the big apple

we went on vacation. a real vacation. sans kids. amazing.

we have a newly forming tradition...every other year we go somewhere fun for my birthday. two years ago was baltimore. this year, new york!

(ok, so this wasn't the reason we went, but it happened to fall on my birthday, so we went with it!)

our good friends invited us to spend a few days in new york with them, and we

jumped on the opportunity! thanks, lofgrens, for an unforgettable week!

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our flight landed at about 6:00 a.m. ny time, which was about 4 am our time. but we didn't let that stop us. we got showered and ready, and hit the town. we started at katz deli, which is where the famous scene from "when harry met sally" was filmed. delicious pastrami sandwiches. we tried a potatoe knish too. interesting.

todd and jenn in the prada elevator.

first dinner - pizza @ lombardi's. the 1st pizzaria in the u.s. that was really good pizza.

after pizza we asked our waiter where to go for dessert. he sent us around the corner to cafe roma. again, did not disappoint. the sky had dumped buckets of rain on us all day and the hot chocolate hit the spot (and the canolli's too!)

day 2: lunch @ carnigie deli. more amazing food.

on our walk to our next destination, we came across a filming of EXTRA! jenn was bold and made her way into the crowd. anyone see her on tv?!

next on to the late show. we saw kelly rippa (yay!), jennifer lawrence (katniss everdeen in hunger games!) and a performance from "how to succeed in business without really trying" starring daniel radcliffe (that's right, harry potter)!! oh, and we got front row seats because we "had the energy they were looking for!" (or we were younger than a lot of the audience! no joke!)

after letterman we weren't sure what we wanted to do. we had checked earlier that day to see if wicked had any seats available, they didn't. we went over to the book of mormon theatre to see what that was all about, they were sold out too (we were right behind florence henderson buying her tickets to the book of mormon!) and there we discovered the secret to broadway plays: the cancellation line! so we decided to go back to wicked and see what we could get. well, after waiting in line for over an hour, we got AMAZING seats together and had a blast!

after the play we visited times square. so fun.

the view from our home away from home (more details on that later)

day 3: the shake shack. are you starting to notice a trend? we traveled to eat!

that night we had tickets to a yankees vs. mets game. what an eye opener. picture byu vs. utah but drunk. i liked to compare us to the hole of an f-bomb donut! our experience included beer in the girls' hair, people getting kicked out, a girl slapping a guy in the face...

day 4: we started off going to the temple, which was amazing to see, although there wasn't enough people for jenn and i to do anything. but the guys were able to serve.

we then met my cousin who lives in manhattan for brunch at the grey dog in soho. wow. the food was, again, amazing. it's not like we were always starving either. we just had great food.

this one was for the girls:)

had to try magnolia bakery. not as good as sprinkles, too bad that's on the other coast!

for lunch we tried to go to sweetiepie (a favorite of gwenyth paltrow) which was in greenwich village. unfortunately it was out of business, so we walked around to the corner bistro. if you look closely at the picture, there is a small plaque on the wall in the upper left hand corner. that's the menu. complete with probably 8 choices. burgers were fantastic.

we got down to see the statue of liberty and did a little bargain shopping in battery park!

(great bargaining runs through my blood. buz says i was dishonest, but i wasn't. i just talked the guy down from $55 to $20 on a purse!)

my birthday dinner! we ate at lure in soho. great seafood. i tried the daraude, a white fish that was smooth and really really delicious. the guys each got an oyster to try.

after dinner we headed up to the empire state building. such a great view at night. that's the chrysler building behind us.

after the empire state building he headed to serendipity to have the ever famous frozen hot chocolate. it did not disappoint at all, but we were chilly from the day. i imagine it more satisfying on a hot day.

our last day into the city. we loved the subway, thanks to todd's app that told us exactly how to get everywhere on the subway!

we rode bikes through central park, and had a personal guided tour from dagmar (see below)

our last meal in nyc: back to carnigie deli, where we had a chicken salad sandwich that was wonderful. from left to right: todd, dagmar, jenn, katherine, buz, randy.

let me just tell you how lucky buz and i are. jenn's uncle lives in brooklyn. they had visited him there a couple times in the past, and buz and i were secretly envious of the great connection they had to such an amazing city. then, one night, they asked if we wanted to go with them! randy graciously gave us his bed, and todd, jenn and randy sprawled out in the family room. randy was so kind and willing to do whatever we needed. we didn't get to meet dagmar, his girlfriend, until the last day, but we really enjoyed her company too. it's so nice to meet great people wherever you go. so thanks, to the lofgrens and randy, for an amazing trip!

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so, when are we going back...?