Well, yes, three dogs is a bit excessive . . . but there is some reasoning in our madness. And while this seemed to happen quite suddenly (because it did), this is something we knew would happen at some point. We just didn't know that "some point" would come as soon as it did!
But Brigham is getting older . . . he's already 10 1/2! And with his age, he has slowed down a bit. As has his human running partner, me, ha! But Brigham + summer warmth = really slow. I knew this would happen and so we'd knew we'd be getting me another running dog eventually. But one summer morning as I was literally dragging Brigham home from a run, I realized that "eventually" was now. And I think even before this run, I had come across a post advertising Pointing Wiredhaired Griffon pups (Brigham's breed) that would be ready September 22nd. Done! Texts were made and we secured ourselves a male pup. :)
As we were thinking of names, we thought it could be kind of fun to keep it with a prophet's name . . . and hence came Gordon, after the beloved Gordon B. Hinckley. I love the name and think it fits him perfectly. Long story short, I met up with seller in Spanish Fork, UT on September 27th and drove home little Gordon. He was so chill in the car ride - just sat in his crate and never whined. I stopped and got him out frequently and all was well. He did barf a few times and I later realized that was probably why he was so chill - he was car sick. Ha! But it kind of worked out for the ride, not gonna lie . . .
Gordon is a delight and we all are in love with him. Well, I am not sure about Brigham or Bella . . . Brigham was really quite nervous of him the first few days and wasn't sure what to do, think, etc. Bella was initially scared upon their first meeting, but now she's kind of motherly at times and a jerk at times. Oh that Bella. But Gordon is not phased by the dogs and will get them playing, chasing, etc. It's fun. :)
Pictures: (Argh it loaded them as most-recent to oldest . . . lame! Actually, they are all out of sorts. Even lamer!)
We took the dogs adventuring today to a family-favorite spot not too far from our home. At least a family-fav when the kids were cute and little. :) The dogs all loved the chance to run wild - it was a great outing!
Gordon likes our tree's apples . . . just like the other dogs. :)
Emmy + Gordon.
Gordon's first day at our home. Such a dapper pup.
Emmy was heading out to homecoming when I got home with Gordon. Cuties.
Ben and Gordon bonding for the first time. :)
Miles came down to Utah that same day I picked up Gordon to check out a Studebaker (which he did end up buying). So we met up in Spanish Fork for a picnic lunch (provided by In-N-Out) and a chance for Miles to meet Gordon. It was so fun!
Driving home with this cute and probably car-sick puppy!
So Emmy didn't really know where she wanted to go for her 18th birthday trip . . . so I suggested NYC and Emmy agreed and it turned out *spoiler alert* fantastic!
Flights out of Montrose were a bit expensive and all included a long layover . . . so we just decided to fly out of Denver. Which worked out really - might as well drive 5-hours than sit in an airport for 5 hours . . . We headed out Wednesday evening and flew out of Denver on a red-eye midnight flight. We arrived in NYC Thursday morning at about 6am. None of us really slept well (no surprise there), but whatever. It gave us an entire extra day in the city and so it was totally worth it.
After we got our rental car, we parked it at a shopping center. (I had found it earlier online when looking at parking for the Mets baseball game later that day. The parking spot was great for that day!) We then made our way, via a little walk to the Subway (maybe getting a bit lost on the way and having some helpful locals help us out!). We took the Subway and then walked to our first stop: the Empire State Building. I was a bit bored with all the "historical stuff" on our way to the top, but it was okay. Haha. The top was amazing and such a great introduction to NYC! The city is beyond massive. Every direction was full of incredible skyscrapers and I just had no idea that NYC was that big. It was truly awesome.
After that, we made our way to Times Square. It was quite the adventure walking all over the city and this, alone, did not disappoint. It was just so crazy and cool. We got to Times Square and just soaked all the action in. Ben got his first Halal food at a food truck - lamb gyros. He was in love. (It was quite tasty!)
From there we took the Subway back to the Mets baseball stadium. We watched a great game and the Mets even won for us!
After the game we drove to our Air BnB in Yonker, NY. It wasn't a bad drive and we managed to settle in, go out for dinner, and finally found a decent grocery store (the first one was super-sketch) to pick up a few items. Our place was super cute and Emmy loved her room. :)
Emmy's cute room.
We were exhausted and had no problem adjusting to an eastern time-zone bedtime ha!
Friday we had a bit of a delay to our day because Ben woke up with a migraine. Luckily he was able to get it in check a bit and so we headed back out to the city. Ben found a great place to park our car - it was about 12 minutes from our place and was a free parking lot near a golf course/park. We parked there, walked about 10 minutes, and caught the Subway into the city. We went to Manhattan, all the way towards the bottom. Once we arrived, we decided to walk around and see the Trinity Church and the 9/11 Memorial (One World Trade Center is the new building). Trinity Church was super cool and beautiful. It was also really cool to see Hamilton's burial site, as well as his wife's Eliza. The 9/11 Memorial was very touching . . . I think it affected us all more than we thought.
