The Lords Prayer by Zoei Isabelle Toh

This was just too cute!

The Trip Gets Started

I thought I'd post a few pictures a day of our trip. I don't want to overload the system with the entire collection, but I'll share a few. For those of you who don't like trip dialogues, you might want to tune back in next week. Until then, this blog is all about NEW YORK!




We had a three hour layover in Chicago. Not fun, but we did get pictures of the kids with the Blues Brothers and had authentic Chicago Hot Dogs. (I am happy to say that according to Richard, Provo has hot dogs as good as the ones we tasted.)

After our break in Chicago, we flew on to Philly where Richard's brother picked us up. It was late and we had a long day ahead of us. We were getting up early, which was really early for us when you consider the East Coast runs two whole hours earlier than Utah, but we were taking a mini trip to upstate New York to see Palmyra and Niagra Falls.

I'll post some pictures on the sidebar of random shots and then each day add a little more of the people action as I post about some highlights.

The Late Show

Imagine walking down a crowded street of New York City and coming upon a blocked off side road with a huge crowd of people clamouring to see what's going on. There's a large camera attached to a camera man and security personnel by the doors of the adjacent building. This building isn't just any building - it's reserved for CBS and the famous David Letterman.

Just like the sheep before us, we wandered over to see what the fuss was all about. Quite a few people came, saw, and left because nothing was there to be fussed over. Only a tennis court painted on the street and a few camera's scanning the crowd. The banners that hung over the people partitions did say THE LATE SHOW on them, but other than that, it was just a mass of fascinated people fascinating over very little.

After questioning the security, we came to find out that Maria Sharapova (winner of the Wimbeldon Tournament - who knew?) was going to be hitting a few with David sometime in the next little bit. The exact time - no one knew - but at least within the hour.

That was all the information I needed. I had lots to see and I didn't really care about David Letterman or the tennis queen that I hadn't even heard of until that moment. As we proceeded to leave, some in our group wanted to stay. So stay we did, for another 25 minutes, making a grand total of 40 minutes. 40 minutes of standing on achey feet in a crowd of other anxious tourists who knew no bounds in terms of personal space.

FINALLY, David Letterman shows up, takes off his coat and gets ready to match Maria, but to my complete surprise, Billy Crystal comes out following Dave. Now, I do know Billy! Maria comes out, but no surprise there - she is a typical, long legged, gorgeous blondie that can kick tennis hiney. They play for a matter of 2 minutes and after Billy throws his racket in trade for a baseball mitt, receives a serve and catches it, they're done. BUT, as an ending to the show, they scanned the crowd once more and... the camera slowed down on Richard, his brother David and I. We waved, it moved on. No biggie. However, we got home that night and recorded the show and wouldn't you know it, we're famous! Our faces graced the screen for split seconds - long enough to get in a quick wave. We were indeed on the tail end of The Late Show with David Letterman broadcasted nationwide. It was great! And, all of the sudden my feet didn't hurt anymore.

Richard's Humor

We took over 450 pictures in New York. Actually I only took about ten of those. The rest were all Richard, including this one. This is of the Wall Street Bull.

Poor Gavin. He became the "butt" of Richard's joke. I thought he'd be mad when he saw it, but he chuckled right along with his dad, only Richard was louder and laughed much, much longer.

Screwy Heading

I am in New Jersey enjoying a great family vacation while visiting Richard's brother, David and his family. I came online to check the food blog and quickly looked at the family blog. I have discovered that on David's computer, the heading is all screwed up. This made me wonder if it is screwy looking to anyone else as well. When I posted, it looked just fine on my computer. It's a temporary heading until I can come up with something better, but I want something universal that will work on everyone's computers.

So, if you'll please leave me a quick comment and let me know if it looks weird to you, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

FFA:

TOPIC: What is your least favorite thing about being a grown up?

Man, I had a hard time thinking of only one thing. The first things that came to mind were taxes, mortgages, emotional constipation...but I think my least favorite thing is my lost ability to turn nothing into something. Do you remember when you were little and your imagination knew no bounds?

We used to play in a dirt hill at the end of our street. That dirt hill had endless possibilities, from a war zone to a castle for princesses, complete with thrones made from hand shovels. As a child, those thrones were impressive and we spent hours and hours carving them out of the hillside, each one custom fit our little derrieres. If we sat in our designated throne and it had lumps, we meticulously smoothed it out with our shovels. By the time we were finished creating, we had the whole dirtside carved into rooms, thrones, tables, beds, etc., etc., etc. Oh, we were so proud of our elaborate handiwork!

The other day Gavin was asking me if I remembered the big dirt pile we had in our backyard last year. He was wanting me to remember when he made a throne in the side and played "King". He was describing to me this wondrous thing and I did remember it, but not the way he did. I remember a vague impression in the side of the pile and, well, that's about it. Then, sadly, it occured to me that perhaps the memory of my cherished dirtside was a little skewed too.

I'll bet if I could go back as an adult, I would find barely noticeable notches in the dirt. What I used to think was an enormous lenth of brown heaven, would probably only be 6 feet long. And all that time we spent working on it...maybe 30 minutes at a time (we all know kids' attention spans aren't HOURS long! If only...)

Being an adult takes the fun out of so many things. If I only could once again make something out of nothing, life would be a lot more entertaining.

21st Century Waterbed

Bloggers Be Warned

Lately, I have been receiving emails from total strangers that have come across my blogs. I thought, how strange. I personally don't do a lot of blog surfing, but I have checked links that I thought might be old friends and acquaintances. I mentioned blogs to my neighbor the other day and she informed me of something that I think every blogger should be aware of, if they aren't already.

In talking with the wife of an officer at our county jail, she was informed that a lot of those law breakers spend their time learning all about families and kids by what is posted on their blogs. They will study and follow a particular blog and then approach the kids of the family with all kinds of personal arsenal. Truly thinking the "stranger" is a well-known acquaintance, the children will go willingly.

I have thought a lot about this reality in our society. I am frustrated that once again we have to take special steps to ensure our children's safety. I could just quit blogging all together, but it's so nice to keep in touch with family far from home. The main purpose of this blog is to post pictures of my kids and new events in their lives so other family and friends can stay updated.

The reason I post this is not to scare people out of blogging, but to make you aware (as some of you probably already are), of what's out there. My intent is to continue on, but I have had a chat with my kids and explained the reality of potential danger. I haven't yet decided to restrict visitors - I welcome anyone who wants to visit. However, if you are some sick-minded, demented predator reading this---just know that if you come near my kids I will hunt you down and have you tortured in the town square until you finally succumb to the pain and choke on your last breath of life!

FFA - Yikes!

I completely forgot about this week's FFA. Without previous thought or planning, here it is:

TOPIC: Write a 20 word poem with the word "sombrero" in it.

I picked out a salsy sombrero,
Right off the shelf of Herrero's.
It's colors were flashy,
It looked kind of clashy,
But I wore it anyways.



I know, it's more than 20 words. ---I'm disqualified.)