Well I guess we should start at the very beginning, because that is a very good place to start! Thursday morning I went and picked up Mara from her grandparents home in Springville. After trying for quite some time to get her suitcase to zip, we were on our way. Francie was so gracious and agreed to take us to the airport, in my beloved cousin, Stars, car. (Star is always so amazing when it comes to us borrowing her car, I am forever indebted to her and sure do appreciate her willingness!) So we get to the airport a good hour and a half before our plane is supposed to take off. Everything goes smoothly we check our bags (so lame you have to pay a fee for that now-a-days. Apparently the airports want us to pack lighter or something, put everything in our carry on) make it through security safely, and sit and wait.
This whole waiting thing becomes a HUGE part of our trip to New York, and patience definitely was developed. We had a connector flight in Phoenix...yes it makes so much sense to fly more west to get to the east coast...don't ask. So we make it to the Phoenix airport after a 30 minute flight...or an hour and 30 minute flight if you account for the time change, which Mara and I had a hard time doing. Genius. So our layover in Phoenix was about an hour and 15 minutes. We decided we were hungry and after the 6 hour flight to New York and not eating anything for lunch or dinner was not a good idea. So we go to our gate check things out, everything is still the same, so we decide to go eat. We ate at this really great Sports Court and had an amazing pulled pork sandwich...mmm. Well all of a sudden it is ten minutes before our plane is supposed to leave. We hurry and pay and run to our gate. Little did we know that while we had been enjoying our food our gate had been moved from A17 to A27. If you know the Phoenix airport, then you know that those are the farthest away two gates can be from each other within the same airline. Well to make a long story short, Mara and I looked really great running a mile through the airport to get to our other gate with our carry on and purses flailing everywhere...we missed out flight. We went and talked to customer service and the very nice lady took pity on us and gave us new tickets for free for 9:30 that night. It was 3:00. How lovely. Not only did that put us in the airport for FOREVER, but also complicated things with Larissa picking us up from the airport. Because of the time difference, we would get into JFK at about 5:30. Riss still had to work on Friday starting at 6:30 am. After we figured out a way to work the shuttles and busses, and Larissa freaking out because she did not think we could figure it out, her very nice employer Dan, volunteered to come pick us up! What a heaven sent!
We finally got to New York after our 5.5 hour plane ride, all the while meeting people who..uh...really enhanced out flight. Learning why women can't read maps and guys can't listen to listening to a presentation complete with a power point from the guy sitting next to me about an advertising company called Yodel, that he was presenting at a Dentist convention the next day. Man, it was an interesting flight!
In the end, Mara and I spent a total of 32 hours either in the air or in the airport. Ridiculous.
We finally arrived in New York and at the house in Chappaqua at about 7:00. It was SO great to finally see Larissa. Man, from seeing someone every day to not seeing them for 4.5 months... it is pretty emotional when you are finally reunited. As you can imagine. And we are not even emotional people...right. ;) After our flight, and not sleeping at all through the night, Mara and I went and took a shower and went to sleep in the carriage house, where we would be staying while in NY. Larissa bathed the kids, took Brie to speech therapy, played trains with Nate and other things until it was time to take the kids to school, we were supposed to be up and ready by this point. We took the kids to school and then just basked in the joy of being together! haha We ate some food...a trend that becomes way to popular on this trip. I am pretty sure we ALL gained at least 10 lbs. while there, and it was only 5 days! Sick. Well that night we went to Palisades Mall... Wow. Is the only word to describe it and that hardly does it justice. There are like 5 floors and we got through about 1/3 of them in the 2 hours we were there. I bought some cute clothes and then we went and saw a movie. After the movie we were a little too hyper and this was the result...
Palm Trees!!!!!
Comparing length of hair
Please note Larissa's face in this photo...haha
Please note Larissa's face in this photo...haha
Attempting Elvis lips... clearly I am a pro and Mara and Larissa...novice?By now I am sure you guys are getting worried about how this post is going to take you 5 days to read because I am being so detailed...don't fret, from here on out I will just do highlights and post lotsa photos!
Saturday we went into the city! This was the only day that was forecasted for sure to rain..turns out it was the only day that DID NOT rain. hmm
Saturday we went into the city! This was the only day that was forecasted for sure to rain..turns out it was the only day that DID NOT rain. hmm
Grand Central Station!
