Final Days

On July 7, 2009, Jamie and I climbed into his truck with the u-haul on the back and started our move to Utah. It took us two and a half days. We traveled through Penn, then Ohio, Indiania, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Wyoming. We were both so glad to arrive in Utah. It was so great to see my family.

My mom's visit out to New Jersey!

My mom made my week and came out to spend several days with me this last weekend. It had been way to long since we had last seen each other. We had great fun!!! Unfortunetly, it rained most of the time she was here so we couldn't do everything we wanted too. We did a lot though. I took my mom down to the Jersey Shore, right around where Jamie is from. We went to Long Beach State Park and walked to the lighthouse that was by there. It was a pretty far walk but my mom and I both handled it very well.






I took her to try some New Jersey pizza which back east is famous for. We kept busy all day. We went to the movie, "the proposal", which was really good. Mom got quite the laugh out of a few parts lol. One of the days, when I had to work with the boys, my mom and I took the boys to the mall and spent several hours there shopping and eating lunch and riding the elevator (the boys favorite thing to do!).





I took mom to Washington State Park for a few minutes, which is a small park on a hill that has a momument dedicated to George Washington and you can look down and see all the surrounding areas into New York. Too bad when we went it was rainy and foggy so we couldn't really see anything.






We spent a day in NYC. It rained on us for a while there but we survived. It felt like we walked all over the city. We wanted to go to the top of the empire state building but since the weather was crappy they said there was zero visibility so we didn't go up.


Empire State Building



We rode up to the upper side of town on the subway (somehow I managed to get us on the right subway) and had lunch at this cute place called, 'Popovers'. It was very yummy and the best part was sharing the chocolate mousse there with mom.



Eating chocolate mousse at Popovers in NYC


Then from the upper side we took the subway down to the lower side by ground zero (world trade center). We spent some time there and also saw St. Paul's church and the Trinity Church. We walked down to Battery Park, which is about as far south as you can go in Manhattan. At the park, they have this amazing statue of a 'sphere' that use to be in front of the World Trade Centers, and was damaged in the attacks. They moved it to Battery Park as a memorial from the attacks.




From Battery Park you can see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. By the time we made it down there our feet were about to give out on us lol. We found a subway station to go back up town. It was very interesting how we got into the subway station. Instead of steps leading down into station, there was an elevator that went straight into the ground and took you down. It was kind of freaky lol! From there we were gonna go explore SoHo and Little Italy, but me not being the brightest bulb around, had us get on the wrong train and it took us past that part of town. We didn't have the energy to try and figure our way there again. We ended up getting over to Grand Central Station and then walking over to Times Square. We did a lot of walking and it was tiring, but it was fun! The last day mom was here she spent it with me and the boys since I had to work. We hung out and sat outside by the pool since the sun finally decided to poke its head out for a bit. I had such a great time with mom. I was so happy and glad to be able to show her new sights and places. I hope she can forgive me for being such a pain in the butt lol. We got lots of fun pictures. I am not gonna put all of them on here but a lot of them are on my face book for people to look at. Thanks for coming to see me mom!!!

My birthday!

Thought I would put up the few pics I have of my 23rd birthday. It was hard to not be able to spend my birthday with my family, but I was able to spend the morning of it with Jamie. He took me to the boardwalk to walk around and to get pizza. Then in the afternoon, the Milsteins gave me a chocolate mousse birthday cake (lauren knew how much I loved that and made sure that was what her mom got me) and sang happy birthday and gave me a present. They gave me a coach wallet that is absolutely adorable!

Florida Trip!

