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Thanks to the Burts for answering Lacy's question!

Dude, where's my car?

Discoveries

This afternoon Reagan discovered ladybugs. She chased one on our deck for a while. My encouragement to "be nice" and "soft" kept her from smashing it. The bug crawled on my finger for a while, then got tired of us pestering it, so it tried to run away, then finally flew off the deck. Reagan was fascinated.

Another discovery: the macro button on our camera! I can now get a clear close-up shot.
Reagan got down to get a closer look at the ladybug. I still think of Lori when I see ladybugs :)
We discovered that this family needs to get rid of some hair. Reagan's hair is out of control. She prefers me not to put it up, but I usually do anyways. However, the bangs hang in her face, like an emo kid in high school. It's really annoying. But I just can't bring myself to cut her hair yet!!
Matt lost a lot of hair today. He finally shaved the beard that he has been growing for a while now. Good-bye, beard!

Reagan's distaste for the beard is pictured below.
We discovered that Reagan is becoming a better snuggler. She never was one for physical contact, but lately she has given us tons of hugs and wanted to lay with us.

Temperatures

Temperatures were over 100 for a few days this past week. I knew it was bad when our AC kicked on about 7AM in the morning and didn't shut off once until about 2AM (our thermostat is set at 75)! On Thursday at 7AM, I went running and about had a heat stroke. Not really, but it was about the hottest I could remember. Our walk on Friday morning was also on the too-warm side, at 7AM. On Saturday morning, I went on a pre-camp hike with the Young Women in the stake and about the coolest spot we hit was Twin Peaks. So yeah, it has been hot...

We went to this park twice last week. It has some water to play in, like sprinklers. Reagan associates this park with sugar because both times we got an Icee and the last time we got an ice cream sandwich. Reagan and Addie.
This was Reagan feeling tentative about the water. Following tradition, she became brave the last 3o minutes and boldly ran through the water, but it did take some coaxing.
On the Saturday before Mothers Day, we took Reagan to Pixieland in Concord and also the duck pond behind it. These ducks are slightly nicer and more polite than the ones at Newhall.

Reagan goofing with dad. Turtle sunbathing on the rocks.
Reagan and Matt rode the teacups. Reagan illegally stood up for some, but when it started going faster, she sat down pretty quickly.

Waiting for the train!!
Choo-choo!
Reagan's favorite part of the park: the cars. She loves to "drive" and Matt will often take her out to the car just so that she can sit in the drivers seat and pretend to drive. So it came as no surprise when she fell in love with this ride. While waiting in line, she cried until we could get on the car. She happily hooked up and steered. It was a short ride, apparently too short for her and she let it be known. We weren't about to fork over another 4 dollars to ride again for 30 seconds, though (seriously) so we carried her crying out of the park. Good times!!
Thanks to Matt for making my Moms Day special. I got to sleep in till 8:30 AM, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch and The Host by Stephenie Meyer. All things I love and enjoy. Happy Belated Moms Day to all!

Now, for the BIG question of the week: COOK or ARCHULETA????

I say Cook.

Youtube Bust or Please Buckle Kevin Up?

I am deciding which title I would like to use to rename last night's Office finale. The fact that youtube caught Ryan being arrested for fraud is pretty awesome. And one of the best lines of the episode was delivered because of it: "His real crime was the beard." (I really got a laugh out of that because Matt is now growing out one. And yes, I like it!) At the same time, Kevin and Holly's charade over him being "special" was purely brilliant. I felt like I was watching our good old season 2 humor on that one. Nothing over the top, just subtle humor. Other special points on last night's episode:

*Hey Angela, who is the office mattress now?
I am so glad that Phyllis caught self-righteous Angela. I really hope she outs her, but I could also see Phyllis pulling a sly one and making Angela her personal slave or blackmailing her or something. At any rate, that last scene definitely left our mouths hanging open and made up for the fact that Jim didn't propose.

