Next to Last Week!

(This post is a bit out of order, but I don't know how to fix that. It should be above the 4th of July post.)
Because Hayley's friend, Megan, was here last week we got to re-visit some of our favorite places. We also saved some things just for her visit, like the elevator ride to the top of the Washington Monument. It was amazing to see the view! We felt like we were saying goodbye to old friends.


To the West: the WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Constitution Gardens, Arlington Bridge, Roosevelt Island, and the Kennedy Center.

To the East: the United States Capitol, the Supreme Court (back left), and the Library of Congress (back right).

T0 the South: the Tidal Basin, Jefferson Memorial, 14th Street Bridge, and Ronald Reagan International Airport.



To the North: the White House.


Farther to the North: the LDS Temple. Isn't that cool?!

This is the Declaration of Independence in the National Archives. It was amazing to see the originals of these incredible documents.

Mara, Mark, and Jeffrey and I bought hot dogs from a street vendor and shared with a squirrel in the sculpture garden. Mark was astounded that we actually bought lunch from a vendor! We never buy lunch!

A sea turtle in the National Aquarium. We don't recommend the aquarium. It was rather underwhelming.


We got to go to the National Zoo one more time! And Mount Vernon too (my fifth time!)


The most incredible thing we did last week was take a tour of the White House and Capitol with Senator Bennett's (R-Utah) wife. We met her at church and she generously offered to take us for a personal tour to places that the general public doesn't get to go. It was a highlight of our entire 4 months here! This is a hallway in the Senate wing of the Capitol. It was beautifully painted. The artist worked on the Capitol for 25 years.

This is the room where the Senate Appropriations Committee meets. It was very beautiful. We got to ride the underground tram from the Senate offices to the Capitol! We saw Senator Leahy, Senator Bennett, and Senator McCain! We also got to see the House in a voting session. It was chaotic! And very interesting.

We are glad you came Megan! We got to revisit our favorite places!

24 Hours in the Big Apple

From Palmyra we drove across the state to New York City!


There are a lot of pictures in this post. It was hard to cut them out. We felt like we were on a different planet for a day. The sights and sounds and smells were all so different from what seems normal for us. It was only 24 hours, but it was enough to get a good feel for the city.

We started with window shopping on 5th avenue.

Rockefeller Center

Goofing around in the Harry Potter section at FAO Schwarz.
Hansen budget travel tip: go for a window shopping walk on a Sunday so the kids won't beg to buy anything. (Of course this only works if your family is unaccustomed to shopping on Sundays.)




Now this is the real Lego Star Wars!


Central Park had some very colorful characters hanging around.

Statue of Liberty Guy . . .

Hansen budget travel tip: if someone is charging money to pose for pictures with them, stand to the side where they can't see you and get your shot for free!

Street dancers . . .


and a very colorful weirdo with his spray painted doggy.


We liked this little guy the best. There were at least five young raccoons in this tree. They lived in the hollow where this one is sitting.



Some more wild life in Central Park.

Time for a break and some dinner in Columbus Circle.

Times Square at night blew us away! We were enthralled with the lights, the billboards, the crowds . . .


Harry Potter was everywhere! Much to the delight of the kids!

Monday morning we took the Subway downtown to Battery Park. The NY subway much more complex than the DC metro!

The kids couldn't believe it when we said "Yes!" to having street artists do chalk drawings of us. We think these girls from Russia were apprentices or something because they were cheap and they weren't that good. :)

We sure had fun though! It will be a great,happy memory for us.


We took the Staten Island Ferry across the bay to see the Statue of Liberty. It is a free ferry.

Hansen budget travel tip: Always take advantage of the free stuff!

We walked past Trinity Church and Wall Street to the World Trade Center, aka Ground Zero. Almost eight years later there is still a huge void and a very busy construction site. It brought back a lot of memories of that terrible day. It is hard to describe how we felt actually being there.

The building that houses this pizza shop was completely destroyed on 9/11.

Hansen budget travel tip: always share your dinners--serving sizes are too big anyway. Carry your own water so you don't have to buy drinks.

Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building. This one's for you Mom! (She used to work in the Chrysler Building for General Foods when my dad was at Cornell Medical School--we were in their old stomping grounds!)

Having a taste of authentic gelato.

Hansen budget travel tip: buy one large gelato and share. Everyone gets a couple of spoonfuls and no one feels deprived! This frugality has a bonus because on the rare occasion that you buy everyone their own gelato the kids are so surprised that they think you are the best parents in the world!


The kids really wanted to go back to FAO Schwarz to blow some money, but the walk was too long and we were too tired. So off to nearby M&M World instead. Mara was the only one with money left to spend, but they all had fun anyway!

Hmmm . . . Jeff didn't know what to think about that!

It was a crazy busy weekend! It seems like we packed a weeks worth of sights into three days (Palmyra included). The kids were amazing walkers in that big, big city. No complaints! We loved it!

Palmyra, NY

On Friday, July 17, we drove Megan to the airport, packed our bags, and waited for Emily to get home from a week at church Girls Camp. She finally arrived, happy but tired, and we quickly washed her clothes and packed her up again. We were headed for Palmyra and NYC! (Emily is on the far left in the picture. She would also like it to be known that it almost killed her to go on this trip so soon after Girls Camp, she was soooo tired!)

On Saturday we spent the day exploring the church history sites in Palmyra. This is a monument on the top of the Hill Cumorah in memory of the miraculous way that Joseph Smith received the golden plates from the angel Moroni.

This is the small log cabin (restored) that Joseph Smith was raised in, along with his 10 siblings.

This is the room that Joseph was sleeping in when he first met Moroni and was told of the ancient record that was buried in the nearby hillside.

The beautiful Palmyra temple overlooking the Sacred Grove.

The Sacred Grove is behind us.

We had a great experience exploring the Sacred Grove. It was raining when we first visited, so we came back later in the afternoon. There truly was a sacred feeling in that grove of trees. To think that this is where God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ appeared to the young Joseph is almost overwhelming. Mark said, "I feel like I am walking where Jesus walked."

Later that night we found our seats for the Cumorah Pageant.

This is the amazing stage.


The opening scene included the entire cast of 600. It was a fantastic pageant about the Book of Mormon with Hollywood special effects! Sadly, a thunderstorm came through right before the finale. We huddled under a blanket during the downpour waiting for it to blow over. They had to cancel the last ten minutes of the show. :( We loved what we saw though!

On Sunday morning we had a family devotional near the Grove. It was a special time for our family as we all expressed our feelings for the Gospel and for the Restoration that came through Joseph Smith. We are so blessed and grateful to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in it's fullness! This is why we need to share it with the world. How can we keep this to ourselves?!