Catching Up, part 2: SWEET 16

Once upon a time... two very special girls were born within a day of each other! Bethany Prince was born, Tuesday, April 18th at 4:59 MST...Annie Howell was born, Wednesday, April 19th at 12:43am MST.

Their paths finally met at the Goodwill parking lot in Covington, Louisiana, of all places!! The Young Women of our ward were meeting there to head off to Girls Camp for the week. We were anxiously awaiting the arrival of two new girls...Lexi and Annie Howell, who had just barely moved into the ward...like days before! Bethany & Annie became instant friends! :)

Angel, BETHANY, Faith, Lexi, ANNIE, Laura, Aubrey, & Tiffany

As their 16th birthdays approached, Annie's mom, Jen, and I tried to think up a fun way to celebrate their birthdays together. One night as we were brainstorming, it hit us...although it was a little cRaZy...we thought it would be a blast to take the girls to...

NEW YORK CITY!!!

We decided to go for it!!! :) We took the girls during our Spring Break...

THURSDAY ~ April 28th

Thursday morning started SUPER EARLY...like before 5am! Edd offered to drive all of us to the airport so we picked up Jen and Annie around 4:40! Our flight left at 7am so we had to be on the road to the airport by 5am!!

After we checked in at the airport, we grabbed a quick breakfast, then boarded the plane and away we went...SO EXCITING!!! :)

We arrived in NEW YORK CITY around 11am. Carlynne, my sweet sister, took off from work so she could be our personal tour guide!! :) We did some people watching while we waited for her to meet us at the airport. Once Carlynne found us, we headed to her apartment.

Carlynne had to show us the proper way to take a suitcase through the subway gate!! :)

After hopping onto our second subway, we walked a few blocks to Carlynne's place!

Carlynne moved to NYC in 2004. She was a student at F.I.T., Fashion Institute of Technoloiges, which is a part of S.U.N.Y., State University of New York. Carlynne's dream is to design wedding gowns! :)

We were treated to a yummy lunch that Carlynne made us! It was fun to see Carlynne's "new apartment!" She's been living in this apartment for 2 1/2 years. The last time Bethany and I visited Carlynne, she was living in her "old apartment."

Once we had our tummies filled, it was time to hit the town!! Our first stop for the afternoon was the MET, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. There was so much to see!! Here are some of my favorites...

We also had to stop at FAO SCHWARZ toy store and look around!! Bethany and Annie had fun playing on the BIG PIANO!!!

We went to eat dinner at CARNEGIE DELI! Bethany's violin teacher highly recommended it!! She was right, the diner and food was amazing!! :)

Then we were off to BROADWAY to see WICKED!!! What an incredible experience!!! WICKED tells the story about Elphaba, who becomes the Wicked Witch of the West and Galinda, who becomes Glinda, the Good Witch of the North before Dorothy drops into Munchkinland. Of course it was an amazing production!!! :)

After WICKED we walked around TIME SQUARE for a little while and did some window shopping! We asked one employee how late they stay open...because it was already really late...about 11:30pm! Our answer: 1am!!! cRaZy!!

FRIDAY ~ April 29th

Our morning started off with festivities for THE ROYAL WEDDING of Prince William and Kate! We went down to TIME SQUARE to watch a DANCE FLASH MOB perform. You can watch the performance here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkJknTNGW-0&feature=player_embedded#at=74

One of the dancers, Amber, is a friend of Carlynne! Carlynne helped her coordinate the Dance Flash Mob, which was part of National Dance Week in NYC! Carlynne and Amber have been friends for years!! They met at Ricks, way back when, they were in the MTC together, and Amber found Carlynne at church right after Carlynne moved to NYC!! :)

We watched a live fashion show for the TV show "SAY YES TO THE DRESS" here are some of our favoritedresses...

Before we left the wedding celebration, we had our picture taken by the carriage and guards!

Then we walked around TIME SQUARE for a little while. We were trying to find the Yankee's Clubhouse store so we could do some souvenir shopping!

After that, we took a boat tour to see some of the famous land marks in NYC. Here we are on our tour boat...it was nice to get a rest from all the walking we'd be doing!! :)

ELLIS ISLAND

STATUE OF LIBERTY

SKYLINE

EMPIRE STATE BLDG AND CHRYSLER BLDG

BROOKLYN BRIDGE

After our boat tour, we walled along WALL STREET!

We stopped at a diner and grabbed some lunch, which we ate outside of the TRINITY CHURCH. This was the 3rd building built for the Trinity Church, the first two were destroyed by fire. When it was finished, in 1846, it was the highest point in NYC!

The grounds of the church were beautiful! We even found a tombstone for William Bradford...I'm trying to figure out if we are related to this William Bradford.

