February

I loved getting pictures of Eve in preschool during February: 

She also loved when they blew bubbles at library story time one day:

We got to go to ISU to watch Lizzie's state honor choir performance and it was so amazing! They did some really fun songs:

She also went to the Valentine's dance with Chase:

I loved these cute pictures of Eve and Natalie:

Eve's school had an exhibition where we got to go see what she is learning:

We did a bubble bath one night and she loved it:

We made some sugar cookies for Valentine's day:

I loved this picture Eve took during a Catan game:

Eve started to have a hard time when I'd drop her off at preschool which was sad. One day, I got a picture soon after from her teachers saying that she was already feeling better and picked up the happy face to describe how she was feeling:

That was a tender mercy for me since I had cried the whole way home after dropping her off.

I got to go with Eli to a free Magic Valley orchestra performance for all the 4th graders:

It was really cool and we especially loved In the Hall of the Mountain King at the end. I think it motivated him to keep playing the cello.

Eve mixing costumes one day:

JHS choir did a concert of Elvis songs and it was so much fun:

What a fun month!

Lizzie is 18!

 Lizzie became an adult. It was bittersweet for me. I can't believe she is that old! She needed baby pictures for various school/seminary events and I couldn't believe how fast the time went since she was that little baby:

Becca also sent me this picture from her wedding:

Now she's this beautiful girl:

She requested a raspberry cheesecake this year and I did my best:

We celebrated Lizzie's birthday a day early since Joe had to go to Boise for asylum interviews. She wanted buttermilk pancakes for breakfast. After church we watched Encanto, played in the snow for a bit, then we had her favorite bread bowl soup for dinner and opened her few presents. She lucked out and got a snow day on her birthday. although she didn't necessarily want one since she was missing so much school later in the week for state honor choir and she was feeling behind. It was still nice, though. 

This has been a really big year for Lizzie. She has grown so much. She got her first big role as the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella. She worked her first real job babysitting for the English learning class at the refugee center. She got her first boyfriend around New Years. She performed in drama competitions and made it to state. She continued to do well in school and finished the annoying online classes she needed to do to have enough credits, in addition to her full schedule of dual credit classes. She did super well on the ACT. She was much more social and had good times with friends, including becoming closer to Kassi who is her good friend. 

Lizzie is still such a good big sister and example to her siblings. There are fights, of course, but overall she loves them and looks out for them. She takes good care of Eve when we need her to and Eve loves when she sings her to sleep. She takes time to play Tetris and other video games with Nate and Eli. She loves singing with Natalie and talking all the things music and drama. Of course she still loves to read, although she doesn't get as much time as she'd like to read when she is so busy. She still loves to crochet and watch her favorite TV shows (including K-dramas :). She loves sitting on the bench under our big tree and reading. She also started to love hiking down the canyon path and did that more often. 

We're so proud of Lizzie and the person she is. We can't imagine our family without her. We love you!

NYC Senior Trip

 We had gifted the girls tickets to a musical for Christmas a year ago and just never found any good options in SLC or Boise. I was thinking about a potential senior trip for Lizzie and got the idea that we could go see a Broadway show and do NYC for a senior trip. So, we ended up inviting Natalie too since we wanted to keep the musical theater lovers together and it ended up being a really fun trip. The girls and I left from SLC and then Joe joined us later in the trip. We had a whole week there so we fit in a lot.

Flying into NYC:

We got in early in the morning and were able to check in to our place early. We'd planned on catching up on some sleep and then going to church but we were exhausted and couldn't do it. We finally woke up and got on the subway to head to our first show:

We got some really good street food first:

Our first show was Into the Woods. It was supposed to be starring Sara Bareilles but sadly she left right before we went:

It was great! Lots of talent for sure.

Then we went to Times Square to walk around for a bit and got dinner at Shake Shack:

I got scammed into paying for this picture somehow:

I thought the boys would like it.

The next day we slept in and then got up and headed to the New York Public Library. First we ate lunch at Bryant Park:

Lizzie's was especially delicious.

