New York, New York - His Story

Michele and I in Baltimore waiting for our flight to Long Island.

Waiting for the subway wasn't bad since i got to stare at this beauty.

The Guggenheim was awesome! The Met was better!

Central Park Princess!! A few hours later, we rode through there in our carriage.

Gotta love the temple in the middle of Manhattan.

I know people don't like reading long blogs so I will attempt to keep this somewhat parsimonious while maintaining all of the romance (who am I kidding - since when have I been brief when talking about Michele?).

For the past month, I have been trying to plan a get-away to celebrate Michele's 30th birthday (Feb. 28) and Valentine's Day. It has been a nightly routine to begin working on homework between 9:30 and midnight but lately, my "surprise" plans have taken me to 1:00a.m. Since I know Michele will fill in the details of the trip, I will just add a brief synopsis of the plans and my thinking behind the whole surprise.

I wanted to take her away to a place that was farther than Vernal. Once I priced out all of the cities that were possibilities, I settled on NYC. Thanks to some travel voucher help from mom and some other things on the side, I was able to come up with enough funds without taking any from our budget. Michele knew we were going away for three days but she had no idea where (which was funny because so many of my friends and family knew). We arrived to the SLC airport at 5:00a.m. on Friday morning. I checked her in so that she could not see where the plane was headed (It didn't matter because we had a layover). While at the airport, I gave her the first present (clue as to where we were going) - the novel "Wicked." She immediately asked, "New York?" and I had to give in. After arriving in Long Island, we took a train to our hotel on the upper west side of Manhattan near Central Park. We were both so excited for the amazing food on every corner of NYC but I had already mapped it out. We walked to Gray's Papaya (hotdog shop made famous in the movie "Fools Rush In") and had a quick bite. We then headed to La Caridad 78—a Cuban/Chinese/Carribean restaurant near our hotel, and indulged in some wonderful cuban food (the tamales were killer). I had also planned on ice skating Friday night at Wollman Rink (Serendipity, Home Alone) but the locals told us that Central Park was dangerous at night in the winter so we passed.

Saturday was our full day. Here it is in a nutshell:
9:00 - Breakfast
9:45 - Times Square
10:45 - Solomon Guggenheim Museum
11:30 - Metropolitan Museum of Art
1:30 - Lunch at a café near the theater district
2:00 - Wicked the musical on Broadway
5:00 - Carriage ride through Central Park (passed Wollman skating rink)
6:30 - Dinner at Sun-Yin Sushi near the Empire State Building (ESB)
7:30 - Skyride at ESB
8:30 - Observation deck at ESB
10:00 - Return to hotel

I have to interject that six years ago, I proposed on Valentine's Day. On that night, we had Thai food and we have had Thai food every Valentine's Day since. I had mapped out a Thai/Malaysian place one block from the ESB. Michele and I showed up and it had closed down. After a brief moment of sadness, we found a wonderful Sushi place where we were treated like royalty. The mochi ice-cream was sooooo good. When we were at the top of the ESB, I told Michele that I had her engagement and wedding rings rhodium plated (cleaned) and that I wanted to re-propose to her. Knowing Michele, I checked with her first to make sure if she wanted a full out, one knee, public proposal or a quiet one. She opted for the quiet one. Let me just say that her "yes" to my question was just as powerful as it was six years ago.

The next day was ground zero, the temple, and images of the statue of liberty from battery park. We then headed home and arrived in Utah on Sunday night.

There were so many wonderful memories from this short getaway: Wicked was incredible, the food was delicious, the museums breathtaking, and the carriage ride romantic. I realized more than anything though, that Michele is the woman of my dreams. Seeing her away from our kids made me realize how much I love seeing her with our kids. I looked at Michele a ton during this trip and I have to say, she is more beautiful than ever. It was a trip that will never be forgotten. Happy Valentine's Day Michele. I love you.