Last week I flew to Fort Myers, Florida with Jamie. Travis met us there which I was very happy and excited about. We stayed at Jamie's mom's condo down there which was really nice (especially since we stayed for free). Jamie and I's trip had kind of a rough start. We had been up in the air for about 1/2 hour when the pilot came over the intercom and said that there was an unidentified object on the plane so we had to turn back around and go back to the airport that we had just left. Jamie and I could tell that the stewardess seemed really nervous. To be honest, I wasn't too worried at all, just upset that we had to turn around. When we landed shortly after, there were police cars and fire trucks waiting for us. It didn't take long before they announced that the 'unidentified object' was actually just a toy. A toy!! Can you believe that. We ended up getting into Florida 2 hours late. Once we landed, different stories were going around. Someone said that the stewardess said that it really was a bomb and someone else said that they said it was a toy that someone made to look like a bomb. I highly doubt it was real or else we would have had to evacuate that plane asap! For the five days in Florida, the weather didn't want to behave. It hadn't rained in months until the day we arrived. It was pouring when we arrived. Luckily, though it rained pretty much every day we were there, the mornings and first part of afternoons stayed clear. And when it rains there, it pours. Jamie, Travis, and I had a blast. We went to Sannibel Island, Fort Myers Beach, took an airboat ride to see alligators, got caught in a downpour playing miniature golf, ate lots of food, went on Jamie's grandfather's golf cart around the golf course, and took the 'Key West Express' boat to the Key West Island. The Key West Island was probably the favorite thing we did. The boat ride to the island and back was 3 1/2 hours each way, but it was fun. We saw dolphins swimming as we were headed out to sea. Then at Key West I saw my very first cruise ship which was huge though Jamie said it wasn't really that big compared to some. All 3 of us were sad to leave, but we had a great time. I was so glad to see Travis again after 3 months. Most of the Florida pics are on my facebook but I am putting my 2 favorite ones up here.


Travis, Me, and Jamie on boat to Key West Island


Taken after our airboat ride

Washington D.C.

This last weekend, Jamie and I went down to Virginia to visit his friends and to go see Washington D.C. We had a blast, except for all the traffic we hit on the way there and the way back. The weather was perfect on the day that we went to D.C. We saw all the big sights, like the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Memorial, the White house, Union Station, and the Air and Space Museum. We did lots and lots of walking. Jamie was the tour guide. He had his little hand held gps with him and he had our tour all mapped out. We walked almost 7 miles around D.C. Jamie and I also had lots of fun in Virginia at his friend's and girlfriend's place. It is too bad I won't get a chance to go down there again anytime soon.


Jamie and me in Virginia


In front of the White House


The Capitol Building in D.C.


The Washington Monument


Lincoln Memorial


In front of Lincoln Memorial

Museum of Natural History

On April 9th, Lauren and I went to NYC to go to the Museum of Natural History. It was really really big. We were only able to see a small portion of it. After, we had lunch at a place called, Popovers, that was very delicious!



In the butterfly exhibit




Remember this from the movie, "Night at the Museum"?

Barnegat Lighthouse

On Sunday, April 5th, Jamie and I went to the seaside island park to see the Barnegat Lighthouse that sits on Long Beach Island, NJ. It was so cool and such a beautiful day!

Nickelback concert

On Friday, Jamie and I went to the Nickelback concert at the Izod Center in New Jersey. They had Saving Abel and Seether opening for them. It was awesome! It was my first rock concert and Jamie's millionth rock concert. We had general admission floor tickets so we were down on the floor by the stage. Chad Krueger, the lead singer of Nickelback had a great sense of humor and was very funny in between songs when he was talking. I also got to see the bass guitarist of Saving Abel up close because I took some guy's picture with him in it. It was a great concert! I want to go back to see them all again.

The troublesome threes

I am not very good at keeping up with this blog, but I try. I thought I would add a few pics I had of the kids. Oh and something funny that happened tonight was that Sam got a hold of some of his mom's wine and drunk it. So yeah he was pretty drunk!


Sammy and Lauren


Joey and Me


Sammy

I will miss you Grandpa!!!

