Halloween

So this year we experienced a New York Halloween and it was definitely quite the experience! We did have a little ward Halloween Party on Saturday during a huge snow storm. It was crazy and it snowed all day and night, and I think we got about 3-5 inches of snow. Luckily we got a ride so we didnt have to trek through the storm to get to the party. Jaylee wasn't so sure about the costumes at first and even had a major melt down at a boy who was dressed up as a scary skeleton and had a mask on. haha that was fun, but once people started giving out candy she did better and even enjoyed herself. She loved smarties and the homemade root beer that she couldn't get enough of. (talk about a sugar high!).

On Halloween day we were invited to go spend the day with a couple of other students and their families. They had a kid parade in the afternoon which was fun because the kids got to join in the parade and show off their cool costumes and then they had a carnival set up with face painting, a carousel, a bounce house, cotton candy, popcorn and a bag of goodies. We didn't stay too long because it was crowded and crazy but it was fun to see. Then we went to the student housing apartments and they had trick-or-treating, and a had a party. A group of us thought it might be fun to go see the adult parade that evening but man was that a mistake! It was definitely interesting but as we tried to make it to the subway entrance to get home we got stuck in a crowd of people. It was so crazy, we had people pushing and yelling at us while others were trying to watch the parade. Haha we almost didn't make it!

Pumpkin Patch

Jaylee and I were able to go to a pumpkin patch with some of the ladies from our ward. It was about an hour away and we drove through some of the prettiest trees and foliage that I have ever seen, I now know why they call New Jersey the Garden State. It was really pretty to see because all the leaves were changing colors. Once we got there, we were able to go on a tractor ride that took us around the little farm. It was a lot of fun and I was able to visit with some of the other moms while Jaylee got to play with other kids. They dropped us off at the pumpkin patch and we each got to pick out a pumpkin. I love the pictures of Jaylee holding the pumpkin that she found! She wouldn't put it down and didn't want any other pumpkin, haha

Tourist

We finally got to play tourist when my mom and her friend Marilyn came to visit. We found a good deal on a NYC pass so we were able to do a lot of fun things...

Top of the Rock
We heard that the top of the Rockefeller Center had better views of the city than the Empire State Building because you could actually see Central Park and after going to both I agree. The park looked amazing from up so high and it was also cool to be able to see the Empire State Building as well. Plus you get this cool elevator ride which seemed right out of the twilight zone. The ceiling of the elevator was see through and they did a light show as you flew up the building. I kept thinking that it was like the Hollywood Tower of Terror and after we reached the top it was going to drop us 70 floors!






9/11 Memorial Site
This was an amazing experience. They just opened up the memorial site on Sept 11th and it was beautiful. The museum was not finished yet so I hope to go back to see that when it's completed.



Bus Tour
We decided that the best way to see the whole city in a short time would be to take a bus tour. We loved it until it started to rain on us! Luckily they had some ponchos that they handed out so that we didn't get soaked.





Harbor Cruise
We took a harbor cruise out that went around manhattan and around the Statue of Liberty.


We did the same tour but at night


Empire State Building







The Metropolitan Museum of Art
WOW! This museum is so big, and the building itself is a work of art. We only got to spend about 2 hours there and so we only got a glimpse of what this museum has to offer.


Bear Mountain State Park
We decided to get out of the city for the day and see the surrounding area. So we rented a car and drove to Bear Mountain State Park. Some of the trees had started to change color but most were still green. They said in another week or two that it would have amazing colors. We were sad to find out that they had an Oktoberfest going on but it was only on the weekends. Dang! Blake really wanted a bratwurst.


So in the end my mom took 821 photos while she was here...Craziness! So just for fun here is a collage of all the photos

Our Apartment

So I finally cleaned up our apartment nice enough to take some pictures of it, haha it only took me 5 weeks!

Our living room/dining room:




Our Kitchen with cool stainless steel appliances & granite countertops:


Our own washer/dryer (hard thing to find around here):


Our bathroom:


Blake, Amy's and...


Jaylee's room

Yes she does sleep in the closet, but we keep one door open and keep a fan going so hopefully it doesn't count as child abuse.

Some of our views from our apartment:

We looked it up and apparently those two tall buildings are called the Silver Towers and they are apartment complexes that cost over $4,600 a month for a one bedroom/one bathroom apartment...Seriously?!


Sorry don't mind the bird poop, we can't clean it off...Dang birds ruin our views


This huge office building that blocks most of our view. It blocks all the cool buildings like the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building, but we are just grateful to have some views of Manhattan.


That's the view looking down from our apartment on the 26th floor

A Mommy Moment

Blake has long days of class on Tuesday and Wednesday and so it is mostly just Jaylee and I all day. Most days I realize that I worry Jaylee is bored with me and so I try to find things to do for her. I guiltily look forward to nap times where I can have a moment to myself to shower or be get some things around the house done. Usually when I hear her start to wake up I think oh no just sleep a little bit longer. It was on one of these long days when she was starting to wake up from her nap that I had the same thought of oh man I wish she would stay asleep when I realized something...I needed to be grateful for the time I have with her in this stage that she was in now because it wouldn't last very long. I realized she had already grown up too fast and I wanted to slow down time to keep her little forever. I decided right then and there to be excited and I ran in our room (she sleeps in our closet haha) and showed her that I was excited she was awake. I wish you could have seen her face, it was a mixture of my mom has gone crazy and the thought of I kind of like this craziness. We spent the rest of the day dancing, running, reading, jumping on the bed and other crazy stuff. She helped me make dinner...eggs her favorite...and I gave her her little bowl and she walked right up to our table and put her bowl there and said "UP". She sat on her own chair ( we are going through the independent stage right now) and we ate dinner together. It was a fun night and when Blake got home after we put her to bed I started telling him about how cute Jaylee had been that day and I broke down into tears! Blake just laughed and started crying too and we both talked about how big she was getting. So now I try to make everyday count, and enjoy every moment I get with her and Blake
.
Oh P.S. the day after this great mommy moment day, Jaylee was jumping on the bed and she fell off and bonked her head...on the nightstand...not a good mommy moment. Dang I guess we all have good and bad days!

River front views

We live really close to the Hudson River and they have a nice walk way that goes along the river. These are the cool views that we have of the Manhattan strip.




The Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building




This is the new "One World Trade Center" also known as the freedom tower. When it is completed it will be the tallest building in America and the third tallest building in the world. It will have 105 floors and be 1,776 ft. tall. At night it is lit up with the colors red, white and blue.

The Manhattan Temple and Central Park

So we haven't had much luck with going to church while here in New Jersey because our ward has been cancelled due to the hurricane and clean up efforts going on. We have been here for over 4 weeks and have yet to meet our new ward. The whole stake is providing "helping hands" service to those areas which were hit hard by the hurricane, and since we don't know anyone and don't have a car it has been hard for us to know what to do. We decided after missing church for 3 weeks in a row we really needed to go somewhere so we decided to go to the ward that meets in the Manhattan Temple. We got there and found out that they were having a single adult regional area meeting...are you serious?! We decided to sit in on their sacrament meeting anyway and of coarse we were the only ones who had a kid. Haha it was pretty funny, at least Jaylee entertained the single adults that were around us. We are really hoping that we will be able to go to our ward soon!



The temple is right next to Central Park so we decided to head over there after sacrament meeting and walk around for a bit. It was pretty crazy to think that they had this patch of foresty area right in the middle of all these tall office buildings. It was really neat to walk around and see all the different things they had going on there, and it was also fun to watch all the different types of wackos too. I should have brought other shoes to wear while walking around though cuz my church shoes gave me blisters!