Rockefeller Center
Broadway play; In the Heights! Amazing!!!! Thank for the recommendation Becs!
Waiting in line for 2 hours, trying to get to the top of the Empire State Building... why would they not have a gorilla to take pictures with?*Funny Story! While you are in line they take your picture against a green screen that when it comes out it is this amazing photo of the Empire State Building and you in front of it! We took ours and when we looked at it, turns out Larissa's dress was the exact same color as the green screen. So in our picture she just had a floating head. It was soooo funny!
NYC...beautiful!
Did you guys know that the top of the ESB moves? Yeah...its cause of the wind. ;)SUNDAY:
We went to church in Connecticut! It was so great and I love feeling the spirit! Good time at church!
We went to church in Connecticut! It was so great and I love feeling the spirit! Good time at church!
*Funny Story: So we had decided the night before that we really wanted to have brownies and ice cream for dessert on Sunday. But we remembered not while we were at the store, so we did not buy brownie mix. Luckily Dan and Nicole had some that we took. When Larissa went and got the brownie mix, she forgot that we also needed eggs and oil to complete the brownie making process. She runs back over to the main house and brings back one egg (when it requires two) and some oil. Well I am in the process of making the brownies, cracking the egg when I think to myself, "Man this egg shell sure is thick..." Oh no, actually the egg was hard boiled! Thank you Larissa! hahaha It was so funny. Needless to say I had water and oil to make brownies with...they turned out really really gross. After 25 minutes of cooking, they were boiling...bubbles actually popping, in the middle of all the cupcake sections of brownies. It was disastrous! haha But so funny!As most of you know, when Mara, Larissa and I get together a water fight ALWAYS seems to break out. No matter what. This time was no exception. After a few minor casualties that resulted in me growing an extra medial malleolus, throwing Larissa in the shower, and Mara getting repeatedly sprayed with the hose from the sink, this is what we looked like!
We decided after this photo Mara should never go on ANTM! haha We love you!
My extra malleolus. It was super bruised and swelled up immediately, it was awesome!MONDAY:
We set our alarm for 7:00 and none of us woke up. We ended up waking up about 10:00 instead and still got to the city at a fairly decent hour with enough time to do everything we wanted. Here is a slideshow of Monday!
Walking back to the hotel on Monday with our gourmet meal and dessert in hand we were stopped by this man who asked us, "Where do they breed superhuman women like you?" We did not really know if it was a compliment...but we took it as one! haha We slept in a hotel in Manhattan on Monday night and it was so nice, to be able to stay in the city and wake up the next morning and not have to worry about taking a shuttle there (Thanks Bret and Margo for allowing us to use the time share!) It was an great night (besides the fact that there was no hot tub..what a conspiracy!) and once again we woke up an hour later than we had planned! What can we say? We were completely exhausted!!
TUESDAY:
Another great day in the city... and by great I mean pelting raindrops on our faces and the wind blowing 25 MPH...but we were in New York with each other, which ALMOST canceled out the freezing weather! Between Monday and Tuesday the three of us stood out like a sore thumb (what a weird phrase...who really notices sore thumbs?) Anyway, we are already 'superhuman' as stated above and way taller than everyone around us, not only that but all of us only packed shorts and flip flops for the freezing weather and we are all wearing bright colors as opposed to the New Yorkians style of gray and black! People were giving us weird looks everywhere we went! Here is what went down on Tuesday!
We got home Tuesday night and Dan and Nicole offered to buy Chinese food for us! They are so kind! P.S. I did not even tell you how cute Larissa's kids are. And they are just that, Larissa's. I am pretty sure they love her more than their parents...which is awful, but it is all so evident! Anyway, they are stinkin cute! So Tuesday night we had chinese with Dan and Nicole and then went and watched Baby Mama while eating Ben and Jerrys (tribute to Garren and Trevor!) We ended up going to 'bed' at about 2:30 and woke up at 3:45 to be to the main house by 4 so Dan could get us to the airport by 5:30...rough morning! So we boarded both our planes without any trouble and arrived in Salt Lake City, UT by 1 in the afternoon. Yes, we got to be in 3 different time zones all in the same day. Super confusing to keep up with!
All in all it was an amazing trip! It was so good to get out of Provo first of all, but it was good to get reacquainted with each other. To get really caught up on each others thoughts and feeling and not just events that were happening. I love these girls so much. I have been incredibly incredibly blessed by such amazing friends throughout my life! Not just Mara and Larissa, but so many who influence me for the positive every day and who I think of and want nothing more than to develop some of the qualities they possess! What can I say? I am a lucky girl!
