Basketball Saturday. 

Jamie had 2 games --one at 11:30 the other at 2:00, so we took her friend

 Lauren Quayle from Lake Arrowhead ward, to "The Village"  for lunch in between games.  They won both games and have only lost 1 game this season.  Championship game and trophies are next Saturday at 4:00.. 

We met up with their teammate and friend, Shannon Sullivan.And if Jamie's two games were not enough, we drove down to Meagan and John's to have dinner and  watch the BYU vx. Kansas game,( which turned out to be a huge disappointment.)  At least we got to see Macie, Meagan and John!Emily and Andrew on the couch at Meagan's.   Macie  and Em in front of Meagan and John's house.

Macie falls asleep in Meagan's arms. I brought her the book Peter Rabbit and read it to her. (At least I pointed out the characters to her.)  She seemed interested!  She will be 5 months next week.

March 5 2010 Live from New York

Central Park, the NBC gift shop, the temple (below--right above Ann and Judie's heads) and Magnolia Bakery. We were disappointed the temple was closed for cleaning, but we did get to peak through some beautiful doors and see the gorgeous stained glass window in the foyer.

30 Rockefeller Plaza

Judie and Janene's 50th Birthday Bash in New York

Judie blows out the candle for her 50th birthday.

We are seranaded.

Janene and I at Mama Mia Restaurant

Relaxing in our hotel room at the New York Marriott Eastside.

When I turned 50 in 2008, Judie flew out from Houston and she and Janene treated me to a wonderful couple of days in San Diego where we went to the Hotel Del Coronado Spa, kyaked in the ocean and went out to dinner. It was very fun. I wanted to do something special for their 50th birthday. So I saved up the buddy plane passes I trade for giving piano lessons and gave each of them a plane ticket. They wanted to go to New York for our get away, so on Judie's actual birthday, March 4th, (Janenes was in December) we had our get away. I left my house at 2:30 a.m. and drove to Torrance. Janene's husband Craig drove us to LAX then went home and drove kids to seminary and went to work (HATS OFF TO CRAIG) We met Judie in Chicago where we all took a plane to New York. The conversation didn't lag much with the 3 of us gabbing. We stayed at the New York Marriott Eastside. For Judie's birthday dinner we went to Mama Mexico restaurant. Who knew you could get good Mexican food in New York! Delicioso! The next day we got up and went exploring. We ended up at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. We saw Al Roker from the Today Show in person and took a tour of the NBC studios. We visited the Plaza Hotel, Central Park, the Manhattan Temple, Julliard School, and saw the ball that drops in Time Square on New Years Eve. We went to the Broadway play "Westside Story" at the Palace theater and ate at Chipotle for lunch. We had a snack at famous Magnolia Bakery, (Janene has their cookbook. ) We would have gone to Brooklyn for pizza, but we ran out of time.

The Big Apple with Judie and Janene

Saturday morning we got up and walked to Times Square where we picked up our hop on hop off double decker bus tour. After lunch we headed to the Lincoln Center to see the Broadway Play "South Pacific." We learned on our tour that a Broadway play doesn't have to be on the street of Broadway, it just has to be in a theater in Manhattan that seats over 1,000 people. An off Broadway theater seats 500 and an off off Broadway theater seats 250. The talent was amazing and the singing superb. We spent the evening seeing the sights of Manhattan and going out to dinner. We went to "Crumbs" bakery for dessert where they have many types of creative cupcakes.

Trains, Planes and Automobiles

In More pictures of our last day in New York. We took a cruise to Statten Island and had lunch there at Au Bon Pain. There a was good view of the Statue of Liberty.

Lady Liberty wanna be's in Time Square. We ate at Sapporo Restaurant, which Janene is pointing to in the upper left picture--not the bar next to it. I ate almost a whole bowl of kimchee with my sukiyaki. It was very delicious and reminded me of the good food I ate on my mission.

So good to be home after our 23 hour trip back to California. Janene and I left the Marriott at 2:30 a.m., grabbed a cab to Penn station, took the Long Island Railroad to Ronconkama, speeded by shuttle to McArthur Airport in Islip Long Island, flew to Las Vegas, got bumped off our flight and spent the day at the airport, finally catching a flight that was delayed 2 and a half hours, to Ontario, picked up 1/2 hour late by Christian because on his way to pick us up,, a semi truck full of carrots had tipped over on the freeway (carrots everywhere.) Christian then drove us to LAX where our luggage ended up at the last minute because there was no room in the overhead bins at Islip . (Christian you're a saint for helping us out so willlingly.) We then dropped a very tired Janene off at her dad's birthday dinner in Torrance, picked up my car in front of Janene's, drove the two hours back to the mountains, and now you know why I am so glad to be home!
I was so glad to see Andrew, Christian and the girls again. I always get a little homesick when I travel.

Thanks Judie and Janene for your patience with my travel arrangements and for the many fun memories we created. I hope your 50's are the best decade of your life.

There's no place like home

Megan Stevenson's Wedding

All the single ladies......meet my cousin ...Dr. Christian Heywood. MEBILA. Figure that one out. My husband Andrew and cousin Brian Stevenson from St. George. Cousin Dan Stevenson from Chino Hills in the background.

My cousin Janell Hallfrom Glendora and her father, my Uncle Leon Stevenson from Santa Clara, UT.
In the picture to the above right is My bro-in - law John Baker, my sis Karen from Rancho Santa Margarita and cousin Anne Marie Stevenson from Chino Hills

February 27, 2010 we went to Megan Stevenson's wedding reception in Arcardia. She married in the LA temple and is now Mrs. (or sister) Card. Everything was lovely. The chocolate fountain was a big hit.

4 generation lunch

Last Thursday my mom drove up to Redlands and we had a 4 generation lunch. Yep, it was Me, Mom, Meagan and Macie at Mimi's.