the blaze

Two weeks ago we visited the Van Corlandt Manor for "The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze" where we saw more than 4,000 jack o'lanterns.  It was quite the site, and a must if you live in the area, but we were a little disappointed and felt a little cheated when we looked closely and noticed several of the jack o'lanterns were in fact - plastic.  This observation didn't ruin the evening and we were still amazed by all the many pumpkins and the creative scenes they created with them.  It more than made up for missing out on the Cache Valley Pumpkin Walk and it put us in the Halloween spirit to help us get ready for this weekend - I can't wait!!

you can take the girl out of the country ...

I know sometimes we say we have it all here in the big city, but the one thing we are missing out on is country music.  Did you know that there is not a single country station that can be picked up on public radio here?  So the seldom times I do hear a random country song playing in the background I am always reminded of Utah.  Honestly, whenever I hear a country song come on it takes me back to summertime in Lewiston, 4th of July, the Cache County fair and working at the store (where country is always playing).  I don't know if it's because I never hear it anymore, so I immediately think of Utah, but I love when a song comes on and I am suddenly thinking of good old Cache Valley.

We love taking advantage of being so close to Madison Square Garden and Jason always surprises me with a good concert.  As an early birthday present this year he gave me tickets to none other than the hotest man in country music, Mr. Keith Urban.  It also helped that Sugarland was opening for them and I love their lead singer (and her accent).

Thursday night was the big night and it did not disapoint.  Sugarland was incredible and after seeing them live I love them even more.  Jason was enjoying the music but wasn't completely satisfied until after they sang "Stay".  I usually don't really like the opening act, but I must say, Sugarland was almost better than Keith.

Then Keith came out and I was mesmerized.  Okay, I wasn't really liking him at first because the music was so loud I could barely hear him singing.  But then he sat down with his guitar and sang all the good old songs I love.  I also like that he's not too twangy and that pretty much all of his songs are about love.  Jason wasn't really feeling it like I was, but I enjoyed swaying back and forth (by myself) to the music while Keith serenaded me.  My favorite part of the night was when Keith announced that his beautiful wife had accompanied him to the concert and that this was the first time on his tour that he would be singing his new song "Thank you".  He wrote it for Nicole and I just discovered it a few days before the concert and had been listening to it non stop.  I was hoping Nicole would come out on stage and grace us with her presence, but she chose to stay in the back while Keith sang to her.  I was a little disappointed that I only got a quick shot of her on the jumbo tron; but I will say, the smartest thing she ever did was get rid of crazy Tom and marry Keith.

Thank you for the early present, babe - even though you didn't enjoy it as much as I did:)

Here is his new song Thank You (sorry for the cheesy video)

family time

A few weeks ago Jason flew to UT to spend some quality time with friends and family before he starts work in November. After visiting everyone in Lewiston his family headed up to Park City for some fun. Most of their time in Park City was spent hot tubbing and swimming but they did go on the Alpine slide a few times. It was nice to have him back in NY but he enjoyed spending some time with everyone in UT.

girls weekend

Last weekend my mom, sister-in-law and niece came all the way from Utah to play with me for the weekend. This was Shae's first visit to the big city and I think she loved it. She was the best little trooper and never complained, even when she missed a nap or two.

My mom and Nicole have seen all of the touristy cites so most of our time was spent discovering new parts of Central Park, going on the row boats, seeing the big toy stores and walking arount the UWS. Shae got to see her firt musical while they were here, we tried for Lion King tickets but they were all sold out, but Shae loves Shrek so we got tickets to the musical and she was mesmerized the entire time.

I took them to all of my new favorite places to eat on the UWS and we did a lot of shopping, but most of all I enjoyed just visting with the girls and playing with Shae. The first few nights she would get a little homesick at night and say she wanted to go home but on their last night we were out and Nicole told Shae it was time to go home and she said "mom we can't go home, we are living at Sheena's house". She says the funniest things. But of all the many things we did, Shae's favorites were riding in the taxis, pushing the elevator buttons and taking the subway.

I had so much fun with the girls and hopefully we can start a new tradition of having a girls weekend in NYC.








- Sorry they are blurry.

tallest man

I walk by the Today show on my way to work each morning, and this morning I just happened to walk by the tallest man in the world. He was on the Today show and was just leaving when I passed him. At first I thought it was a man on stilts but then I realized it was all his legs, he almost doubled me in size (not really, but it felt like it). He stands at over 8 feet tall and wears a size 22 shoe. He was on the Today show to receive his award for being the newest tallest man in the world for the Guiness Book of World records.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

vma's

When we first moved to the city the VMA's were here and I remember watching the pre-show and thinking "This is just down the street, I could be there seeing all of these celebrities in person", so when I learned they were returning to the big apple this year, I was not going to be sitting in my apartment again (I love award shows). So we loaded up our camera and headed to Radio City.