I think this was the North Tower Reflecting Pool. Behind it is the One World Trade Center.
The Subway was a fun experience. :) Ben did an amazing job in navigating us around the city on it. We started so north on the line (as far north as it went) that we were like the only people (maybe a family was on with us) on at this point and so I convinced Emmy to get some fun pictures. :)
After 9/11 we went on the Staten Island Ferry. (Even though we were pestered every 2 minutes by people trying to convince us to go on their Statue of Liberty Tour ferry!) The Ferry was awesome and was a neat little trip. We got off on the island, grabbed a snack, and then went back to Manhattan.
Before we headed to our home, we decided to check out Chinatown. I had seen some really cute pictures with lanterns hanging across the streets . . . but apparently that is only for special festivals. Chinatown was CrAzY! So many people and so many people trying to sell you their junk. Two men followed after Emmy and I - telling Emmy to give them her purse. That was really the only time I felt scared. Ben was oblivious ha. I told him to get behind us . . . But it still was quite the adventure just making our way thru Chinatown! Apparently Little Italy was there too and there was some festival going on. The street was packed and no way could we make our way thru it! It was a fun side-trip to end our day in the city. We took the Subway back home, cooked up some spaghetti at our place, and crashed again. :)
Crazy times for sure!
Now on to Saturday . . . We started off the day at Central Park. It was a nice place and of course we only saw a teeny tiny fraction of it. But I am sure the local New Yorkers love the green, open space. There were TONS of runners on the street - but the street is closed to cars so that's why I am sure. But it looked like a marathon race was happening because there were so many runners! It was crazy, but cool.
Ben and I tried to take a "fun" picture. Haha.
Emmy got a nutella and banana crepe - she loved it. She also bought an adorable painting (with lots of pink) of the city from a vendor in Central Park. Now we just need to find a frame for it's weird size . . .
After Central Park we wandered back up to Times Square. Ben got his lamb gyro again and we just enjoyed the lights and people and buildings and craziness of it all!
I thought this wall was cool and the picture super cute. Emmy didn't. Ha.
The first day Ben got his gyro from Halal Brother's. This day is was at Mama's (though it looks more like a Papa in there . . . ). He loved them both and now realizing I didn't get any typical NYC food, I should have gotten it, too!
After Times Square, we headed to Broadway for Wicked.
And it was so, so, so great! We all loved it so much! And we had excellent seats! Emmy had forgotten when we had listened to the musical in her younger days and so she was more familiar with the movie . . . and she also isn't too well-bred on theater, shows, etc. So when it was intermission and Ben got up to to use the bathroom along with many others, Emmy and I just stayed seated. Finally after a few minutes Emmy asked, "So are we just going to sit here for a while longer." Or something like that . . . she thought it was over and we were just hanging out. She forgot that the movie was only the 1st part and that there was more. So that was a fun bonus for her, ha!
After the show we took Emmy to dine at The Hard Rock Cafe. Of course if it were just Ben and myself, we would have done some local NYC place . . . but knowing Emmy's style, this was a better fit for her. We had a delicious dinner and then just walked around the city a bit more.
Under the street of NYC. The Subway, again, was such a cool experience in and of itself!
Finally, we made our way back to the Subway, back to the park, and then back to our car and place. We finished the night watching the BYU football game. :) Another amazing day.
Sunday - our last day. Luckily we had a later afternoon flight and so we were able to get a few more things in that morning. Ben braved the drive, and drove us into the city. Being early and a Sunday, the traffic was very, very minimal. We parked near the Brooklyn bridge and enjoyed the 1.3 mile walk each way over it. There were plenty of walkers and runners. It was really cool.
Just another fun shot in the city. :) (Check out the middle school sign left!)
We found a 12 o'clock church meeting in the Bronx (maybe?) and so the timing worked out perfectly. We went to sacrament meeting and it was so great! The diversity in the ward was extreme. We were one of only two white families there - and the other caucasian family weren't from America as evidenced by thick, thick, accents. There were Hispanics, Africans, African-Americans, Asians, etc. The two speakers that day were babies - not really, but they were a married couple in their early 20s and were adorable. They had just graduated from BYU-Hawaii and moved to NYC about 2 months earlier. The man grew up in Japan and the woman in South Korea. It was a sweet meeting and is just fun to check out the church in other areas of the world.
Sadly, our time to return to the airport came. Our flight home was just fine, but frustratingly we had to wait on arrival for like 40 minutes until we could unload the plane. Then, of course, we had a 5-hour drive home . . . We got home around 1:30am. But that, again, was worth the extra time we got to spend in NYC!
Here are a few videos from our Subway experience (nevermind, Youtube is not letting me post them due to copyright stuff . . .interesting).
We saw a lot of crazy gymnastics-like performances on the street, too. It was just cool to see all we saw! And, yes, even Ben loved it. I bet we'll be back someday . . .
