New York City

We went to NYC for the first time this weekend.  It was a lot of fun, and really neat to see the city.  The buildings were so huge.  I've never seen anything like it.  Some of the sites we saw include ground zero, Battery Park, Hudson River (looking out to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty), the Brooklyn Bridge (from a distance), Central Park, the Museum of Modern Art, and more.  We took the train into the city from where we live, so we got to see Grand Central Station, which was a site in and of itself.  Very cool.  So much of the architecture in NYC is very detailed and has been around for very long.  I'm so glad we got to see this remarkable, world-famous city.
Standing in front of Grand Central Terminal

Walking the streets of NYC

Memorial to those whose lives were lost on 9/11 through rescue efforts

Ground Zero.

We saw this from the roof of our hotel.  We couldn't see anything from the street.  This is the construction of the Freedom tower they are building 

More views from the "Sundeck" of our hotel

Southern tip of Manhattan Island

Anabelle looking over from 20 stories high

In front of the Hudson River

Whoa!  Look how big this flower is

And here it is, the statue of Liberty.  This is the closest we got to it.  We'll have to save that for another trip

A memorial to immigrants who came to America via Castle Garden

the beautiful statue

Brooklyn Bridge

The place where George Washington took the first oath as President of the United States

Outside Rockefeller Center. Anabelle was SO tired.  My arms got tired so I finally set her down in her stroller.  She whined for about a half a second and was then completely out.  She'd had a long day.

We walked down 5th avenue.  Here's my picture to prove it. :)  We saw all of the overly expensive stores.  It was crazy; there was a line around the corner to get into Abercrombie and Fitch.

 We were able to get into the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for free with our military ID card, so we took advantage of that.  I saw some amazing art.  The design & architecture and paintings were my favorite.  Much of the other art (especially the contemporary and photography) was outside my taste very discomforting to look at.  Here are some photos of my favorite displays at MoMA.

And yes, Vincent VanGogh's Starry Night (sorry, poor picture quality)

What an amazing trip that was!  We were so exhausted by the time we got home yesterday evening, and we're still recuperating today.  Sorry I don't have pics of Central Park (our camera drains batteries like crazy, so we were conserving them).  It was gorgeous, and amazingly, you couldn't even hear the noise of the streets inside the park.  I highly recommend a visit if you've never been.

Happy Anniversary!

Yesterday was our 3 year Anniversary! It's hard to believe that much time has already passed.  We sure have experienced a lot since we got married.  I love you Mike, and I am so grateful to be your wife :)  Last night we went out to celebrate.  A family in our ward volunteered to watch Anabelle (who was an angel for them, thank goodness), and we enjoyed the alone time.  We went to dinner at a Japanese Hibachi steakhouse and then to see the play "Defending the Caveman."  Hilarious!!  It was a great evening.
Then...

And now...

Visit to the Nautilus

There is a submarine base about an hour and a half away, in Groton, CT.  We went up there last weekend.  They have a submarine up there that you can tour, which was awesome.  I got to see what kind of setup Mike would have as an officer on a sub.  To be honest, it made me a little nervous. I'm pretty sure living in that confined space would do wonders for my claustrophobia.  Nonetheless, it was really cool to see.  It's amazing how much they fit into each tiny space.  They also had a museum with all sorts of info about the history of submarines.  I'm sure Mike would have typed up a much better and more detailed explanation of our venture, but I guess you have to miss out on that.  Here are some pictures of us in front of the submarine (called Nautilus).

Oh, and by the way, we FINALLY got our car and got the registration taken care of, which was way more of a hassle than I could have ever imagined.  Happy that's all taken care of.  Here it is. It's an '02 Saturn SL1.  Mike and I still debate over whether it's gold or tan.  Technically, Saturn calls it gold, but I just don't quite buy it. 

The beach

Here's a great capture of Anabelle to start you off...

We made it to the beach on Saturday.  It wasn't quite as nice as Florida beaches because of all the shells and rocks, but it was still fun.  We forgot our memory card for our camera, so here's the two pictures we got.

Beautiful, isn't it?

I love this outfit of hers

Silly girl!

It's now 3:00 in the afternoon, and Anabelle has refused to take a nap all day.  I had to change her poopy diaper twice, then I got her up and fed her lunch.  We're trying this whole nap thing again, but she's just sittin' in her pack-n-play chatting away to herself.  I would just get her up, but if she doesn't sleep for at least a little while, she'll have a hard time sleeping tonight as well (her history has proved this).  One of the times I changed her diaper I decided to have her model this dress I made for her a few weeks ago - since she was already up :)

To read more about this dress, go here

Slew Creations

My craft blog is alive again!  The link is on my sidebar.  I will be posting recent sewing and other creative projects.  Please take a look!

Chapter 2

After getting our rental car, we drove to the second hotel, which was much nicer and had a section of the room we could close off so Anabelle could sleep in her own space (woohoo! #3). We bathed and took naps before setting out to look for a car to buy. (We left our Rav4 in Utah, since I will be going back there in November). We planned on just buying an inexpensive one here to drive around and so Mike would have a car when he leaves for OCS (Officer Candidate School). We started looking online at dealerships, but didn't make it out to any on Wednesday. Anabelle ended up sleeping for about 5 hours, so we didn't really have time.

The next day, still a bit tired and recovering from the near sleepless travel night, we went searching for a car. Most dealerships did not have anything in our price range. After visiting 4 different ones, we decided to take a break. We met up with the real estate agent we had previously spoke to about renting an apartment we liked so we could take a look at it. The owners were there, who were very nice. The apartment is furnished and should have everything we need for our time here. It's a one bedroom in a very good area, close to grocery stores, a YMCA, and Mike's new work. Happy and anxious to move in (not available until August 4th), we filled out the application, relieved to have checked off #5 on our list.