Empire State of Mind

I've been home from New York for a month now, and decided I guess it's time to post about it :)

My sweet Mother in law planned a once in a lifetime girls trip to New York in November. 

How cool is that?

I'd never been before and have always dreamt of going, so to say I was excited to go is quite an understatement! 

It was so great to spend 5 days with the Feller Females, they are always lots of fun and are wonderful examples to me. 

When we flew in it was really really snowy. It was sad to walk the streets because we saw quite a few homeless people shivering and trying to keep huddled in a ball to stay warm. 

That was the only day that it was snowing, other then that it was just a bit chilly. 

Luckily we all had our coats. 

While we were there we went shopping on canal street and got some great deals, went to the 9/11 memorial, ate yummy Italian food, and saw the Broadway show "Nice work if you can get it" which starred Matthew Broderick! I'm sad I didn't take any pictures while we were there, other than the not-so-flattering ones of me and two sistas. You wouldn't want to see them anyway :)

We saw a couple movies {which is one of my favorite things to do..}, ate SO much, shopped on 5th avenue, and visited Saint Patrick's Cathedral.

The Cathedral was really beautiful.

We saw the Christmas Spectacular at the Radio City Music Hall. I've heard of the Rockettes before, but never knew how amazing they are! If you can youtube some of their dancing, do it... it's so impressive. 

The show was a lot of fun, and had a great message about Christmas. 

We saw Newsies! This was one of my favorite movies as a kid, so seeing it LIVE was awesome. 

I may or may not be following some of the dancers on Instagram now ;)

There were at least 2 dancers from So You Think You Can Dance in the show, which was fun to watch! 

We visited the Empire State Building, I can't believe how high up we were. 

I couldn't get Alycia Keys song out of my head... Concrete jungle where dreams are made of! 

We did a bit more shopping and walking around the city. On Sunday we went to church at the temple then packed up to head home. 

By the end of the trip I felt happy that I don't live in a big city full of cigarette smoke, but I'm so glad I was able to walk those streets and really experience the kindness of New Yorkers first hand. 

I loved riding the Subways and having NO idea where I was. We were lucky to have one sister who has been there multiple times and kind of knew the system! 

I just have to say how grateful I am for such wonderful in-laws. 

I am truly blessed in the family department! 

Thank you for making my first girls trip in the family one to remember! 

My Feller

I have seen Jon more in the past two weeks than I have all summer long. 

He made a quick trip out this way just to say hi for a weekend,

and a week later I flew out there for a quick trip to say bye to Texas.

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, we went to a trampoline house for an hour. 

if you're interested in going, it's called Airborne. it's in Draper. and it's lots of fun. 

{and you might feel too old to be there but go ahead and ignore those thoughts.}

 Oh HEY

you can practice your kewl trix

and you'll even get to be a hot sweaty mess afterwards

It was so good to just spend a weekend with him. 

Thanks to my mom I was able to fly out to Dallas for free! 

She even figured out all the flights for me and made sure I got there without too much delay.  

Thanks mom!

I got out there Tuesday and stayed until Saturday. 

It was so much fun and I loved having a quick break from work!

We... - saw People Like Us in the dollar theaters, which we both loved.

- slept in much later than acceptable each day.

- chilled at the pool.

- saw Bourne Legacy, which we both hated.

- spent time with some of the great friends we have made while working out there.

- WENT TO RELIENT K at the House of Blues.

- only splurged on one meal, it was Olive Garden {we like to eat out too much so we're cutting back}

- spent all but 7 hours together.

during which he was working. and I was getting a sunburn at the poolio.

 Pretty sure we wouldn't have worked out in h.s. if I didn't approve of this band..

good thing I LOVE them!

 what.a.hunk

 We went with our friends, Ben and Kyle. 

I've known Ben longer than I've know Jon {12 years!} 

and Jon has become good friends with Kyle over the summer.

And to the right is the one and only, Matt Thiessen. 

Admit it, you agree that his hair is beautiful. Let's convince fell to grow his out again!

POOF

During the concert I saw one of the guitarists throw his pick into our section and it totally hit a girl in the face!

Don't worry, she didn't even notice.

After the concert I looked on the ground where she was standing and there it was!

I've never {jk} seen Jon so happy.

We love Texas and could totally see ourselves there in the distant future,

the only thing is it's quite a long drive to and from Utah {family roots}

Some things I will miss about the great state of TX:

- the heat! it's so much better than the dry Utah heat.

- the kind people.

- I felt very safe there. weird?

- affordable living, and it is FAR from ghetto. 

- sodapalooza. .49 cent drinks at the gas station, my kinda heaven.
- having a pool in your back yard. whether or not you share it with 117+ other people, it's great.

~

I'm curious to see how attached we are to each other when he gets home {in 4 days}

If I learned anything from this Summer, it is that I am so grateful for the relationship I have with my feller. 

we indeed make each other better, 

and I never realized how true that was until we were separated for many weeks at a time. 

 I guess there is another thing I learned : We are HORRIBLE at talking on the phone.

Our Vacation

We stayed at an all inclusive resort in Cancun.
All you can eat, drink, swim, sun-bathe, play, etc.
Awesome, right? Yes.

This is our hotel room. 

King size bed. Couch. Tv. Mini-Fridge. Ocean View.

Need I say more?

Our walk to and from our room was an adventure in itself!

 Are you a reptile lover?

We all spent a lot of time on the beach.

Reading, talking, napping, playing catch and volleyball.

 I'd be okay with a beach as a back yard...

We ate.

and ate.

and ate.

The resort had lots of different restaurants.

Mexican. American. Japanese. Italian. a cafe. Seafood. 

and a buffet that was always switching it up!

The ice cream was one of my personal favorites. 

I probably had 17 cones. at least.

Italian

Japanese

Japanese. again. {our favorite}

Some of us took some really awesome action shots...

See for yourself :) :

 We are weird.

and SO fun to be around!

;)

 Jon and Dave got in a little fight...

 Jon's smile after the punch...haha!

A few of us got pretty sick, if you know what I mean. 

Let's just say I had to go to the bathroom about every 15 minutes. 

We couldn't figure out how we got it...

because we had eaten totally different things that morning.

and I thought I was being careful!

2 weeks later, I was back to normal! :)

We were able to go to church in the city.

It was a cool experience not understanding anything anyone was saying

other than "hermanos y hermanas"

But the spirit was totally there, I loved it.

 On our way to la iglesia

On the fourth day of our trip we took an excursion to 

Chichen Itza and Ik Balam

We went with the group, Mormon Encounters.

Our tour guide, Carlos, was so awesome!

He was able to tie each site back to the Book of Mormon. SO cool.

The day we went was when the nastiness hit me the hardest,

so I had quite a hard time paying much attention to what Carlos was saying.

But I did take some pictures ;)

 Cichen Itza

Balam

In between the two places, we visited an awesome

Cenote

It was so beautiful! And oh-so refreshing!

 

We all got to be cliff jumpers for a minute

If you ever go to Cancun and want to go on an awesome tour, 

check out Mormon Encounters. 

Carlos was so great! He really knew his stuff.

 Thanks, Carlos!

I thoroughly enjoyed being on vaca 

with the one I love most :)

 A HUMONGOUS thank you

to Jack and Margo for making this amazing trip possible!

We had so much fun spending time with everyone,

this was such an unforgettable experience.

We love you guys!

 That's one good lookin' group!