8/30/08

OUR NEW HOME

Here we are in the first stages of building a house. Lots more work will soon be coming but we are excited.

8/7/08

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Mike and I finally took a break from pest control and headed to New York for 5 days. We met up with my good friend Rochelle and her husband and had connections to stay at a friends house on Long Island. Below are some highlights from our trip.
We really had no idea what to expect of New York and boy were we ever shocked. We have never been to a city with miles and miles of skyscrapers. It made the Twin Cities in Minnesota appear so small. We will never be able to look at big cities the same. Nothing beats the big city of New York.
This statue of Alice in wonderland was found in central park. After miles of skyscrapers you finally get to central park which, stretches for several miles. It was gorgeous and peaceful. While we were there we found a Swedish cottage that performed puppet shows of Jack in the bean stalk. We were about the only adults with around 90 children in the cottage watching Jack and the bean stalk.
This is ground zero from above. We went up to the 55th floor of the Hilton which was right next to the twin towers. The man who took us up to the top of the hotel said he was working at the time when the towers got hit. There is not too much going on at the site but eventually they will build 7 buildings in that space. It has taken them years to clean up. All the buildings surrounding the towers had to be be remodeled. Any fire stations that lost men had memorials outside their stations.
This picture was taken at Time Square. The street was loaded with people all night long. The huge light advertisements lite up the whole place. It was so cool.
Another picture taken in central park.
Of course you cannot go to New York without hitting at least one Broadway play. Our first night we went to Wicked and several nights later we went to the Little Mermaid. Both of them were absolutely amazing. They are so creative and talented on Broadway.
Random story while we were wondering the streets of China town with thousands of people Mike runs into someone he sold with two summers ago. Now really who runs into people they know in New York City. To top it off he also ran into a member from England that he served in their ward. So he ran into not only one but two people he knew in China town. China town was huge and just around the corner from china town we found Little Italy. Of course we could not resist buying gelato, italian ice cream. It was so yummy.
We spent one afternoon touring the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. They are not letting anyone up to the top of the Statue so we got some good pictures instead.
He we are at Ellis Island with Rochelle and her husband Whitney. We decided to do the audio tour through the museum. It was an amazing experience. It helped us understand the huge process the immigrants went through just to be let in to the united states. It was also cool to imagine our past heritage migrating through Ellis Island.
In the picture above of Mike and I by the Monkey/Human statues was taken the the museum of natural history. That particular section was all about the evolution theory. It was quite entertaining.