Where have I been?!?

I do not even know where to start! Nothing too exciting- I've been very busy with school which is going very well. I am midway through my third quarter and am looking forward to applying to the nursing program about a year from now. Here is a recap of the last 6 months:

-Savannah started soccer (and first grade!!)

-We got a puppy who we named Guinness

-Maddy likes to sit on the potty but won't use it

-Savannah and I went to Great Wolf Lodge with Chelsea and Sydney for a "girl's weekend"

-We took a road trip to Utah

-We discovered Jetty Island for the first time (along with some WA- native friends that had never even heard of it!)

-We got the backyard all fenced in
-We are currently in the process of painting the entire inside of the house
-We got a new TV! This is really cool because every single one of our TV's have been hand-me-downs so a BRAND NEW one is very cool!
- Amos died (family dog we had since I was in high school)  :(

-Jason passed the state exam and is officially an electrical JOURNEYMAN

Actually, it was a pretty exciting last 6 months; my first summer staying home with the kids- I am really loving this time that I am not wasting away by working. I intend to enjoy it while it lasts.

And I'm supposed to be doing homework right now but took a break to blog :)

i heart NYC!!

OK, so our trip to the Big Apple was actually last summer but its worthy of a blog update since it was our first trip without the kids.... ever! In May of 2010, my cousin Annie married Conor in Salt Lake City. Sadly,  we weren't able to attend the wedding but since Conor is from NY, they had a second reception on the East coast later that summer. Conor and Annie bought a beautiful home in Brewster, NY, about 45 minutes from NYC, where Conor works as a firefighter for the NYFD in the Bronx. After months of planning, we booked airfare and hotel for August 5th through the 10th. To keep costs minimal, my sisters came along as well. The reception was so much fun, and I was able to see family that I haven't seen in years. My mom flew to Seattle to watch the girls while Jason and I took our much needed vacation. Our flight left Seattle around 11:00pm, we landed at JFK around 7am. We coordinated flights with Katie and Morgan, who arrived about 30 minutes before us, then we all hopped in a taxi to our hotel. After much consideration, we chose the Holiday Inn Express at Times Square. It was SO expensive at a whopping $1,305 total for 5 nights but was the cheapest we could find in Manhattan. Our location was perfect. We bought unlimited metro cards so that we could take the subway everywhere- unlimited also being good since we got lost a few times :). I used the navigation app on my phone and it got us around very well, even telling us which trains to take. I will note that I had ZERO cell reception in the subways so I had to remember to look at the directions list before going underground to see what stop we would be getting off at. NYC was having record- breaking heat while we were in town with temps soaring into the 100's, that mixed with the humidity made for almost unbearable heat, especially underground in the subway stations where it was over 115 degrees! We packed a lot in during the trip including; Serendipity, The World Trade Center site and museum, The Statue of Liberty, The Jekyll and Hyde Club, Times Square, Central Park, shopping on Canal St. in Chinatown, and getting lost in Queens- got on the subway heading in the wrong direction, oops, sorry! And since we were on somewhat of a budget, we ate ALOT of hotdogs and pizza!!! Here are some pics from the trip.