day 3

Day three
Wow what a day. Needed to catch the 6am train to NYC. That didn't work out so well when we missed it, we then waited for the 6:50. Overall we had a fun day, 2 1/2 hours on a train one way, a few sister misunderstandings, filthy feet, confusing subways, several times being directionally impaired, sore feet, two scares of  lost ID's, and to top it off it rained on us all day! Sounds fun right...... It was! The Statue of Liberty is amazing up close, Empire State is really high and has funny workers when it rains, Manhattan Lds Temple was magnificent to see amidst the hustle and bustle of he city,  and the 9/11 Memorial Ponds had many wordless moments. I think I was looking forward to seeing that the most, I remember that day, and last month marks 10years.
Here are other fun places:
Charging Bull
Trinity Church
Ellis Island
Macy's
Trump Tours
Time Square
Wall Street and protesters
New York Stock Exchange
Time Warner Building
Central Park
NYPD
NYFD
 At the end of the day we are freezing and wet from head to toe.... Probably smelled like wet dogs too...
Funny moment: I thought I lost my id and I was really frustrated pulling everything out on the ticket counter... The lady said, "I didn't know people could be pissed like that from Utah." Derrick jumped right in and said "come visit" we were all laughing. I probably was looking or my ID for about 5 minutes. We did tell her there are many nice people in UT.
Something ionic happened today...... We took a ferry to the Statue of Liberty, then we took the ferry to Ellis Island. That ferry ride gave me a brief moment of the immigrants arrival at Ellis Island...... we were literally crammed on the ferry, people so close to us, we smelled of wet dogs, the Euro is doing pretty well that most people around us were European.  I was elated to get off the stuffy ferry, then to see the luggage when we walked into the Immigration Museum. Wow that was a moment I'll never forget.

Day Two

Click her for Day 2 Map

Day Two
We found our hotel just fine last night, we decided to stay about 15 mins south of the airport. We are driving a Chrysler Town and Country. We are suppose to be driving a small car, they said we had a free upgrade. I was looking for something that had better gas mileage, code for free upgrade means, we ran out of cars and we don't have anything smaller. In the end we got a free tank of gas, which was about $60, plus an upgrade.
Day two




We got on the road a little sooner then planned and headed north from New Hampshire into Vermont. Our first stop was the birth place of Joseph Smith near Royalton, VT. Small but well worth the drive. For those who do not know who he is, Joseph saw God the Father and his Son in the 1800's. In the Lds faith, we believe that God instructed him to restore Jesus Christ' s church, in its fulness, here on the earth after a long period of darkness. We do not worship Joseph, we honor his life and look to him as if we would Moses, Jeremiah, Peter, James ect. He was a prophet in modern times. If you are interested in knowing more please click on my link.

 From Original home 

Next, We headed north to the Ben and Jerry's factory. The tour was$3 but it included ice cream..... Yum yum! I think it was worth it. While there we went to their flavor graveyard where old favors are retired.

Jenn and I

Derrick and I

Yummy Icecream

Took a few pictures and headed on our way word decent south and south and more south.
After receiving a call from the dr. office I was instructed to sling my arm for the trip in hopes for it to heal. We found a Walmart and bought a few snacks for our drive too. We had planned on stopping at king bridge and Spingfield but decided to head on due to time. We passed he Yankee Candle Factory,  it looked like it was till open so we turned around to check it out. One time a year they have a neighborhood appreciation night, instead of closing at 6 it stayed open til 9! We told them we were not from here and they told us they had no way of knowing.

