NYC day 2!

our second day in NYC was dear taylor's 25th birthday!

I had already given him his gifts before leaving for NYC (i'll post about that later!), so we mostly celebrated by divulging in yummy food, saying/singing happy birthday to him one million times, and by going to WICKED on broadway!

I surprised him with the tickets a few days before--something he had been wanting to do for years.

and it did not disappoint!

 

such a magnificent story and a talented cast! taylor and I were in heaven.

after the play, we headed over to the "original soup man" (from seinfeld, on my brother's bucket list).

we walked a few blocks over to central park to sit and eat the soup. it was pretty yummy.

we took our time strolling through the park, and I wanted to punch every runner going by out of pure jealousy.

I would looove to take a jog through central park every day!

taylor told me, "kells, don't worry. for your birthday, I got you an apartment on 5th avenue overlooking central park."

perfect! can't wait.

so yeah! we are moving to NYC in april!? alright!

we walked through central park until we arrived at laduree.

i'm not a huge fan of macaroons (i know, slap me), but these ones weren't too bad!

after walking down 5th ave, seeing some street performers, touring st. patrick's cathedral (SO pretty!), we headed over to the rockefeller center to go up on the observation deck.

and this (along with wicked), hit the top of my list.

such great views.

even if they did charge us $29 a person.

I told taylor I had our million dollar idea. we just need to build the tallest building and charge people $29 to get to the top.

the rest of the building can be completely empty!

so i think once we move to NYC, we will start building. great plan.

 our group of six had split up at this point, and so it was just me, taylor, and jamie.

I was dying to try BRGR so we made our way over there for dinner.

buuuut first my phone died.

and then taylors.

and then jamies.

and so we had to find it without any phones.

it was quite the adventure.

but guess what?

we arrived!

and i think this might have been THE best burger I've ever had.

and that's saying something--because I am a huge hamburger fan.

I was brave and ordered the "fresh morning" which had a fried egg on the burger.

sound gross? don't worry, it sounded gross when i ordered it, too.

but I figured I would go all out.

and WOWW i could rave about this burger all day.

in fact we went back the next day! ha! 

that good. seriously.

afterwards, we decided we wanted to find dessert.

our phones were all dead, but we figured if we walked a few blocks, we would stumble across something.

wellll...5 blocks.

then 10 blocks.

then 15 blocks.

then 20 blocks.

then 22 blocks later.

and we still hadn't found a single ANYthing. ha!

and of course, it was taylor's birthday, so that made me feel bad. ha

but we finally gave up (our feet were crying), and so we made our way back to the hotel.

so for those of you going to NYC soon, splurge on the ticket for the top of the rock, get a broadway ticket in advance (i searched forever, and finally found decent priced tickets with GREAT seats!),  GO TO BRGR and order the fresh morning, and bring your phone charger!
(because there were definitely five million outlets at BRGR, which was really depressing when we looked at all of our dead phones)

oh and hey, guess where I am again?

you got it.

an airport terminal.

the last five times i've blogged, I feel like I've been in an airport terminal.

and i'm reallyyyy tired of flying.

i want to be home and enjoying my last few precious days of staying in bed.

because SCHOOLSTARTSONTHURSDAY (for teachers, at least). ugh my face is crying.

but at least i'm headed to sacramento, the second best place to be in the world.

but you better believe i'm going to take a nap first thing. 

i had to wake up at 4am to catch my 6am flight.

I have no idea why I booked a 6am flight...

taylor wasn't super happy when I woke him up to take me this morning. ha!

and then we missed the exit, and he swore, and we both laughed so hard we finally woke up, so there's that.

I really hope everyone else is still in bed right now!

but when you awake--have a happy thursday!

august 6, 2014

three years ago today, taylor got down on one knee and asked me to be his forever.

we celebrate this day every year, by hiking up to where taylor proposed to me--at the top of stewart falls.

it's so fun to talk about that day as we hike up to the falls--I always ask him the same questions about that day three years ago:

"where you nervous when we were hiking up?"

"where you afraid I would say no?"

"what were you thinking while we hiked up?"

"how did you keep such a good secret!?"

since our day was jam-packed, we decided to wake up at 5:30 and do our traditional hike at sunrise.

and OH MY...it was sooo beautiful!

not to mention that we didn't see a single person on the trail!

just us two and the world.

 it's kind of amazing how just a few days ago we were awe struck at the beauty of new york city--and this morning we were surrounded by a completely different type of beauty!

after reminiscing for a little bit at the top of the falls, we tried our best to take a picture.

the only bummer of being the only ones on the trail, was that no one could take a picture for us!

then we decided to precariously place our camera on a mountain of rocks while we tried to get a picture together that was less of a selfie.

and then! we got even smarter, and decided not to stand in front of the sun.

it's a good thing you can't see the fear in my eyes.

the camera was teetering!

august 6th is such a special day to me.

it's the day that we made the decision to become one.

i can still remember hiking back down that hill three years ago and being the giddiest girl on the planet.

we actually have the proposal on video and it is the cutest thing ever.

i just need to figure out a way to upload it, because it's in a weird file format...

hey taylor! you have homework tonight! ;)

and i guess the hike really took it out of me this morning, because it's 11:30am and I'm currently eating my fourth bowl of cereal. uh whoops.

but look!

here are pictures from the actual day three years ago!

so, dear taylor:

thanks for putting a ring on it.

because you are just about the best thing on this planet.

and i'm so glad I get to call you mine.

