  The girls had a blast!!  After this, I think we went to dinner and then everyone was exhausted, so after a little more walking around, it was bedtime!!

June/July catch up

 More boating…this time on Willard

 Sydney below with Mr Jay

 Beautiful ballerina Sydney!

 Then, my Tahoe broke down.  $1500 later…we canceled our Lake Powell trip with my family.  The auto shop gave us this loaner car….totally beater.  But, it was a stick shift, so we taught Amanda to drive it in the church parking lot!  I don't think many kids will know how to drive a stick these days...

 Seriously, this dog.  It's so hot outside, so he's inside.  We have a fan on the floor and in this picture, it's pointed right at him!  What a dog's life!

 My crazy family wanted to eat their dinner on the bottom side of their plates.  Ok, whatever. . Then, Mike put popcorn on top. He is on the phone in this picture…he looks mad, but he's not.  Crazy people I live with!!

Almost done with June!

I'm so all over the place trying to catch up that I can't remember what I have posted. I looked back, but didn't see these pictures?  Brandon and I went to the Donigans for a pool party the last day of school.

The girls went other places with their friends so I was super glad Brandon had somewhere to go.

Donigan's have a great pool set-up and are super generous letting anyone who wanted to come over.

Below is a picture from my photog friend of Sydney's feet and her friends at the 6th grade dance.  Syd is on the right….so cute!

The girls like to take my phone and do selfless.  Amanda and her friend, Chezney...

Sydney did a ballet intensive at Luv2Dance this summer with Mr Jay.  She earned Excellent on all items (around 10) on her report card.  Good thing those Clytie years were not wasted :)

Sydney and Maddie taking selfless on my phone...

Amanda and Chezney did a summer bucket list.  One of them was to tweet that whomever favorited their tweet they would deliver cookies.  They made a bunch and then I drove them to the places that were a little farther away.  This is Andrew & Ashton's cookie run.  They sat and talked forever until I finally did a mom thing and rolled down the window and said we had to go!!

It was a cute activity though and some high school seniors who live in the neighborhood copied them a few weeks later :)

We did some boating on Echo and stopped at 7-11 in Morgan because it's our thing…..slurpees on the way home!

Fourth of July and some fireworks…..We didn't do the parade this year. We only went for fireworks and Darin & Kat as well as Roger & Coze and James & Jessica and everyone's kids came to join us.  Quite fun!  I love that they want to hang with us in small town Kaysville for fireworks!!