The next morning we got up and got ready for the day, headed over to Wicked for the lottery again and then realized we were there an hour early so we took off to grab a bite to eat at Cosi's and then went back for chance at Wicked. What do you know, once again our friends in line won tickets and we left empty handed. We had some quick thinking to do. This was going to be our last day to see a show because the ones we wanted to see were dark on Monday. I ran inside to wait inline to buy Wicked tickets while the Jaime and Alison ran over to Promises, Promises to buy tickets there if they had any left because the other times we tried they were sold out as well. Our hope was to get afternoon tickets to Promises, Promises and then evening tickets to Wicked. I got the text, the girls got the Promises tickets so our plan was set! As they were coming to get me I asked about coming back later and getting tickets for the evening Wicked show. As luck would have it, there was no evening show and that was that...there would be no Wicked for us.
We had some time to kill before our show started so we went and did a little souvenir shopping for our families.
It was finally time to head over to the Broadway Theatre, but first we stopped for our David Letterman picture.
I was super excited to finally get to see a show on Broadway in NY!
The show did not disapoint either! It was not a show I had ever heard of but it starred some pretty well known people. Sean Hayes (Jack from Will and Grace) Kristin Chenoweth, Tony Goldwyn (the guy who has Patrick Swayze killed in Ghost) and Molly Shannon.
We sat on the 4th row right in the center. I told the girls sometimes I felt like when they would look out in the audience and sing or talk that they were looking directly at me so I gave them a friendly smile and nod to let them know I was enjoying their show - ha ha. The show was fantastic, I absolutely loved it!
While out and about I got a good text from Jared that made me smile. He had all the kids dressed and ready to go to church 5 minutes earlier than usual. He combed all the boys hair over to the side so it would bug me - dang I love him!
I also got a text showing me what he made for breakfast that day, muffin tops in honor of Seinfeld that was made in NYC!
When the show ended, we headed out for some dinner. This time we happened to walk upon a little Italian place and stepped inside dinner. It was good.
The next stop on our list was the Temple. This was very different from any other Temple I had seen. It was literally just a regular old NY building but the difference was the words placed on it, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
There was something special about this place. It was so peaceful. You step into from the outside crazy NYC and then step in and everything slows down a bit and gets a little quieter. We could not go up to the Temple because it was Sunday night and it was closed but all you do is take an elevator to the 2nd floor and you are inside. We did take a few pictures inside the lobby and then headed up to the 3rd floor where the chapel was.
Right across the street from the Temple is Juliard. The most prestigious performing arts schools, aka Emma's future school - on a full ride scholarship of course - ha ha jk. I did take a picture of it for her though.
After that Alison went to meet up with her friend who lived there so Jaime and I were on a quest to find a yummy dessert place. We finally found a place to eat that was open and willing to have us and the food was good but I do have to say I am disappointed in NY's dessert...nothing that thrilled me. We never did have a chance to make it to Serendipity but next time (yes, I do plan on going again) I will make it there and it better blow my mind!
When we met back up with Alison we headed over to see the Radio City Music Hall.
On the way back to our hotel I had to stop and take a picture of the garbage. I loved how every night everyone put out all their bags of trash and then in the morning the streets were cleared and it was as if this huge pile never existed :)
Here is a view from our hotel room at night. I just loved looking out of the window onto all the big city lights!
One thing that I did notice during my time in NYC was the bathrooms and the size of them. Every restroom we used inside the restaurants were so freaking tiny - I could barely move in them, seriously so small.
The next morning came and it was a bittersweet day. I was sad it was the last day there, knowing it would be forever until I could return again, sad that there was still so much to do, but happy that I had the whole day to get as much done as possible and that I would be going home to my family that night (even though I wouldn't arrive home until 1am Tuesday morning).
We had to set our alarms because one of the things on my list was to go down to the taping of the Today Show. Jaime and Alison said they would set their alarms on their phones but none of them went off (I bet secretly they didn't set them so we wouldn't have to get up so early - ha ha jk). Lucky for me I woke up and we were able to get up and get ready and get down there. The audience was a lot smaller than what it looks like on TV but it was still fun. We only made it down there for the last hour which I now know is the hour that they don't go outside very much so I guess me and Al Roker will have to talk about the weather together another time.