AWESOME place to stop.! We enjoyed free food, entertainment, 25 percent discount, candle dipping, and more. This place had its own little village inside! Glad we stopped, even though we got lost getting there, only our third time this trip.. At least!
Only 90 more miles from there to our hotel! I was in so much discomfort, I fly like someone was standing on my chest, could not breath in very well.... If I were home, I would have gone to an insta care. The prescribed medicine finally kicked in and relieved the majority of the pain.
The hotel in Naugatuck, Ct is beautiful. This is our 4th New England state today! 450 miles driving and is the perfect spot to catch the train into NYC tomorrow,  3 miles away from hotel is the station.
(written while on train to NYC)
Ttfn

Day One

Ogden to New Hampshire Click here to see map! (Click here to see google map of our distance traveld)

Day One- Our Freak'n Awesome Trip to New England (written on the airplane)

In SLC before checking in!

Well i promised many that i would blog our next journey,daily. I will do my best. Derrick worked a third job for a year to salve up for a trip he really wanted to go on. Today We left Ogden Ut @ 1:45pm arrived at the SLC airport @4:05 headed to Chicago Midway Airport and then onto Manchester, NH. My sister Jennifer is going with us. For once I actually packed all our clothes and had bags ready 24 hours in advanced, normally I would stay up to the wee hours in the morning packing. I don't know about you, but I get really sick and supper grumpy if I do not get at least 6 hours. I am rather proud of my self that I went to bed by 11:30 pm. I got up to go to work by 7am for a few hours. Thank you S. family for your sacrifice for letting me go for the week. I will miss Miss Ellie while I am gone! We will be covering 8 states (technically 9 because of our layover in Chicago) in 8 days. These will be crazy busy days and jammed pack full of many awesome beautiful places. Every person we told we said that this is the perfect time to go. Soooo beautiful in the fall; I am looking forward to having perfect pictures and memories.

I starting this trip in a lot of pain, about 11 days ago I told Derrick my arm hurt to move or put pressure on it, breath in deeply, lift things ect... three days later it became worse. I was not sure if I broke my clavicle or having some kind of heart problem. I decided to go see an insta care doctor. This doctor told me the pain over my heart was the cartilage in my chest wall has been tweaked. Somehow pulled, I do not know how. He gave me medicine to take to help the inflammation, 3x a day for 2 weeks. If in fact I do not agitate it, it will heal. I thought I would not use it very much because it is my non dominant hand. I realized everything at work is left handed and most things agitate it. Ten days after the initial problem, I felt I was healed.... Hmmm not so much. I now feel I am back at square one and it feels worse then the initial pain. Dr. said he would sling my arm if i could not stop using it. Extremely hard not to use it. I called the dr. and am currently waiting for a call back from the nurse. It is a bummer to be leaving on a trip with something that could potentially hold me up. The medicine does help, it's just annoying. I have never heard of this before... well one person actually has had it and described everything I am feeling. Oh and I jut got a feeling in a tooth put in, well it fell out my dental office told me they would not have time to squeeze me in to replace it, when it clearly was not my fault. Haha every time I chew it feels like chewing on tin foil with a mouth full of cavities!

Derrick and I have been to 7 states and one country (Canada) since we have been married and I am happy be to adding 8 more (does the 9th even count). I wonder how many years it will take us to to go to all the state together! We love to travel and We have many places on our Life List (what others may call bucket list, I prefer to focus on the life journey then the death aspect.).

(Written on airplane from Midway Chicago to Manchester)

We landed in Midway and Jenn and Derrick sent me a head to get in line for our next flight, only had 30 minutes. They caught up with me and we actually didn't leave on time, finally left at 9:30 for an 8:50 flight. This is going to put us in at 12:45am into Manchester. The last flight we were able to watch a pretty cool thunderstorm as we were landing. Of course I choose to go to the bathroom at the most inopportune time, a lot of turbulence makes for an interesting experience. The weather now is pretty crummy too, I hope this does not set the weather mood for the rest of the trip.

When I blog, I blog, it probably does not help that I have 5 hours to kill in the air. I have learned in the last 2 1/2 years to just zip my lips in many situations. Which leaves my mind a lot of things to actually say. This lets me put what I am thinking in my head on paper. I am not sure who really reads this blog, and honestly I would like to think a few do and enjoy it. I mainly write because it is a stress reliever, also sort of a journal. For those who do not like the all the words I hope you enjoy the pictures.

