TSO!!

This was our 3rd year going to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert, and once again, it was AMAZING!This is how they entered the show this year and it was awesome! The three descending from the ceiling are the 2 lead guitarists and the head electric violin (it was pink!).
One of the best things about the concert, besides the wonderful music, is the fire and lights show they put on! Here is a little taste...

Jaron's favorite song is The Old City Bar, and mine is Christmas Canon...I did get pictures of both these songs, but they didn't turn out all that great. Here is a picture of intermission, on the the leads came out clad in Phillies paraphernalia and the crowd went CRAZY! Oh I love the fans of Philadelphia...every cheerleaders (and those of us who will always be cheerleaders at heart) dream!!And here is a picture of Jaron and I enjoying the concert. I know we post a lot of pictures like this, and seriously, I wouldn't remember where we were at or what we were doing because they are all the same...we really just need to ask someone to take our picture!

I have no idea what the guy behind us is doing, but he was HUGE, and so was the rest of his family. Poor Jaron had knees in his back for a majority of the night. But it was sure a fun night!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Today was my 2* birthday! I realized that being sad about how old I'm getting hit me a little earlier than normal. Isn't it usually 30 when you start to feel old? Well, it hit me this year...and for this reason I am now 25 until further notice! I had a great day today, Jaron surprised me by taking the day off of work and we enjoyed the entire day together. I was given wonderful and thoughtful gifts from friends and family and felt very loved. Thank you everyone.

And last night some of our friends from our ward threw me a surprise party! I had worked all day with the kids, so I was in my "home clothes" (as Apsen & Haven would say) which is basically pajamas, I had no make-up and hadn't even run a brush through my hair. As a side note...on the days I nanny I basically don't really get ready. My car isn't big enough to take all 3 kids anywhere, and I worry about something getting on my nice or normal clothes if I dress for the day...soooooooooo I just don't get ready! Anyway - On my way home from work Jaron called and asked if I wanted to go and get something to eat and then pick something up at the Schultz's. When we arrived at the Schultz's I was definitely surprised, and embarrassed by my appearance! I still can't believe Jaron didn't somehow tell me to get ready...that's boys for you. So here is a picture of me looking like I just rolled out of bed. If any of my high school or college friends are reading this you will probably be shocked considering I wouldn't even go out of my room without my make-up back in the day. Yes, I am one of those girls that got married and decided that sometimes getting all dolled up just isn't as important as it used to be! Sorry mom, you're probably in shock as well. But I had a great couple of days celebrating my birthday.
THANK YOU EVERYONE!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday! Wish we could be there to celebrate with you...Love you Daddy!

Surprise Date Night

This past weekend Belinda and I thought it would be fun to surprise our husbands with a date night. We have a radio station here that picks a few restaurants every week and they give out half price gift cards. We decided on JP Sullivan's Speakeasy. It was very nice and had a modern feel, the food was "normal" but presented in a "fancy" way and tasted VERY good! Where else could you get a Philly Cheesesteak Spring Roll?! The craziest thing though was how many Plasma TV's were in there...seriously, a TV at EVERY booth and then a little bigger TV every 2 ft. clear around the entire restaurant. AND they had, probably, 4 big screen Tv's. Too bad we couldn't see the BYU game! It was a lot of fun and I would definitely recommend the restaurant to anyone.
Our Raspberry Cheesecake was soooo good!

Go Grease Lightening!

We went to NYC again this weekend and it was a lot of fun. One of my favorite things to do there is, of course, a Broadway show! We decided on Grease. Grease was one of my absolute favorite movies growing up so I was really excited that our friends wanted to see it instead of something else. Sorry the pics are a little blurry...not quite sure what happened there. The only sad thing that day was when it started down pouring and we got SOAKED! You can't really tell in the pictures, but all of us were drenched and spend the whole show hoping to dry off. For some reason they had the air on...probably because there were so many people in there...but it was freezing! We were so glad when we walked out after the show was over and the rain had stopped.

Josh & Belinda above and Jaron and I below, during intermission.

After the show was over we still had a little energy left, so we walked through Central Park and made our way to see the Manhattan Temple. Neither of us had ever been there so it was exciting to see our Temple in the middle of all the mayhem. This is Jaron and I in the hallway before you walk in. It was truly amazing how loud it was outside and as soon as you walk through the doors it's quiet and peaceful. We can't for our Philly Temple!

Crazy, Busy, Out of Order

Sorry to those of you who follow our blog...we've been crazy busy the past few weeks and while we've had quite a bit to post, we've been putting it off. I've been waiting to post so that the events will be in order, but I just couldn't resist celebrating and putting the Phillies picture up. So, if you look below there are probably a lot of entries that you haven't read, and there will be more to come in the next few days! Enjoy...

Phillies Parade

It was a pretty exciting season for the Phillies! We only made it to one game this season, and since the cheapest playoff tickets were around $1,000 each we watched the World Series from home! It was a lot of fun to watch though. Philadelphia is a serious sports town, and after 25 years without a national championship from one of their major sports clubs it was definitely their time to shine.

A lot of people believed the city was cursed for building a structure in the early 1980's taller than City Hall, atop which stands a statue of William Penn, the state's founder. This past year the city constructed a new tallest building, the Comcast Center, and on top of this nearly 1,000 foot tall structure, is a small replica of the William Penn statue. Curse or coincidence? You make the call.

I walked down to the parade during my lunch hour at work to see what was going on. It was unbelievably packed with people all downtown! We got to see the team go by as they traveled to Citizens Bank Park to accept the trophy. I'm not big on crowds but this was a fun event!


This is the view south on Broad Street, after the parade passed through the crowds flooded the streets. There were an estimated 2-3 million people who traveled in to witness the parade, which essentially doubled the size of the city. When I went in to work that morning there were Phillies fans traveling down town on my train, and they kept pouring in all day. It was Halloween, and I think a lot of people didn't make it home to trick or treat that night because it was so difficult to get home. My commute is normally about an hour door to door but that night it took me over four hours to get home! I wasn't happy about that but it was a lot of fun to witness the parade and be a part of a team that won the World Series, so it was probably worth the delay!