We were in for a big surprise when we arrived and saw that we couldn't even get close to the front to see the red carpet (apparently a few other people had the same idea we did). So we hung out across from the back door with several other fans, hoping that somebody would come out before the show began. Lucky us, just after we arrived out came Lady Gaga in her crazy feather dress, mask wearing get up. She walked out the back door, got into a limo and drove around the block and got out on the red carpet. After that we knew we weren't going to see anyone else so we went home and watched the rest on tv.

I was glad we at least got to see the weirdest dressed celeb of the evening but I will never try to go to the red carpet again.

I thought the VMA's were pretty good ....

- Loved Jay-Z's NY song
- Wish I could move like Beyonce
- Felt bad for cute little Taylor Swift
- Think Lady Gaga is psycho
- HATE Kanye and wish he would go away

it's here

Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. - Tom Hanks, You've Got Mail



The weather has dropped and it is officially turning into fall. School started today in NY and I sometimes secretly wish I could go back to the days when I was packing up my school supplies, setting out my clothes and laying awake in anticipation of the day to come. And how cool would it be to start school on 09-09-09?

labor day weekend

Due to Jason's studying schedule the last two months, we feel like we've had a shortened summer and because Labor Day signifies the end of summer, we decided to go out with a bang.

I had a four day weekend at work so we started the weekend on Thursday night at the US Open where we saw Sharapova and Roddick cream their opponents. The girls left a little early but right after we left Jason and Bryan worked their way to the front row and got to see Andy up close.

Andy in action


Jason sitting courtside


The rest of the weekend was spent soaking up the sun in Southampton with the Granum's, Megan, Laurel and Avery. The weather was perfect, and of course, the Hampton's was beautiful.

Kelli, Kenzie and me

We had so much fun hanging out with this little cutie who kept referring to Jason as "Baby"


Jason and Bryan


Me, Megan, Laurel and Kelli



Jason has been wanting to go to Six Flags since we moved here so we finally made it to Six Flags Great Adventure and got to ride all of the big coasters - several times. Lagoon is the only amusement park I've been to besides Disney and I have to say, Six Flags puts Lagoon to shame. But it also brought back some fond memories of my summers at Lagoon.

Finally, we ended the weekend hanging out with some friends in Central Park and enjoying Patsy's pizza and Pinkberry. It was the perfect weekend to mark the end of summer, now we are ready for fall!

aruba, jamaica, ooh I wanna take ya

We loved Aruba! We new that it was a small island but we were very surprised when we walked off the plane and there was only 1 small terminal. The weather was nice and hot the whole time we were there but thanks to the constant trade winds we had a nice breeze to keep us cool. We loved how friendly everyone was and we were greeted with many BonBini's when we arrived (welcome in Aruba).

Because it was such a small island we learned our way around pretty quickly. A few days we rented a car and discovered different parts of the island. Our favorite was finding the local snorkel spots that weren't over crowded with tourists. Baby beach was a fun little find, it was on the other end of the island but it was very shallow, enough that you could sit or lay on your back on the sand in the water.

Our hotel was in downtown Oranjestad, the Capital of Aruba, and had a few brightly painted buildings filled with jewelry shops, restaurants and souvenir shops. You can clearly see that everything on the island is geared toward tourism and they treat their tourists like royalty. Everyone was so nice, but Jason learned, that much like South America, they take their time in Aruba and would get very frustrated when things weren't done as quickly as they are here in NY. We loved this cute little island and would agree that it is in fact - One Happy Island!

Baby Beach
California Lighthouse

Boca Catalina


Downtown Oranjestad


The view of the pool from our room

The marina across from our hotel

just another day in paradise

Our hotel was located on the marina side of the island so they had a private island to make up for their lack of beach, and it did just that. They provided a boat that would pull into the lobby of our hotel and take us to the island.

This was definitely our favorite part of Aruba. The island was just what I imagined a tropical paradise to be, complete with pink flamingos. We planned this trip hoping to relax and for Jason to unwind after the bar and I don't think there could have been anything more perfect to help him do this. It had everything we needed; palm trees, lounge chairs, ample fish for snorkeling, a cafe and tennis court. Our favorite was to wake up early and be the first ones on the island. We would play a little tennis before it got to hot and then cool off with a little snorkeling and then some reading and sun bathing.

The island was sectioned off creating a lagoon so you wouldn't drift out to sea. There were tons of huge blue parrot fish you could see while snorkeling and we learned that if you went outside of the rocks into the open water there was a ship wreck with lots of fish. This quickly became Jason's favorite spot, the visibility went on forever and there were tons of beautiful tropical fish swimming around for us to see.

I get nervous when I snorkel but I loved when we would venture outside of our safe lagooned waters and Jason would hold my hand as we swam around and discovered new fish.

There were iguanas and lizards wandering around but the highlight was watching the flamingos. It was fun to see their vibrant pink feathers and watch them wonder around in the water.

Feeding the flamingos







Around the island









Blue parrot fish

Jason snorkeling

Jason on the boat


Leaving the island