New Yawk!

 Me & the darling flat Stanley Weston.

An unbelievably enormous Forever 21.

4 stories. Escalators & all.

 Our hotel was right on Times Square.  We walked outside to this every morning...

 We went to church downtown!

The Manhattan Temple & the church are right inside the end of that building! Can you spot Maroni?

She's a little scared of heights & we were 29 floors up!

 The new local.  She's a subway pro!

 Waiting in line for ferry tickets

 I feel like I got the whole experience. We parked the car Saturday night & didn't get back into it until Friday morning when we were leaving town, took the subway everywhere!

 This subway system is so efficient...me gusta!

 seester, mom & brudder

 Reppin my religion

 I've got to admit, they get a bad wrap, but I felt safest in the taxis. As they were swerving between cars & humans....

 nothing quite like a Johnny Depp Lego man!  I hope that's not life size because he'd be a teency man...

 neato

 Me & Spencie

  more subway adventures. Hi, sir sitting back there.

 Don't mind my mom, she thinks the monuments are more important to focus in on than the daughter.

It's true.

 Lady liberty

 Cool WW(I or II) monument in the river off to the side of the ferry line.

 Thanks, Frenchies!

 Ferry

 Thank you, sir, for stealing my innocence.

Ask Dani if you want to hear a hilarious story of this picture. Consisting of a lense cap & him playing "whose butt is that?" with his own portrait.

 I was pretty infatuated with this city.

 Ellis Island Grand Hall!

 The Ellis Island building where all the immigrants came through!  12 million people came through in those 50 yrs! It was a lot quicker of a process than I thought, though! Some immigrants would be onto New York City that night! Others it would take a couple weeks!

 My public health nerdiness came out in this picture.  I loved their processing. They'd write with chalk on everyone's lapel about what health condition they were in. So they could quarantine as needed.

 Some people that had to go through the hearing process to defend their ability to add to society & to be a safe & beneficial citizen.

 "I love America!"

 The subway stop for the World Trade Center.

Spencie & Momma had been talkin all mornin & plannin our subway route w/ all our train hopping.  Finally I couldn't take it anymore and said "EW, okay, can we stop using that word?  It's really gross."

Reminds me of another very similar word.

 Right next to the WTC's.  This is the World Financial Center.

My dad's company he worked for for the past 10 years is in this building....pretty unreal.

one of the new WTC

 Ground zero! this is the only glimpse of it we could find around the whole property! the property is 16 acres & was all fenced off for construction of the 4 new world trade centers & then the memorial pools that are being constructed in the footprints of the wtc.

 Momma & the boys have been to the WTC memorial, so just Dani & I went.

This  is a picture from a cell phone that someone took of all the people walking down the stairwells while the firefighters were hiking up.  This was taken on the 40th floor.

They didn't say, but I doubt those firefighters didn't make it out.

 The whole memorial was really neat.  They had this big pillar looking things set up that were labeled north or south tower & they & had the time on it. They were in chronological order.  They had quotes & pictures all over them... It was incredible.

 Amazing Bronze murals plastered on the outside of the fire station right next to the WTCs

 A plane window...

 Cousin It & Chase

 Me inside the WTC Memorial Gallery (the actual museum won't be completed until September 2012 & it is being built on Ground Zero)

 More of that same mural

 This makes me tear up everytime I reread it.  This little boy had been visiting his dad at work that day.  They didn't mention the boy's fate.

 victims

 debris

 Actual "Missing" signs posted around NYC.

 A little tribute of those that fell from FDNY right outside the fire station.

Patch.

 heartbreaking

 There was lots of artwork from kids all over.  Center bottom row yellow tile is from Memphis.  HOLLER.

 The names of those killed & some more kids artwork.

 This is only part of two of the walls that had those that died plastered all over them.  It was so sad to look at. I couldn't look at that wall for very long.  There was a completely different wall just for Fire fighters.

