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.

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.

4th of July

Mike and I went with Mike and Brittany Hoggan to watch the fireworks in St. Paul and Minneapolis. We found a good hill that over looked both of the Twin Cities' fireworks. It was beautiful. I have not been in the United States for the last four 4th of July's. I feel so privileged to be an American. We are so blessed in this country.

Brittany and I decided to do Kabobs for our 4th of July BBQ. We had the meat marinating all day. They were very tasty. We also made a yummy fruit pizza to go along with the Kabobs.

The Mikes hard at work putting together their grills.

The Girls: Brittany Hoggan, Me, Sarah Ritchie, Liz Hoffman, Keri Greer and Jessica.

The Boys: Zack Hoffman, Noel White, Mike Hoggan, Brandon Ritchie, Lucas Handy, Rob Greer, Mark, Ben, and Mike.

THE BEST SURPRISE EVER!!

June 30th was Mike's birthday and there was only one thing he wanted and that was a Wii, he sure did get it, but it was tough work. Since May he had been looking into buying a Wii and was pushing really hard for me to say it was okay. I put down my foot and told him I didn't think we should buy a Wii because I secretly wanted to buy one for his birthday. I finally got him convinced that I didn't want us to have a Wii. He was so sad, but little did he know there was a Wii hiding at the bottom of the closet. Finally his birthday arrived and I arranged the Wii set on our table. He walked into the kitchen to eat breakfast and there he saw the Wii. I wish I would have recorded his face expression. It was a classic. That was a way fun surprise. I love him to death. He is such a wonderful husband. Later that day everyone from the Pest Control office came over and ate dinner with us. It was a lot of fun.

Jack Johnson Concert

A couple of weeks ago Mike and I got to go to a Jack Johnson concert in Wisconsin. The concert was held at the outdoor amphitheater. There were over 40,000 screaming fans and we happened to be in the center pit with only three rows of people in front of us. We were so close to him that in the middle of his concert Mike punched a beach ball that was being passed around and it hit Jack Johnson right in the face. Jack looked right at Mike and said, "You got me" the rest of what he said is on the video we posted below.

This week we went to downtown Minneapolis for a Blues Concert in the park. It was a lot of fun.

Our car got a little dinged up because Mike and I were in a small accident on the freeway. Luckily no one was hurt.

End of May Update

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and all we wanted to do was play outside so Dax Greener introduced us all to a new game called Bocce. We all met in the park that is in the middle of our apartments and played Bocce, bad mitten, volleyball and soccer. It was a blast. All the little neighborhood kids swarmed to us and wanted to play with us as well so if you see some unfamiliar faces in the pictures it is the neighbor kids. Lucas decided to come sell with us. It is so much fun to have him around. He is preparing to go to graduate school in the fall at BYU.

The object of Bocce is to throw your ball closest to the small yellow ball.

Pictured below is Lucas, Steve Ritchie, Brandon and Sarah Ritchie, Mike and Brittany Hoggan, Ben Downer, Mike and I, and Dax Greener.

On memorial day we all went to the Minnesota Zoo. Unfortunately this is the only picture we took because our camera ran out of batteries. The highlights from the zoo included, a dolphin show with 4 dolphins, it was not quite sea world but pretty good for Minnesota, we also went to a bird show and then spent a good chuck of time watching wolverines battle. I have never been to a zoo in the spring time but I think from now on I will only go in the spring time because the animals are way more active and entertaining. Plus there are a lot of baby animals.