Cameron and Marielsy's Wedding

My little brother Cameron married Marielsy on December 2nd.  We flew out for the wedding and it was a beautiful day.  Here are a few pictures:

*these aren't the professional photos, just ones I stole from facebook*

My Missionary Bro

My little brother Cody recovered from his broken foot and headed back out on his mission on November 1st!  He is now on the big island of Hawaii.  I am getting jealous now that it's been getting colder here...  We received our first email from him, and he sounds happy!  We even have a picture to prove it:)  I am proud of him and know that he will do a great job preaching the gospel. 

Utah Trip August 2011

I am so behind in blogging, it's kind of overwhelming to start again!  I never documented my Utah trip from August.  I flew out to Utah for my brother Cody's mission farewell.  It was a great and emotional trip sending my brother off. 

A lot has happened since then....  Cody broke his foot in the MTC while playing basketball, and is now home until November 1st.  He will get to go out to Hawaii then and he is super excited!  It was hard for him not to be able to go to Hawaii with his group, but is being patient in waiting for his foot to recover. 

Also since my trip, my brother Cameron got engaged!  See I said a lot has happened:)  He will be getting married December 2nd, so another Utah trip is in the works.  We will see family a lot in December with the wedding and Christmas.

Back to my trip... here are a few pictures - enjoy!

I made this dress for Jovie and finished just in time to give to her in Utah!  I think she looks cute in it, but I may be biased because she is my niece and I made the dress:)

This was the morning before dropping off at the MTC.

 Me and my "little" brother:)

 A cute picture of Cody with Canon and Keller, all wearing cute suit coats.

 We went to J-Dawgs for Cody's "last meal."

 Picture of the siblings (minus Amber) across from the MTC.

 Saying goodbye, yeah it was really hard, notice the sunglasses...

Drop-off at the MTC, much better than previously having to sit through a video. 

Dinner with my family before I had to fly back to NYC.  It was nice to see everyone before I had to leave.  Especially these cute kiddos:)  Thanks Amber for having such cute and fun kids! Here are some pics of the nieces and nephews on my side: 

Me with Taesya

 Me with Jovie

 Taesya

 Canon

 Jovie

 Canon, Taesya, and Keller

 Keller

It was nice to see my family and be there for Cody's farewell.  Cody was a great missionary in the MTC, and will be a great missionary in Hawaii when he goes out in November!  I'm excited to hear all about his adventures! 

Cody Got His Mission Call!

My youngest brother Cody got his mission call yesterday. 

We video chatted with the fam so we could "be there" in a sense. 

Here's are some pictures of my bro I stole from Facebook.

He's going to... Honolulu, Hawaii! 

He reports to the MTC on August 31, 2011. 

We are excited for him and we are very proud!

Family Visit! (I just added pictures)

My parents and younger sister Courtney came to visit us a few weekends ago! I was so excited for them to come. Three months without seeing any family seemed like such a long time.  I'm going to include the things we did for future reference for me and others that may visit.  Here's what we did: 

Wednesday
Their flight came in that night and we met up at their hotel downtown.

Seoul Garden - We went to dinner at Seoul Garden. It's our favorite Korean restaurant here to go to. It's in Koreatown and it is so good!

Thursday
Regis and Kelly - We decided to wait in the standby line to try to get into Regis and Kelly. Good thing we ended up getting there earlier around 6:30 am because there were already about 10 people ahead of us in line. It was freezing cold that morning! 2-1/2 hours later we barely made it into the studio and saw the show! I’m so glad we got in! It was fun to see the show

Serendipity - My mom wanted to go to Serendipity the last time they were there and we couldn't get a reservation.  It's a place where you have to go at least once to say you have. We tried again this time but decided to make a lunch reservation. I just have to say that reservations are the way to go. The thing about Serendipity is that the desserts are what the place is known for. So we split two meals between the four of us so we would have plenty of room for dessert. We split our desserts too, they were big!

After lunch we did some shopping, on the way back to the train station. Thursday night my sister was going to stay with us at our apartment so we all headed up to Washington Heights for dinner and American Idol results show.

Malecon - We ordered Dominican food from Malecon to be delivered to eat at our apartment. It's one of our favorite places to get food. Who doesn't love rotisserie chicken, black beans, and rice? Oh no I'm craving it now...

One of the things I love about New York is that just about every food place delivers. In Utah you would sound crazy if you asked any restaurant other than a pizza place to deliver.

My parents went back to their hotel, and Courtney slept over. I am not good at sleepovers because I get tired way too fast. Scott went to sleep at 10, I lasted until 11, and then poor Court was up by herself trying to fall asleep. I felt bad we were so tired, I wanted to do lots of fun things. Sorry Court! It was still fun to spend some time with her.

Friday
Lombardi's - Before beginning our shopping on Canal Street we decided to stop by Lombardi's.  It's a famous pizza place that is very good. 

Canal Street - We had a later start, and met up with my parents. We decided to head to Canal Street to do some shopping.  If you haven't been, Canal street is a crazy street with lots of people selling purses, sunglasses, etc. You have to bargain with the vendors to get a decent price.  I have taken people down there several times and know the drill. Courtney bought many colored pairs of sunglasses. Of course we bought purses. I found mine in the first place we went in.  Courtney had explained to me the kind of bag she wanted.  I thought that I had found what she wanted, but she said no.  So I bought it in a different color.  Come to find out, later in the night she decided that she really did want the bag.  So we planned another Canal street trip.

