Kristi Yamaguchi, Backstreet Boys, and Guns

You might ask what these three things have in common....well last night Cody, Cari, Garrett, and I went to see Kristi Yamaguchi and Friends ice skating to live music of the Backstreet Boys. It was a lot of fun. We had front row seats and were as close as you could get to the Backstreet Boys. Where we were sitting we could see the skaters getting ready and also the band come out each time they sang. Even though Cody and Garrett won't openly admit it they had fun. It is amazing how many girls and some guys (probably not straight ones) are obsessed with the Backstreet Boys. You knew every time they were about to come out because you could hear the seats empty out and the girls run over to try and get as close as they could to them. There was even some shoving involved, name calling, homemade signs, and wonderful bedazzled shirts. Surprisingly none of the fans seemed to be less than 200 lbs! I was worried that Cody or Garrett were going to get taken about by one of them since they were cracking jokes about them right next to them but I guess they were too caught up in screaming over the Backstreet Boys to hear them! Some of the people sitting behind us were very envious of our nice seats. I had no idea the seats would be as good as they were. I got an email at work about a week before saying that the tickets were half off so I got 4 of them. We also learned the secret to how when you see the ice skating specials on tv no one messes up. After the show was over the skaters that fell or had mishaps, for example Michael Weiss's skate broke during one of his performances, they have them redo it so they can edit the show for tv. A few of the skaters Kristi included needed 3 tries to get it right!!! So you can check out the show on Sunday November 1st on NBC from 1-3 pm Pacific Standard Time. Cody and Garrett are praying that they be won't seen in the background!!

So now on to the guns. This afternoon after my primary activity Cody and I went shooting with a return missionary that used to be in our ward and his fiance. We had a good time. I finally got to shoot my new gun that Cody got for me since he traded in my other gun that I got to shoot once for a gun for him and then bought me a new one! I am definitely not the best shooter out there but Cody and I did win the competition that we had against the other couple!! And yes, I did contribute to the win. Sorry we didn't take any pictures of either of these events but I am sure you can imagine it!!

Chili's are finally here.

How much do you love chili's? Well for me and my household (o.k. maybe just me), I LOVE CHILI's. If there is one thing I really look forward to it is spending time with the Holyoaks doing chili's. Even though it is a lot of work each year, I can't wait to do it again the next year.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity of a life time. The Holyoaks invited me to help them bottle chili's. Since then, I have been invited to join their tradition of bottling chili's. From my first year I was invited to help to current, the process has gotten bigger and bigger because people we share the chili's with LOVE them.

Every year we go down to Virden, New Mexico to pick up the loot. This year it was a whopping (26) 40lbs. bags.
Each bag goes through a burning process. This burner was made by Bishop Holyoak's dad many years ago. The man is pretty ingenious. He grabbed a few parts from bikes, motorcycles, air conditioners and other such items, put them all together and got a handy dandy Chili Roaster. The thing works like a charm.

Steven and Tillman came and helped out this year. This is Steven's 3rd year and Tillman's 2nd. Tillman was not only a good helper, but a good sport spending two days with dad and uncle Cody doing chili's. He would walk around saying "Lots of chilis." As they were driving away the first day, he asked Steven if they could come back and do more chilis tomorrow. My cousin Michael is in the background and the other two are members of my ward.

Probably one of the biggest highlights of doing chilis is being able to sit around and tell lies for a few days until we get the loot bottled.

This whole process wouldn't happen if we didn't have a good lady in the kitchen (sorry no photo). Sister Holyoak spends hours on end all by herself actually bottling the chilis as all the guys sit around outside. A special thanks needs to go out to the Holyoaks for tolerating all of us chili lovers as we invade their house. Even though its only been a week since we fininshed, I am already looking forward to next year.

Cody

A Big Step!!

I am terrible at email and just about anything that goes along those lines. We shall see how well I can keep up with this blog! Hope you enjoy it, oh and by the way you will see that our life isn't all that exciting, but please read on!!!

Day 1 - Providence, RI and Narragansett, RI

So hopefully this won't be the only post. I want to tell about the vacation that Cody and I just went on to New England. We had some standby Southwest Airlines tickets that we needed to use so we basically planned the trip as we went.