*You're killing me, Jim! You're killing me!
Andy cutting off Jim's proposal with his own was pretty funny. I think it is obvious now that Pam would have probably said yes, but now she is going to New York and I sure hope it doesn't change anything. I am glad Toby is out of the picture, too. He was a small roadblock for them.

*Jan and her catalog man
This was crazy. I wish the baby would have been Michael's, I think Jan heading to the sperm bank and picking out a "Hot" guy from a catalog was just really weird. I really hope she and Michael don't get back together this summer. Because...

*Yoda vs. Yoga
I SERIOUSLY love the play between Michael and Holly. I need more of that. They can now write Jan off the show and I would be happy because Holly already has a special place in my heart. I thought their bantering back and forth was so comical and I think Steve Carrell is a pure acting genuis. The way he could act all confident around her, then when she says something to throw him through a loop, his facial expressions are beyond words. I love it!

I am going to rewatch it right now!

Chillin on Day 4

This is the last of our vacation posts. Me, along with anyone who reads our blog, can all breathe a collective sigh of relief. The boredom is over. It is hard work for me because uploading photos takes forever and I hate having to choose--we took over 400 photos between Boston and New York. And I am sure this has been a boring thing to read, but I need to record it for my posterity, okay? :)

Our last day in New York was excellent. The weather was warm and sunny and we didn't have anything pressing that we had to do. We had a list of things to see and stuff, but since we had to leave for our flight at 2:00 PM, we just took in what we could and didn't worry about the rest. Our best decision of the day was going to Empire State Building first thing in the morning. There were fewer people (but still a crowd) and even though we got to bypass most of the lines with our city pass, it was still a full building.

The statue of liberty is in the distance, as well as Ellis Island.
I like this photo of Matt.
The Apple Store was a fun thing to look at. They also had tons of laptops in their that had free internet use.
For Roland. Who does not read our blog, but his wife does. Sponge Bob was made out of legos.
This was the view atop the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The green stuff is Central Park.
Okay, so the Met was cool. We are not big museum goers, as you may have read in my last post, but this one turned out cool. You could spend days in here, but we only had about 2 hours max. We went to the info desk and asked what the best thing to see in 2 hours was. After the incredulous look we got (how DARE you come here for only two hours?) we told him we liked history and he pointed us to the Egyptian and Roman history section. It was pretty cool. I loved seeing all the Egyptian mummies and artifacts. In this photo below, is a real mummy. It is inside and you can see the dark outline if you enlarge the photo. It was really neat actually.

Matt thought it was hilarious to take photos of me in front of the naked Greek men. I have officially given our blog an R rating.
Perhaps my favorite part of the day in New York was seeing the UN building. While waiting to go through the security checkpoint, we saw some employees filtering in through another line. How cool was it to see, in a matter of minutes, a man from Nigeria, a couple in sombreros and ponchos, an Indian woman, a few Americans, and I am sure others from various nations I couldn't recognize. The feeling in the building was like being in a library, but more respectful and peaceful.

I loved seeing the exhibit at the front entrance called Hard Rain Project. A photographer took a Bob Dylan song and captured photos from all over the world to match the lyrics. It was very moving.

FAO Schwartz was the priciest toy store I have EVER been in. But we got to dance on the keyboard just like Tom Hanks did in BIG!
Our flight back was a good one. I listened to the music provided by Delta, so I got to hear the new Jack Johnson CD, the new Counting Crows, and the entire soundtrack to Into the Wild, which I LOVED because it is all Eddie Vedder. We arrived in Salt Lake City late in the evening so Reagan was asleep, but we had to peek in at her anyways.

Of all the cool sights we saw over the previous 6 days, this one below was the by far the most beautiful! We missed her a lot.

Rain and Regis (Day 2-3 of NYC)

Written by Lacy in the persespective of Matt.

