Teri and Ed

This is Teri and Ed. We first met them 7 years ago when we had them as tour guides in New York. That first year Teri's dad passed away and she was suppose to take our group around the city. Ed filled in for her and we fell in love with him. Then Teri came back and we fell in love with her. They are some of the most generous people we've met. They have offered their apartments if we ever want to go to the city just on a spree. They take such good care of us and always want to know about our family. We love them!!

If RyLeigh and I were a singing group . . .

So, if RyLeigh and I were a singing group, this is what we would look like. Her with the microphone and me with a very large . . . martini glass. A street artist drew this in times square tonight and it cracks me up. She loves it. We both agree, we make this look good!
Oh PS, I hate that I forgot to rotate the picture in the blog below, then I added it after I changed it and now there's too. But oh well. Whatever.

Pouring Rain in Central Park!

Here we are in the pouring rain as we walked through Central Park. It was awesome. Notice the fountain in the picture. That's the fountain from Enchanted, Mr Deeds, and numerous other shows. We have been everywhere today! A boat ride around Manhattan, to Chinatown and LIttle Italy and then to Central Park. I love this City!

"Igor" (pronoucned Eye-gor)

Okay, so we went to see Young Frankenstien last night which was seriously the dirtiest show ever. Sex jokes everywhere and the 'F' word. Once. I didn't know it would be that bad and I felt terrible taking a bunch of Kaysville people to it! Anyway, this is my bestest friend Syd who, during the show, leaned over and said she wanted to be my 'Igor.' Then we looked at each other and laughed for about ten mintues. Why? I don't know. At the time it was very funny. Maybe because she's short. ANyway, here we are and I wanted to take a picture with her in Times Square. She wanted to be Igor.

At The Temple

Cassi, my sweet cousin and I outside the Manhattan Temple. Of bunch of kids and some adults went yesterday and did baptisms for the dead. It was so great. I am so glad we made the effort to go. The temple worker commended the kids for dresing up when they came. They all looked beautiful. Anyway, I was so happy to share this with CAssie. I don't see her very often, so it was good to be religious together. Ryan got to baptize her. Good times in the City.

My Carnegie Hall Debut

This is seriously the coolest thing that has ever happened to me. I took a tour of Carnegie Hall with my sister Shel, her husband Rob and my cousin Melissa and her family. It's the most beautiful building. Red velvet seats and gold railings inside. The acoustics are absolutely perfect. The best in the world and no one knows why. Like, the guy who made it made it out of steel and steel normally has no warmth to it. Anyway, at the beginning of the tour the tour guide asked if anyone in the group sang. I raised my hand and he said, "Later, why don't you open your mouth and sing for us." And we all laughed and I thought nothing of it. WE get into the hall and we are standing down by the stage looking up at all the seats and he says, "Okay dear, go ahead." I about died. I didn't think he was serious. Here I am, in Carnegie Hall, with the chance to sing and I can't think of a dang song to sing! So he suggested "America the BEautiful." And I thought, okay, thats in my range. I said I wasn't very good and he said this isn't for anyone but you to feel what this feels like. I thought that was an interesting way to put it. But I started singing, and it felt so good, and when the sound came back at me, it went straight to my chest and reverberated right in my sternum. It was the coolest feeling I have ever felt. I had to stop singing cuz it almost made me cry. It was awesome. Anyway, here's my shirt. YEA!

Top of the Rock!

At the top of Rockefeller Center Observation tower. This will give her Grammy Thorne a heart attack but yes, she climbed up on the ledge. Sort of. That behind us is Central Park. It is so beautiful.

The Lion King

Here we are at The Lion King last night. It's the most amazing production I've ever seen. Just her and I went and I started to cry the minute the music started. She had to call her dad, Grammy Sherie and Grammy Thorne during intermission. I was so happy to share that with her last night!

In the CITY!

