NYC Thanksgiving!

As you can tell from this picture, our Thanksgiving was a bit different this year! The day before Thanksgiving, we flew to NYC. (Also Jackson turned 8 months old and cut his first tooth) I was terrified that he would be awful on the plane because of his teething fussiness but he turned out just fine. We took the train into the city where we met up with my family. Since Ben and Paige live in up-state New York, my parents and Steven had flown from AZ to Ithaca and they all drove down together.

When planning this trip months ago, we learned that hotels in NYC are expensive, and hotels in NYC on Thanksgiving are crazy expensive! Luckily Tyler had earned tons of points from all his hotel stay while traveling around Florida so we were able to stay at the Crowne Plaza hotel right off Times Square. It was so awesome to be right in the middle of it all!

It was so dang cold! We had to bundle up Jackson for the first time in his life – I don’t think he liked it too much…

Our first night we went over to Central Park, watched the balloons get filled up for the Parade, checked out Rockefeller Square and got some Ray’s Pizza.

Too bad they didn't light the tree until the next week!!

The next day was Thanksgiving and we were so excited to watch the parade and even more excited that it wasn’t raining as the forecast had initially predicted! Tyler went out early to try to save a spot but he realized it wasn’t worth it since so many people were out there already. We went out a couple hours later and got lucky though! Paige, Ben Tyler and Steven were able to stand right behind the barricades on 55th St. and 7th Ave. Since I had a sleeping Jackson in the stroller, my parents and I had to stay back next to the building behind them, but we scored a nice planter box to stand on and could see everything.

Here are the lucky front row kids.

And the view from their spot ...

I took this pic from our spot, not quite as up close, but still pretty awesome.

Jackson woke up about 30 minutes into the parade and wondered what all the commotion was about!

Near the end of the parade Jackson was getting a little restless so we headed back to our hotel and watched the last few floats from up there.

We saw the Dough Boy just as we were starting to head back!

It was cool that we were able to see it from our room (we had requested that in case it was raining) but I’m glad we went on the street to see it up close and personal! The glare is kinda bad, but that's Santa down there!

Jackson and Grammy watching from our room.

Another random note – while we were looking for a spot to watch the parade we ran into Sarah Simmons (Morris) and her husband Calvin! Of all the millions of people we found them, it was so awesome. We ended up having them over at our hotel later that day and even saw them in the Manhattan Temple on Saturday.

I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t get to have a good Thanksgiving Feast but we got to have the traditional feast at the Film Center Cafe... with turkey, potatoes, stuffing, cranberry, and pumpkin pie!

The next day was my mom's 50th birthday, the real reason for the trip, and of course it was Black Friday.

We did some crazy shopping and started at Macys. I didn’t realize how accurate the Elf movie was about getting the department store all ready for Santa! It was crazy how intense they made the 7^th floor! It was pretty neat that Jackson’s first time meeting Santa was at this famous place.

We went to a few other shops after Macy’s, and wow – probably the most crowded I’ve seen stores. I’m not usually a Black Friday shopper, but in NYC, you couldn’t pass it up!

Later that night we went to West Side Story and were able to have the lovely Melanie Layman (Bothwell) watch Jackson for the evening.

The play was great and we had the songs stuck in our head the next few days, especially Steven with "MARIA!"

The next morning we went to the Manhattan Temple, did a little more sight seeing in Times Square and then headed out!

My family drove back up to Ithaca and Tyler, Jackson and I drove up to Boston!

A memorable Thanksgiving for sure!! It’s too bad Michael wasn’t able to be with us, but we’re proud that he’s doing so great on his LDS Mission. The only random part is that he was just a few hours north of where we were, in Utica, New York. He freaked out when he heard we were all there. (We didn’t tell him we were going)

From Birthday Books to Christmas Cards

So we're back from our Thanksgiving trip and I'm already falling behind in getting ready for Christmas! Regardless, we had an amazing time in New York celebrating my mom's 50th Birthday. One of our presents to her was a Shutterfly Picture Book where my siblings and I compiled 50 reasons why we're grateful for our mom.



