New York City!!

On March 24th McKenzie and I went to New York City!
The Drill team went there to take Dance Classes, instead of competing at Nationals this year.
McKenzie and I flew out a day early, so we could use our SouthWest Rewards.
The Drill team flew the red eye! Yuck! I am not a fan of the red eye!
So we were happy to go early. We were meeting Abbey and her mom in New York and we had tickets to go see Phantom Wednesday night. Our plane had a layover in Chicago, and then was delayed 1 1/2 hours, so we nearly missed the play!
Our Taxi dropped us off at our hotel, we dumped our luggage and ran to the Theater,
and only ended up being 15 minutes late and hardly missed anything!
I love the music from Phantom and loved the movie, but had never seen the Broadway play
so I was really excited to be going, and I was not disappointed!!!
I always want her to pick the phantom in the end....
I guess I have just a little evil in me or something, but I would have chosen the phantom................

March 25th - The rest of the girls arrived and we all grabbed the subway and headed to Canal Street to do some serious Purse shopping! It is the best place to buy the cutest purses!
Yeah! They are knock offs, but who cares! I ended up getting 6 new purses which I will share with my girls. I also got a cute red one for Christmas time.
I just have to remember that I have it!

Taking a time out from shopping to pose for a picture!
Below is a picture of a New York Dog Walker!
It was the coolest thing to see, and the dogs were so well behaved!
Not sure how he does it without getting everyone all tangled up!

After shopping we went to one of our favorite restaurants called Serendipity!
It is from the movie Serendipity. Two years ago when McKenzie and I were there Meg Ryan and
Laura Dern, (the blond lady in Jurassic Park) ate lunch at the table right next to us!
We didn't see any one famous this time
but lunch was still great and their Frozen Hot Chocolate was amazing!
In the afternoon McKenzie took some dance classes and loved the Latin class that she took!
She had never done Latin before and thought it was so fun.
While the girls were at their classes, one of the mom's and I walked around town and went into
Saks Fifth Avenue! Wow! Not really sure who shops there, but I found some really cute
flip flops for $295.00! They were even plastic!!! Way out of our League!!
But it was fun to look around and imagine what it would be like to own a $1,000.00 purse!
Actually I liked my cheap Canal Street purses just as much!
That night, McKenzie and I found the best restaurant!
Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
Like from Forrest Gump!!! The food was so, so yummy! (We went back on Friday night too!)

March 26th - McKenzie and I got up early, at 6:00 a.m. New York time, 4:00 a.m. Utah time,
and worked out in the exercise room at the hotel. (We did this every morning!)
While everyone else slept in, we then got ready and went out to see the sights of New York!
I was not going to waste my time sleeping! Who knows when or if we would ever come back!
We decided to got to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum!
It was so fun, and the wax figures looked so real. You could see the pores in their skin!
I seriously thought they were going to move!
We took a lot of pictures which I have included in a video that I made of all of the pictures we took!

These are the two pictures that I liked the most!
McKenzie with "Edward" from twilight,
and the one with Steven Spielberg!
They looked so real!

I think we walked 100 miles that day!
Because everyone walks so much in New York and doesn't really drive,
we noticed that there are very few over weight New Yorkers!
It is true! You either walk, take a taxi or the Subway!
We did all 3, but mostly walked! It was a good thing,
because then when ever we ate, we did not feel so bad about it!
McKenzie took more dance classes Friday afternoon.
Her favorite was still the Latin from the night before!
Later we found the biggest Toys r Us store that made me wish I had Noah with us!
It was 4 stories high and had a Ferris Wheel in the center of it.
McKenzie and I rode on it, and as luck would have it, we got to ride in the Barbie Car!
Funny!!!!
There was a big Barbie house that had all of the Barbie's in it.

McKenzie got a really cute Barbie Bag while we were there, because we really
needed "1" more purse!!
They also had this big huge Dinosaur from Jurassic park that moved and growled and stuff!
Pretty Scary!!! It really was an amazing toy store!

We ate with the whole drill team again at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
and it was just as wonderful as the night before!
After everyone was finished, McKenzie and Alli went around to all of the tables and finished up everyones desserts!
People were looking at them so funny as they moved there way around the tables
eating all of the leftovers!!!!
The desserts were delicious, but they were huge so there were a lot left over,
but not after McKenzie and Alli finished!

McKenzie and I got pretty good at riding the Subway and knowing which one to get on and where to go! We figured out that you are pretty safe if you get on the "R".
It pretty much goes everywhere, and gets you back to where you started!
It was fun to see the people that entertain on the Subways to make some cash!!

On Saturday the 27th, we took the ferry out to the Statue of Liberty.
It was fun and interesting!
Just getting there is quite an experience as you have to go through so much security just to get on the ferry, and then security again as you get off of the ferry!
Like you were going to somehow get guns or explosives or something while you were on the ferry!

It was really neat to see the Statue of Liberty close up!
We had to walk up a million steps just to get to the observation deck.
I was actually quite pleased with the amount of exercise I got on this trip!
I don't think I mentioned it yet but it was pretty cold the whole trip!
It was sunny on this day, but the wind was really cold!!

The drill girls are pretty funny! Just point a camera in their direction
and they all know how to strike a pose!

Saturday afternoon, McKenzie and I went to the American Girl Doll Store!
McKenzie was in heaven!!
She loves American Girl dolls and still has all of the dolls that she got as a little girl!
This store had several floors, each with a different theme!
On one floor they had a doll hospital where you take your doll to get repairs,
also a beauty salon, where little girls were lined up with their dolls waiting to have the dolls hair styled by a real stylist. As you walked around the store you would see little girls caring dolls that you could tell had just had their hair done!!
How fun would it have been to bring my girls here when they were little!!
They had a restaurant and McKenzie bought a cup cake that also came with a miniture cup cake for your doll. Mckenzie ate the big one I ate the small one!
McKenzie bought an Itty Baby while we were there.
She got one when she was little, but she always wanted an Oriental one,
and apparently I never got her one, so now she has one.
When we met up with the other girls later for dinner they were all oohing and aahing over it.
I guess girls really never grow up and are always little girls at heart!

Saturday night we went and saw the Lion King! It was amazing!
I could not imagine how they could make the Lion King
into a Broadway Play!
Everything about it was amazing! The acting, the singing, the animals!
I want to see it again! I want to take my whole family!!!!!

On Sunday we got up early and caught a cab and went to church.
The wards in Manhatten actually meet on the 4th floor above the Temple.
We attended a singles ward which the girls loved!
I guess because it was full of single boys!!
I enjoyed going to a ward outside of Utah!
It was funny though because the first girl we met when we got there, was actually from Utah!
And as we were getting on the elevator to leave we ran into
a girl who is from Alpine!! Small World!!

Later Sunday afternoon we went to Radio City Musical Hall where we went on a tour.
The girls got to go on the stage and do a little kick line.
They also got to meet one of the Rockettes and learn all about what you do to become a Rockette.
I did not know this but Radio City Mucic Hall is where they do a lot of the awards shows.
Our tour guide told us it was where Taylor Swift and Kenya West had their little incident
this past year. The tour guide said it was a proud moment for them!
(I am pretty sure he was just kidding!)

McKenzie and I had the greatest time in New York!
I hated coming home, other than we were getting tired from lack of sleep and the time change
starting to take a toll.
I loved spending the time with McKenzie knowing that she will be leaving
home soon and my time with her will be different!
We did so much and have some great memories of the trip!
New York is a fun place.
We liked the subways, riding in taxi's, buying hot nuts and pretzels from the street vendors...
I am sure after a while it would get old,
but for us our few days there were magical and I hope to go again someday!