New York, New York

I love BIG cities!!  Give me a big-city vacation/getaway any time. This time, my children gave me and Russ this little trip to the Big Apple. The gift was a total “surprise” – read here for the details. It was fun, fun, fun from the moment our feet touched the ground in NYC. We saw and did many things, but two of my favorites (for different reasons) were being on the Live with Kelly and Michael Show, and visiting the 9/11 Memorial gardens, fountain pools, and viewing the names (engraved on granite) of those who were killed on 9/11/2001. So here are some (a lot of, actually) pictures of just some of the stuff we did.  BTW, our first day there we walked about 10 miles (or 20,000 steps).

 

Luxury - thank you children!

Hotel Lobby

Hotel Empire Marquee



Hosts Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan

Guest Shaq O'Neal dresses up for karaoke



Shaq's wig comes off and he poses with Kelly and Michael

Hooray!  We pose on the set of Kelly and Michael

My new Mormon friends who gave me their extra ticket - as we wait in line

Just a few of the names engraved here at the 9/11 Memorial

Pool and fountains seen behind the names

Almost done building this tower



Walking the High Line

View of Central Park from the Top of the Rock - Rockefeller Center



Top of the Rock



A little windy at the top

My pedometer tells a lot about our day - 20,104 steps

Always time for yogurt at Tasti D-Lite



Already skating at Rockefeller Skating Rink

New York, New York - My kind of town

Our city tour guide stands with us in the rain

Wet, but happy - love this City - raining or not - top of our bus for a better view

Time Square

Ferris Wheel inside of Toys R Us at Time Square

Riding the Ferris Wheel

No age limit as to who can ride it

Dinner at Robert at MAD - Birthday gift from Troy and Dan to Russ

View from our dinner table

Happy Birthday dessert

The Manhattan Temple just two blocks from our hotel

THANK YOU children for an absolutely fantastic trip to New York, New York!!!

Emmy Giveaway Winner!

Thanks so much to all of you who entered.  Giveaways aren't much fun if no one enters.  :)

Our Emmy giveaway winner is:  Joel
And since Joel so nicely offered the movie pass to someone else, I went ahead and drew a 2nd name for the movie pass and that person is: Jared

Congratulations!  Enjoy!

Also, one last congratuations to Brad for winning a Regional Emmy.

Brad’s Emmy win inspires a giveaway

I have been thinking about doing a giveaway this month, and when my son, Brad, won a Regional Emmy, it sealed the deal.  So in honor Brad’s Emmy win, the giveaway is a gift card for Regal Entertainment Group (or I can change that out for a gift card for a theater near you).  And why not have a little snack after the movie---a gift card for Dunkin’ Donuts is included. Anyone who is old enough to attend the movies is welcome to enter this giveaway.  After all, the movies I enjoy most are those made for kids. Just leave a remark below as your way of saying congrats to Brad and entering the giveaway.  Good luck. This giveaway ends October 20, Saturday, 2012 at 5 p.m.

 

Brad’s winning documentary film was from his Beehive Stories’ series and was nominated in the category of   “Magazine Program - Feature/Segment” in the 2012 Rocky Mountain Emmy’s.  And the winner is:

 

"Beehive Stories: Millard County"

BYU Broadcasting

Brad Barber, Producer/Creator

Kenji Tsukamoto, Director

Skylar Rackham, Director of Photography / Editor 

 

You can read about the Rocky Mountain Emmy’s here.  And watch Brad’s Emmy-winning documentary here. Click on "Millard" county.

Ta-da!!!

Brad and Susan enjoy the moment

Dinner at the Emmy's

 

Skylar Rackham and Brad receiving their Emmy's

 

Susan on the drive home

Congratulations, Brad!!



Joel requested a picture of the Emmy's new home in Brad's office.  I'm glad he did.  I think it looks great.

RNC - Part 2

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday buses took us from our hotel in Safety Harbor to downtown Tampa to the Republican National Convention, which was held at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.  The convention experience was everything we imagined and more.  We would leave our hotel at 5 p.m. and not get back to the hotel until between 12:30 and 1:30 a.m.  With 50 states worth of delegates and alternate delegates, and guests (yes, I was a guest), it takes a while to get everyone on the right bus and back to their hotel.  The actual convention evening would end around 11:30 p.m.  With Russ being an alternate delegate, his seat location was on the first tier up from the convention floor, which actually gave a better view of the speakers and performers than where the Tennessee delegates sat.  The visitors’ seats were up in the nosebleed section, so Russ let me have his alternate delegate seat the last two nights.  It was absolutely PERFECT.  So proud of Russ for making this trip possible.  

 

So I’ll share a few pictures, but first let me just summarize some of the speakers we heard. I think our favorites were Ann and Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Mia Love, Mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. Others we liked were Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire; Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey; Senator-to-be Ted Cruz of Texas; former Democratic congressman Artur Davis of Virginia; Gov. Luis Fortuño of Puerto Rico; Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina; Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico; Gov. Bob McDonnell of Virginia; Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky; Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio; and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. Whew. That was one long list. And then there were Ted and Pat Oparowsky, who shared a very personal story of how their Bishop, Mitt Romney, helped them when their 14 year old son was dying of cancer.  Sister Finlayson also shared her family’s story of dealing with crisis when Mitt Romney was their Bishop.  I looked around to see tears running down the faces of many.  It was very touching and we’ll remember their stories always.  It was so exciting to be there to feel the excitement of the whole event. Yes, if you saw me on TV, I was the one dancing in the isle during the musical numbers.

 



Proudly wearing our orange tie and scarf for the great state of Tennessee



Tennessee's best ever alternate delegate - Russ!

Shout out for Utah.

Mitt Romney speaking

Marco Rubio speaking

Look closely and you can see Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan on stage with some of their family members.



Balloons ready to be dropped.

SIDE STORY:  A story was written up in the National Journal about a different kind of party for delegates from Utah.  Merit Medical CEO, Fred Lampropoulos (of Utah) spent $10,000 on towels, toothbrushes and soap from the local Costco in Tampa to be distributed to storm victims and packaged by the Utah convention delegation.  To quote from the article: “Word of the project spread through the congregation at the Mormon church in Tampa, where Utah delegates met fellow church members from Hawaii and Arizona at Sunday services.  The goods will be distributed by the LDS Humanitarian Services, the church’s disaster network.”   I was so touched by this story.  While some people fretted about Hurricane Isaac and wondered how it would affect the convention, the Mormons went to work and put together kits to give to those who would soon find themselves without power or in short supplies of the basics. They used the day we couldn’t travel to the convention center or hold meetings there to help those who would need it very soon as Hurricane Isaac moved towards Louisiana.