(and how ironic is it that I have the EXACT same chipped nail polish on today that I did on the actual day! haha!)

if you ever want to stalk me, go hike stewart falls every august 6th.

i'll be up there even when I'm using a walker.

to see past august 6th posts, see here and here (<--actual proposal story in second one)

playing in NYC to end the summer!

on wednesday night we left on a jet plane to NYC!

it was a redeye flight--which I don't know if I would do again on such a short trip.

we arrived thursday morning at 8am eastern time--and so it was already time to get going on the day!

but MAN were we exhausted!

our whole trip was jam packed with things that everyone wanted to see.

the trip started with two people going.

and then four.

and then six.

I guess when someone says they're going to NYC, everyone wants to join!

but the more the merrier, right? right!

taylor's one job was to find our hotel.

and true to taylor's character, he found the cooooolest hotel ever!

it was about a 10 minute subway ride out of the city.

the hotel is a restored paper factory, and the design is phenomenal.

 if you're going to NYC anytime soon, I definitely recommend this hotel!

after dropping off our luggage and grabbing something to eat near the hotel (we were STARVING!), we headed into the city!

our first stop was strand book store, and taylor and I just about died.

I love that taylor probably loved it even more than I did.

he is the biggest bookworm--always listening to two audio books and reading an actual book at one time. 

it's crazy. haha

but seriously. 

heaven, right?

then we stopped at max brenner's chocolate across the street for the yummmmiest milkshakes.

i got the 80s shake, and it was SO good.

oh, and we also stopped at union square park! so pretty!

we spent some time exploring the streets of NYC while we made our way to friends corner!

and as soon as we saw it, I just about cried.

my sisters and I have been friends fanatics for years.

in fact, there was a period of time from age 17-20 years old where I didn't go a day without watching at least one episode. ha!

it was my go-to whenever I came home stressed from college classes.

so yeah, i was pretty happy about this particular corner of NYC.

then we headed down to the Highline and wowww seriously, SO beautiful!

you have to do that if you're in NYC!

and go through the chelsea market!

we were still so stuffed from our milkshakes so we didn't get any treats, but everything looked sooo yummy.

you get the greatest views on the highline, and it's so cool to look down at the thriving city, but then be completely surrounded by beautiful nature on the highline.

after walking the highline we went to dorado's tacos for dinner.

and my mouth is STILL watering!

I'm not even a huge mexican-food fan, and those tacos were soooo good!

we were lucky enough to meet up with one my cute friends, ellee, who now lives in NYC.

she was the cutest tour guide as she took us around to times square and rockefeller center.

and it was nice to not have to look at our phones every two seconds for directions, but instead just follow ellee around.

and to end our day, we decided to go down and see the LDS temple. 

it is right across from the Lincoln Center, so we stopped and relaxed on the steps of the lincoln center and took some really bad quality pictures.

and by the time we got back to the hotel, we all just crashed.

such a great first day in NYC!

more to come!

we're going to NYC!

we're leaving on a plane to NYC today!

I surprised taylor on sunday night with tickets to Wicked on Broadway ON his actual birthday!
he's a pretty lucky boy to spend his birthday in NYC.

He's been dying to see Wicked on Broadway for awhile, so I think I "won" on this gift.

I am rushing to get everything done before we leave, but we could NOT be more excited!

our trip is jam packed with fun things.

follow me on instagram to see our adventures!!

peace out, utah!

improptu family pictures

on our last day in colorado, we realized we should probably take a family picture together with all 30+ of us together!

that idea suddenly turned into pictures that lasted for an hour--with every combination of pictures possible:

grandkids, grandkids with grandma, all girls, all boys, great grandkids, everyone with the letter "K," everyone named mark

(okay, I made up the "k" one, but the "mark" one was definitely for real)

the whole group picture wasn't on my camera, so I'll have to snag that one from someone later.

but look! it's my whole little immediate family!

when i'm with these people, i'm my happiest self.

and the wonderful woman and kids who started this whole mess!

and can we stop and look at how beautiful my mom is? geesh.

then I tried really hard to get a picture of me with all of my nephews and niece.

it didn't quite work out.

but man, these kiddos are my heart.

and it's really sad that they don't look happy to be taking this picture with me.

but also, let's talk about how awesome it is to be an aunt.

I get to play with them and then hand them over when they stink or start to cry.

^all of the great-grandkids right now are just from my siblings. but these boys and this girl are just too much.

^sisters! and if chris ever finds someone to marry him, we'll get a SIXTH! does life get more fun?

oh, and then this couple here:

didn't mean to wear the same color pants.

oh well.

i like this picture anyway.

hey family! i love you bunches!