Portrait of a Man-stache

 For the past two years, Craig has tried to grow a mustache in November.  He claims it's for a good cause, (see Movember) however, I think it is just his excuse to grow one.

 Last year, he only had the mustache for 1 or 2 days.  This year, he was sporting it for a couple of weeks.  (Lovely for me.) Numerous times a day I would ask what his plan with "that mop" was, and he never would commit to when it was coming off.  I started to get a little worried.

Our Anniversary (4 years!!) ended up being on Thanksgiving, so he decided to give me the best gift ever and shave it off for (and on) our Anniversary.

Only half came off at first.

We had fun with the possibilities...

 And then it all came off! And instantly he looked 20 years younger.

Family Picture Time!

Last year we got our family pictures taken in October, and so I wanted to make a tradition (for lack of a better word) of getting them taken every fall.  My friend Jenny took them again - she does such a great job! (Thanks Jenny!)

I had a really hard time picking which ones to post. I figured you didn't want to look through 30 pictures.  So here are some of my favorites!  (16 is better than 30, right?) I posted some on facebook, too.  Most of them are the same, but there are a few different ones in both places.

This is what he looks like when he is making an elephant sound. :)

I always think of Joseph Smith and the Sacred Grove when I see this one.
Weird to think that?  maybe.

One of Calder's favorite things to do...throw rocks into the water.  

Halloween!

Halloween this year was so much fun!  We decided that since Calder is obsessed with air planes, it only made sense for him to be an Aviator. 

 I looked online for a costume, but they were either super expensive, or lame.  So I decided to make it!  I have to say, I am pretty proud of myself.

At first, Calder didn't love wearing his costume, but I trained him so that every time he put it on, he got a piece of candy. (Like a smarty - I know, I pay out big time.)  But in no time at all, he LOVED putting on his costume.  Score!

We had a ward party where there was a "Trunk-or-Treat."  He got the hang of picking a candy out of the bowls REALLY fast.  We "Trick-or-treated" down main street the next day (on Halloween) with some friends from the ward.  He got a good haul, and loves picking a treat out of his "pumpkin" everyday.

I always look forward to holidays, but they are so much fun now that Calder can get excited about them, too, and we can show him the ropes.  And they will just get to be more fun as he gets older, because he will understand what's going on!  How exciting!

*Oh, and I have to mention, just because we are thrilled - Calder spent the last 2 Sundays in Nursery all by himself and had a great time!  Hooray!!!

NYC part 2

We spent the last couple days of our trip touring Manhattan with Jon-David and Becky.   We saw so many things!  I am probably forgetting some, and I didn't include pictures of everything.

They took us to a pizza place where the slices of pizza were bigger than my head!  It was awesome.  And I couldn't finish my slice, it was that big.

We also saw a grocery store - I couldn't believe how expensive everything was, and how cramped the isles were!  It is definitely easier to grocery shop here in Utah, where you can fit a big cart down the isles, and load it all up in the trunk of your car when you are done.

One my favorite places we went was High Line Park.  It is a park built from a former elevated railroad, and stretches about 1 1/2 miles. We walked through almost the whole thing. I thought it was a really fun way to see the city, because you were off the ground and could see more at once, plus your immediate surroundings were plants instead of cars.

High Line Park. (picture from Wikipedia.  The one we took wasn't very good.)

So I think the next picture is kind of fun for 2 reasons. 1 - I think it is random we saw a Home Depot in NYC.  And that the building is so fancy. 2 - I like that it illustrates the business of the city because we are the only things not moving in the picture.

 

We had some really good dumplings for lunch from Chinatown, and stopped at a park to eat them so Calder could play.  He LOVED chasing all the pigeons! I was just a little nervous that he might catch one.
A few other things we saw:

Flatiron Building

Times Square

We ate dinner at the Shake Shack, where we had the most amazing burgers!  Wow, they were good.

The Manhattan Temple

 We walked through Central Park to get to a huge toy store (I think it is the oldest toy store in the U.S., too) FAO Schwarz.  The picture of us in Central Park makes me laugh because I am super cheesy, Craig is falling asleep, and Calder is rockin' his sunglasses.

Central Park

In the toy store, there was a muppet workshop, where customers could design their own muppet. There was a doll factory and a newborn doll nursery.  There was also a bunch of specialized candy (like a 5 lb gummy bear.  gross)  Calder had so much fun seeing everything in the store.

