Yankee's and Newsies

The last few days have been really fun. I spent another day in the city with the girls and even though it rained all day long we still had fun. The 2 highlights of the week were the Yankee’s game and winning the lottery and getting Newsies tickets! Woot!

We bought tickets for the Yankees game and lets just say we spent more on the hot dog than we actually spent on our ticket to get in the game ;) It was a little complicated trying to figure out how Nate and I were going to get to the game. The plan ended up being, I drive Nate to work and pick him up, then we drive to the Bronx, find a subway station, find free parking, and get on the subway to get to the Yankee’s game. Sounds easy right? Well.. I was a little freaked out of just driving to and from Nate's work.. I’m still getting used to the whole driving thing here PLUS I get lost pretty easily. Yeah, I got lost on my way home after dropping Nate off. Great way to start the day haha. But I found my way home and made it safely to pick him up and gladly turned the driving over to him.

Nate drove into the Bronx right as our gas light came on, so we stopped and found a gas station that looked a bit sketchy. I stayed in the car and locked the doors ha. Luckily we got in and out alright. We then continued onto this street with super run down apartment buildings and a park area and parked our car so we could get to a subway.. I noticed that most of the other cars had steering wheel locks… I was worried our car might be gone after the game. We rode the subway in and met up with Nate’s family at the game!

We got to the new stadium and it was HUGE!!  $1.5 billion to make the stadium.  We sat in the highest section of seats.  We got a hot dog at Yankee’s stadium.. mmm. I have a secret love for hot dogs. Nate thinks I’m crazy.  I ate mine so fast. After the hot dog we were enjoying the game when all of the sudden I hear a big crash and look over. Some kid had fallen over the bleechers onto the fans in front of him. He cut open his head pretty good. We couldn’t decide if he was drunk or high but definitely one or the other. He probably needed stitches but his friends were too busy drinking and smoking to help him out much. I’m pretty sure they were all in high school. We moved over a few seats because they just got worse and worse as the game went on.  The event security came over and actually gave them a ticket for either under age smoking or drinking.  

In the mean time some lady behind me spilled her beer all over the back of me.  I think I got the full baseball experience. We left shortly after haha. We made it back to our car with no problems and all the way back home. You get what you pay for :)

The next day we drove into Manhattan for the first time! I have never been so self-conscious about my license plate before. Ever since we got here I feel like there are flashing lights on our car that say “Hey! These guys are from Utah you should already be annoyed!!” haha Nate does great though. He is able to get off half days on Fridays so we had a little more time to spend. We decided to enter our names in the lottery for Newsies Nate really wanted to see it and so did the rest of his family.

Nate standing in line after winning the lottery! 

They pulled Nate’s name out! It was pretty fun. The only unfortunate thing was that his family didn’t get to come because he only won 2 tickets and also that our seats were terrible. But I really enjoyed it and thought it was a great show. The music and dancing was super impressive. It was especially fun after spending the day walking the Brooklyn Bridge. It was nice to sit down and enjoy a show. 

Us in front of the Newsies sign

Brooklyn Bridge 

One last little gem. While Nate's fam came out to visit in New Canaan for the night we discovered toad's in my window sill. A mommy and 3 babies I think. They croak at night and there are holes in the screen so they push themselves right up against the window... I'm just glad they aren't stuck like I thought they were.  We will continue to give updates on the toads.

A day without Polo.

A few quick updates from the week:

• Elaina (8), Blake (5) and Bryant (3) are my favorite. Elle is really sweet and has a great sense of humor, Blake is super witty. Bryant is their little Lance ha, He is crazy and always getting into trouble, I love it. I sat down to help Blake put his shoes on and he said,

• “McKell I’m really glad you and Nate decided to come here, this summer is going to be awesome!” as he proceeded to tell him which way to put his socks on haha.

• Another awesome Blake quote, “Sorry you guys can’t come on our trip, we could send you post card!” then Elle says “ The best thing about sending you guys a postcard is we already know the address.” Pretty awesome. They are on vacation this week so the house has been a little lonely, just me and the dog, Polo. Polo is a white german shepherd and he is 5 months old so still a puppy. He loves to jump on me and bite my ankles.. we get a long really well. I’m excited for the Layton’s to come home :).

• There are 130 kids in the primary in our ward. IT’S HUGE! I love it, it was an awesome Sunday.

• Nate’s first day went great! He really likes the people he is working with and the facility is pretty cool. He is still learning about his position so hopefully by next week he will be more comfortable.

Alright now to the real stuff. Yesterday I got to leave Polo home to fend for himself and take a trip into the city! My brother in law, Matt (Natalie’s husband) is working for Goldman Sachs and is training in New York! Perfect timing for us. My mother in law, Ange, Nat and Tay came out to visit and I got to take a train to Manhattan and meet  up with them! Figuring out the train, then the subway, then walking directions was a little tricky. I made the train by 1 minute. I was asking a man how to get my ticket and he said just get on the train you can buy it on there.. so I did. The train attendant came by and asked for my ticket so I told him someone told me I could buy it one train… He said you can, but it’s 6 more dollars.. of course. He looked at me a little pathetically and then said I will let it slide this time but next time buy your ticket at the station. Love those little tender mercies… :) I made it okay though. Then we had a fun day playing, Matt lives across the street from Battery Park. It’s a really nice place.

Tay loved his first subway ride!