While you are down there waiting and watching they have little tv monitors that you can watch that show what is happening right then on tv
I knew that if I didn't get to meet the Today Show peeps then the 2nd best thing is this nameless 5 second celebrity...he is on the Today Show every morning. Same outfit, same finger point, same straight face, etc. The hosts always seem to stand by him and the camera always seems to find him...don't believe, watch the show, you will see him. I did get my picture with him and asked him to point like he does on Tv so we are practically BFF's now.
After we took our picture together he left and gave us his front row spot - woo hoo!! Ann did come outside and interview a lady from Stampin' Up so we got to see her and if you watch the show, you will see us...we are to the left of the white Christmas trees. I sent Jared a text and told him where we were and what we were wearing and when to watch it. I got a text back from Jared saying, "if I have to hear Al say one more time, Here's what's happening in your neck of the woods..." I had to laugh cause it annoys me too. Jared said everytime the crowd shots came on the boys shouted, "there's mommy!" One day last week after I was home and the show was on in the background the boys shouted, "there's mommy!" (you can watch a clip of me and Jaime under the video section)
Joel was able to capture this picture of us off the TV...can you see us there to the left of the trees?! I am wearing the white hat and my head is above the pink sign and Jaime has the white scarf and is above the white sign :)
After our small brush with fame - it was off to Ellis Island!
Here is a picture of some of the luggage left there. I guess a lot of the luggage would get lost and never met back up with the original owners.
This is a picture of the registration room. Over 5,000 people would come through this room a day! All sorts of different languages could be heard here on a daily basis.
We got to walk around from room to room reading what happened in each room, reading heart breaking stories from the people who it happened to, reading the amazing stories of things that happened here and the excitement and anixety of each person arriving here. There are so many different stories to share but my most favorite one and the one that hit home to me was this one. A little girl and her family all traveled to the United States together. When they got off the boat they would stand in a long line and be inspected. If you looked fine they moved right on past you, if you looked like you had a curable disease, mental illness, etc they would put a little chalk mark on your clothes that would tell someone else further in the line that you needed to be inspected further and see what needed to happen to you next. This little girl about 10 years old had warts on the top of her hand and the dr didn't know what they were so he put a mark on her jacket, a mark which was going to send her back to where she came from. A mark which meant she would become seperated from all of her family and would be returning home to no one. A very kind man in line behind her told her that because her coat was so fancy and was lined with satin to turn her coat inside out and hide the chalk mark. She did. If it wasn't for the man, she would have been deported but he was able to save her so she could remain in the USA with her family. That story hit me hard for obvious reasons - what if that was my Emma, I would have died.
It was a really neat expierence and I am so grateful that I got to go there and learn more about our history, I love our history!
We looked at the Statue of Liberty from the ferry and that was good enough for us on this trip. She is big, tall and just what I imagined.
I got this text during the day from Jared. It made me love him even more!
"Wow. caffeine really does help. I was about to go ballistic then I had a couple of sips of diet coke and it made everything right with the world again"
I love that he is learning the life of a housewife! Every once and a while he gets a text from me that says, "I need a pepsi". He knows when he gets that - its been a rough day, and as soon as I have a couple of sips of my pepsi, everything is right with the world again, just like Jared said!
After getting back to the shore we only had about an hour and half to finish everything before we had to head back to the airport. We were told that we could walk to ground zero so we did and on our way we hit up a few hot spots as an added bonus.
(just a picture of the NYC skyline that I love so much)
Hot spot #1 - the financial district. You know the famous bull from the movies :)
Hot Spot #2 - Trinity Church - no I am not big into this religion but I am a fan of the movies, National Treasure. They go there in this movie so we went and checked it out! It is so old and the architecture is so beautiful and intricate.
