Best Best Best.

I just returned from THE greatest trip. Ever. I didn't think any trip would compare to my Europe extravaganza with Janelle but NYC blew our minds. My Mom, her sister Terese, her daughter Katie and Janelle and I fell in love with The Big Apple. We wore ourselves out every single day, ate WAAAYY too much and saw everything there is to see. I'm serious, we did it all. It would take forever to document everything but here are a few highlights:

-Finally saw Wicked. LOVED IT.
-Got a high-five from Meredith Vieira on the Today Show and Jimmy Fallon in the the same day.
-Yankees/Redsox game in the Bronx. (Scariest subway ride of our lives. Janelle was wearing a Red Sox hoodie and got chewed out by some sketch Yankee fans.)
-Taking the NBC Studio tour, meeting a real life NBC page, seeing the SNL studio.
-Watch Celebrity Apprentice in our hotel at night knowing that Trump Tower was only minutes away.
-Checking out the Trade Center progress. It was very humbling to be there.
-Riding bikes through Central Park. I love that park with all my heart. I wish you all could meet our bike tour guide. He changed my life.
-Taking a boat ride around Manhattan.
-Watching the sunset from the Top of the Rock. (The top of the Empire State wasn't as good.)
-Taking a Movie Bus tour. (Gnomes, guess what? I went to Dean and Deluca from Felicity. It was great.)
-Went to a wax museum for the first time. Weirdest thing I've ever done. Confusing real humans with wax is super weird and very embarrassing.
-Visiting the Manhattan and Palmyra Temples. Wonderful.
-Joining a gay parade. ...by accident.
-Going to the Met. Going to the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met. Going through the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met with Tim Gunn. He was everything I thought he would be.

These pictures are all out of order. Between the 5 of us we had 3,000 pictures. I'm not kidding. I was tired of sorting them so here are a few random ones that I liked.

"I'll be there for you", recognize this?

Do you see the man doing yoga in his underwear in the bottom right corner in the above picture? Priceless.

What you look like after a rainy walk all the way across central park.

NYSE

'One Fine Day' Spot puddle scene spot.

Top of the Rock.

Alexander McQueen exhibit.

Gay pride parade we were forced to join to cross the street.

This song means so much more to me now. Especially now that I know where Jay-Z and Beyonce's apartment is. Everyone should go to New York right now. I mean it. You will love it.

Spring has sprung.

Well Spring is here. Spring brings changes and I am so happy for all of them. This winter season is wearing on me. First change: Dad got released! We weren't sure if it would ever happen. He has been bishop for 5 1/5 years. It is nice and weird to have him around. Last night I went over there to do Janelle's Zumba DVD and he sat at the counter polishing his shoes, probably regretting buying that sub woofer. As soon as 'Drop it Low' came on he couldn't hide the disgust on his face. When the song was over he said, "that is the kind of music you play in a war march to try to annoy the enemy". I'm excited to hear more of his genius comments now that he is home.

Nat ran her SECOND marathon. What a crazy. The gnomes gathered in our usual form. Our posters never make sense but they are made with love. Good work Nat!

I made one final Saint George trip before we move Janelle home. These two years have gone by so fast. She is almost an RN! She is going to be a perfect nurse. Some of her friends got together to play at these pools in Leeds. It was lovely. Oh and guess what gnomes? I saw Dusty there! With his wife! How come I didn't know he was married?

Another change: I started taking accordion lessons again. A guy in my ward is a crazy talented folk musician and is teaching me Celtic style accordion. It's wonderful.

Hitting up the tulip festival means that my job with Gladys is almost over again. These four months FLEW by. I would post a picture of her but she hates them and I decided to respect her wishes. This job is so great. I don't know how I got lucky enough to get hooked up with it. I love this family. I've learned a lot this time around.

Other changes and news: A week from Sunday we leave for New York. I can't even wait. I apply for nursing school next week. Finally. Happy Spring folks! Let's play this summer.

Our thief.

This book and this man are stealing hearts everywhere. I tried to stretch it out as long as I could, I did not want it to end. I managed to squeeze two days out of it. I could not put it down. A couple weeks ago Kylee mentioned that the author, Markus Zusak, was speaking at the Provo Library, and said that Whitney might have an extra ticket. I got so excited. His lecture was wonderful. It was so nice to hear the authors view on the characters and story. I loved hearing that this piece of fiction was filled with real life stories that he had heard, when he was young, from his parents.
Plus, look how dreamy he is...

The line for autographs was ages long. I think every girl, woman and lady in the valley was there, hoping to get an autograph. We lost patience after 4 or so hours of waiting. Only George W. can have that much of my time waiting in a book line. Apparently, he was writing small novels in everyone's book. What a champ.

