new york pt.2

After some much needed sleep on day two... we headed to coney island because that is one thing none of us have ever seen. it was such a fun place. as david said... every vacation needs a beach. we just walked around had lunch on the pier, and headed back into the city. 

we went to grand central for some black and white cookies from zaro, which is hands down are the best black and white cookie in the city. we explored the station a little, showed david whispering alley, got a smores cupcake from magnolias and went to macys to play on the old wooden escalators. 

After that, we went to soho and got the much anticipated BIg Gay Ice Cream. Oh man was it delicious. I think it was one of the best ice cream cones I had ever tasted. Yum. We also tried pizza from Joe's which was reccomended to us and  it didn't disappoint. I think we ate more pizza in three days than I have in one year. 

After that we called it a night. 

Day three- we took a walk through Washington square park to get to a little shop called bantam bagels... Sound familiar? Do you watch shark tank? They were on shark tank last season for their stuffed bagels. They were delicious. We finished our first set and decided we wanted a couple more flavors.

We explored and then made our way to the upper west side. We saw the temple, Lincoln center, and made our way to the famous Levain Bakery which had the best chocolate peanut butter cookie ever. 

I guess we really just had a lot of treats because that is all I have pictures of. We walked around some more and made our way back to soho for... You guessed it, more pizza. This time at Bleeker Street Pizza which according to their sign was voted the best pizza in New York for 4 years or so. It was delicious. 

Another fantastic thing we tried in between treats.. The grilled corn at cafe Havana. I still dream about that delicious corn. It was incredible. 

We took a ferry ride later that night and saw lady Liberty. After we walked around battery park to watch the sunset on our last night in New York. It was gorgeous. 

taylor swift

Have you ever had a weekend where great things were happening single day and you didn't know which to be most excited for?!?

Labor Day weekend was that perfect weekend. It started off Thursday with the Michigan game and Friday Taylor Swift and Saturday was a day of relaxation (which neither David and I had been home for in a month or so) and Sunday we went to Idaho for a family reunion. 

But let's talk about queen Taylor for a minute. Best. Concert. Ever. Taylor has been my favorite person ever since her days of opening at Cheyenne Frontier Days in Wyoming. Back when she was just learning how to perform live. I have been to every tour with the exception of Speak Now and I was on an LDS mission or else I would not have missed it (I actually had tickets but had to give them up). 

Meghan and I bought tickets back in December and played the waiting game along with 50,000 other fans until September when she finally came. We had general admission tickets and knew we wanted to be at the rail in the first row. Mission accomplished. We waited in line starting at 8am which may or may not have been a little bit of a waste of time but that's ok. Waiting in line is part of the fun. We made new friends, I did homework, and built up the anticipation for the greatest concert ever. 

Finally they opened the doors and we booked it to the pit and made it to the front row at the rail. life made. It was the best thing ever. 

Taylor was incredible. She always puts on a good show but this one was especially incredible. Plus she made eye contact with every single person in the front. It was amazing. She also gave out bracelets to everyone in the arena and they lit up in sync with which song she was singing.  Love her. Loved the night. 

I had to lean back to take a lot of these pictures because she was so close! 

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.