Day 2 was spend in NYC getting soaked in the rain. We thought that would make it a good day for museums and shows, so at 6:30 AM we were on the corner of Columbus and 63rd St, in the stand by line for tickets to see LIVE with Regis and Kelly. We waited in the rain (and cold!) for two hours. I was an excellent sport, fetching bagels and hot chocolate, then holding the umbrella for Lacy while she ate and drank. I didn't fit under the tiny umbrella which also had a few gimp legs. Then they handed out stand-by numbers. We were numbers 22 and 23. They told us to line back up in 15 minutes. We dried off in the Starbucks across the street, then got back in line. 5 minutes later, the warm, dry people from inside came out to tell us they didn't have any stand-by seats left for today. Our hearts dropped! We were also a little mad. A few minutes later, the same woman came out and said they had 10 tickets for tomorrow mornings show. Everyone freaked out and many people who were behind us in stand-by tried to cut in front, but the group of 4 girls in front of us (from Utah, by the way) flipped out and we were able to go wait inside in the correct order. They started taking down our info for tickets and after she took ours, she told us we were Tickets 9 and 10 and then said to the people behind us, "I am sorry, that is all I have, please try stand-by for tomorrow." We were grinning from ear to ear.

Feeling pretty good about ourselves, I made the phone call to the Late Show for stand-by tickets for that afternoon. After redialing about 15 times, I finally got through. Much to my DISMAY, Lacy did not know the answer to the trivia question because she does not watch the Late Show and I was a little upset with her (just a smidge). I assume she knows the answer to ALL trivia questions. We did not speak for the entire subway ride to the Museum of Modern Art.

At MOMA, peace was made, but the museum sucked. We are sorry if that is downright blasphemy to those who appreciate art, but we will tell you that the modern art we saw was either pointless or perverted. Honestly. Lacy was done after about 5 minutes, but the accountant in me wanted to get my full money's worth and made it through all the floors. This was Lacy's favorite part of the museum:

(Please don't hate on my wife for looking like a drowned rat. She had been standing in the rain all day and was wet from head to toe).

We trekked back to the Ed Sullivan Theatre to get in our stand-by line. Because Lacy could not answer the trivia question, we got stand-by tickets only. We had some good luck with Regis and Kelly (in the end), so we thought we could try our luck for this show and wait in stand-by.

We didn't get in, they only took the first 2 stand-by's, but we did get this amazing photo of me in front of the theatre where we waited in the rain.

One of the many subway stops that Lacy and I made during our stay was the Grand Central Terminal. Great shopping and cool architecture.
We hit up the stores in Times Square, ignoring the drizzling rain. Who knew that Ernst and Young had an office in Times Square? Imagine trying to do an audit with tweens on the sidewalk out your window holding up signs that say, "Marry me, Carson Daly!"
My favorite store...ESPNZone. I even bought stuff there!

Another museum attempt?? Alas, this one was more successful. We headed to the Museum of Natural History and it was freakin cool. It was like all the field trips, zoo trips, and sea world trips from your childhood all combined into one place. Mind-boggling. We found this huge squid, which you can't tell from the picture, but in actuality, was about 20 feet long.

Lacy fell asleep within about 10 seconds of the lights going out in the space show. The Manhattan Temple. Just around the corner from ABC studios.
Early in the AM on the morning of Day 3, Lacy and I made our way again to the upper west side to see Regis this time WITH TICKETS! We were in the 3rd row and had great views of Regis and Kelly.
Gelman was a bossy man. He comes off on the show as a gentle guy that smiles and goes along with the flow, but behind the camera, he was Mr. Producer and bossed the audience around!!! It was cool to see how the show isn't as add-libbed as we thought. Kelly and Regis even rehearsed before it aired. They had poster board with magic marker prompters written by crew members on the spot.
Gwyneth Paltrow was one of the guests. My favorite prompter was one really quickly scribbled by a crew member when the children were brought up. It said: Apple (girl, 4) and Moses (boy, 2). Nice ;)

Kelly looks like she weighs about as much as a green bean. She could probably hold onto a couple of helium balloons and float her way through New York instead of hailing a cab.
I was pretty stoked to do this part and I researched this area really well. We walked down Wall Street and saw all the businessmen and women in a hurry, talking on their phones and smoking. They look so stressed out all the time. No fun :(

Ground Zero was quite a sight to ponder. The area was literally HUGE where each of the two towers stood. We always knew that the buildings were tall, but never estimated how wide they would be. They pretty much took up a block each.

