::the last bit::

Sunday was essentially our last full day since we were flying out the next morning. We got up and went to see the San Diego temple. If you haven't seen it in person, you should. It's truly amazing. So striking and attractive.
Sand enjoyed touching all the foliage and we just tried to keep Max's ebullience from being too inappropriate.

The only slight downside to the location we could come up with is that it's by the freeway, so there's a lot of traffic noise. But the benefit of that is high visibility. It's pretty amazing to come around the corner and see those crazy rocket ship spires right there!


Awww, cute brothers. I know Max looks like a beach bum here, by the way. You don't have to tell me.

After the temple we went and met up with Blake and Brooke again so we could go to Blake's home ward. It was fun and Kris got to see one of his old roomates that we haven't seen in ten years. That was pretty great.
Here's a photo of the three roomies together--just missing one!


After church was over we went home and lazed around and said our farewells to the beach. If only we could've stayed a bit longer--but then we'd have wanted to stay another bit longer. When would we ever have come home? Max and I could bum around on the beach for an awfully long time.

It was a great trip, so glad we did it!

::more NM::

The sky in NM is so beautiful! I don't know if it's because the elevation is so high or what, but it's just gorgeous. Unless there's a big storm of course.
Here's the Albuquerque temple:



We got to run by it on the way to the airport heading back to UT.
And here is a view of Albuquerque's rocky mountains from near the temple. The mountains are reminiscent of Utah valley.

What do you think?
And it's not hot. Like I said before, there's winter. It was about 40 or 50 degrees in Albuquerque while we were there, and around 20s and 30s in Santa Fe.

::NYC week 2 day 1::

We're back in the big city!
We got here on sunday. The plan was for us to attend the ward that this house we're staying in would belong to.
Unfortunately, traffic did not cooperate! We forgot that it was the end of a long weekend (4th of july) and it was pretty packed all the way through Connecticut. Accidents didn't help with that either. We left in plenty of time to make it to sacrament meeting, but ended up arriving much too late. So that was too bad.

To make up for it we hopped on the subway and rode uptown to visit the Manhattan temple. We came up the stairs from the subway and were trying to figure out where we needed to go from there. I looked up and there was Moroni! It was kind of weird. The spire is really the first thing you see from that particular stairway.

I guess it's a kind of small temple with a meeting house somewhere in the same building where the Manhattan ward usually meets (when it's not being renovated like right now)
The building is a lot shorter than some others around it, but it's really neat looking. We peeked in the door and saw some pretty stained glass.

Those things on the side that look like windows actually aren't. I think they're some sort of metal decoration. They're really pretty. Kris says he's heard that it's really quiet and serene in that temple, which is amazing because the street out there is so busy!

We walked across the street to the Lincoln Center and got a better view.

It's really just smack dab in the middle of the action. Very cool.

Then Max had an emergency poop episode. All I can say is, thank goodness for Barnes and Noble and their bathrooms. They've saved us more than once.

Have I written here before about the fact that Max loves the subway? Well he does. He LOVES the trains. And it doesn't hurt that they're all designated with letters (and a few with numbers) It's really exciting to him when we go on the N train or the F train or whatever. He can tell the difference and really likes paying attention to which train we need and which trains we've been on.
I like the trains too for a lot of reasons. It's really convenient to ride them, it's cheaper than driving and it means I don't have to drive in this city, which is good because if I did have to drive I wouldn't come!
What I don't like about them? How hot and dirty the stations are. Yuck. With how hot it is out here right now, I feel like the second I step down into one of those stations I'm all sweat. So gross.
But all in all I'm a big fan of public transportation like this. I don't really like buses for some reason, but I really like trains.


This is the stop right by the place we're staying.



This place has a shower with sliding doors. I don't really know how to describe it--it's like there are three different panels, and the two on the sides can slide to either side depending on where you need them. Anyway, the point of this is that Max likes to pretend those shower doors are subway doors. He's always pretending different trains are coming and that he's getting in or out. I've gotten him to take a shower every single day because of this. It's been fabulous.


Poor Kris, good thing this trip isn't much longer or else I'm afraid his neck will end up broken. Shoulder riding is really the only way he can carry Max for any long period of time, and that needs to happen a lot out here. When Max gets tired he slumps down on Kris's head and rests his head on his arms. He did it to me one time for like two seconds and I almost died. He is so heavy. Kris is a trooper.


And it didn't help that on Sunday Dora decided to come with us on our outing. Max informed us that she was there, and the she was riding on HIS shoulders. That couldn't have helped!

Kris made this picture and then showed it to Max the next day. He laughed with glee for like 10 minutes straight. He thought it was so awesome.

It's so fun to get to spend time together. I like the city and all, but that's really the reason Max and I came back. And so far it's going well!