I want to be apart of it...New York, New York!

As mentioned in this post, we went to New York after our Thanksgiving in Cancun. We arrived in New York at 4pm on Saturday and left at 8pm on Sunday. That gave us 24 hours-ish! N*, my sis in law, had never been to NYC and Matson had not been since he was 12. We carefully planned out our 24 hours to do as much as we could. We didn't hit up all the common tourist spots, but we did some. Instead we combined stuff that everyone wanted to do!

Growing up, my dad showed my siblings and I new movies almost every weekend. Most of the time these movies were sooo dumb and he would try to convince us that they were the best movies. Like National Velvet (Sorry Elizabeth Taylor as a teenager, your fake riding a horse while in your bed was just too much) and The Field Is White (Probably some of the worst production, acting, and everything I have ever seen. Great LDS story but just not a good movie in anyway). Whether he said they were classics or movies with an "all star cast", we rarely watched one that us kids liked. One time though, one of his movies he showed us was a hit! The movie, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying became a family favorite fast. We watched it all the time and had every phrase and song memorized and I still do. When we found out it was coming to Broadway we were soooo excited and told ourselves we had to go sometime soon! So that is why we stopped in NYC after Cancun.

We checked into our hotel and quickly called for a cab that fit 8 or for 2 cabs to fit 8. We ended up in a...

Limo for a cab? Ok!

So our #1 priority in NYC was to go to the broadway show of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying starring Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and John Larroquette (you know...the mean guy from Richie Rich?).

Before going to the show we needed somewhere close the the theater and was kind of fast (not sit down). We decided on Shake Shack. Yum yum!

Finding a place to sit for 8 people was ridic. Finally got an area for us all to sit at but it required some staking out!

After eating we still had some extra time before the show started so we went to show N* Times Square. Matson was fasinated by all the screens in Times Square and he got to sit on the "red steps" for the first time. Haha.

We sat on the steps and realized, "What the heck are you suppose to do here?" Ashley replied, "You just sit..."

Finally...it was showtime!! It followed the movie pretty exact and was hilarious. They added some parts to the Groundhog fight song scene, which was hilarious! The fact that Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette are so different in height made it quite funny. I would highly recommend going to this show when you go to NYC. Worth it!

After the show we headed to Serendipity where we were told the wait for 8 was 2+ hours at 12 at night? URGH...Matson, T*, N*, and I waited while the other four went back to the hotel for some sleep. We got in 15 minutes after they left! Dang hostess dude lied. URGH...

Biggest Menu Ever.

Matson ordered the classic Serendipity Frozen Hot Chocolate.

Me..I was craving something refreshing. I got Pink Ice (Frozen Lemonade).

Serendipity is yummy and everything, but honestly it is more about the fun Serendipity atmosphere that you wait for. The actual food isn't to die for, but it is still a NYC touristy spot. After Serendipity we took the long subway adventure back to our hotel where we finally went to sleep around 3am. Next morning we woke up at 7am for a bright and early attack on the city. First, we hit up Rockefeller Center where N*, Matson, and my brothers saw the view of the city from the Top of the Rock building. My dad, mom, sister, and I went to Anthropologie (which was my mom's only request for the NYC 24 hour trip). 

I was so excited to see the Rockefeller tree. I love the Home Alone scene where he meets his mom. I love this tree!

It is seriously so BIG. How do they get it there? The stump of it is bigger than my car!

Matson on the Top of the Rock.

Next we did some shopping on 5th Ave. - H&M, Urban Outfitters, etc. Good deals and some killer finds! I got the cutest boots for only $20! They were more than 50% off because they were 50% off the marked down price! So pumped about some of our purchases. I have to wait for Christmas for some though :(

Us on 5th Ave.

Next, we headed to Grand Central Station. Mats had never been there, he loved it. It really is such a cool, old building!

Matson at Grand Central. It was sooo busy even on a Sunday afternoon.

We took the subway to Chinatown/Little Italy. My family has this thing on vacations where we sometimes go too long without food then we get hangry I love that word now that I saw pinned on Pinterest. Hungry+Angry=Hangry. Therefore, Dad demanded us to eat at Lombardi's Pizza. It was so yummy.

