New York (Part III)

The last day we were in New York we visited our friend, Christina. She took us to the most amazing place for brunch called Max Brenners. He is a chef that specializes in chocolate. Need I say more!

Even though it was 10:30 in the morning, we all felt the need to try some dessert. Gabe solved that for us, he ordered a chocolate sampler! It had everything- brownies, fondue, dark chocolate shot, chocolate egg roll, and a chocolate chip waffle. Sounds a little strange at first, but it was genius. I ordered a spinach crepe and Christina ordered blueberry pancakes with blood orange syrup. I have to say it was one of the best meals of my life. Not only was the chocolate good, that crepe came straight from heaven as far as I'm concerned. I'm pretty sure this place will have to become a repeat every time I go to NY.



Not too far from the restaurant we ventured to a store I had been reading about called Fish's Eddy. It was a charming home store with all kinds of fun antique items and interesting pieces.

They had this really cute "cheer up" line and these porcelain hands are made from rubber glove molds. I bought a miniature one to hold my rings. I was collecting ideas for a future house someday.

Isn't this fun art work? We found it in the subway on our way to the airport. Makes the subway a little more inviting I think. :)

We are so happy we were able to make the trip to NY. The first few days we were there we stayed in CT with our friends Brenda and Braden, so it was fun to see the calm side of life not too far from the city. Then Christina let us stay at her place in the Bronx too so we got to see all kinds of places. Thanks so much to our friends for letting us stay. We had an amazing time!

New York (Part II)



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After our lovely afternoon spent seeing the boat house, bethesda fountain and belvedere's castle we headed over to The Museum of Natural History

I would like to take this time to publicly make you all aware that my husband is a subway/public transport genius in NYC. We downloaded subway apps on our phones which helped, but we never got lost, not once. He would just grab my hand tight and weave me through tons of people and we always made it to the right place. Without him I would have curled up in a ball somewhere that would have inevitably smelled.

Thank you husband!

Okay, that was a bit of a tangent. After the museum we headed to midtown to eat at a great pizza place we heard about called Bella Vita. It was delicious!!!

After leaving the little pizza joint it began to pour!! Pour, I tell you. So, we made a quick deicison to hide in a delicatessen. "But we just ate dinner," I mentioned to husband. So, the next best thing was cheesecake. I only remembered to take a picture when we were almost done. Oops. It was heavenly though!

I'm sure you can imagine.

When it stopped raining we headed to see this..

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We loved it!!!! Loved it! I didn't know much about the show going in, but our friend, Jessica Rush was performing in it so we decided to see it. So worth it. I didn't realize how many of the songs I recognized. It was so well done. Everyone was awesome. We both highly recommend seeing this show!

That wraps up the end of day two in the city. Was that long or what??

New York (Part I)

The weekend before coming to Utah, Gabe and I traveled to New York for a few days. He worked with his voice teacher and had a meeting with an agent, and I just went for fun. Here are some pictures to sum up our adventure on Day 1 in the city.

I forgot to mention it rained a lot. Bummer. Although it made the sunny moments even more special!

After playing with his nephew, Aiden in Orlando someones love for Legos came back full force!

If you love to sew or knit, this is like mecca. Beautiful shop!

We had dinner in Little Italy to finish our day. We had the cannoli before dinner of course!

 These streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you, lets hear it for new york

New York blog lovin'

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Next month Gabe and I are taking a little trip to NYC. He has some business to attend to and I have really been wanting to go since his last adventurous trip. So, we decided to go together this time. In honor of our new york trip I have been doing some research on some of my favorite blogs for ideas about what to do and where to eat. I'm sure I'll give you the full run down on what we end up doing, but here are some of the places we'd like to visit.

***Natalie of Nat the Fat Rat gave some suggestions on what's worth seeing and what's not.

She also taught me that some of New York's most popular museums are run on a suggested donation system. The $20 fee is optional! Yippie skippy. $40 to visit a museum seemed kind of steep. Now, maybe we can "suggest" something else.

***Katy of No Big Dill took an awesome trip to the city with her family and I am dying to shop in some of those stores! Look at this second installment too.

***Naomi of Rockstar Diaries writes about lovely food here and shopping here

I can't wait!!! Do you have any suggestions about where to go?

Singing it up in the Big Apple!

In November and December Gabe travelled to NYC twice. The first time he was there for less that 24 hours, the second trip he was there just over a week. He sang like singing is his job. Oh wait...

So, one of the auditions that he set up was with Utah Festival Opera. It's a summer festival that takes place in Logan, Utah and it was founded by this guy...

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Do you recognize him yet?

His name is Michael Ballam, pretty widely known within the LDS church. He is an opera singer, professor, and founder of UFO.



See, this whole thing was very interesting. Do you ever have moments or things that happen when you know God had a direct hand in them? I mean I believe He really does have His hand in everything, but sometimes we don't realize it right away. 

Mr. Ballam, while in NYC, stayed with Gabe's sister-in-law, Alex's Uncle.

(Breakdown: Gabe's brother Garrett married Alex. Her Parent's are Joel and Genean. Joel's Brother lives in NYC and kindly hosted Mr. Ballam)

This worked in Gabe's favor, because there had been talk that Gabe would be singing for him.

When Gabe showed up at the audition he found out after the fact that he was an ENTIRE DAY LATE.

Someone needs to keep a more organized calendar. It's really quite shocking because he is so careful about these things. So, everyone thought that Gabe had changed his mind about coming for the audition and they were surprised to see him, but graciously heard him anyway. He sang in the building where the Manhattan Temple is located. Wanna know what else...he loved his voice. He was soooo complementary to Gabe and offered him a position this summer at UFO (You can see more details about dates and roles if you click on upcoming performances on the sidebar).

The next day, Gabe went to Sacrament Meeting with him and sat beside him at church. Then Gabe left, as he had other plans. Mr. Ballam stayed for an additional sacrament meeting to see friends and ended up singing a special musical number with Donny and Marie Osmond. Gabe missed it. Such is life. That's okay. They had brunch later and he told him all about it.

Let's hope this is the beginning of something great!

Moral of the story:

-We'll be in Logan, Utah this summer (anyone close?)

-Never show up to an audition late, but it helps if they are forgiving.

-Sacrament Meetings in NYC are exciting.