Day 1 - We flew into Providence, RI on Thursday, Sept 3rd. Thankfully, we had no problems getting on the flight. Unfortunately we ended up sitting next to a lady that I sort of met in the bathroom before our flight. The lady in the stall next to me clearly had some stomach issues and was sick, lucky us we ended up sitting next to her. I recognized her shoes, obviously not soon enough to grab another seat but thankfully she took some dramamine and slept almost the whole way. Nothing to exciting happened this first day, we ate at a good Italian place called Bertucci's and then drove to Naragansett to check out the beaches in the dark. We learned quickly that everything was going to cost money and that there aren't any places to park that are free. We got close to the water and tried to check things out but unfortunately we had parked at a little hotel and as we walked across the street someone started circling our rental car and calling someone on their cell phone. I panicked about getting our rental car towed the first night so we literally saw water and then turned around and rushed to get our car out of there. We finally found a dock somewhere where we could park and took a picture next to a boat.

Boat in Naragansett, RI

Day 2 - Mystic Seaport, CT and New York City, NY

We got up and headed for New York City, NY. On the way we stopped in Mystic, CT. They have setup a mock whaling town called Mystic Seaport. There were lots of houses that you could go in which were all different museums. One of them was a blacksmith shop where they actually still make all the metal they use on all of the boats. One talked about sailboating and others had ship figure heads. Unfortunately we didn't have time to look at everything but they are restoring an old whaling boat called the Charles Morgan. It was pretty neat. They make everything for the ship there in the Mystic Seaport.

Cody showing off his sailing skill - Mystic, CT

Landward HO! - Mystic, CT

One of the ships at Mystic, CT

My future home - Mystic, CT

After Mystic we continued on to New York City. Our hotel was in Jersey City so I thought that we would come in through Jersey. Not the case, the GPS took us right through the heart of New York City. We got to see the Bronx, and several other areas and I was beginning to wonder why we wanted to visit New York City. We managed to make it to our hotel safe and sound.

View from our hotel room - it was on a pier - Jersey City, New Jersey

Right after we checked into our hotel we headed off to check out the Statue of Liberty. If you want to go inside at all get tickets in advance. I did not know this!! We thought the last ferry left at 4 pm so we were hauling butt to try and make it in time. It didn't look that far from our hotel but there was some WATER in the way and several other obstacles. We just kept walking and walking. We remembered that we had passed a light rail station and thought that might have been a good option so we headed back towards that and got a ticket. Luckily it did stop there and some locals were nice enough to tell us which train to get on to go the right way. The stop looked like it was in ghettoville and then it was about a 2 mile walk from the stop. We are walking as fast as we could and I am thinking we better make it in time because I don't want to go through this again in the morning. We bought our ticket at 3:48 pm. Thankfully the last boat left at 4:30 pm so we had more time than we thought. It was nice to see it but quite a hassle to get there and not be able to go inside.

New York Skyline

Statue of Liberty , New York City, NY

After the Statue of Liberty we were able to take the ferry over to the New York side instead of back to Jersey. We headed to the subway and off to Times Square. We didn't really have any subway issues yet, but we were pretty confused since we didn't have a map or anything but didn't get lost. Times Square was so busy and crazy. We went into the Toy's R Us that is huge and then ate at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Times Square, New York, NY

Hard Rock Cafe - Time Square

After we were done eating we headed back toward our hotel, which is where we saw the first rats on our rat tour of New England. They were scurrying outside and ran into an old bar. Yuck! Before we went back to our hotel we walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. We basically walked it and then turned around and walked back. It was nice seeing the city all lit up at night. There were so many people out and about at all hours of the night. We passed a few clubs where people were waiting outside to get in.

Brooklyn Bridge

Day 3 - New York City, NY

Our hotel was so conveniently located just across the water in Jersey City and the subway was right out the front door of our hotel. It was only a 4 minute subway ride and then we are right at the World Trade Center (well now ground zero). We only had to ride to the first stop. It tooks us 45 minutes to get there!! Mostly my fault, for some reason the train didn't stop first at our stop so I saw the train next to us and it said our stop I convinced Cody to get off the train we were on and take this one. Well this one took us further away into New Jersey. Then we got off and got on yet another train and still further into New Jersey. Finally we got on one more train and rode it the rest of the way back through New Jersey and then finally into New York. What a morning. We then checked out Ground Zero, rode the subway to Macy's where we walked around, had some pizza at a local place, and then headed to Central Park.