I have now been home for 2 days and I really do love Provo! I love my job and the people I work with, my roommates and those that don't actually live with me but are like my roommates. It is good to be back home.
Holy longest blog post of my life..sorry..I will not be offended if you tell me you just went through and looked at all the pictures. But you really should read some of the stories. They are quite comical!
We set our alarm for 7:00 and none of us woke up. We ended up waking up about 10:00 instead and still got to the city at a fairly decent hour with enough time to do everything we wanted. Here is a slideshow of Monday!
Walking back to the hotel on Monday with our gourmet meal and dessert in hand we were stopped by this man who asked us, "Where do they breed superhuman women like you?" We did not really know if it was a compliment...but we took it as one! haha We slept in a hotel in Manhattan on Monday night and it was so nice, to be able to stay in the city and wake up the next morning and not have to worry about taking a shuttle there (Thanks Bret and Margo for allowing us to use the time share!) It was an great night (besides the fact that there was no hot tub..what a conspiracy!) and once again we woke up an hour later than we had planned! What can we say? We were completely exhausted!!
TUESDAY:
Another great day in the city... and by great I mean pelting raindrops on our faces and the wind blowing 25 MPH...but we were in New York with each other, which ALMOST canceled out the freezing weather! Between Monday and Tuesday the three of us stood out like a sore thumb (what a weird phrase...who really notices sore thumbs?) Anyway, we are already 'superhuman' as stated above and way taller than everyone around us, not only that but all of us only packed shorts and flip flops for the freezing weather and we are all wearing bright colors as opposed to the New Yorkians style of gray and black! People were giving us weird looks everywhere we went! Here is what went down on Tuesday!
We got home Tuesday night and Dan and Nicole offered to buy Chinese food for us! They are so kind! P.S. I did not even tell you how cute Larissa's kids are. And they are just that, Larissa's. I am pretty sure they love her more than their parents...which is awful, but it is all so evident! Anyway, they are stinkin cute! So Tuesday night we had chinese with Dan and Nicole and then went and watched Baby Mama while eating Ben and Jerrys (tribute to Garren and Trevor!) We ended up going to 'bed' at about 2:30 and woke up at 3:45 to be to the main house by 4 so Dan could get us to the airport by 5:30...rough morning! So we boarded both our planes without any trouble and arrived in Salt Lake City, UT by 1 in the afternoon. Yes, we got to be in 3 different time zones all in the same day. Super confusing to keep up with!
All in all it was an amazing trip! It was so good to get out of Provo first of all, but it was good to get reacquainted with each other. To get really caught up on each others thoughts and feeling and not just events that were happening. I love these girls so much. I have been incredibly incredibly blessed by such amazing friends throughout my life! Not just Mara and Larissa, but so many who influence me for the positive every day and who I think of and want nothing more than to develop some of the qualities they possess! What can I say? I am a lucky girl!
I have now been home for 2 days and I really do love Provo! I love my job and the people I work with, my roommates and those that don't actually live with me but are like my roommates. It is good to be back home.
Holy longest blog post of my life..sorry..I will not be offended if you tell me you just went through and looked at all the pictures. But you really should read some of the stories. They are quite comical!
6 comments:
=D how fun!
ahhh so fun!!!! you look INCREDIBLE in all of the pictures!! I'm so glad you could all spend time together! Love you!
Wow, I want to go there SO bad!!! It looks like you had a great time. (and youre right-those brownnies loook bad!) :)
Pretty sure I am obsessed with your pictures, your story, the fact that it took me over 15 minutes to read your blog post (including looking at all the pictures), and knowing that I'm one of the non-roomies who actually is... and by that I mean NOT! (And by that I mean, almost)... :)
New York looks so fun! I'm jealous! It seems like the $650 was well worth it :)
(hey since I'm in Jerusalem, we don't have facebook so I can't get your e-mail address, want to send it to me at rachelherrmann14@gmail.com? I am basically blog illiterate and have no idea how to do anything.. ha oh well)
Kendra... First of all... I am not a novice at the Elvis lip... I just have incapable nostrils!Also, you should have taken a picture with my kids so every one could see how cute they are, also I miss you.
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