(taken on my birthday May of 2008)


My grandpa (my mom's dad) returned home to heaven on Feb 6th 2009. I was not able to be there when he passed away but my grandma and mom were and they said it was a very special moment full of peace. They knew that grandpa was still close by. I was able to travel home to Utah for the funeral, which was held on February 14th, which was also grandpa's birthday and Valentine's day. It was so good to be able to see my family again and be there for grandma, but once I got there it really hit me that my grandpa was gone. It broke my heart. Grandpa had a beautiful funeral. So many people came to say their goodbyes and express their sympathy to the family. I got the opportunity to speak with my cousins, Chelsey and Tabatha, at the funeral and to share some of the grandkids memories. I also got to play the piano while the grandkids sang, "I am a Child of God", and "Families Can Be Together Forever". I was very nervous but it turned out not too bad. Mom gave the first talk during the funeral and did an amazing job. I was very proud of her. I am amazed at how strong my grandma is and how well she is holding on without her sweetheart. This is the first time she has been without him for almost 59 years. She is just amazing. And she is still thinking about everyone else before herself. I am very proud also at how well my mom is holding up. She takes after her mother and is strong just like grandma. I hope I can learn to be as strong as my mom and grandma one day. I hope that I one day have a relationship and marriage as strong and amazing as my grandparents marriage. They had the perfect marriage. They are both hard examples to live up too because they were as close to perfect as two people could get here on earth. My grandpa was the greatest guy. He was so unselfish, giving, kind, strong, very hardworker, and grew the best corn around. He used to love telling me stories about meeting my grandma and how important it is to not fight or be mad at one another in a marriage. He could never understand why people got married and then just fought all the time. He said you got married because you loved someone and you don't want to fight with someone you love. He also always told me to make sure I kept myself out of trouble and did what I was suppose to. He was just so great! It is so hard knowing he is gone and I won't be seeing him anytime soon. I am grateful for having had him in my life for 22 years though and learning as much as I did from him. I love you grandpa and miss you!!!


Jordan and I at Grandpa's viewing


Chayse and I at Grandpa's Viewing

Vermont

Jamie and I took a little trip for a few days up to Killington, Vermont. Vermont is known for the best skiing in the east coast and Jamie wanted to check it out. I was finally able to use my timeshare for the first time and we got to stay in a one bedroom suite that had a living room and kitchen and a gas fireplace. It took us 5 hours to get there from New Jersey. For most of the ride we were traveling in upstate New York. There was an outdoor heated swimming pool that felt so nice to relax in until you got out of it into the cold air. We arrived there on Sunday, the day of the superbowl. Jamie and I had to go to the store and get a bunch of food and goodies so we could have our own little superbowl party. The next day, Jamie went snowboarding. I choose not to go cuz it wasn't worth the money to me when I don't really care to snowboard. I had decided to just go do some exploring on my own. It was fun driving around Vermont. There are so many trees and mountains. Definitely not like the mountains in Utah though. Vermont mountains are more rounded and not as tall. But there are so many more trees out there than in Utah. While I was out exploring, I was very surprise to find out just how close New Hampshire was to where I was and then I was even more surprised to find out that my cousin Shaunie and her family lived just right there in NH where I was going. So I stopped by and saw them for awhile while Jamie snowboarded. At night time there wasn't too much to do in Killington. All the shops closed before 8 o clock. All that was open was a bunch of bars. Then that night both Jamie and I weren't feeling too good. We just stayed inside and chilled. Neither of us wanted to leave the next day, cuz it felt like we had just got there. We got up early and left though. After we had been on our way for like 15 mins I realized I forgot my bathing suit and so we had to drive back. And by the time I was able to get back inside the room the maid had already been in there and had taken my bathing suit to the lost and found. That wasted about 20 mins of our time because of my own stupidity lol. We did have lots of fun though, except neither of us felt very good because of the colds we had. Oh, and Jamie did say that the snowboarding is still better in Utah!

Home for the Holidays!

I was able to go home to Utah for the holidays from December 23rd to January 4th. I was so excited to come home and see everyone. I am glad I made it when I was suppose to. I almost missed my connecting flight in Phoenix because my plane was an hour late leaving Newark, New Jersey. But I did make it there after a very long flight. I couldn't believe my eyes on how tall Jordan had grown in just 4 months. I was in awe. Though I was upset to see so much snow in Utah. Seems like everywhere I go there is snow, snow, and more snow. I made sure we stopped at grandma and grandpa's house after the airport.