Chinatown Story: We then headed to Chinatown where N* originally was the only one that wanted a purse...we were crossing a street when some creeper Asian man came up to us and quietly said, "you want Gucci, Prada, Michael Kors?" Dad told him yeah then all the sudden we were following this guy with a leather jacket like 5 blocks down to some sketchy area. He walked like 30 feet in front of us and when my dad asked him how much farther away it was he replied by saying, "We can't talk now." I felt like we were in a movie. Having been to China a couple times, my family had experienced this multiple times before. Matson on the other hand had not and was a little sketched out. We got to this guy's location where we ended up buying 5 handbags (I am getting mine for Christmas from Mats!). The guys except for T* waited outside while T* tried to work a deal. Mom handed T* the cash and T* asked how much for all 5? The Asian boy told him $300 (That's 60 bucks a bag..I had heard other people getting theirs for $30 even though those womens' bags were smaller than ours). T* started at $150 lower then the guy asked for. The guy said no way. T* went straight up to $200. The guy said no way again but said $250. I really wanted to get all the handbags for 30 bucks a piece, so that's $150 for all! I then budded in and said, "ok well we don't need these then" and hung my bag I was holding back on the rack and started walking out. I wish you could of seen my mom's and N*'s faces. Their faces were saying, "NO...we love these bags! We want them!" As I started to walk out the guy said, "FINE FINE we will do it for $200." I was so happy to get them for cheaper than $300, but I still wished T* wouldn't of said $200 because guarantee I could of gotten them at least for $35 a bag if not $30. Reminded me of all our times in China shopping. SO MUCH FUN!

After our China adventure, we walked over to the World Trade Center buildings. The guys went through a little memorial/museum while us girls went to Century 21. Century 21 is such a fun store!

We were out of town and had to head back to the hotel to get our luggage then head to the airport. New York was so much fun! I loved just being there even for a day, but I want to go back again and see more shows and shop more! It was super fun to be there with all the Christmas decorations up all over too!  Again, thank you so much Mom and Dad for taking us to NYC!

Here's one last little picture for you guys all to get a laugh from our plane ride home Sorry Instagram friends, you get to see it again. I fell asleep the whole way and Matson took 6 pictures on my phone that I didn't even find until I was on my phone at work the next day. Enjoy :)

Cancun Thanksgiving 2011

My family's go to vacation spot is Cancun. We love it there. We went for Spring Break when we were younger multiple times, we've been I think 2 or so times for Thanksgiving before, Mats and I spent our honeymoon there (even though we were in Playa Del Carmen, we went to Cancun too!), my bro T* and my sis in law, N*, went there for their honeymoon too, and a couple summers ago we went for 2 weeks-it is heaven! Seriously the best of all beach locations - cheap unlike Hawaii or other places. It's Mexico..., blue water and white sand, perfect boogie boarding and body surfing waves, it's safe unlike some people think, it's not too hot and never cold, and there is a variety of American restaurants!

If that doesn't convince you that Mexico is the best then I do not know what will.

Before flying out on the RED EYE we headed to CPK to meet up with some family friends that were in town for Thanksgiving.

Sister and I at CPK. My family is usually an all water family, but CPK marked the beginning of the vaca so sis and bro ordered a root beer and Mats ordered his Dr. Pepper, of course.

Matson and our friends' son. Matson was corrupting him with even more iPhone games to get addicted too. They were having a hay day!

Due to the outrageous Thanksgiving airline prices, we flew through NYC to get to Cancun which was a major plus because on the way back from Cancun we got to stay in NYC for 24 hours (post coming after this one about NYC)!

Matson's first time flying JetBlue. He was loving all the snack selections and that you could have pretty much as many as you want! That is not my hand, that would be T*'s.

We got to Cancun and spent a full week of fun! (This might be a picture overload). We do all sorts of things. Such as...

We go to Wal Mart/Costco to get food for the week. Matson found this Spiderman mask and loved it!

We bought Chica Strawberry Jane. BAD DECISION. She was overload of nasty smell, worse then even the original nasty smell of our rental car. We were getting quite the kick out of it.

We went on bike rides on bikes that only have the old fashion break wear you push back on pedals.

We went boogie boarding and body surfing. The boogie boarding kings!

We played tennis when the sun left our poolside or we were just too hot and done for the day.

We played it every afternoon.

We sometimes hit tennis balls over the fence which made for an adventure.

We got burned. This guy got super burned this day. AHH. Ironic that he is reading "Catching Fire" while he was so burned and trying to get out of the sun?

We took naps. He was sunned out (is that a word..sunned out?).

We took funny pictures with bronze Mexicans.

We went to yummy dinners and walked around the malls and shops by them. Dad tried to kiss the guys (this happened more than once).

We played badminton and tried to balance on the boogie boards and other flotation devices in the kid's pool.

We went to an aquarium where we got to touch sting rays.