K

New York, New York

On Thursday night I went with Kyle to a banquet at UVU for an award Kyle received (called the PACE award - which is basically an employee of the year). Attending the dinner was the interim president of UVU and the entire board of trustees. At the beginning, President Hitch had everyone introduce themselves. The PACE winners each introduced their guests. It was usually the wife or husband adding at the end of the intro that they were so-n-so's spouse - almost awkwardly as if they were just tagging along. When Kyle introduced himself he said that he was the husband of Michele Reyes. His putting me first was completely opposite of all the others. To this President Hitch said to me, "That was probably your Valentine - him letting you be first." I smiled and laughed inside thinking, " You really do not know my Kyle do you?" That same dedication and going the extra mile he gives to his job, making him an easy candidate for employee of the year stems from his relationship with his wife and family. Little did she know that in less than 10 hours we would be heading to the airport for a Valentine's weekend in New York City. We are still here and will be heading home tomorrow evening. We'll post about it all when we get home. For now, I'll just say that this has been one of the most memorable Valentine's ever (right next to the year Kyle proposed). I love you Kyle.
Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy V-Day

We are headed out on our little vacation in the morning and I will not get a chance to post this on Valentine's Day. So here it is : ) Happy day of love. I love all four of my boys with all my heart and soul.

Traditions of the Fathers

Last night Kyle took Kekoa to the Jazz vs. Lakers game. We were initially going to do a double date with Kyle and our good friends, the Youngs, but I had Relief Society duties to attend to. So Kyle and his friend, Kirk, decided to take their boys instead. I hope that Kyle will have a chance to write abput it later. I just wanted to get something posted for now : )

Kekoa:
I had lots of fun with my Dad.

Here's pic from the game :

Floored

This past Saturday we had some saintly ward members come over and help us install laminate for our kitchen floor. It is something that I have wanted to do to update our home ever since we first moved in over two years ago. We decided on laminate that looks tile since I am not the biggest fan of an all-wood look. It may not be as sleek as tile, but I'm happy I do not have to scrub grout. I am enjoying the new floor so much I sweep several times a day as opposed to the . . . well I won't admit what it was before : ) We still have to put back up baseboard and quarter rounds, but that should happen very soon. I am so thankful for the mini face-lift on our home : )

BEFORE:
(this picture doesn't show how hashed the floor really was)

AFTER:
(the color goes perfect with the rest of our home)

Call it what you like . . .

. . . anticipation, excitement, bragging, you name it. I am so excited for this coming weekend. Kyle is stealing me away for a three day get-away. I have no idea where we are going. All I know I know is that I will love having alone time with my sweetheart. It is in celebration for Valentine's Day (our engagement anniversary) and my 30th birthday. I can hardly wait : )

: )

Progress Report

I had my mom and brother set up my loom on Thanksgiving week. It has been a little while and I've made some progress so I thought I'd post a picture. Here's what I've done so far.



I was hoping to be a little further along but there there are so many other things on my plate that I have to get done. It is also a little hard to work on with the boys around. They try to 'help' or Sepa tries to hang on to the strings. Battling them makes progress slow.
But I absolutely and completely enjoy weaving. It is so relaxing and enjoyable. I sometimes have to force my self not to work on it so I can get busy doing other things. I look forward to continuing and getting it done int he very near future : )

Feelin' the Love

Monday was picture day at our house where my whole goal was to get something for this year's Valentine's card. With a lot of effort, neglected house work and a good deal of bribing we ended up with a couple cute ones, including the 'tape project' that I actually decided will work okay for our card. I'll post it on VDay. Here are some of my favorites : )

This was one of the many times Sepa had enough. I learned that he does not like to be squished between his brothers at all.


Love this one of Sepa's eyes. He has the deepest dark eyes. I love it.

This next picture was a picture I hoped would be of the boys asleep. Ikaika was deep in dreamland and Sepa was too - about 30 seconds before this picture. But as soon as he saw he was not in his crib, he perked right up to see what what going on. At least I caught something I guess. I love the way he and Kekoa are looking at each other.

I have to get this one posted to remember : )

PS. I love the month of February. Valentine's day was the day Kyle and I got engaged and my birthday is at the end of the month : )

So, what did you do today, Honey?

Oh, we just had a little creative play with paper, tape and mommy's camera . . .



I wish I could take credit for such a ingenious idea, but alas my creative juices do not run quite so deep. I found a blog of an awesome photographer and decided to give one of his ideas a try. I was hoping it would turn out to be our valentine's card for this year - but again - that creative thought process is struggling. Maybe because it really has nothing to do with valentine's day. Oh well.

"Valentine, You've captured my heart" ?