We went inside and I sat down in the pews just like they did in the movie. I asked a man inside where their basement was because I know thats where the guy was buried that they had to go through to find the treasure. He told me they had no basement. I don't believe him. I think he is just keeping the treasure a secret from me. Maybe I should have told him that my grandpa was a Mason and then he would have showed me.
Who remembers this line, "Heere at the Wall, Heere spelled with 2 E's and later they changed Heere to the name Broadway"
We finally got to ground zero. It was crazy to stand there and think that 9 years ago there were 2 huge buildings there. People went to work like usual and never returned home. People working right next door, 10 feet away were unharmed. It was a very unique experience.
I will never forget that day, where I was, what happened, etc. Here is the new freedom tower they are building.
We headed off to the airport for the world's longest taxi ride. Made there and we were starving so we grabbed some Chili's and ate it there and then the rest of the plane. It was an unforgettable trip and I am so grateful I had the opportunity to go on it. It is something I will never forget. Now I am left with the stress of coming up with a new dream vacation....sigh.
All the Jensen grandkids on Boxing Day!
The Nativity we did with the Jensens - Brylee, Emma and Maddy are the angels...
We had a very close call this year with Emma and Santa Claus. Jared and I used to stay up all night Christmas Eve wrapping all the gifts, this year I decided that was silly so I did it a few days ahead of time. So we put the twins to bed on Christmas Eve, took Eli and Emma out front to put out the reindeer food on the grass (oats and glitter, thanks to their school teachers), got out out the Santa plate and put his cookie on their and poured him a glass of milk and then sent those 2 off to bed. Jared and I waited 15 - 20 minutes and decided that was enough. I ate as much of the cookie as I was going to eat and dumped the milk back into the carton and we were off to our room to finish wrapping the 2 big gifts I couldn't wrap ahead of time. We finished wrapping them, stuck everything out in the family room under the tree and headed back to our room to wrap our Jensen gifts. All of the sudden in the middle of our wrapping I took a big gasp and scared the crap out of Jared..."Carol! what's wrong?" Very quickly I reply back, "um, Emma just ran by our room!" bum, bum, bum. We sat their for a minute or two trying to decide what to do and then we grabbed the Jensen wrapping paper and gifts and took them into her room to talk to her. Lucky for me, I used different wrapping paper so it wasn't the same as the stuff under the tree. Jared then proceeds to ask Emma what she was doing out of bed. Before she can answer she bursts into tears, "I had to go to the bathroom and I couldn't sleep so I went and then before I went out there I said a little prayer to see if it would be ok and I thought it would be so I went out there." The tears keep flowing and Jared and I go on to tell her how once you go to bed you can't get up again, and we really hope Santa was done laying out all of your gifts cause if you go out there and he is in the middle of it - that's it - he doesn't come back, that's why we were in our room with the tv on really loud wrapping Jensen gifts so that we wouldn't disturb Santa. The crying continued and so I said, "the only way to know if Santa was done is if he drank the milk and ate the cookie because that is the last thing he does before he leaves. Did you see the cookie and milk out there?" Still crying, she says, "no, I tried to find it but I couldn't." We went out there together and found the plate and lucky for us the milk was all gone and the cookie was almost gone so Santa must have been finishing his cookie when Emma went out there - phew - we determined that he had left us everything he had for us. Emma sweet and grateful as she is says, " I knew he must have left us everything because that is a ton of stuff out there!" That was a close one but lucky for us we still have a believer!
The boys getting ready to open presents
One of the things the twins got was a basketball hoop. Tyson is quite an athlete so Santa and Grandma Rodgers got him some things that would help develop his mad athletic skills for his college scholarship he will be receiving :)
Of course there is the piggy bank picture which we take every year to see how the twins have grown (sorry they switched places in each picture)!
Eli got a remote control helicopter for Christmas and Daddy liked it so much that Grandma and Grandpa Rodgers bought him one for his birthday so we went down to the the church cultural hall on New Years Eve and flew helicopters for a bit.
And, did you know that I have an identical twin? (click on the picture and you can see us better)
We had a great Christmas and already look forward to next year :)