We parked in multiple parking garages where my dad's ultimate fear of hitting the top of the parking garage came out to the in-laws. It is hilarious. He drives like 3mph and ducks his body/head like he himself is going to hit the top (not the car).

I am telling you, Matson would boogie board like there is no tomorrow. I would go in and 15 mins. later would get out due to the fact my mouth was salty or was done getting worked over by waves.

We went to the yummy Ruth's Chris steakhouse to celebrate my brother's birthday (last blog post).

Thanksgiving at the Marriott hotel. Yum. Buffet full of everything and crepes. We gone to this Marriott Thanksgiving a couple times before and it always is the best! Plus, you don't get a frustrated mother and you don't have to clean up! I'd say that's the way to eat a Thanksgiving dinner.

Yummy martini glass salads (like at our wedding). Such good food!

Told you he did it again.

Thanks Mom and Dad for the vacation! It was so needed and so much fun. We loved spending time with you and the rest of the family. We love you!

New York post coming soon.

A Mexican Birthday

My brother's birthday is today! 

Happy Birthday J*!

Seattle Ferry in (I'm guessing) around 1990.

 How dang cute is my brother or I guess I should say both my brothers? But sorry T*, we are focusing on J* here. He was such a cute little boy not that I knew (or remembered) him at that age since I am younger than him, but all the home videos of him are so precious. He has those classic toddler boy moments (anyone who has seen my family's collection of videos, you know what I am talking about). J* is such a sweet brother. Not only is he super smart which is a HUGE plus when it comes to advice on technology, apps, finances, homework help, and pretty much everything! but he is also very caring, secretly funny he cracks some super saracastic jokes/comments, he loves movies a necessary family trait, and ladies, he is single! He truly is a great guy and older brother. 

 

He lives in California and is going to law school. So when we were all in Mexico we celebrated his birthday there by going to a nice little restaurant called...Ruth's Chris. It was such a treat! We got into the restaurant and they asked what the occasion was for. We told them while they replied to wait while they fixed up our table. 

Little did we know that "fixed up your table" meant that they would decorate the table with a bunch of Happy Birthday/Feliz Complenos confetti.

We all ordered our yummy food and pigged out! 

After dinner, we went back to our hotel and John opened some gifts. We gave him the most random coolest gift (at least I think it's cool). My brother (actually both my brothers and actually maybe my whole family) is obsessed with cereal. Hungry? Eat some cereal. Watch out you cereal lovers or you family members of cereal lovers...you are going to want this.

Is this not the coolest invention ever? A slanted bowl, that keeps your cereal from getting soggy! BEST THING EVER.

Anyway...sorry we can't be there with you today, J*!

But it was super fun to go to have celebrated with you in Mexico!

Utah Valley Symphony...Who Knew?

Matson's family and us went to the Utah Valley Symphony's Family Christmas Concert tonight or I guess last night since it is now 1am-ish December 2nd. So...SURPRISING FACT: I played violin as a youngin' definitely don't now. So I have played in Orchestras and taken lessons, but never actually been to a symphony concert. With many stories from my mom about my dad falling asleep through them and operas and such, I thought that I would have the same problem as him. As we were walking to our seats I actually said to my sis-in-law, T*, that she should not be surprised if I fall asleep. SURPRISING FACT: I liked it and didn't sleep. Seriously, really did like it. Got me totally in the Christmas mood. They played songs from the Nutcracker we went to Ballet West's Nutcracker last year...and now because of hearing the music, we are going again this year (but this time to the Utah Regional Ballet's Nutcracker, yep already bought the tickets)! Thank you Matson! and they played Sleigh Ride and White Christmas and others. It was super good and only an hour and 20 ish minutes long. Any longer I may not of liked it and shot myself don't worry folks, not literally shoot myself just a figure of speech, but it was the perfect length and great way to welcome December!

Plus, there were some extra comedic acts at the symphony besides the actual symphony. There was a man in the audience who almost after every song loudly said, "Bravo! Bravo!" It was hilarious. I kept daring Matson to do it, he chickened out. boo. And the conductors themselves were giving us goof balls in the 2nd row a good laugh (refer to picture below).

As you can see there is a large slit in the back of the Conductor's coat that opened wide each time he moved his hands up. My bro-in-law, C*, leaned over to Matson who then leaned over to me and said, "Just imagine if he had no pants on and every time he moved his arms, you saw a nice view of his butt." The rest of that song you know what I was imagining. Haha.

Happy December! 

Post about our recent Thanksgiving trip coming soon (hopefully)!