The dream reading team formulated that night. Whitney, Kylee and I were made to read and discuss books. I don't know why we didn't start a club earlier. Last night was our first official meeting. We discussed Markus Zusak's other book called 'I am the Messenger'. It was such a fun, official book discussion. I was so excited to finally talk about this book. The end had been driving me crazy.

The greatest thing about this club, besides sharing a love for books, is location. Last night we met in Whitney's adorable cottage and drank fake beer and smoked fake cigarettes. (A common trend with Zusak's characters.) Our next meeting will in Kylee's garden, which goes perfectly with our next book. Other locations planned will be the Farm House, pool side this summer and maybe my aunt's cabin if I can pull some strings. I have a good feeling about this club.

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting. ~Edmund Burke

My not so secret secret.

So I know I have a problem. I am mildly obsessed with sugar. Mostly baked goods. One of my most common thoughts and questions to other people is, "what treat should I make?". I always want a treat. Always. No matter how full I am. It's embarrassing. I'm not a huge fan of Rachael Ray but I am 'forced' to watch it with Glad. She had some food guy on her show on Monday who talked about overeating. He had a quiz which let you know how severe of an over-eater you are. Let's just say I fell into the "need to seek professional help" category. Yeah. It said I should contact my nearest Over Eaters Anonymous group, I'm serious. Anyone want to go? Ha. I decided that I am strong enough to tackle this on my own. I gave up sugar the moment I saw my results. Mind over matter. A miracle happened- I am already over my sugar cravings. I never thought this day would come. A piece of chocolate cake still looks absolutely beautiful to me but I can say no and walk away. The only reason that I am divulging this information to the world is to let you all know that miracle are real! I told myself I can have a little treat on the weekend but I'm going to try and hold out if I can help it.

Here is the Quiz, if you dare. #16 kills me. Unfortunately I had to mark yes on that one too.

On a different note, is anyone else freaking out inside about the game tonight? I still don't have Bieber Fever but I have experienced Jimmermania. Agh... He is incredible.

"There is no chance, no fate, no destiny that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul."

-Elder Quentin L. Cook

Joy

My Dad picked me up from the airport last night and I've never been so happy to be home and to hear people speaking English. I tried really hard to actually speak German while I was there and my head hurt after ten days. When I landed, I got a couple texts from Janelle about our new Japanese exchange students that made the 20 hours of traveling completely worth it.

- "They made us krill for dinner."

- "Saki talks like a baby kitten."

I cannot wait to play with these girls before they leave. I've heard they are a riot. Anyways, back to my Dad. As we caught up on the drive home he told me about his week. He had finished his 'last' ward conference and I asked him what topic he chose. He said Moses 5:10 which reads:

"Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgressions my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God."

He focused on the line 'in this life I shall have joy'. I love that. As I laid in bed with crazy jet lag I couldn't help but think about how lucky I am and how much joy I have in my life. Sometimes I get tricked into feeling sorry for myself but then I realize that I have the greatest life I could possibly ask for.

Traveling is something that makes me very happy. I was so excited to go play in Germany with my little munch-kins. They are crazy, literally, but I love them with my whole heart.

They get the award for 'the most un-photogenic humans I've ever met'. This first picture was the 11th shot. It took that long to get all of their eyes open and smiling.... well sort of.

I got there the first day of carnival. It is a local holiday where everyone dresses up and gets drunk and stuff. When Cheryl and I drove to pick these two girls up from school there were two boys standing in the road with a rope strung across. They made you pay to get across! Genius. Why didn't I do stuff like that when I was young? People actually pay too. Punks.

Olivia is such a little diva. She loves her 'lederjacke' (leather jacket) and so I decided to bust mine out to join her cool club.

BERLIN:

After 8 hours of listening to an extremely rude GPS lady, getting stuck in a time warp (literally) and taking a wrong turn causing us to make the same wrong loop 3X in a row we finally made it to Berlin. It is a pretty cool city. It still has a communist feel to it but they are fixing up a lot of the city and it is becoming quite nice. My uncle Micheal said, "Gosh, this city was a lot more exciting twenty years ago when the soldiers were still patrolling the streets with machine guns." -which he said dead serious in his beautiful Arnold Schwarzenegger accent. ha. He was right.

This is the Reichstag. It is the parliament building. It suffered quite a bit during the war and wasn't completely restored until after the reunification of Germany. Now it is all fixed up.

Brandenburger Tor

Berliner Dom

Here it was in all its Third Reich glory.

After the war.

Now. It was so beautiful inside.

Berlin has 170 museums. We went to 1- The Pergamon. It was awesome. These are actual walls from Babylon. If you are interested in history at all this museum is a must see.

Lovely little market.

Our residence in Berlin. A.k.a.- The Cube.

Charlottenburg Palace.

Checkpoint Charlie.

Inside the cube.

Berg Schloss.

Germans love dipping their fries in Mayo. Gag.

Gosh I'm gonna miss these girls.