This is the last remaining piece of the towers: a stairwell left intact that also saved many lives that hid underneath it.


The subways are underground and you usually have to take an escalator or stairs down to them. They are so steep! We tried to capture it in photo, but it still doesn't do it justice.

The Yankees game. Little did I know that my wife had butterflies in her stomach every time she thought about heading into the Bronx, but upon stepping off the subway, her fears were put to ease. There were TONS of people. I liken it to an Oakland A's game, where the stadium resides in the 'hood, but on game days, you are pretty safe.

We stayed through the first 5 innings because it was cold and well, baseball can get a little boring sometimes. It was cool to be in that stadium before they tore it down. It was so old and small, the hallways were narrow and the ceilings were low. But there was an amazing spirit in it. Yankees fans really get into their game. They don't go halfway on this.

This is my wife looking around and wondering when someone is going to pull a gun on her.
Two very enjoyable and adventure-filled days in NYC. Our final Day, number 4, was pretty chill in comparison. We didn't have much to hurry to, we took our time and the weather was sunny and warm.

(From Lacy): I will post about that later, because American Idol is coming on and I need to watch David Archuleta rock the Murray High School crowd.

New York-Day 1

We bought the City Pass, which is a great deal if your doing some sight-seeing, and did the Circle Line Tour. The ferry takes you down the Hudson River, around the tip of Manhattan and up the East River. We saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, New Jersey (which I had no idea was so close to New York!), and all the neighborhoods and buildings that are in Manhattan. I couldn't believe how many bridges there were. I thought there were a ton in San Francisco. Here is Matt in front of the Brookyn Bridge. I am glad that we did this ferry tour because with budgeting our time, we weren't able to make it out to see the Brooklyn Bridge or walk across it and also didn't do the Staten Island Ferry ot ferry to Statue of Liberty.
Southern tip of Manhattan.
Empire State Building! We went up to the 86th floor on our last day here, which was a great choice since it was a beautiful, sunny day and we had amazing views.
30 Rock, heck yah baby! We spend some time in Rockefeller Center and saw the Radio City Music Hall. It wasn't that great, I imagine it is much cooler in the winter with the ice skating rink and big tree and all.

Blasted, horrible photo of me, but the FRRRROOOOZEN hot chocolate at Serendipity wasn't the overrated thing I thought it would be. Since you have to spend $8.50 per person to eat there, we ended up getting a sandwich, too. Frommers said their food was average, but we really liked the sandwich! It was a smoked turkey and asparagus with Russian dressing. But the best part was the hot chocolate by far. Also, there is this candy store around the corner called Dylan's and it has cool candy which is way overpriced. We really didn't feel like paying 15 dollars for a piece of chocolate shaped like a high heel shoe, but it was a neat store to browse through anyways.
Times Square was the other part of New York that everyone said was overrated, but Matt and I have to strongly disagree on that one. We LOVED Times Square and most of our evenings were spent walking around here, looking in the stores and stuff. Matt loved ESPNZone and we just had to go into the Toys R Us that has a 3 level ferris wheel. Reagan would have been in heaven!
A few fun facts about our trip out here:

*The subway was the best. We rode it everywhere and still walked till our feet were sore. We bought the 7 day pass and the trains come very frequently, unlike the non-rush hour BART trains out here.

*I learned early on that you do not make eye contact with people on the subway. They will stare you down.

*The City Pass is where its at. We saved so much money doing that, but the best part was avoiding the lines. We walked right past the 30 minute line at Empire State Building, as well as the Guggenheim Museum. Totally worth it.