We also got tickets to the Dave Letterman Show. To be honest, it was cool to see what goes on when the cameras are off, but Dave Letterman wasn't that funny to me. We watched him
every night in NYC, before we went to the taping, and he did the same jokes almost every night. I thought he would be more personable with the audience, but he came out about 30 seconds before the show went live, and took one question from the audience. The guest that night was Don
Ruckles, who is an older comedian. He was a lot funnier than Dave. It was exciting to go, plus it was free, so you can't beat that.
We were suckers and paid $60 to go on a 20 minute horse drawn carriage ride through the park. But hey, it's a once in a life time thing, so we can say we did it.
Central Park
Down town sky line as we were heading over the Brooklyn Bridge. We were sitting on the top of a double
decker sight seeing bus.
This was Jared's favorite part of the trip, the sight seeing buses. We bought a three day pass, and went on the down-town, up-town, midtown, Brooklyn and night Brooklyn tours. We had some really good bus tour guides who told a lot of the history of the city.
TIMES SQUARE
We stayed in Midtown, Times Square was about 2 blocks from the hotel. We walked to Times Square almost
every night. It was insane in Times Square, people and police everywhere. Three weeks prior to us going to New York, a
terrorist attempted to blow up a car bomb in Times Square, so police were out in full force the entire time we were there.
Famous
FDNY
Tribute on the outside of the Midtown fire station. They lost 11 crew members in the 911 attack.
World Trade Center- Ground Zero. They are rebuilding new towers, the tallest tower on the right is the new tower 7. There will be a Tower 1 and a tribute tower, and a few smaller towers. We went on an amazing guided tour of Ground Zero. The tour guides were people who were personally involved during 911. One of the guys was a "captain" for the waste company, who was heavily involved in the aftermath cleanup. The other tour guy, his brother was a captain on the fire department, who was killed when the towers collapsed. It was so interesting to hear their perspective of the day, and the aftermath. We went to a
museum after the tour that had artifacts that were found during clean up, such as shoes, watches, keys, pieces of the
building. They also had a wall, and pictures posted of all those that perished. It was a gut wrenching visit to the site, such a
devastating loss.
Snapshot in a window of the bus we were riding on. You can see that the movie Sex and the City was being promoted on every bus. In fact, while we were there, the red carpet
premiere at the
famous Radio City Music hall took place.
Statue of Liberty, in all her GLORY
We waiting in line for over 3 hours to get on the ferry that goes to the Statue of Liberty. As you can see Jared has the "I can't believe I am standing in this line" face. It was miserable. It was hot, and muggy, and we were hungry and thirsty. By the time we actually got on the ferry, we were exhausted from standing and didn't feel like waking much. We stayed at the Statue of Liberty for about 20 minutes, and then took the ferry to Ellis Island. This is the immigration station that approx 12 million people went through as they immigrated into the United States.
For our ten year anniversary Jared and I went to New York City. We originally were going to go to Hawaii, and then I decided I wasn't bikini ready, and we had never been to the East coast, so I talked him into New York. What an amazing city. I never realized how many movies, and TV shows are filmed, or based, in New York. What I loved the most was the history behind the city.
It was great to spend a week with Jared. We don't get a lot of time off together, let alone a vacation together without kids. Our wonderful mothers, Carma and Kathy, shared babysitting duties so we could have some much needed time together. Thanks moms, and thanks Jared for such a great trip. I love you and can't wait to see where we go for our 20 yr anniversary. ;)
We also got tickets to the Dave Letterman Show. To be honest, it was cool to see what goes on when the cameras are off, but Dave Letterman wasn't that funny to me. We watched him every night in NYC, before we went to the taping, and he did the same jokes almost every night. I thought he would be more personable with the audience, but he came out about 30 seconds before the show went live, and took one question from the audience. The guest that night was Don Ruckles, who is an older comedian. He was a lot funnier than Dave. It was exciting to go, plus it was free, so you can't beat that.
We were suckers and paid $60 to go on a 20 minute horse drawn carriage ride through the park. But hey, it's a once in a life time thing, so we can say we did it.
Central Park
Down town sky line as we were heading over the Brooklyn Bridge. We were sitting on the top of a double decker sight seeing bus.