TTFN (ta ta for now)

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In the Manchester Airport! It is a real clock

Derrick checking for bedbugs.... my sister insisted!

I may have made Derrick take out a lightbulb out in the middle of the light... it was flickering!

Pictures from 5 hours of airtime


Sent from my iPad

To Gaylene

When I was 11 my family moved to Clarkston, Washington. I would be going into the 6th grade and would be attending my 5th elementary school. My first time at church I remember meeting two girls whom I did not know that day, would become my very closest friends.  Gaylene and I quickly become friends and did almost everything together! She was the friend every friend longed to have and I was so lucky to have! I looked up (and still do) to her in almost all ways: she was kind to everyone,  was thrifty with her money, musically talented, had a strong faith in Jesus Christ, accepted me for who I was and the list could go on! The years I lived in Clarkston helped me to know who I was and who I wanted to be. My family moved to Utah when I was 14, I was devastated. I know now that we had to go but then it was hard to understand and it was extremely difficult to leave my friends! My family moved to Morgan, Utah. A place I call home and love with all my heart. No one ever replaced my friends! Every payday, even if money was tight, my dad gave me a phone card.  This phone card seemed to always last til the next payday, even when I spoke hours on end. When I sought a friend to listen to me.... I called, when my sister's had a baby.... I called, when I had something exciting happen at school.... I called, when I was depressed and I knew she would understand.... I called, when I was asked out to a dance.... I called, when I had something strengthen my testimony.... I called, when I crushed on a boy.... I called, when I went on a trip with my family...... I called. To say the least, I was always on the phone and she was always there to listen. I now look back and hope I was the friend she was to me! Gaylene and I today are still close! We call when life allows, visit each other as often as we can, TX daily. I am not sure I could have made it through the last 14years with out my best friend(s). Gaylene is not the only friend that helped me through the good, bad, ugly and wonderful things of the last 14 years! I have been blessed beyond measure with people whom have impacted my life! I choose to write about Gaylene because she recently got married and I am so proud of the life she has lives to be who she is today! She continues to strengthen me when I am down and loves me unconditionally.
I love you Gaylene
(ps.... I do not promise grammatical perfection)

Weber State's Homecoming!

Weber won ISU! What a great day with Derrick and his brotherAJ!

Cookie Bowls

Derrick had this great idea of using the bottom of a muffin tin to make cookie bowls for our ice cream. I know it looks like a mess but they worked perfect. I did put a little more cookie batter on the pan then I should have, but I still think the idea was AWESOME! Ok and I might have cooked them a few minutes too long! 

Laundry Soap

I have been thinking about posting this for a long time, I keep forgetting!
I make homemade laundry soap and I think it works like a charm!

Homemade Laundry Soap

1 bar Fels Naptha soap

1 cup washing soda

1 cup borax powder 

~You will also need a 5 gallon size bucket~

Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan.  Add 9 cups water and heat it until the soap melts.  Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved.  Remove from heat.  Pour 6 cups hot water into the bucket.   Now add your soap mixture and stir.  Now add 2 gallons plus 1 cup of water and stir.  Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel.  You use ½ - 1 cup per load.

(You’ll want to stir the soap before each use)

Optional:  If you want your soap to have some sort of scent you can scent this with  1½ to 2 oz. of essential oil or fragrance oil of your choice. (You should put the scented oil in after it is completely cooled.)

~The finished soap may or may not be a solid gel.  If it is solid, stir it up really well.  It will be more of a watery gel that has been accurately described as an "egg noodle soup" look.

~The soap is a low sudsing soap.  So if you don’t see suds, that is ok.  Suds are not what does the cleaning, it is the ingredients in the soap.

(Recipe taken from www.thefamilyhomestead.com and modified by me!)