7 Years Already?

Okay. I am just going to be straight with you. If you don't want to hear about what Nathan did to surprise me for our 7th Anniversary and all about what a great husband he is etc., etc. please feel free to stop reading now. My feelings won't be hurt and I would rather have you stop reading now than read it and send me hate mail...Yeah. It's that good.

So Nathan used to blow me away with his thoughtful and nice gifts. But- as in many relationships you get going in life and focused on parenting and work and it had been a while since either of us had done something for the other that was over the top. I guess I thought maybe that phase of things was over. But about a week ago Nathan told me he had something for our anniversary planned. He had been planning it for months and had taken care of every detail including the overnight babysitters (the Bells who will here after be referred to as 'the Saints'!). About 24 hours before we were to leave he informed me we would be flying to New York for the weekend! I could not believe it- I thought it was mean of him to joke in this manner...he wasn't joking. By Friday morning at 8am we were driving into Manhattan to the Hyatt Hotel which is literally right next to Grand Central Station. I was such a tourist with my nose pressed to the glass of the cab trying to take in all of the sky scrapers and the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple. Let's see...The cabbies. Let's start there. Driving in D.C. is more aggressive than Boise to be sure. But even that could only prepare me so much for driving in N.Y.C. First of all- everyone honks ALL the time. If the horn on your car is broken the car would be worthless. I had a hard time figuring out the rules of honking because they didn't seem to be consistent. For example: When the light turns green you don't even have a chance to move your foot from the brake to the gas before 5 cars behind you are honking at you to get moving. But if you are in the left hand lane and you decide to turn to the right - across the guy sitting in the right hand lane next to you, this does not get you honked at...so puzzling. And staying in your lane? What does that mean?! Those little white lines on the road seemed to be more of a suggestion of lane boundaries than a hard fast rule. A practice that tested the strength of my antiperspirant on more than one occasion.

First off we met our old friends from Provo who now live in New York -Alan and Malene- for brunch at a really yummy restaurant. That was great because we got the real scoop of big city life and I was completely fascinated by it. Then Nathan and I spent the day walking around the city. We saw Ground Zero (pic. 2) which in a word was sobering. We saw Trump Towers (pic.1) where couldn't resist pursing our lips together like a duck and saying ' Your Fired!' while shooting our hands forward like an attacking snake. We saw lots of shops and sights and when our feet had had enough we took the subway (and oh my goodness, I thought the metros in D.C. were less than savory!!! The D.C. metros are spotless compared to N.Y.-I guess it is all relative) back to our hotel and got ready for dinner.