New Years 2012

We spent New Year's even with our good friends the Highsmiths. James is a Dermatologist finishing up his residency, and Leslie is a great friend to Marcia. Emily and Katie are Sam and Lucas' age, so they get along great. We played rockband, and watched the NYC festivities on TV while drinking our sparkling cider. It was a very fun night!

2011 was a huge year for us. Saying goodbye to our Utah friends and moving to NYC was something that we'll always remember as a special time. Who knows how long we'll be here, but we can say for sure that we are enjoying it! I doubt we'll have many years as eventful as this one has been.

Looking forward to another great year in 2012!

NY Police Museum

The NYPD police museum was a very interesting spot. The highlight for the boys was the physical conditioning area whey there had to run up and over steps as many times as possible in a minute.

The highlight for Marcia and Bryce was the in depth exhibit on 9/11. It was moving and powerful. The city has really done a lot to step up security since the attacks, including cameras on every inch of lower Manhattan with artificial intelligence programs that analyze every person, object and look for possible threats. I feel safer knowing the lengths the city is going to!

                                      
There was also an interesting section on mobsters, complete with actual weapons from famous villains like Al Capone. Watch your step or you'll be sleeping with the fishes!

My birthday

Since Marcia loves chocolate, we did a walking chocolate tour of Manhattan for her birthday. There were some very unique and fascinating little chocolate places we never would have found on our own. From delicious hot chocolate in the meat packing district to rose-pedal infused chocolate bars in the village, this was a blast.

This was our favorite little shop. Its walls were lined with fancy boxes and little shelves with expensive, rare varieties.  Ever had pistachio chocolate?

We finished up the night with some awesome sushi! Happy 29th (more or less) birthday! 

Hunger Games

Marcia went out with some of the girls from the ward to see the Hunger games in the theater. 

Ensenada Cruise

One of the biggest highlights of the year! Rain took everyone on a cruise! It was the first one for all of us and we totally loved it.

Here is us getting on the boat.

Our room had a nice ocean view.

It was great to see our friends from Rain, especially Melissa and Diego. 

Here is us leaving the Long beach port.

The food was probably our favorite thing! All you can eat, and you never have to worry about paying. Yes! 

The boys loved these bunk beds.

When we arrived in Ensinada Mexico, we saw some seals hanging out next to our boat. Cool!

We crammed 25 people into this van. It was like sardines, but we didn't want to have to rent 2 vehicles!

Here we are playing jumprope with a big string of seaweed.

Richard and Tyler looking awesome.

Sam and Lucas with their new toys.

The boys loved sitting in the hot tub.

The comedian on the ship, loved Utah. He asked to take a picture with all of us "Mormon posse".

The people taking care of our rooms had some serious skillz with the towels!

Here is a pod of 100's of wild dolphins swimming next to the boat

What a fun trip. We gotta do this again :)