I Heart NYC

Day 1:

• Tourist Bus - Downtown & Uptown Loops
• Take the subway to the Bronx
• Yankee Game
• Dessert at Serendipity (otherwise known as ice cream heaven)

Day 2:

• NBC Studio tours (we saw Ryan Phillipe rehearsing with the SNL cast)
• Dinner at The Four Seasons Restaurant
• Pedicab to The Addams Family on Broadway (I laughed and loved it)

Day 3:

• Sealing Sessions at Manhattan Temple
• Staten Island Ferry/Statue of Liberty
• West Side Story on Broadway (incredible dancing)
• Pizza in hotel room watching the same SNL skit we saw being rehearsed the day before

Day 4:

• Horse carriage ride around Central Park
• Empire State Building
• People watching in Central park
• Afternoon Tea at the Palm Court at the Plaza

Day 5:

• Wake up in Las Vegas and begin planning my next trip (or move!) to the Big Apple

Another Weird, Bittersweet Moment in the Harris Family

A bittersweet moment in the life of a parent who has lost a child - the gravemarker arrives! We got Evan a new one too so that they could be attached and matching. It is the last way to honor those we loved and lost, and this is a stunning tribute. They are just beautiful, and will suffice instead of my dream of recreating the Taj Mahal. And I don't know who brought the windmill things, but whoever did, thank you. They are adorable and Josh especially loves them.

The Vernal Easter Bunny

I have to admit Maddie's past Easters are kinda lame. Or at least different than mine growing up (where we actually proved Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest). Maddie has always gotten a beautiful, perfect little basket and all the time in the world to find every single egg. Well, not this year. I wanted to make her WORK for it. So we send a text to the Vernal Easter Bunny and let him know that we were going to join Maddie's cousins for Easter this year.

As you can see by this picture, the oldest boy is usually the "fittest" and ends up with the most full basket by running circles around the others. :o)

Maddie got a pretty good stash, even though she kind of just stood there in shock and awe for the first while. And little Maso-Square Pants even got enough candy to be happy. Strangely, the Easter Bunny in Vernal hides a lot more chocolate than the Easter Bunny in Vegas, and a lot less pink Starbursts.

We were also able to see the "crazy busy tourist trap" of Vernal. It was an old fort/ranch that Butch Cassidy used to hide out in. Maddie, the city girl, came up to me after ten minutes and said she was "bored." Eventually she played in the dirts, rock, and sticks and when it was time to leave she wasn't ready. :o)

Gotta love that little Mason Boy. We wanted to throw him in the motorhome and take him home with us.

Julianne & Adam Stone

Julianne Harris finally got her wedding pictures back, and here are a few of my favorites: (They look ghetto because they are my iPhone pictures of proofs off of my computer screen. Sorry.)

Julianne & the cutest flower girls of all time:

The three youngest Harris girls:

The three (slightly) older Harris girls:

Is it just me or were the bride and grooms' mothers absolutely beautiful that night?

The whole Harris Family

Of course, Maddie didn't even make it past the cutting of the cake. :o)

You Belong With Me!

Most importantly, Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Madster!

We finally made it out to Virginia last weekend to visit with my sister's family. Oh how we have missed the Smiths!

While we were in Charlottesville, I decided to take Maddie to her very first concert: Taylor Swift! Maddie thought it was super awesome, even though I'm sure it was an overwhelming experience for a five year old. And because of the three hour time difference BOTH of us were able to stay up the whole time! :o)

She got her very first concert poster and concert t-shirt. (I had to teach her how to do it right.)

World's most patient grandma taught Maddie how to crochet just in time for the five hour flight home. She sat for five hours straight and crocheted her little heart out like she was on crack or something. (See video) She DEFINITELY got the busy gene from me and her Grandma Linda.

Girls Weekend and Golf

Newport Beach with our friends, Kara & Kennedy. March Madness and championship games are the best time for girl weekends because Josh barely even notices that we aren't around. Which is fine with me......I always tell him that I am a single woman who happens to be happily married. :o)

We have a lot of fun golfing as a family. It's probably the one sport that we can all do together. (A naturally athletic man who picks things up quickly, the clutziest woman on Earth who would rather read a book, and a five year old who is somewhere between clutzy and naturally athletic - I pray that her dad's genes become more expressed as she grows up.)

The Cloud Has Lifted....

Grief is a pretty crappy thing to go through. It feels like it will never end. Like you will never be normal again. But I just want to say, as a ray of hope to everyone out there who will experience it in your life, that it does get better. Eventually. Everything starts out completely black. Then over time, everything is varying shades of gray. Then there are spots of color in your life. Then color more often, but with a kind of cloud over everything.

This time I knew what to watch for. And I knew how to grieve better. And I can say, with gratitude from the depths of my soul, that I have felt the cloud lift. There wasn't any specific event or moment. Sometimes time is the only thing that works. It has been eight months since I found out about my little Charlie Pants. Eight months of varying darkness, gray, and clouds. Sometimes it felt like I would never get out of this hole. That doesn't mean there aren't still times of sadness or missing the one you loved with all of your heart. But suddenly I feel "normal" again. And that is a really good thing.

February is a perfect month to get outdoors. (At least in Vegas)

Maddie has taken up golf lately. She is really into it. Is it because she has some natural Tiger-like ability? Oh no. It's because the boy who she insists that she will marry some day is a golfer (you know who you are P!).

Josh is in a garage band again. Only it's not in a garage. It's a bunch of guys from his law office that actually practice in a pretty high tech room. Yes, I'm their groupie. Yes, that is Josh's dad, Rick, as the lead singer. Yes, they are actually good. (They have a gig at their own office party in May. Concert details to follow.) Yes, they play songs that were from before I was born. And yes, that is Maddie's little head peaking up from behind Josh's drums. She LOVES going to their band practice. (Also, this picture was from my iPhone, which had a big finger print smudge over the lens. Sorry.)

Here are the Harris girls hiking at Red Rock.

And here is Maddie's official first eye roll. It was done good naturedly THIS time. But the fact that she knows how to do it freaked me out. In ten years, it will not be done with a smile.

Also, Karen, who is always up for an adventure, took us up to Zion's National Park in her motorhome for a day trip. Every time I go there I am blown away by the natural beauty. It is breathtaking.