The library:

They had some really cool things at the library including the original Winnie the Pooh and other animals owned by A.A. Milne's son:

Also this cool old copy of Euclid's Elements:

We stopped by to look at Rockefeller Center:

It was so fun to have the Christmas decorations up still.

Then we went into FAO Schwartz. I happened to recognize one of the toy soldiers from an amazing series on Humans of NY on Instagram that totally made me cry--Johnny:

He was so kind and said there are some exciting things in the works for him--maybe a movie? Anyway, it made my day.

The girls recreated the scene from Big and actually drew a crowd! Unfortunately not all of the keys worked:

We saw the big tree:

Then we went to 30 Rock:

We walked around, hoping to see celebrities there but no luck, and shopped at the NBC store and got some ice cream. SNL wall:

Then we went to the MoMA but unfortunately it was right before it closed so we rushed a bit:

This was a very odd stop action video piece about a guy with hot dogs in his bed:

I thought this exhibit was cool and one the boys would have liked:

That night we went to a Mexican place I'd heard about from stalking my cousin Ria's Instagram (I think it was Rosa Mexicano) that was really delicious. They made guacamole for us at the table:

As we were eating, all of the sudden Neil Patrick Harris walked in with his kids. Natalie flipped out, of course, especially since she had said "Wouldn't it be crazy if I saw someone from 'How I Met Your Mother' here?" He sat not far from us so we snuck a picture:

That's his forehead in the background under the picture. :)

We saw Trinity Church on the walk home to our hotel:

The next morning, Lizzie wasn't feeling well, sadly, so she stayed at the hotel to rest while Natalie and I went to the Chelsea market. We had fun walking around shopping and we ate a delicious lunch. 

Then we walked along the upper walking path:

Luckily, Lizzie was feeling up to our show that night because it was a great one. First we ate a pretty yummy Italian meal and then we saw this:

The Music Man! We'd heard a lot of hype about it and it lived up to it. It was so good! They did a great job and really played things up with the crowd and each other. We all loved Sutton Foster, especially. 

The next day, Joe arrived in the morning! We took our time relaxing and then went out, ate some Grey's Papaya for lunch and then walked to Central Park:

We went ice skating there:

Lizzie and I were the only ones that really enjoyed that so we didn't last too long. Then we bought some newsboys caps for Lizzie and Joe on the street:

Lizzie needed one for her role in Newsies.

Then we saw Wicked:

That one was probably our least favorite but it was fun.

The next day we showed Joe some of the stuff we saw: FAO Schwartz, the big tree, and back to the MOMA where we had much more time to look around:

This piece actually really moved me:

I didn't even realize Starry Night was there until our second visit and I was so happy to see it in person. You can get right up close to it, unlike the Mona Lisa. I love that painting:

We got cold sometimes and showed off our Reynauld's:

Lizzie has got it pretty bad now at times.

We went on a boat tour by the Statue of Liberty:

We had lunch at an eatery with a bunch of restaurants and couldn't agree on what to eat so we split up--Natalie and I got pizza and Lizzie and Joe got Chinese. None of us regretted our choices and we sent pictures to each other to try and make each other jealous :).

Life-changing pizza: 

They loved this hot and sour soup:

We couldn't get tickets to what we really wanted to see (Phantom) so we went to see Moulin Rouge. It was actually really fun and the girls were thrilled that they knew the main guy in it from the Anastasia recording. 

The next day we got some delicious Indian food that we all loved and then went to the 9/11 memorial. That was so moving and so many things hit me hard. I just cried listening to all the descriptions of the people who died by their loved ones:

Natalie found the firefighter who was the focus of a beautiful drama piece she saw at her competition that year and that made it more meaningful for her:

I loved this picture from the subway:

We also went to Serendipity and had some delicious ice cream:

We also had a delicious dinner at a Michelin star awarded restaurant called Chambers. It was fun to check that off the bucket list but we weren't sure the food was really that much better than much cheaper food we've had. 

We had some time our last morning to enjoy some delicious bagel sandwiches, and Joe got some NY pizza, then it was time to head home. It was such a fun trip full of amazing shows, delicious food, and fun sights to see. I was so glad we had that time with our busy high school girls who aren't home as much anymore. They're the best.