Monday Night Football!

Last night we went to Monday Night Football with Mark's friend Roy and his dad. The game was exciting and we had a great time.

With Veterans Day being the next day there was a lot of patriotism at the game. Guess who sang the national anthem? Jordan Sparks!

They gave out free Cardinal's hand towels so the crowd looked like this.

The game is over and WE WON!

Bridal Shower???

Last weekend we had a somewhat bridal shower for my brother's fiance and everyone was invited. We had BBQ and played a game on the couple. It was nice to meet their friends, co-workers and school buddies.

Here is Steven with the younger of his two soon to be children.

Halloween

My sister invited me to join her at the Halloween party at her work. They went with a Beatlemania theme and of course I was all about that.

Isn't she adorable!!!

Friday night I was Glinda, the good which from The Wizard of Oz. My mom went with me to the Queen Creek Trunk or Treat event and we worked a photo booth for my friend. I love every minute I get to spend with my mom!

An update on the ward garden

Here he is...the pig! It's been a little more then two months now and our pig is good and ready for slaughter. He is hungry all the time and he lets you know it.

It's amazing how fast it grew! So beautiful.

Below is our squash and cucumber.

Havested all this at one time.

A Day On The Lake

Our friend Christopher recently bought a yacht and invited us to spend the day with him out on Lake Pleasant. We had a great time.

The boys hung out and visited.

And the girls visited while dipping feet in the cold, cold water.

So Tiny!

Mark's sister Amy gave birth to Kylee Amann, her second child a couple weeks ago. What a gem!

Mark has a hard time letting anyone else have a chance to hold her.

Fun in NYC

While in New York we arranged to go on a Photo Trek Tour. This was a two hour tour with a personal guide to a few areas of the city. The guide told us historical information, pointed out certain buildings, gave tips on how to get around town and also acted as a professional photographer. We had a great time getting shots here on the Brooklyn Bridge as well as Central Park and Times Square. This was a highlight of the trip.

New York City!!!

You've been waiting for it so here it is. This first picture is us on top of the Empire State Building which was the first site we hit. Our hotel was just a couple blocks away.

We were eating in Little Italy and saw all these people walking by with John Lennon stickers. So, I finally stopped and asked one of them and found that there was this Lennon art exhibit just up the road. A happy little detour for us.

This was probably our favorite exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum.

Here we are in front of the United Nations.

Had to get a picture with a New York fire truck!

Does this guy look familiar from the movie "Night at the Museum"? We enjoyed a couple hours in the Museum of Natural History before making our way to the New York Manhattan Temple.

This is temple number 19 for us!

So this was THE HIGHLIGHT of the trip for me. The long awaited viewing of the one and only "Phantom of the Opera"! My hopes were so high I thought there was no way it could live up to my expectations but I was not disapointed. It was wonderful, magnificent, amazing!!!

So, here we are on the boat ride out to see the Statue of Liberty. The weather was beautiful as you can see in the background. We were so lucky to have perfect weather the entire time we were in Manhattan.

After the statue we made our way to Ellis Island which I really enjoyed. Of course the story is amazing and such a big part of American history.

We enjoyed "Phantom" so much that we wanted to see another Broadway play before leaving New York. So, we headed down to the 1/2 price ticket booth and found tickets available for Charles Dicken's "A Tale of Two Cities". Wasn't as spectacular as the other but we really enjoyed it. We had great seats in the fourth row which was fun.

We took a walking tour which brought us to the WallStreet area and we had a little treat with a rally going on at the bldg catty corner from the NYSE where Ralph Nadar was speaking to the people.

One of Mark's favorites.

Rockband 2 Concert

I went to the Rockband 2 Concert with my sister and her co-worker Arianne and her husband Josh. We had been to other concerts together as a group. This was a great concert because we actually had THE BEST seats in the house. We had tickets for the floor and got in and grabbed the center spot before any others. The show was so much better without heads in the way.

This was the opening band, The Cab. Loved them. Bought the album and practically have it memorized.

The lead singer of Plain White T's came down to the floor and shook hands with those of us in the front row.

Dashboard Confessional (the reason we went to the concert)

Panic At The Disco closed the show. Not a fan of theirs when they began however, they put on a great show. The last few songs were actually very Beatle like. Check out the guitar player. He looked like a Beatle, sounded like a Beatle and even spoke like one between songs.

New Beginnings!

My only brother Steven is engaged to marry Jessica Hart on November 22nd. We are so excited that he has found such a nice person to begin a new life with and we look forward to seeing all the wonderful changes that will occur in their new family as both Steven and Jessica graduate from their trade schoola and find new jobs in their profession in the coming months. Congrats Steven!!!