I had a great Christmas with my family. We went sledding on Christmas Eve with the whole family and it was so much fun to see Alexa and Chayse opening up their presents on Christmas morning. I stayed very busy while back there. I had lots of stuff to do before I left again for New Jersey. I got all of mom's pictures and music updated and organized on her computer. That only took a few days to accomplish lol!






My boyfriend Jamie flew into Utah a few days after Christmas to come meet my family and to see what Utah was all about. I was so excited for him to come. Jordan went down with me to the airport to pick him up. Jamie and I stayed very busy all week with my family. Just Jamie and I went snowmobiling. We went up in Logan canyon and up into Idaho. It was both our first time. It was a blast. I did manage to get the snowmobile stuck though because I drove it off the trails and the snow was very deep. Luckily there were a couple of guys that saw me get stuck and helped Jamie to free it. It took quite the effort to free it though. The snow only went up to like my knees. Sorry about that Jamie lol!




On New Years Eve, Jamie and I went to lunch with my family and then headed to Wendover, Nevada to spend the night. We had lots of fun hanging out and doing a little bit of gambling here and there. We had a really nice hotel room at the Montego Bay.




New Years Day we spent at Justin and Jenny's house (my brother). We had fun visiting and playing guitar hero and board games and eating. Later that evening, we went to a movie together.




On January 2nd, my brother Travis, Jamie, and I went up to Beaver Mountain to go snowboarding. None of us had been snowboarding in years. I was just a tad nervous. I have never been too good with the whole snowboarding thing. I went down the mountain three times and decided I was finished. I couldn't get the hang of it and I felt bad because Travis and Jamie were waiting so patiently for me and I felt like I was holding them up. Being not too smart, I decided to give skiing a try. I used to ski a long long time ago and I remember it as being a piece of cake. Lets just say it turned out to be a complete nightmare. It was awful. I couldn't stay up and every time I fell it killed. Travis and Jamie were so good with me. They stayed by my side the entire time. Finally I ended up walking down the mountain while Travis and Jamie each held one of my skies while they boarded down the mountain. It was very humilating for me. I chose to spend the rest of the afternoon in the lodge reading while the boys went up the mountain. Thanks Travis and Jamie for taking such good care of me. (Oh, and by the next morning I was so sore I could barely move!)

On Saturday, the family went to Hardware Ranch to show Jamie around before he left Utah. It was fun but cold. My toes went numb. Chayse loved it!!!



For the rest of the day, Jamie, my parents, and I went to Salt Lake to spend the evening with my grandparents. Then we had to get ready to wake up the next morning to go to the airport and fly back to New Jersey. It was very very hard to say bye to my family again. Definitely harder this last time than it was the first time I left.

Sunday, Jan 4th, the day Jamie and I went to the airport to fly back was the beginning of a very long, bad day. Our plane was an hour and a half late leaving the runaway so we ended up missing our connecting flight in Phoenix. Too make a long story short, we waited in USAirway's customer service line for over an hour and then we found out that we couldn't get a flight out till the next afternoon. They gave us a hotel room and one $10 meal voucher for each of us. They had already sent our luggage on without us and then wouldn't compensate us for having to buy new toiletries or any other meals that didn't get covered by the vouchers. What really made this day bad was I felt crappy all day and was starting to get sick. The good part of this story is that neither of us had ever been to Phoenix, Arizona before and now we got to check it out plus extend our vacation by one more day. That night we were able to go out a little on the town. Though I sure wish I would have felt better. The picture below was taken in front of our hotel room in Phoenix. The next day, Monday, we ended up making it back to New Jersey before midnight.



I had a very happy holiday with my family and Jamie. Lots of good memories were made. I was so glad to be able to go home for the holidays and that Jamie was able to come out to meet my family and let me show him around my home town. I miss you all very much!!! Can't wait to see you guys again.