Be My Valentine

This year I let the kids choose what they wanted to make for their class valentine.  We spent one night assembling the valentines for them.  I do think it's a little sad that some teacher's don't let you put a name on them...seems so impersonal. Isn't the fun of giving valentine's picking out who to give which one to? 

 Chase did get to address his this year, although he chose something that was the same for everyone.

 Sadi chose one of the cutest valentine's ever...

 What kid would not love these Love bugs and kisses?

Chase chose gum (his teacher allows gum in her class so this was a great choice).  "Hey Valentine Let's stick together"

We also made some "bombs" for our dynamite teacher's!

On Valentine's I left the kids their usual valentine surprises...although someone complained that there was no toys this year :(

I also snuck a little Valentine in Matt's car for a bit of a surprise.  He doesn't really care for Valentine's Day so I kept it simple with some of his favorites...but added a little love note to each.

I spent the day at school getting caught up on all my Booster jobs and then popped in to each of the kids classes during their parties.  I forgot to take my camera to school so I missed out on some "love" pictures.  After school we came home and the kids spent the afternoon reading all their valentine's.

Chase got lots of love pencils and a few treats that quickly disappeared.  No candy conversation hearts this year...weird.

Matt brought home a little surprise for me.  I know it kills him to buy flowers (he thinks their such a waste of money), so it was pretty sweet.  This is the first year (ever I think) we actually went out on date. 

We went to dinner and then to Kyle's final basketball game of the season against one of their rival teams.  It was packed!!  We couldn't even get seats next to each other.  So I sat down front and he sat behind me.  It was a fun night even though they lost.

The next night we celebrated with the kids and had our traditional valentine's dinner.  Make your own pizza night!  It was definitely a love filled weekend!

 

Unexpected day in New York

Getting home from New Jersey was a nightmare to say the least, due to cancelled flights, delays, and weather it took 2 days!    Luckily the first night I had a place to stay, and since I had nothing to do but wait some friends invited me to go into  the city and see a Broadway play.  The show was Wicked...the title and the price :) 

The stage set up was amazing.  Our seats weren't great but I was really trying to soak it all in.  Sitting back enjoying a OZmopolitan (which is basically a green watered down drink).

The show was good, however I decided I'm more of a movie loving girl.  I'm glad I had the opportunity at least to take in this part of the city as well, man it's good to be home!

The Big Apple

My last day in New Jersey (or what was suppose to be my last) was spent trying to see as much as New York as possible.  We started early and packed in the day.  We first went to the memorial at ground zero.  This was really neat.  The waterfalls and reflecting pools where the towers once stood was such a peaceful setting.

Surrounding the outer perimeter of the pools are all the names of the 9-11 victims.

I hadn't really heard of the survivor tree until I saw where it stood adjacent to the two falls.  This tree survived the rubble at ground zero and is now being nursed back to health.

A view from the memorial looking up at the new freedom tower.  I cannot imagine what it looked like with 2 towers standing that tall from this point.

We visited the fire station across the street and dropped off some SB swag to the firefighters.  They were running drills so were unable to come out.

 I loved the murals that depicted that day and some of those lost on the exterior of the fire station.

From there we ran across town and caught the ferry going to Liberty Island and Ellis Island.  Looking back at Manhattan....

I'm not going to lie, Lady Liberty is massive, however I kept thinking it didn't seem that big.  I really thought it would be bigger.  In fact when we were looking out from the empire state building I could not see it.  We got off the ferry just long enough to snap some pictures and get back on...although we missed the first ferry and so decided to grab a quick bite to eat on the island....worst burger ever.  I think it came out of the Hudson!

We opted not to get off at Ellis Island just because of time.  It was bitterly cold on the water and we were ready to get back to land.

While rushing through the streets (pretty sure we were lost) we stumbled across Wall street and the New York Stock Exchange.

We also happened upon Trinity church in lower Manhattan. We popped in to take a quick snapshot and get warm.  A beautiful church.

Our last stop was the Museum of Natural History.  We made it just a few hours before they closed and so we had to prioritize what to see.  I have no doubt you could spend a few days in this 4 story museum.

I was mostly interested in seeing the exhibits used in the filming of Night at the Museum which we were told was not actually filmed there but they did have a few exhibits from the movie.  You may recognize Rex, who might I add is not at the entrance and although massive kind of hard to find.

 This guy...."Dum Dum".

And I was looking for the Teddy Roosevelt head (from the movie)to send to Chase since he is doing his President report on him when we ran into the life size replica.

It was an exhausting fun day in the big apple!  I was ready to go home.

NYC at Night

Although days in New Jersey were long hours we all know that you have to make time to see the city.  In this case we decided our first week there before things got crazy busy we would venture into NYC...at night.  We took a train (well a few) and luckily made it safely into NYC.

Time square is like a whole different world.  There is so much to see but one thing I learned very early is there is 2 paces in New York....move fast or get out of the way.  I was surprised how accurate movies have depicted the city streets, people move at an alarming pace and I mean a lot of people!

Because it was late and we had to catch our train back we really just took in the city by foot and decided to fork over the ridiculously priced ticket to get a view from the top of the empire state building.  Totally worth it!  I would highly recommend doing this at night.  The views (although freezing up there with the whipping wind) were amazing!

I realized after I got home the only picture I took of the empire state building was from the 86th floor.  I promise you it is massive.

Looking out on the city was really surreal.  If you look just adjacent to the H&M building (down to the left) you can see the ball that's dropped on New Years in time square.

 I suggest if you go to New York you experience the nights there...and maybe go in the summer :)

SB XLVIII

After being gone for 27 days working in New Jersey, I am finally home!  My time this year working Superbowl was again a great experience and it was nice to see another city.  The view from my office this year changed drastically every day it seemed.  This is the view from the office day 1.....

One of my favorite views was of the sunrise and sunsets there.  This picture does not do it justice, it was so orange/pink it took your breath away.  Some thought this was an omen the Broncos would win.

Then, we experienced fog (mind you this is the same shot of the stadium from the same vantage point).  The fog was so thick there we had to use our GPS to find the office.

Then came the snow....oh the snow, snow, snow, snow!!  I thought when I saw the weather there I was prepared...I was not!  I cannot even describe the humid cold.  You could not be outside for more than a few minutes before every inch of your body literally hurt.

I took this picture for Matt as we were commuting home after they decided to shut down operations for the day.  The traffic was as thick as the snow.  Matt's reply was it was 58 degrees back home and he was outside reading a book.

After the snow was the lingering bitter cold as they shoveled snow and began the stadium transformation.  Although I did get a brief look inside the stadium the field was always covered making this the first year I haven't actually got to see the field.

There were a couple of days they practiced for game day with the choppers flying over, and over, and over.  Not sure if they showed much of this on Sunday, but it was pretty cool.

This is about all I saw of the game on Sunday as I stepped outside to get some pictures of the fireworks.  It was spectacular!!

I'm not sure why anyone would ever pay that much money to sit in an open stadium to watch a game in freezing NJ but the up side was I got to hear all of the halftime show.  Although it was a great experience, I am really looking forward to SB next year in sunny Arizona!