girls trip!

My little sister and mom have always talked about taking a girls trip to New York. I never believed it would really happen, but one day my mom called me up and meant business! A couple days later we had our trip booked!
Day 1: Our flight left early Wednesday morning and we got there that evening. Our hotel was in the financial district, so we took a taxi to get there. I'm just going to assume that 95% of the taxi drivers are all the same, so I feel safe to say that they're TERRIBLE! This guy was weaving in and out of traffic like you wouldn't believe. I thought they just drove like that in movies, but boy was I wrong! Needless to say, 10 minutes into the drive I was seconds away from throwing up. I was frantically searching for something I could puke in. After realizing there wasn't anything, I decided to roll down my window and hang my head outside. If worst came to worst, I could always just puke out the window. When we got to the hotel, I was praising the heavens! Me+taxi's=no bueno!

My cute mom felt obligated to try and have a conversation with our driver...it was hilarious

Once we got checked in, we decided to walk around for a bit and grab something to eat. The concierge suggested The Merchant's River House and it did not disappoint. I'm not sure if it was because we were starving or it really was good. Either way, we enjoyed ourselves.

Day 2: The second day we were there, we went to the 911 memorial. It was literately just down the street from our hotel. As soon as you get through the lines you can feel a sort of reverence about the place. You can definitely feel all the sadness and heartbreak that took place that day. The memorial isn't completely finished, but the parts that were finished were amazing.

After, we walked through the Financial District, snapped a quick pic by the bull, and made our way to the Staten Island Ferry. It's free and we were able to see the Statue of Liberty from the boat. It kinda ghetto, but hey, anything to save a buck!

Later that night, we went to Times Square. What a crazy place! There were freaks everywhere (which I expected). I now know why they call NYC the city that never sleeps! After we walked/shopped around Times Square, we grabbed a quick bite to eat before heading to see Wicked. This was by far my favorite part of the trip! I've been listening to the Broadway soundtrack for years and sang some of the songs in choir in high school. Needless to say, I've been obsessed for a good part of my life. It definitely did not disappoint. It was AMAZING!! So good I wanted to cry my eyes out.

Day 3: Our third day in NYC we were all over the place! We started it out by going to the Empire State Building. Luckily, the line wasn't very long so we got up there pretty fast. The views from up there are breathtaking! Afterwards, we met my cousin Ashley for lunch. She lives in Manhattan and was working right down the street from the Empire State Building. It was fun to see her!
We went to Grand Central Station, St. Patrick's Cathedral (which was under construction), Rockefeller Center, and shopped 5th Ave.

For dinner we ate at Serendipity. We ate really early (like when all the old people eat) so we got in really fast. I ordered their meatloaf and it was delicious! And of course we ordered some of their famous frozen hot chocolate.

Day 4: Our last day we were, again, all over the place. We started out shopping in China Town. I wasn't really looking forward to this, but it was really fun! I guess I just enjoy all the knock-off stuff they sell. The Asians were hilarious to say the least! We had a good time!

For lunch we went to Carnegie Deli (apparently it's famous?). It was pretty good. The sandwiches were MONSTER! I have no clue how a normal person can fit it in their mouth, so we split them!

After lunch we headed to Central Park. I'd heard it's fun to bike through the whole thing. We found a (sketchy) guy to rent bikes from. He took my drivers license as collateral, which made me really nervous. Luckily I got it back! I had no idea Central Park was that BIG! I've only really seen it in Elf and episodes of Law and Order SVU, so it was fun to see it in real life. It was so beautiful, especially in the fall!

Our girls trip was a blast! Of course we missed Kate (who's on a mission), but she said she'd rather die than go to New York so I don't think she was too sad about it. I'm lucky to have such great sisters and an amazing mom!

denver broncos

A few weeks ago we went to Denver with our friends Nate and Roxanne. Nate is a really big Bronco's fan, so Roxanne decided to take him to a game for his birthday. Jordan decided we'd invite ourselves. We were really glad they let us go! 

We left on Saturday and drove straight to Denver. It took us about 8 hours and I might have been asleep for 6 of them. I get really car sick, so I took some dramamine beforehand and it knocked me out!  On our way up, we took the "scenic route". Everyone said it was really pretty, but since I was asleep about the whole time, I kind of missed out.

This is embarrassing I know, but Jord had more than one pic of me like this

 We got a hotel that was within walking distance of the stadium so we wouldn't have to pay for parking. Let's just say it was on the "other" side of town. (By other, I mean ghetto) The boys cried more than the girls did. Needless to say, we spent as little time as possible in there.