Bethesda Fountain

We took the subway to uptown Manhattan for the day (thanks to my trusty app) we actually got on and off at the right places! We went to Central Park for the majority of the day, so fun with Taylor. He loved it and he thought all the animals were so entertaining. When he saw the geese he just laughed at them, apparently watching them eat was hilarious! We ate in the park at this cute little French Bakery. Whit and Mom and I ate there last year when I was here and I loved it, so I took the Dennis girls.

After lunch we made our way over to the Temple and Liberty Square. We went in the temple and talked to a few people in the public relations office. They were really sweet and welcoming.

To end the day we ventured down to 5^th avenue. We went in a few stores and did a lot of walking. My train left at 7:34 so off we went back to Grand Central Station. I found my train and a little snack and I was on my train home! It was a long day without Nate and I felt bad leaving him, but he was there to pick me up at the Station! It was a really fun day and I’m excited for the Yankees game tomorrow night, especially because Nate is joining this adventure.

The cute bakery in the park

The Manhattan Temple! 

cool fact: The church has owned the ground for the temple since 1971, before they built the temple it was just a chapel. Now the chapel is inside and it was dedicated in 2004. It's beautiful.

37 hours 2300 miles later…

Nate and I left Utah for our little road trip Wednesday morning at 4 am. Being the great wife that I am I stayed awake until Park City and then slept for four hours….oops, so much for being good company to the driver. The good news is I drove for the next 500 miles to make up for sleeping the whole time Nate drove. I drove through the end of Wyoming and the beginning of Nebraska. Mostly there is nothing to look at, I kept myself entertained by eating spicy sunflower seeds and singing to the radio. We made our second pit stop in Nebraska to fill up and were welcomed by a sign that said “You are Nowhere” pretty awesome. Nate took over driving again after this and we passed a few exciting things like the Cabela’s headquarters and John Waynes birthplace… not that exciting but better than boring Wyoming. After 15 and a half hours (originally supposed to be 17) we made it to Des Moines, Iowa our first destination, but more importantly to Chilli’s for dinner at 9 pm! We were pretty hungry, Taco Bell for lunch really didn’t hit the spot. We went to bed as soon as we could get settled in.

The next morning we got up early (thankfully not as early as Wednesday) but still early. We went to McDonalds for breakfast because I guess most Marriots don’t have continental breakfast? I didn’t know that. If they have a restaurant on site you’re out of luck. McDonalds was a good second best. Nate drove the whole way to Chicago all by himself. I’m sure glad because this route was a little complicated and I didn’t want to be the one driving near Chicago. We made it around 2:30 and once again took all our stuff in the hotel. After a little rest we decided to go to the city for a break from the car! Woohoo! We took the Marriott Shuttle to the Midway Chicago Airport, which then connected us to the train, which took us right to chi town! Everyone was very patient and helpful with directions and taking pictures for us. Our first stop was The Sears (Willis) Tower. Of course we went in the front doors and were then redirected to the very clearly posted signs that said “Sky Deck this way, with an arrow.”

We walked in behind a whole group of 8^th graders, which made the experience much more exciting. After our Sky Deck Experience we went to dinner across the street to Giordano’s Pizza. It was sure yummy and both of us ate too much. After dinner we decided to take a quick walk over to The Chicago Pepsico office. We took a few pictures out front and Nate went in to ask if he could look around. The ladies at the front desk were super funny slash abrupt and kind of rude. They were probably just confused and wouldn’t let him in without an escort. But it was fun to see the office and hopefully they actually let him in to the one in New York. We took the train back and went to bed early again to start another early day.

Standing on the glass on floor 103!

Finally Friday and the last day of driving. Nate started us off again around 7:30 and we ate the yummy muffins my mom and Whitlie made us for breakfast. This day was probably the most exciting because we got to experience toll roads! The first one wasn’t too bad, we stopped, we paid and then we drove on. The second one we were confused, Nate rolled down his window to hand some money to the attendant and she waived him through, we were confused and just kept driving. The third was definitely the worst, we pulled up to the toll kiosk thingy to pay and it said “insert ticket” what ticket?? We never got a ticket. So we back up pushed the help button and the no ticket button and NOTHING happened.

So we backed up again and tried a different kiosk.. still nothing. We rolled the window down and asked a few people and they were all dumbfounded by the fact that we literally never got a ticket. I guess the second toll road was where we were supposed to get the ticket… well we didn’t. Basically we were stuck. So we snuck behind a semi and drove through haha. If we get fined so be it, but we don’t have a front license plate so we probably won’t. At the next toll we were sure to grab the ticket. We had a good laugh. We stopped and had Panera for lunch and then I took over driving again, this drive was a lot more exciting, Ohio and Pennsylvania sooo GREEN! It was beautiful. After another long day though we were ready to be done. Driving in New York was a little stressful but we didn’t get lost once! So proud, thanks to our wonderful phones. We made it safely to Connecticut at 10 pm on the dot. Lara and Dave were waiting for us, and the kids were supposed to be in bed, but Blake and Eliana were at the top of the stairs peeking through the railing (I felt bad we kept them up). I love it here. It’s beautiful, quaint, and the kids are so adorable. It’s going to be a great summer.

We feel so blessed that we made it safely with no malfunctions. Can’t wait to spend the summer here and get to know the Layton’s better. It is so sweet of them to let us stay in their basement and totally invade their space. They are wonderful people and we are so grateful for the connection we have to them! 

The beautiful backyard