Ellis Island & Statue of Liberty

This was at the top of my list when we started planning our New York trip - so I was very excited to go. Not only was this neat because of the stuff we got to see, but we had a family connection as well. While at the Ellis Island Museum we were able to search for ancestors that came through Ellis Island, we didn't know if we had anymore for sure, but Dad thought maybe Meta Hafermann - my great grandmother might have come through with her family. All the of ships manifests have be computerized into a search-able database. It was amazing how quickly were were able to find Meta and her entire family. They arrived on August 10th 1905. From the ship's manifest we can see the names, ages, occupations, port of departure and the place they were headed in the states (Bushton, Kansas). It was really neat and it make the entire trip different to realize that my great grandmother passed through Ellis Island and was greeted by the Statue of Liberty on her journey with her family to Kansas. It was a really wonderful day!

Mom and me with Lady Liberty

Will and I waiting for the ferry.

The skyline from the ferry.

The ferry was standing room mostly - made me think of all the immigrants who came to Ellis Island!

NY highlights #1

Rather than bore you all with a minute by minute run down of our fabulous trip to New York - thanks parents! - we thought we'd just hit some of the highlights. Sadly Mom has some of the pictures I would like to use in Seattle, but we'll just have to make due.

Museums! We were able to devote separate days to the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art), The Museum of Natural History and the MOMA (Modern of Modern Art). They were both fabulous!

Highlights of the MET:
- Frank Lloyd Wright Room: An actual recreated room from a house that he designed down to the furniture and everything.
- Will got to see Ring Starr's gold drum
- Cypresses by Van Gogh

Highlights of the MOMA:
- Starry Night: clearly this would be on everyone's list, but I was shocked at how vibrant and beautiful the colors were in real life.
- One: Number 31, 1950: a huge Jackson Pollack

Highlights of the Natural History Museum:
- The Silk Road Exhibit: Mom teaches this each year in 6th grade so it was pretty neat to go through with her

We also decided the MOMA not only had the best food in their cafes, but they were the least crowded with the best service! :) We ate in a number of museum cafes during the trip.

Fun with nieces

Will and I really enjoyed having Amber and the girls down here in Provo for part of the their visit. They were able to come to our apartment one night for dinner and play outside on our sweet dinosaur playground. Collin, a five year old from our ward wanted to play Star Wars with them and had a hard time incorporating Sammi's request that she be Snow White. Collin only has a little brother - I'm not even sure he knows who Snow White is.

Then it turned out I had a random Friday off of work while they were here, so I was able to join Amber, her mom and the girls for a fun day at the farm section of Thanksgiving point. It was fun to watch the girls interact with the animals. They both got to go pony rides - Elli could never figure out where I was, but she could hear me calling her name.

Elli looking for me - she and Sammi both enjoyed the ponies so much!

She finally found me, the last time around.

The girls in a play area - this was Sammi's favorite part. (mine was the ice cream sandwich and chocolate milk samples)

Amber and the girls!

Thanks for a wonderful day! We miss you guys but are so glad you were able to come and visit. Amber was able to steal away one night to play games - which is always a blast, but makes us miss Brent even more!

Balloons!

Blake gave us tickets to the Breakfast and Balloon Launch at the Provo Freedom Festival. We had a great time even though it was at 6AM.

It was a simple breakfast of pancakes, ham, yogurt and bananas but watching the balloons was the real reason we came.

As you know it's easy to get a ridiculous amount of balloon shots so I'll try not to go overboard.

1st Real 5K

I say that this is my first real 5K because in Jr. High the only reason I "ran" a 5K was because it gave me extra credit in gym.

The Kaysville Rotary 5k Run for Reading took place on Saturday July 3rd. We were part of Team Allie Cooper since she took 1st place overall in the Women's category.

We both felt really good about our times and everyone in the group beat their goal, so overall the race was a big success.

Finally

I know it's been a while but we're back and you can expect a number of posts over the next few days.

First I would like to draw your attention back to the beginning of April when I presented in the Sloan Public Speaking Showcase. They finally put the speeches up. Can you believe that this got me $100 to the BYU Bookstore? In fact, on Friday I pre-ordered Mockingjay, the last book in the Hunger Games series. Now all I have left is $3.54, just the right amount to buy some fudge.