The boys stacked chairs in front of the door at night "just incase"

I was surprised by how much I loved the city of Denver! Everyone there was SO nice! We spent quite a bit of time downtown. There was a street filled with shops, restaurants, and lined with pianos that anyone could play.

The group downtown

Our favorite day was obviously game day. We walked to the stadium and stopped at a little mexican place to eat before the game. The food was delicious! The stadium was so cool! It was HUGE! I may or may not have felt like we were climbing up a ladder to get to our seats, but it was so fun! The weather was perfect, and so was the game. We beat the Eagles 52-20!

Walking to the game

Our lunch spot

After the game we grabbed a bite to eat, shopped around downtown, and headed back to the hotel. The next day we were packed up and headed home. It was a quick trip, but we all had a blast!

At dinner

Twinners!

I couldn't leave this picture out- it pretty much sums up their relationship

Hope to see you again soon Denver!

Florida

Again, I'm a few months late posting this....what can you do? Anyways, here's a little about our trip to Florida:
We were planning on Kauai being just about our only trip of the summer, but Jordan got a call from his boss saying he wanted him to go down to Florida so he could finally meet him in person (since he works from home). I was a little bummed Jord would get to go by himself since I'd always wanted to go, but after thinking about it for oh, 5 minutes, we decided that since his hotel, flight, and food were getting paid for that I'd come along too! That way, we'd only have to pay for my flight. We took the red eye on Friday and got there Saturday morning. He had meetings Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday so we decided we'd spend Saturday and Sunday doing whatever we wanted. It was really fun to go on a trip (even if it was really quick) with just the two of us!
Saturday we went to Hollywood Beach (which was my favorite). The water was really deep, and really warm! I don't have many pictures because we spent most of the time in the water.

Sunday we went to Miami Beach. The water was really warm there, but it was a lot more crowded and kind of dirty. We still had a blast! 

Monday night we decided to go to the Marlin's game. Jordan had never been to an MLB game before so we decided it was the perfect time to go (the fact that they sucked, and the tickets were only $12 made it that much better). We might have ended up leaving early because baseball is pretty boring....but at least the stadium was cool!

We had a really fun trip (probably me more than Jordan because he had to work while I laid by the pool)! Yay for Florida!

kauai 2013

I am SO late posting this...I know, but when you go on an amazing trip and take 100+ pictures it's a little daunting to post pictures and write about it; which is why it's taken me 3 months. Here it goes...
Every year we go on a trip with my family, and this year we went to Kauai. This trip was a little different because it was the last trip we'd be able to go on with all my siblings since my brother and sister were leaving on missions the week after we got home.
We really did a ton of fun things, but I know reading is a bore, so I'll just post a lot of pictures and call it good!

We stayed at the Marriott in Lihue-it was SO beautiful!

Resort beach

Our awesome pool

While we were there, we wanted to hike the Na Pali coast. My brother, brother-in-law, and sister were crazy and hiked the whole thing (which took them over 16 hours), but that didn't sound like much fun to me. Instead, we planned on hiking to a waterfall. As you can see from the pictures, this hike wasn't the easiest. My mom (who has a bad knee) had a hard time, so we ended up not making it to the waterfall. We had fun anyway! It was so beautiful! The pictures don't do it justice! 

The whole crew...minus my mom

 Another day, we drove to Wiamea Canyon. Again, the place was incredible. Everything in Kauai is so beautiful. It's amazing everything is so lush and green, and then they have this huge canyon right in the middle.

Poipu Beach

 We also went to Poipu beach. We originally went to snorkel, but it was pretty windy that day so we didn't last long. We did see some Hawaiian Monk Seals there, which was pretty cool!...well except for the fact that they just laid there like they were dead...

 We had heard that while you're staying in Kauai you have to eat a Puka Dog, so after we left Poipu beach we headed over here. We had to wait in line awhile, but it was well worth it! Their hot dogs are SO good! They put this special sauce on it (I chose mango relish) and it was delicious! It sounds really sick, but I promise they were way good!

 I think Queen's Bath was my favorite stop. We went there on our last day and I'm so glad we went. We had to hike down to the shore line down to the tide pool (Queen's Bath). There's cliffs you could jump off and water would pour in with the tide. I guess it's only safe to do this a couple months out of the year, because when the tide gets too high, it's sucked people out and they've drown. There were warning signs all over and even a death toll. It was a little freaky...

Warning Sign

 Of course you can't go to Hawaii without stopping for shaved ice every chance you get. 

Dinners

Some beautiful scenery

We had such a fun time while we were here, and I'm so glad we got to have one last trip with everyone there. I'm so grateful my mom lets us go on these trips every year. She's really amazing! I don't know any other mom that would be able to plan something like this all on their own. 

Until next time....