We had also made a Shutterfly Book for my dad when he turned 50 earlier this year with 50 classic sayings or "Johnisms." If you know my dad, then this should make sense to you haha. It is such a fun way to celebrate their birthdays and compile pictures from throughout the years.



Now I'm getting ready to order my first ever Christmas Cards from Shutterfly! Although Tyler and I have been married for 3 years, this is our first Christmas with a cute baby to show off.

We ordered Jackson's birth announcement from this company and we were really happy with how they turned out, so we're going to use them again. (we even have it framed up on our shelf)


A couple weeks ago we had family pictures taken and we just got them back yesterday - they turned out great! Now it's time to pick out a picture and card design ... easier than it sounds! There were quite a few good pictures and even more holiday card designs to choose from on the website!

A couple of designs that caught my eye ....





But who knows - I might end up choosing a different one for our card! If you'd like a card please send me your address! I have most of our immediate family's addresses, but I need to hear from our cousins and friends! Either respond to this post or send Tyler or me an email or facebook message. Also, since I'm letting all you know about shutterfly I'm getting 50 free holiday cards! So go ahead and send us your address, it won't cost us more than a stamp to send it to you.

And if you want 50 free cards too, apply here

Thankgiving in the Big Apple

We're heading to NYC in a couple hours! Then we're off to Boston on Saturday. We're having another un-traditional thanksgiving - for 3 out of the 4 years we've been married! Our first year we were in England, last year we were on our "babymoon" cruise, and this year we'll be in NYC celebrating with my family for my mom's 50th birthday! Think of us when you watch the parade tomorrow, we'll be there !!!


HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!

Puerto Rico!!!

Tuesday morning we headed off for San Juan. It was about a 3 hour flight from Orlando, so just long enough that Jackson needed a nap during the adventure. Luckily between feeding him baby food, cereal puffs, and me feeding him he did great! He fell asleep after I fed him and didn’t cry the whole flight.

I was so excited to land in PR, it was just such a relief to have the flight over with, and begin the vacation. When we landed in San Juan it was raining pretty hard which made things interesting. Our hotel was actually 30 miles outside of San Juan, so we had decided to rent a car for our trip. Which means, Tyler got to experience the joy of driving through flooded roads with bad Puerto Rican drivers haha. It was an adventure for sure, luckily Jackson was pretty chill on the drive. We were hoping the drive would take 45 minutes or so but with the flooded Puerto Rican streets it took well over an hour to make it.

We were definitely ready to finally get to the hotel. And what a hotel it was! Tyler had earned 4 free nights at any Hilton family hotel around the world – so of course we picked one of the nicest ones in Puerto Rico – El Conquistador! Two of Tyler’s sisters had actually visited the hotel previously and we’re so glad we took their advice and stayed here! Here is the view from our room

and the view from the entrance.

By the time we got settled in our room we were starving so we hopped back in our car and drove back to town for a quick bite to eat. Then we went to the local Wal-Mart and stocked up on drinks, snacks, and baby food for the week.

I don’t remember exactly what happened when we got back to the hotel, I’m pretty sure we all fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow (and in Jackson’s case – blankie).

The next morning was pretty overcast and we explored the grounds of the hotel. So pretty and tropical! We actually just stayed at the hotel all day relaxing in our room and at the pool.

It was raining on and off most of the day so we never did venture to the beach. But it felt so good to just relax and enjoy the beauty of the island. Tyler and I travel together often, but normally he works during the day and I only see him at nights. It was so nice to finally be able to spend the whole day with no meetings or phone calls! That night we tried a local Puerto Rican restaurant and I had amazing pot roast while Tyler had the traditional monfongo.

The next day (Thursday) we got a bit more adventurous! It was sunny when we woke up and we were so excited that we got ready to go to the beach, but sadly just as we were about to walk out the door it started raining. Since we were already set to go out, we quickly changed our plans and headed for the rain forest. We drove about 20 minutes and were almost there when we got to our last turn and found out the road was flooded! We originally thought we’d turn around, but Tyler asked around and found out that the park wasn’t closed though, and there was another road that led in. We decided to take the other road and were hoping the rain would stop.

