Utah trip

I spent some time in Utah for Christmas.  It was a lot of fun, and I admit that I miss being close to my family and I miss the mountains.  It was awesome to see everybody after so long an absence.  We threw a frisbee around, made "gingerbread" houses, shot skeet, and went bowling.  

Caroline, Matt and Cordell

Henry and Melinda

Making houses

Henry made Rapunzel's tower

Heather, Caroline, Henry

Mom even threw some

Elmina shot the 410 shotgun for the first time.  Turns out she's left eyed like some of us.

The old microwave: bought sometime between 1982 and 1984 finally died.

The new microwave: look how happy everybody is!

Total Eclipse of the Moon

Just so you know, I was humming "Total Eclipse of the Heart" while writing that title.  It made it much more interesting!

I was at work the other night and was reminded about the total lunar eclipse.  I was excited cause I wouldn't even have to get up early to see it.  One of the good things about night shift.  It was really cool.  I raced home after work and got my camera and took these.  Enjoy!

Just when it hit a full eclipse the sun came up and made it impossible to see the moon at all.  It was worth it to watch though!

Annual Elf Party

So it's becoming a tradition that I have an Elf party every year before Christmas.  I enjoy it, because I get to watch Elf and surround myself with people that I love.  This year I went all out, obtaining all four food groups, spaghetti and etch a sketch, and "Elf" trivia.  It was great.  Lexie won the trivia contest and Dave won the etch a sketch contest with this:

It only took him 5 minutes too!  Better than the rest of us.  Good times here at my apartment!

Candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup.  Coke and Spaghetti, and cookie dough!

Ryan, Sarah, and Dave

Arizona sunset

I'm really glad that I live in an area that is surrounded by hay fields.  It means I can usually see the sunset and sunrise without too much effort.  Here are some recent pics that made me happy.

How did I miss this?

I found this today and I thought: How did I not get this posted.  He's famous!  On my trip to NYC, I saw:

The naked cowboy!

New York

After DC, I traveled to New York City to see Heather and I also met my mom there.  We went to all sorts of places, and of course didn't even see half of the stuff that there is to offer.  I got some real New York pizza, with braised lamb lemon on it.  I know it sounds crazy, but it was delicious!  I got so lost on a frequent basis.  I mean, I knew where I was, but I couldn't tell you how to get from A to B without consulting a map and my handy dandy phone GPS.  I'd come out of the subway and have to reorient myself constantly.  I also felt very squashed.  When we went to Central Park I saw the sky and was very grateful.

So let's talk restaurants: there's very few chains, just little rooms that are entirely unique.  We ate Indian food the first day I was there, and it was pretty good.

Heather and Mom: don't they look happy?

Max Brenner was an experience, and if you ever go to NYC, you MUST got there because it was an experience.  The restaurant smells like chocolate to start off with, and the food was amazing!  But the fondu!  Words can't describe it!  Except wonderful, smooth, tasty, and an experience I will love forever.  They gave us our own roasting fire for our marshmallows!  I want to go back there just to eat at Max Brenner.

Mom and I went to Serendipity to get the rumored excellent frozen hot chocolate.  It was very good, with the best whipped cream and shaved chocolate on the top.  I love the food!

As far as sightseeing went, we saw all sorts of things: the statue of liberty, central park, the top of the rockefeller center, times square, etc.  There's so much to do and we didn't get it all done.

Mom and me on the ferry back from Liberty and Ellis Islands

The Castle in Central Park

Alice in Wonderland.  Scale is not shown.  I sat in Alice's lap very easily.

Heather and Mom in Central Park

The three of us on the Top of the Rock

We saw Wicked!  I love that show and we sat on the fourth row!  It was awesome and the actors were amazing.  I was grinning all night long.

New York has a lot of diversity.  You can't go far without hearing several different languages.  It was definitely an experience.  Now for some of the qwirks:

Chairs or bowls in Times Square

Ironically, next to this sign, you couldn't park.  Too many cars already parked.

I had a great trip.  I'm glad to be home, but it's nice escaping reality, and it was fun to see all sorts of new things.

Washington, DC

Yep, I went to Washington DC.  I haven't been since I was 17, and it was really good to see it all again.  My sister and brother-in-law live in Maryland.  Annette took me to the airport, and we had Westin with us.  He saw me and said, "Ellen, you have ramen noodle hair!"  It was so funny!  And, it's kind of true.  My hair does curl like ramen noodles.  The humidity in DC made my hair even more curly.  Mostly I went sightseeing and had a great time.  I love the metro: it's so easy and convenient.  While Matt and Caroline were at school/work, I went into downtown and saw so many things, but didn't even get to see it all.  There's no way I could post all the pictures I took, so here's the highlights:

Caroline and the Washington Monument

Caroline and the Capitol

Caroline and Matt at Arlington.  They were in process of resodding.

Iwojima

Yes, an actual sign next to the marble bins.  Apparently children don't belong in them.  

The Hope Diamond

Matt, Caroline, and me at the DC temple

Now, I saw things I don't usually see in DC.  First and probably the weirdest: a full grown woman sucking on a lime green binki at the subway station.  Also, manpris are always funny to me.  They are even more funny on old men who are older than 60-years-old.  They're way too long to be shorts, but not nearly long enough to be pants.  Sadly, I didn't get a picture of either of these things.