welcome to new york pt.1

it's been waiting for you...

new york is my absolute most favorite city. i love it and long to go there allllll the time. i have been dying to show david this place i love so much, but the timing was always off. well 3 weeks ago the timing was perfect and we booked some tickets. david and i were talking about how lucky we have been this past year with travel. when we got married we both knew we wanted travel to be a big priority. we have been incredibly smart with travel and never pay for plane tickets and we tag along with my sister a ton to split costs of other things. it works for us.

we took a red eye out of salt lake wednesday night and arrived in the city ready to take on the day. our tip-even if you are only going for 3-4 days, it is worth it to buy an unlimited 7 day pass for the subway. 

first stop... 9/11 memorial. the museum has never been opened all the many times we had gone before so to finally see the museum was awesome. what a beautiful memorial to a horrific event. 

after our time at the memorial  we rented bikes and biked across the brooklyn bridge. we intended to grab some pizza there but our bike rental was too short so we just rode back.

one of my most favorite things about this beautiful city is the entertainment found everywhere..in the subway stations, on the street, on the actual subway trains. before our bike adventure we came across this group of guys break dancing and they drew a huge crowd. they pulled up a girl and one of they guys jumped over, well then they pulled up a huge group for the guy to jump over...see my cute husband on the end there..

next up was times square, which I actually sort of hate, but love all at the same time. we came, we saw, we were tired so in following david, meghan and i's vacation ritual..we found a marriott to lounge in and recoup for a few minutes.

we also wanted to win the lottery to matilda and we did! all three of our names got called which is rare and we were excited. meghan didn't even want to go so david and i did. before the show we hit up magnolia's bakery for the famous banana pudding. it is the absolute best and i do not even like banana pudding. 

david and I headed to the show and loved it. I saw it back in london and was excited to see it again. what a talented cast.after the show, we stopped for our first of many slices of pizza and headed back for some much needed sleep. 

bear lake

during david and i's short summer break, my family rented a house at bear lake. it was so much fun. my family had never done a trip there before and we all had a blast. the first night we hung out, got famous shakes and played games. and also broke out the 4 wheeler that has been sitting around for 6 years.

 the drive up was gorgeous

the next day we spend the entire day at the beach. we rented a jet ski, paddle board and water trampoline and it was so much fun. we loved the trampoline so much. that night i planned a jeapordy game of the harding family, not only was it hilarious, but i think it ended up being cade's favorite part of the whole reunion and kept asking to play it over and over.

the next day we spent the morning at the beach with a kayak and paddle board and relaxed the rest of the day. it was nice to sit around and not have to worry about school. we played endless amounts of games and my dad even made a new jeapordy game for cade to play because he couldn't stop talking about it. 

we packed up and said our goodbyes to this beautiful new place we plan to visit for many years to come.