I’m so glad we did because it was one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever been on. I’m pretty sure we were the only tourists on the road that day. (Turns out most people just waited around until the road wasn’t flooded about an hour later) It was a windy road through a dense rain forest going up and down mountains – we couldn’t believe we were on this road together! We only passed 1 car on the whole 30 minute drive and so we really felt like we were alone in this paradise. The rain let up and we got out at some of the stops to take pictures and take in the views. Here are some pics

We also strapped Jackson into the baby carrier and went on a hike down to a little waterfall. I figured I’d carry Jackson on the way there and Tyler could carry him on the way back. It wasn’t that hard of a hike, but as we kept walking down more and more stairs I felt bad that Tyler would soon have to be walking up all of them! But we made it out ok and Tyler was actually leaving me in the dust carrying him up! The other cool thing about our experience was that since the road was closed we were the only people there! We started seeing other people when we got to the end of the hike, but for the most part it was just us! It was so awesome being alone in nature with our little family.

By the time we left the park it was getting sunny so we headed back to our hotel and finally made it to the beach! And I should clarify that the hotel's beach is on another island!

(The hotel actually owns the island you can see in this picture taken from our balcony)

So that’s where we went to the beach. We took a 15 minute boat ride out to the private Palomino Island. Sadly by the time we got there it was getting overcast again, but it didn’t rain on us. We stayed there for the rest of the afternoon.

That night we tried another little restaurant in town and had some more amazing food! We had flank steak, chicken arepas, and a delicious dulce de lech crepe with ice cream..

The next day (Friday) was sunny all day! We decided to check out another beach that was near our hotel. We had heard great things about it, but when we got there it was pretty bad. With all the rain, there was tons of debris all over the beach and in the water so even though we had to pay to get into the park, we decided to leave almost immediately. The beach on Palomino Island was much better than this! The only problem was our rental car wouldn’t start. I guess we had asked too much of it driving around the rain forest - because the battery had died. Similar to our experience in the rain forest, we were the only tourists at the park and the only car in the parking lot. So Tyler had to walk around before he finally found someone (the police actually) who would help us. Meanwhile Jackson and I just sat on the beach for a while.

*I'm realizing by looking at this picture that it was a beautiful little place! But what you can't see is the sand was literally covered with sea weed, and palm leaves. I couldn't even find a clean place to lay out our towel.

Once we got the car started again we drove back to the hotel and headed back over to Palomino Island and spent the day there – it was a perfect beach day! (too bad i forgot my camera, but luckily we snapped some photos on Ty's iPhone)

Tyler rented a kayak and paddled over to the tiny island out there (you can see in the earlier pic of Ty and Jackson in the water). This was our last full day there and it was a great day to end with.

The next day was Saturday and time to head out. We left our hotel (after getting our car battery jumped again) in the morning and drove to San Juan (after switching rental cars of course). We spent the morning walking around Old San Juan visiting all the places where Tyler’s sister Jamie had recommended. Jamie and her husband Nick lived there earlier this year so we were able to visit their old stomping grounds. It was such an amazing area and I really felt like I was in Italy! We visited the store they worked in (Del Sol) and checked out El Morro Fort.

We also had the most amazing lunch at a place called St. Germain. Best steak sandwich Tyler had ever eaten (and that’s saying something!)

That afternoon we headed to the airport and said goodbye to Puerto Rico. Since we’d been out and about all morning Jackson was dang tired on the flight and sadly didn’t behave quite as well as he had on the flight down. But when I finally got him to fall asleep, he slept in my arms for the last hour and a half of the flight. He didn’t wake up until we got to the gate and I stood up to get off the plane!

All in all it was a great trip! While we did have some bad luck with some weather and our car, when looking back at this vacation I will have great memories!

we're back

Got home last night from Puerto Rico. I already want to go back! I had every intention of posting a full travel log of our trip today while everything is fresh in my mind, but its just not going to happen. Hopefully tomorrow? It's been a crazy Sunday and add just getting back in town after a long day of traveling, equals for one tired Rachel after putting Jackson to bed. I don't like being back to real life...

I at least uploaded my pictures - so for now, here are a few pictures of our amaaazing trip!