Basilica - We had dinner at Basilica down in Hell's Kitchen.  The food was very good, and the desserts even better:)

Wonderland - I have wanted to see the Broadway show Wonderland since it was announced.  When I found out my parents and sister would be coming into town I knew I should suggest going.  We were not disappointed!  It was an AMAZING show!  We went when it was still in previews, now it is officially opened. Go see it!

Saturday
Levain - On my way to meet up with my family I decided to stop by Levain Bakery.  We had it on the list of things to do but were running out of time and I wanted to make sure they got to try it.  Levain has these what I call "monster cookies."  They are very thick and large, and probably a million calories.  I picked up one of each flavor on the way to meet them as a surprise.  They loved them!  If you are ever in New York try them out.

Canal Street - We decided to hit up Canal street again to buy the bag Courtney wanted. 

Century 21 - Century 21 is like a discount department store.  It's kind of a crazy place reminds me of a giant TJMaxx.  They have some good things there for good prices, you just have to look really hard. 

Ground Zero - We stopped by Ground Zero to see the progress. 

Baluchi's - We love Indian food, and my family has never had it so we decided it would be perfect.  We like to go to Baluchi's, which is by my work, on Saturday afternoons when we go.  We go for lunch because everything is half off.  It's usually an expensive Indian place so half off is a major deal!  It was really good! 

Shake Shack - For dinner we took them to Shake Shack.  Everyone always raves about Shake Shack so we thought we'd give them the full New York experience.  I think it is good, but definitely not the best hamburger in the world.  Just like Serendipity it's something everyone has to try at least once.  We have been there a few times and I'm starting to believe that the long lines and fighting for a table aren't worth it. 

Wicked - Of course we saw Wicked which was really good.  We have seen it in different locations, but it was a first for all of us seeing it in New York.  I was disappointed that we got the understudy for Glinda. It was still good despite that.

Sunday
On Sunday they came to church with us and I made lunch afterwards before their flight.

It was so fun to have them in town!  Thanks for coming Mom, Dad, and Court!

P.S. I decided I'm going to make a few posts with tips on doing certain things in NYC.  These will include things like shopping at canal street, going standby at Regis and Kelly, etc.  I'll share my knowledge:)

Christmas Trip Home

It was so fun to go back to Utah and visit family!  It's also nice to get a break from the city and live a suburban life for a bit.  Here are a few pictures from my phone, and the majority are ones I stole from facebook.  We also spent time with Scott's family, but I don't have any pictures.  I'll be sure to take more pictures next time instead of relying on the pictures of others...

We finally got to meet our niece Jovie!  Of course, we made sure to get a lot of Jovie time.  She was still just a few weeks old when we met her, so it was fun to see a baby so new.

Keller was so fun this trip.  He is so cute and likes to give everyone "loves." 
He also refers to himself in the 3rd person which is very funny. 

Canon looking cool in his new bulldog football sweats.

Taesya is very girly, and totally into princesses/tinkerbell

On Christmas Eve, Scott went with my dad, brothers, and his dad to see Tron.  I chilled with my mom and sis and skipped out on the guy movie.  That afternoon/evening we got together with Scott's family which was fun.  We had good food and played a few fun games.  We slept at my parents that night and opened gifts with them Christmas morning.  We went back to Scott's house for a few hours to open gifts with everyone there.  It was nice to see everyone on Christmas and Christmas Eve.

So for some reason, me and my sister Courtney started singing the "Baby Bottle Pop" commercial song at Thanksgiving.  It got stuck in our heads or something  Scott heard us and asked what a baby bottle pop was.  We explained it, but he had never had one before.  When we were out there for Christmas, we went to the store with my mom, and Court picked one out to give to Scott.  Here's a picture of him it.

While we were in Utah we were able to celebrate my sister Courtney's 16th birthday with her. She got her license which was exciting. We also went bowling for her birthday which Scott and I have never done together. He always said that he was bad and didn't want to go. He ended up doing really well! I ended up doing terrible because I haven't bowled in the last 3 years.  Here are some pictures: 

After bowling, we made homemade pizza, and had strawberry shortcake.  Strawberry shortcake is my birthday dessert of choice but since we moved away I've been having it in New York so Courtney decided she wanted it for hers.  I did not complain---it was so good! 

The birthday girl making her pizza

Everyone making pizzas

My dad making his and my mom's.

My mom getting the strawberry shortcake ready.

Happy 16th Birthday little sis!  (I know that she looks older than me)

When our family gets a box of miscellaneous chocolates our family likes to play what we call, "Chocolate Roulette."  For the game each person has to choose a chocolate and you have to eat it.  We call it roulette because it is a gamble.  There are typically a few very nasty chocolates in the box.  We all went to make our choice and I saw one and said, "I get this one because it looks like a Snickers."  I thought it was a safe pick.  That was until I took a bite.... it had little bits of cherries, and it was the nastiest chocolate I have ever eaten.  See the picture of my reaction below.  If you have never played this game I recommend it, it's hilarious.  Scott lucked out and got all good chocolate.  My brother Cameron did get one that looked worse than mine.  Inside it looked like a fruitcake with various candied bits of fruit and cream.

We packed up our gifts along with our clothes etc. and were worried it wouldn't all fit in our suitcases.  We managed to fit everything and I told Scott it was a Christmas miracle!  On the flight home they asked for volunteers to take a different flight for vouchers.  Of course, we volunteered as we could use some free flights, and went to the gate where our new flight was.  They called us back and told us we could take our original flight and keep the vouchers!  It was our lucky day, getting paid to take our original flight!

It was a very fun trip, and I can't wait to go out again!