West Side Entrance of Central Park

Central Park, New York, NY

Central park was so big. There we bridges and grassy fields, little ponds, and an area where lots of people were sunbathing. It was very nice. Then we headed to the Museum of Natural History. It is to bad that it isn't free in New York like it is in Washington DC. I was glad that we went through the museum but we went through it so fast it would have been nice to at least get in for half price or something!

Cody with the Easter Island head or Dum Dum from Night at the Musuem

Museum of Natural History, New York, NY

After we left the museum we walked back through Central Park and then tried to find a place called Serendipity. I have heard of it from some movies and thought it would be a good dessert place. We had to call Cody's twin sister Cari a few times to get good directions. We finally got there and it was a 2 and 1/2 hour wait. We decided dessert was not worth that and we didn't have that much time left. We found another ice cream place that was pretty neat and then headed back to our hotel. We then drove to Kingston, NY. We were smarter this time and got on the New Jersey turnpike before we turned on our GPS so it wouldn't take us back through New York City.

Day 4 - Kingston, NY - Opus 40 - Cobleskill - Albany - Glens Falls + Hudson Falls

There was an Irish Festival going on in Kingston, NY down on the Hudson River. It was called the Hooley on the Hudson. It was pretty neat. We were there as things were getting started so it wasn't to crowded but it was fun to hear the bagpipers.

Kingston, NY along the Hudson River

Bagpipers performing at the Hooley on the Hudson

After we left Kingston we drove through lots of little towns and beautiful scenery. This creek was off the side of the rode and we did park by a sign that said no trespassing but thankfully nobody shot us or towed our car. It was so pretty.

Sawkill Creek (we think that is what this was called)

When Cody was on his mission he went to Opus 40. A guy built this by hand and it took him 40 years. It was really neat and amazing that someone could have built this by hand. It was in Saugerties, NY. This area seemed to be a real artsy type area maybe like Sedona.

Opus 40 - Saugerties, NY

Opus 40 - Saugerties, NY

We found a firefighter's museum in Hudson, NY. They had all kinds of different types of fire trucks. They had old fire carriages that were pulled by horses and new more recent ones as well.

Firefighter's Museum - Hudson, NY

After the firefighters museum we headed to Cobleskill, NY. We went to the Secret Caverns. It was a really neat cave and it had a waterfall at the end of it.

Secret Caverns - Cobleskill, NY

After Secret Caverns we drove through several towns where Cody served his mission. He was bummed that he didn't remember more but we did drive by one of his old apartments in Albany, NY. We also drove through Glens Falls and Hudson Falls. We then headed to Lake George where it was pretty packed with people. It was Sunday night of Labor Day weekend. We ate at a nice Italian place and then played some mini golf. I beat Cody by 2 strokes!!! I had 2 holes in one. The whole rest of the trip he wanted a rematch but it never happened.

Day 5 - Lake George, NY - Vermont - New Hampshire

Lake George was beautiful. Lots of nice houses on the outskirts of the Lake.

Lake George, NY

Cody went on a hike when he was on his mission in the Lake George area. He described the area to our waiter at dinner the night before and he gave us directions to Bump Pond. Unfortunately it wasn't the same place that Cody went to but nice all the same.

Hike to Bump Pond, Lake George, NY

Bump Pond

After we left Lake George we were headed to New Hampshire. We stopped several places in between in New York and Vermont. We got to see a boat pass through the locks in Whitehall, NY.

Lock in Whitehall, NY

We didn't stop to many places in Vermont but it was beautiful. We did go on a little hike in a park in Vermont. They had all kinds of trails mapped out that you could walk around or mountain bike.

Pine Hill Park, Rutland, VT

We saw several covered bridges but we will spare you all of the pictures. Here are 2 of them.

Covered Bridge - East Woodstock, VT


Covered Bridge, Kedron Valley, VT

Day 6 - The Flume Gorge , NH - Lexington + Concord, MA and Boston

We couldn't have picked a better time for our vacation then we did. The hotel we stayed in New Hampshire had maybe 8 other people staying there. We got up in the morning and enjoyed some amazing pancakes with maple syrup at Polly's Pancakes. We tried to find a place to have pancakes and maple syrup in Vermont but they were only open on Saturday or Sunday.