Calder giving a high five to a giant lego Star Wars guy in FAO Schwarz.

 We also rode in a tram to Roosevelt Island and back.  It was pretty fun to see everything from up high.

We said goodbye to the Jorgensens and headed back to the airport.  Minus one wrong turn leading to paying for an extra toll road that we shouldn't have had to, and waiting in traffic for forever, it was fairly uneventful.

Once we got to the airport, Calder was in heaven!  He was so pleased to be able to see so many airplanes!

We were lucky enough to have an extra seat next to us on the way home, so Calder got the window seat and was entertained for almost 2 hours looking out the window, pulling the shade down and back up, and jumping on and off his chair.  It was perfect!

N.Y.C. to New Hampshire Part 1

Warning: Long post with lots of pictures....

We had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to spend some time in the north-eastern U.S.   Craig is in the process of applying to a few grad schools, one of which happens to be Dartmouth (which is in New Hampshire).  While most schools look at the applications, and then decide to invite certain people back to interview, Dartmouth has an open interview policy - which means they interview everyone who wants to be interviewed. So basically if Craig wanted to even be considered, he needed to go to New Hampshire to interview.  So we decided to make a trip out of it!  

We took a red-eye flight to JFK airport in NYC.  (Not the most comfortable way/time to travel with a 1 and a half year old.  But we made it.) We have some friends that live there (Thanks Jon-David and Becky!) that were such good hosts!  We are so grateful that they let us stay with them for a few days, and it was so fun to see them.

The first day we spent sight-seeing around the southernmost tip of Manhattan.  Unfortunately, it was rainy all day.  But fortunately, we had umbrellas!

We took a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty

View from the ferry.

Stopped by to see Wall Street. 

Calder was sooo tired!
 But he did like holding his own umbrella.

The 9-11 Memorial was the last site we saw that day.  It was unfortunate that we were feeling really done with the rain and feeling really tired, because I think it would have had a lot more significance.  But I thought it was really well done.

9-11 Memorial.  

The next day, we started the drive to New Hampshire.  We decided to add an extra hour drive time and stop in Boston.

We really liked Boston!  It was such a neat city.

We only had a few hours in Boston, so we couldn't do a ton, but while we were there we followed part of the "Freedom Trail."  It is a trail (literally a line on the pavement) that leads you through the city stopping at several historical landmarks.   We wish we could have had more time, but I guess that means we'll just have to go back someday to see everything that we missed!

Site of the Boston Massacre

Paul Revere's house

We drove past Harvard.  It is really a beautiful and an impressive campus.

One of the buildings by the business school.  I think it is a library.

We finished driving to New Hampshire that night, and Craig had his interview the next day.  He said it went fairly well.  I think they do the interviews this way to make sure they don't admit weirdos into their program.  

Dartmouth has an impressive campus as well.  And it is in a small town, which is awesome.  We fell in love with New Hampshire! It is BEAUTIFUL!

This is what all the roads looked like. The landscape was all so heavily wooded.

We loved the rolling hills up in the New Hampshire/Vermont area.

Dartmouth is only 20 minutes away from Sharon, Vermont where Joseph Smith was born.  So before we headed back to New York, we stopped by to see the memorial and the visitors center.

The Joseph Smith memorial was definitely a highlight of the whole trip!  You drive through the rolling hills, and turn up the lane towards the memorial.  All of the trees had been cleared, except for the ones directly lining the road.  It was so pretty.  Then when you park the car and get out, you hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. (There were speakers outside, playing the music.)  For lack of a better word, it was magical! :-) But really, it was awe-inspiring to be surrounded by trees, hearing the heavenly choir.  The visitors center was very nice, and we loved talking about and hearing about the Prophet, Joseph Smith!

Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial

Calder loved everything about this place. Mostly because he didn't have to be in a stroller.

This is the foundation for the home that Joseph Smith was born in.  I am always amazed at how small the houses were!

We headed back to New York that night, to spend another couple of days there.  But I will write a separate post for those days....this one has been a marathon already!

I hope they call me on a mission...

Yes, it is a picture of a picture.  And we are on a slight hill, that is  why he looks WAY taller than me.

My youngest brother Jake reported to the MTC on August 8th.  He spent two months there, and last week he flew out to serve in the Frankfurt, Germany mission!  I am so proud of him!  He has worked so hard to learn German, and has been loving it so far!  I really enjoy reading the emails he sends every week.

Keep up the good work, little bro!