I Love NYC

I love NYC - I mean I really, really LOVE NYC!

We celebrated our anniversary a couple of weeks ago in this fabulous city!

This was one of the best surprises my sweetie has pulled off. Here's how it went down...
I was in Idaho on our actual anniversary. I spent that day with Mom B. at BYU education week - loved it! Dave was in Arizona. He called me during the day and told me that there were a couple of things that I needed to look at in my email when I got home that night. There were 2 emails from Dave. The first one said: "Happy Anniversary. You're the best thing that ever happened to me. Lets go find Delilah. I love you forever. Dave" There was also the link to the video "Hey there Delilah", you know, by Plain White T's. Love that song! Hmmm..... :) I was afraid to guess... The next email was from Jet Blue - 2 airline tickets, 5 days in NYC! (And amazing babysitters all arranged too: mom and dad B. flying down to keep the kids!!) AND... we were going with the Sabeys, our dear friends from dental school days in Birmingham - WOO-HOO!!! Love them so much! I was so SURPRISED! (especially since we spent 10 days on my dream vacation in the Mediterranean in May - one of these days I'll post the pictures - there are TONS - I am working on an imovie - stay tuned).

(Seriously babe, you blew me away!)

We had a wonderful, super FUN trip! We saw and did tons: Wall Street, Federal Hall, Time Square, Ground Zero, went up inside the Statue of Liberty, toured Ellis Island, saw Phantom of the Opera, Little Italy (Mmmmm), China Town, saw Mary Poppins, walked the Brooklyn Bridge, watched BYU's awesome victory at the ESPN zone in Time Square, desserts at Serendipity (yummy), went to church in the Manhattan temple building, ate at Tavern on the Green, Grand Central Station, top of the Empire State Building, cheesecake at Juniors (yummiest!), US Open (saw Oudin and Federer play and win - saw Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban), Yankees game, The Met, and biked Central Park. It was a blast!

So here are the highlights - I made a little slide show (this links to my Shutterfly site) and I also added them as an album on my Shutterfly too incase you want a better look at the photos. I still am not loving the quality of the slide shows... I have been experimenting with different formats - think I might need to purchase the HD subscription through Shutterfly to increase the video quality... still figuring all this out :)


Click here to view this video

Happy Birthday Zac Attack!

Zac hit double digits this year -- the big 10. We all had a blast celebrating his big day. It is tradition (by Zac's choice) that we go and stay at a fun resort for his birthday! I love that he chooses this! My kind of party ;) We enjoyed a yummy birthday dinner Friday night - of course a restaurant that serves BBQ ribs for my little Texas born boy. We spent a relaxing Saturday by a beautiful waterfall pool, floating around on the lazy river, and taking in the giant waterslide. Ahhh... I love Zac's birthday. I adore this boy!

I Love the Smell of New Crayons...

"Back to school" came a little too quickly for me this year. The start of school left me wishing for a few more weeks of Summer, for a few more unstructured days without homework, wishing to sleep in, wishing to spend all day playing in the pool with my children... I don't know how the Summer break passed so quickly. Thankfully the warm AZ sunshine will keep it feeling like summer a little longer. Thankfully cool backpacks, fresh crayons, and the anticipation of new friends and teachers make this time of year so exciting! Ok... Bring it on. We are ready!

This school year also brought some big changes for us. Zac is attending a new school this year to participate in a new self-contained gifted program with amazing teachers. Ashley is starting half-day Kindergarten and will attend at Zac's new school.

Josh: 7th Grade - Check out the new braces!

Zac: 5th Grade

Ashley: Kindergarten

Luke: Keeps me company all day :) Packed his little backpack because he wanted to go to school too.

End of Summer Fun (Idaho/Utah)

We ended a wonderful summer with a trip up to Utah and Idaho Falls. Dave drove the kids and I out. We spent a fun Pioneer day (24th of July) in Spanish Fork with lots of my family there. We had yummy food, fantastic company, rode horses, went to a carnival and ended a perfect day with the Spanish Fork Rodeo and fireworks. We drove up to Idaho Falls the next day and attended a fun celebration there with Dave's parents. We spent a fun and relaxing weekend together before Dave flew back to AZ Monday evening. The kids and I stayed and played for the next two weeks. Dave rejoined us in Utah the next week on Friday. We spent a couple of days with our dear friends, the Sabeys, and then drove home the day before school was to begin again. Nothing like squeezing in every last drop of Summer fun! So... here are a ton of pictures - the highlights of a fantastic summer vacation. My favorite way to view them is to select slideshow and enjoy :)

Click here to view these pictures larger