 What the 4 new buildings will look like.  One World Trade Center is 1776 ft tall. Symbolizing the year our country gained independence.

 They had these cards there that people could fill out to be used in the museum.  They had them hanging along the walls in the basement of the memorial.

 I wrote one to the extent of how those firefighters were all heroes. How they all became saviors that day. They gave their life so that others could live.  I talked about their families.  The ones they left behind. I wrote about how I can't imagine if Wes was a fire fighter in NYC that day.  How I know he would have been there right next to his fire fighter brothers. He would call me from the phone & tell me there's been an attack and that he's responding to the emergency. He would tell me he loves me.  He would tell me he's okay.  I can't imagine how those wives feel that lost their husband's that day.  Or the kids that lost their dads. All because of one evil man's plan.

 We saw on the news that night that someone had attempted to hijack a subway...bahah we didn't notice!

 

 brother bears!

 Me & Deej waiting for mom outside of the Memphis show!

 Not that I'm a connoisseur, but this is the best broadway EVER!

 Waiting for Memphis to begin!

Too bad I won't be able to sing this soundtrack with the windows down, it has the "N" word in it.

 Brothers

 NYPD

 Walking advertisements!

Free Jordin Sparks concert in Times Square!

 Where did Weston visit?

New York was SO much fun! My mom took Danielle & I to Phantom of the Opera, Memphis & the whole family to The Addams Family.  All on Broadway. & all amazing.  Seriously.  I was in love.  I have never seen so many bright lights.  On Times Square it seriously looked as though the sun never sank below the buildings.  I saw hardly any trees, except for in the parks & suburbs.  We got to see Ground Zero,  The Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island.  Three things I have always wanted to see!  The people there were as cold as they can get. It's just like the movies. Hustle & bustle all the time! I couldn't believe how busy that place was.  The first night my dad picked me up from the airport & we were slammed in bumper to bumper traffic downtown I just about had a panic attack. When I made it up to the hotel room I told my whole family I could stay in the hotel for the rest of the week and be A-Okay! There were so many people, so much camotion, it was so loud.  I thought I was going to freak out.  But I went out in it every day & my first day out there was a little stressful, but after that I was totally fine!  It was fun! I kind of felt cool walking like I knew where I was going!  It was the greatest vacation.  I missed Weston so so badly.  He can't be more than 2 hrs from Spanish Fork because he is on call 24/7 for fires.  So he was stuck in Poohtah.  But, we he was an angel about it & genuinely wanted me to go on that trip.  Plus I brought him home some goodies, so we all made out even, right? :)  My phone didn't work the whole week, so all I could do was answer his calls at night. It took me 30 minutes (no exaggeration) to type a 5 word text to him.  It was crazy frustrating being so far from him & so without communication.  I can't imagine not being able to talk to him for 10 minutes every night!  I don't know who would've died first, him or me! I found that he forgot how to eat vegetables while I was gone, so I reminded him every day "don't forget some healthy stuff with your dinner" hahah but he was a happy man eating his frozen burritos...I know it.... He was so excited for me to cook again when I got home! hahah  I was sad the WHOLE family didn't get to be together.  But it was nice to be able to spend time w/ my parents & brothers that I usually get to see just twice a year.  This year, luckily Dani & I graduated & I got this little New York trip, so that we got to see each other more.  But I probalby won't see them again until next april or summer sometime.  Tear :(   Last Christmas was our last Christmas all together until Christmas 2014 when Spencie gets back from his mission! That's depressing.  4 years between Christmases when we're all together!  I sure love my family & all the time we had to be able to relax & kick back...minus dad....The only thing he got to do with us was go to Addams Family! But we did get to eat together every night! He was up and out of the hotel room & to work which was a block away at 6AM & didn't get home till 7 or 8 at night...he is one hard working man!  Thanks for working so hard so that you've got such a great job & thanks for traveling every week for your work so we get to drive with you & stay in your hotel room, too! The pull out couch was perfect! :)  I love you!!

xoxothebigapple!