We also saw ST PAUL'S CHAPEL! George Washington worshiped at St Paul's' on his inauguration day, April 30, 1789 and continued to worship there the two years that NYC was our nation's capitol.

We walked past GROUND ZERO, where they are building the 9/11 Memorial. We saw the cross made out of beams from the towers.

We also got to see the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site, where Jen and Annie found a flag with all the names of those who died that day in the attacks. Annie's uncle, BRADY K. HOWELL, lost his life in the Pentagon attack.

EVENING STOP: Yankees vs Blue Jays @ Yankee Stadium
On our way from the subway to the stadium, we ran into some missionaries and talked to them for a few minutes! The tall missionary was from S America somewhere and the other missionary was from Italy!!

Bethany finally made it to YANKEE STADIUM!!!

Before the game started, we were able to walk through Monument Park...at first we didn't think we would get to see it. When we got to the entrance, this is what we found...

We just barely missed getting in. But Jen worked her magic and one of the security guys led us through some halls to the back entrance of Monument Park!

Our view of the field...

Annie & Bethany :)

Bethany & Carlynne :)

Jen & Anne :)

Bethany, intently watching the game!

Bethany loved being in Yankee Stadium!! It was pretty incredible to be there watching the Yankees play!! :)

What a great way to spend FRIDAY NIGHT in NYC!!! :)

SATURDAY
Saturday morning, we went headed over to Central Park with Carlynne to go walking. Carlynne LOVES walking through the park every Saturday morning!! She wanted to share it with us!

A few minutes into our walk, we had to stop. Bethany was already getting blisters from the shoes she'd borrowed from Carlynne. I let her borrow my socks!!

BLACK SOCKS

Black Socks

They never get dirty

The longer you wear them

The stronger they get

Sometimes I think I might wash them

But something inside me says,

"NO, NO, NOT YET!!!"

We could have traded, but after hearing Bethany's poem about black socks, I decided to pass!! For further blister protection, Bethany tucked her leggings into her shoes. :)

The park was so beautiful!! All the trees were in bloom and the leaves were starting to come out!!

Every now and then, we would stop to enjoy the view...

Annie and Bethany tried to get lost while we were in the park!! We were all doing a great job keeping together, but I got busy taking pictures, Jen and Carlynne got busy talking and before we knew it, Bethany and Annie were no where to be seen!! We tried to call them, but they didn't answer their phones. So we stopped and waited...

Finally, they came around the corner!! After that, we did a better job sticking together!!

Along our way, we happened upon this swing set...of course we had to stop and swing for a few minutes!! :)

After walking through the park for a while, we started talking about how crazy it would be if we actually found someone in the park that we knew!! A few minutes later, as we were about to enter the Central Park Zoo, Bethany was doing a double take...

Isn't that guy over there the same one who painted our faces for Mardi Gras???

Hmmm..he sort of looked like the guy...so I went up to ask him.

Sure enough, it WAS the same guy!!!! We chatted with him for a few minutes. Turns out he used to live in New Orleans! After Katr

ina, he had moved to NYC!!! He goes back every year to paint faces for Mardi Gras. The rest of the time, he paints faces right outside of the Central Park Zoo!!!

We loved walking all around the park! There were so many different places to see! One of my favorites was the BELVEDERE CASTLE!

When we got to THE MALL area of the park, we saw a pretzel vendor! Bethany HAD to have another CHEESE PRETZEL!!! They are delicious, especially when the pretzel is still warm...definitely one of Bethany's favorite things in NYC!!!

After our pretzel stop, we kept walking and found this lady playing her violin. We stopped and listend to her play for a minute. She was an amazing violinist!!

We stopped at the ALICE IN WONDERLAND statue...

Annie and Bethany were most excited to see BALTO!!!

After walking through Central Park for 5 HOURS we were starving!!! So we headed to the SHAKE SHACK for some delicious hamburgers!

We ate our lunch outside of the AMERICAN MUSEUM OFNATURAL HISTORY...where the movie "Night At The Museum" takes place!!

For our last night on the town, we were planning on going to the TOP OF THE ROCK to get a bird's eye view of the NYC at night! Before we left, we got some pictures in front of MAGGIE'S GARDEN, next door to Carlynne's apartment building.

Here's a link about MAGGIE'S GARDEN: http://www.nyrp.org/Parks_and_Gardens/Community_Gardens/Manhattan/Maggies_Garden

On our way to the Rockefeller Center, we had these 2 Lamborghinis zoom past us! We were across the street from MACY'S! :)

We had to wait a while for our turn to go to the top ~ so since we were hungry...we went on a hunt looking for a diner! On our journey, we walked past Radio City!

Here is the view from observation deck of the Rockefeller Center!! We are 70 floors up! Pretty spectacular!! :) Great way to end our whirlwind trip!! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

BETHANY & ANNIE!!! :)