The update

I've kind of been a slacker with the blog the last couple months. In my defense, I was busy trying to find a job. Which I did. Yay! So it's official, I have an architecture job in NYC :) But between all the resume sending out, portfolio editing, networking, working, and eating, sleeping, etc. I fell a little behind... so the following is a photo update of my adventures the last couple months.

I've been to a few meetings at the Center for Architecture- which I discovered, on the third or fourth time I went there, happens to be right by Washington Square Park.

Visiting Federal Hall- the site of George Washington's Inauguration as President- on Inauguration Day.

Winter Jam NYC in the Park. Just so happened to come the day after one of our snow storms. (Pretty sure they still had to make fake snow in order to do everything like they were going to anyway).

Visiting the library- one of my favorite places.

Celebrating at the Grand Central Centennial!

Attempt #1 at painting my room. Fail. Because it was snowing... and 90% humidity.

You can't really tell, but this is a delicious peanut butter, cream cheese, and chocolate chip sandwich. My friend Elise showed us the deliciousness of Peanut Butter & Co in Greenwich Village.

Guess what...

... I got to see???

Wicked! So. Much. Fun. Thanks to my friend Elise for letting me have the winning ticket :)

Valentine's Day. In real life this looked more pink than purple.

Attempt #2 at painting my walls. Success! Now they are bright and clean :)

 

Celebrating Chinese New Year. The Chinese wards and branches put on a dinner and show of traditional performances. Including the Lion Dance. The green ball on the stage is lettuce (I don't remember why that is sorry). During the dance the lion "ate" the lettuce and then threw all the pieces on the little kids in the front row. You've never seen kids so excited to have lettuce thrown at them. They thought it was the greatest thing in the world!



 

Working at my real job. Where I still eat PB&J (not from PB & Co though), the lunch of champions. You thought you outgrew that in the third grade? Ha, not if you're a student or a recent graduate. Still cheaper than anything else around!

 

 

Luckily, there are nights when I get to enjoy a buffet of chocolate desserts to make up for it. These are the dishes from the last get together of our Iron Chef group. Each month there is a specified ingredient and everybody brings a dish with that ingredient in it. So far I've been to the mint, citrus, and chocolate (see the yummy picture above) events. At this one I literally ate a plateful of chocolate desserts (had to try them all!). They were delicious, but I may have felt a little sick later. I made my first cheescake ever- Chocolate Chip Cheesecake. And it was pretty good if I say so myself. Chocolate. Yum.

 

 

Snow

Well, winter brings snow. Anybody who has spent a few years in Rexburg ought to know that ;) However, in NYC winter does not bring a ton of snow (just cold), at least not this year. So I was kind of excited the couple times it snowed so that I could check out my favorite place... Central Park... in the snow. And it was pretty great. I do love pretty white snow, and it looks fantastic in the park. Outside the park, however, is a dirty, slushy, puddly disaster. Not so fun for getting anywhere. But we're going to forget about all this and just look at pretty pictures of the park :)

Okay, I lied. This picture isn't of the park...

 

The lake is frozen!

The park was packed. Seriously, more people than I've ever seen there. And there were tons of families with kids making their way to the park with their sleds :)

 

 

New Year's at Times Square

I figured this was a "one and done" kind of deal. I mean, I figured I had to do it since I'm here but realized I would probably never want to do it again. I was correct.

But don't you worry, it was still fun! And I am definitely glad I went! I just don't feel the need to go freeze again next year ;)

Waiting...

Still waiting...

We got there early in the afternoon, and after getting told at every block we just had to go one more (ha) we finally ended up getting access to the area at about 50th street. We were definitely out of the immediate Times Square area but we at least had a clear view of the ball! Once we were in our spot we waited... and waited... and waited... and waited. Eventually they turned the screen on near us so we could see the performances happening around the area and have a little music. That made the waiting much more enjoyable.

Only 1 hour to go!

Luckily it wasn't tooooo freezing cold. Definitely cold, but it could have been much, much worse. Although it could have felt okay because of the excessive amount of layers I was wearing. Either way, it worked out well. But layers can only do so much good... so after about 8 hours I was definitely cold.

Yep, still waiting.

After all the waiting and freezing, the performances (which we got to hear multiple times because they kept piping in the performers warming up so by the time we actually heard the performance we might have been sick of a few songs... ironically, one of the songs starts with "here we go again..."), we finally made it to midnight (well almost midnight of course). And the COUNTDOWN began! Gotta admit, all the freezing and waiting was made worth it by being in a cheering mass of people as we counted down to the New Year in NYC :) And there were fireworks... and music... and fun, of course.

 

 

Happy New Year from NYC!

 

Merry Christmas!... Better late than never

Yes, I know it's February. But January was a little crazy with work/job hunting/life in general... But, Christmas break was fantastic because I got to go HOME!!! I was pretty excited- I even had a countdown of the days until my flight. And then I had a blast at home- I love my family so much. I have an amazing family and I'm so grateful for them and that I have a great place to go home to :)

The completed countdown... Goin' home!

Got to spend a week with these two wrestling monkeys.

Christmas Eve involved decorating sugar cookies (yum!), bowling (fun), and watching our neighbors in the city Christmas pageant (adorable). Christmas Eve night we had a delicious dinner, followed by singing Christmas carols and reading the Christmas story. Once upon a time the family tradition was ice skating on Christmas Eve, but since there's no rink in St. George we've had to improvise. This year was bowling...



Christmas day we got up early (of course) and opened presents... Unfortunately Derek and Mandy were in northern Utah with Mandy's family so they weren't able to be with us. But we made sure to send them pictures and text them throughout the day.

Ryan and his nice smelling "cologne." Oh Ry...



We might have had a little fun wrapping Dad's present in lots of little pieces...

 Then we took a trip to Cedar City to visit the cousins...

The rest of the week we spent just relaxing and hanging out with the family- my favorite kind of time at home :)



Tina playing in the "snow"

Grandma and Dee. Aren't they cute?

Another family tradition... puzzles!