Polly's Pancake Parlor in Franconia, NH

After our pancakes we went to Franconia Notch State Park in NH and walked the Flume Gorge. It was so beautiful. Our pictures don't do it justice but you walk along a boardwalk and go up through this gorge. The other great thing was that no one else was there. As we left we say maybe 4 or five people on the trail. This is definitely a must see. There were lots of other things to do in this area but we needed to get on the road to Boston.

The Flume Gorge - Franconia Notch State Park, NH


The Flume Gorge, NH



Cody pondering in Flume Gorge, NH

The Flume Gorge, NH

After the Flume we headed over to Lexington and Concord, MA. We took a guided tour of the 2 and had a one on one with our tour guide, it also helped that we took the last tour of the day. We learned a lot on the tour but it was hard to retain it all. Lots of history went down in and around these 2 towns. We learned that even though Concord is known as the place where the shot was heard round the world there was fighting in Lexington before there was any in Concord. You are welcome for that free history lesson, ours was not free!!!

Concord, MA the shot heard round the world

If you know Henry David Thoreau this is Walden Pond. I figured it would be a little pond but to us Arizonans this is a lake. Of course it was $5 to park to see the pond. Apparently this is the only place that non residents of MA can swim?? This is what our tour guide told us. It was kind of like a public pool, lots of people where swimming around.

Walden Pond - MA

After Lexington and Concord we got settled in our hotel in Boston. Of course once again our GPS took us right through the heart of Boston to get to our hotel that was on the outskirts. Thankfullly the drivers in Boston were not quite as crazy as in New York but still pretty crazy!!
We decided to check a few things out that night. I enjoyed some good chowder and we walked around the harbor a little bit. This was the 2nd stop on our rat tour of New England. When we were walking along the harbor we heard a rustling in a garbage can, for some reason we thought it might be a bird. When we leaned over to check it out a giant rat crawled out, ehhh!! There was also one scurrying around near where we sat down!!

Quincy Market - Faneuil Hall , Boston, MA

Near Faneuil Hall and Boston Harbor

view looking back at the city in Boston Harbor

Day 7 - Boston, MA

We had a great time in Boston! We got to ride a packed subway to the middle of Boston (it was a work day) to get on a duck tour. We did so much better navigating the subway this time but it helps when you actually have a map!! I am so glad we went on the duck tour. It was awesome. We learned so much and saw so many things but unfortunately probably only 1/3 of it could I remember once it was over. A duck is an old World War II vessel that can drive on the street and can go in the water.

Bridge in Boston with Viking ship coming out of post (on duck tour)

After we got off the duck tour we walked the Freedom Trail. Boston is a very tourist friendly city, as far as the Freedom Trail is clearly marked and very easy to navigate. There is so much history in Boston and it was neat to get to see everything. Unfortunately all of the churches and buildings cost money to go inside so we checked them out from the outside.

State Capitol - The dome is made of Gold!! - The Freedom Trail

Park in Boston with traditional swan boat rides - we didn't go on one


Paul Revere's grave on the Freedom Trail in Boston



Bunker Hill Monument on Freedom Trail - 295 stairs we hiked to the top!! or should I say huffed and puffed to the top!

Old Ironsides (the USS Constitution) - Freedom Trail

Inside the USS Constitution - Freedom Trail

The navy gives tours of Old Ironsides. It is the oldest commisioned warship still afloat. It was amazing and it is undefeated in battle. I thought Cody was going to get us kicked off when he picked up a cannonball that was clearly marked do not touch and we were told by several of the naval officers not to touch them. Thankfullly no one saw him, appartently being a trained observer doesn't come into play when you are on vacation, he claims he didn't see the sign (right in front of his face) or remember them telling him not to.

After the Freedom Trail we ate at a nice little restaurant in Little Italy called Ricardos. It was really good and we had a nice view with the windows wide open and the weather was perfect. Once we were done we debated what to do, so we decided to go check out Harvard. Unfortunately by the time we got off the subway the sun was pretty much down. We took some pictures of things but have no clue what they are since it was dark. We also got to see a nice, very peaceful little demonstration (more like chanting) to free Tibet!!

Harvard - Cambridge, MA