This was Jared's favorite part of the trip, the sight seeing buses. We bought a three day pass, and went on the down-town, up-town, midtown, Brooklyn and night Brooklyn tours. We had some really good bus tour guides who told a lot of the history of the city. 
We stayed in Midtown, Times Square was about 2 blocks from the hotel. We walked to Times Square almost every night. It was insane in Times Square, people and police everywhere. Three weeks prior to us going to New York, a terrorist attempted to blow up a car bomb in Times Square, so police were out in full force the entire time we were there.
Famous FDNY
Tribute on the outside of the Midtown fire station. They lost 11 crew members in the 911 attack.
World Trade Center- Ground Zero. They are rebuilding new towers, the tallest tower on the right is the new tower 7. There will be a Tower 1 and a tribute tower, and a few smaller towers. We went on an amazing guided tour of Ground Zero. The tour guides were people who were personally involved during 911. One of the guys was a "captain" for the waste company, who was heavily involved in the aftermath cleanup. The other tour guy, his brother was a captain on the fire department, who was killed when the towers collapsed. It was so interesting to hear their perspective of the day, and the aftermath. We went to a museum after the tour that had artifacts that were found during clean up, such as shoes, watches, keys, pieces of the building. They also had a wall, and pictures posted of all those that perished. It was a gut wrenching visit to the site, such a devastating loss.
Snapshot in a window of the bus we were riding on. You can see that the movie Sex and the City was being promoted on every bus. In fact, while we were there, the red carpet premiere at the famous Radio City Music hall took place.
Statue of Liberty, in all her GLORY
We waiting in line for over 3 hours to get on the ferry that goes to the Statue of Liberty. As you can see Jared has the "I can't believe I am standing in this line" face. It was miserable. It was hot, and muggy, and we were hungry and thirsty. By the time we actually got on the ferry, we were exhausted from standing and didn't feel like waking much. We stayed at the Statue of Liberty for about 20 minutes, and then took the ferry to Ellis Island. This is the immigration station that approx 12 million people went through as they immigrated into the United States.
We told Aiden he had "vampire" teeth, so for a few days he walked around showing everyone his scary teeth.
Every year on Easter we go to Grandma Carma's house and have an Easter Egg hunt. This year the boys hunted with Kale and Toby Nelson.
Dad and his boys! Oh he is so Lucky!
Aiden hanging out with dad.
We surprised the boys with tickets to Monster Jam at the Silverbowl. We actually told the boys, Matt and Zach, that we were going to an outdoor church event, and they had to get up and sing a song. On the car ride to the Silverbowl, we had them practicing singing church songs. They were both terrified and nervous and NOT happy. As we pulled into the event, and Matt saw all the people, he got mad, and said he wasn't going in. We kept telling him it would be alright, he just had to be brave.. I know I know, kind of a mean joke... but we wanted them to be really surprised, and think we were going somewhere they wouldn't really want to go.. i mean really, what kid wants to go to church on a Saturday night, and have to sing in front of thousands of people. As we walked in, the kids were of course complaining and scared... and then all of a sudden they hear this ROAR from a truck and they both stopped, and looked at each other, and smiled. They instantly knew this wasn't a church function, but something probably FUN. So, we told them, and they both stood in utter relief and starting screaming and laughing and jumping for joy. A priceless moment indeed. We had a blast, most of us at least. Zach was bored by the first hour, and actually fell asleep in my lap. Aiden didn't like the noise, but was really good. Matt and Jared had the most fun, and will definitely go back next year.
Pacific Beach
Zach and his BFF-Dominic. We roasted hotdogs on the beach
World Famous San Diego Zoo
Every year, well for the last 5 years, we have been going to San Diego for vacation. We take the trailer and camp at Campland on the Bay, which is an RV resort located on Misson Bay. This year we went during the kids spring break from school which was the last week in March. We went with the Hurley, and Castenada Family. What a blast.. We spent a day at the beach, went to the zoo, roasted hot dogs on the beach, went to Seaport village, took a 6 mile bike ride from the RV resort to Pacific Beach, (with 4 kids on bikes, and 4 adults) San Diego is definitely one of our family's favorite places to go for vacation. We can't wait for next year!