Here we are on our way out to the Statue of Liberty! The plane ride to New York, well, it sucked. No one slept. Then we dropped off our luggage and went right out to catch the ferry to Liberty Island. RyLeigh has been an awesome traveler! She loves the city and I knew she would. I love these pictures. I have to have someone teach me how to do a slide show. But until then, you get one picture (or two) at a time.

The Burger Queen

I have a few minutes before I leave for New York(!!!!) so i thought I would post these. She wore this around the house for like 45 minutes. When I finally got the camera out she tore the hat off and chucked it. I forced her to put it back on. She has her free agency of course. As long as I'm in charge of it.

Oh, I do so love summer!

I just have to say what a great summer I am having. Even with our two weeks of health trauma, I am relaxed, getting some much needed rest and playtime with my family. I love getting up and fixing breakfast for the wee ones. Okay, so it's totally usally cereal, but I have to find a bowl and get the milk out and find a spoon. So, there's work involved there. But I love playing Uno with my little Duncan, and chasing Amylee around my kitchen table. I've already read my first book and am halfway through my second. Next week I'm off to New York!!! Wa-hoo!! With Ryan and my RyLeigh (I can't wait! We are going to see Lion King) and about 37 other family members, friends and awesome students from the high school. I have been working out with my beautiful sister-in-law every night. We go walk the track and run stairs at the high school by my house. She motivates me to push harder. I get to sit and love and kiss on her new baby this summer. Visit with my courageous mother-in-law as she fights the cancer, and take dinner to my mom in the rehabilitation center. I'm a real person in the summer. I don't have people saying, "Mrs. Thorne," every five seconds. I don't have deadlines. My most important decision of the day is what to make for dinner. I make muffins. I read the paper! That never happens during the school year. I sit on the love sack and watch an afternoon movie with Dunc. I help my RyLeigh organize her room and we paint fingernails. All this may sound trivial, but it's things I don't get to do 9 months out of the year. I am not complaining mind you. I love, love my job. But it feels so good to be normal for three months. Well, as normal as can be expected.

Amylee and Cottage Cheese

This was Amylee's first encounter with Cottage Cheese. She was freaked out by the texture at first. I mean, who isn't? Then she started to really dig wearing it. I love these pictures. We just dumped her in the bath when it was over.

What are the odds?!?!

Seriously, what are the odds of two people having the same side of their mouth absess the same time? Sunday, my tooth absessed and I wanted to shoot myself in the head, it would have been less painful. Ry has been dealing with a tooth for a while but his finally sent him to the chair. My tooth came out Monday night by a very nice oral surgeon who assured me that being under, all the way under, was really the best way to go. So, in the morning at 7, Ry gets to have his taken out. By same said surgeon. This, along wtih Amylee's ER visit, her ear infections (which really weren't ear infections), RyLeigh's pink eye, Duncan puking for three days, we are officially done with being sick at our house. It has also put a dent in the New York fund. But I can scrimp in the city if it means I don't feel like I have a nail being shoved into my sinus cavity. A shout out here to my beautiful sisters-in-law Kristie and Natalie for taking care of me and my kids while I was drugged for two days straight. Thanks you guys! I love you.

Lee-lee's Ouchie

Well, we had our first trip to the emergency room with Amylee. Come to think of it, it was our first trip with any of our kids. I'll have to ask Ry to verify that one. We were at a wedding reception and RyLeigh was walking with Amy to the van. I ran back in to get Amy's shoe I left on the book table. When I turned around, RyLeigh was standing there, holding Amy who had blood gushing out her nose and mouth. I tried not to panick and ran to the bathroom. I was trying to wipe the blood off but it just kep coming. I thought for sure she had broken her nose. She just wanted me to hold her, so after a few more wipes I picked her up and held her to me. At that point, she went limp in my arms. I moved her to a cradle position in my arms and she was out. I couldn't get her to respond to me. Her eyes rolled in the back of her head. It was at this point that I panicked. One of my friends ran to get Ryan who was videotaping the bride and groom's first dance. We couldn't rouse her and her eyes were dialated. WE found a dentist who came and said he didn't think she looked too good and we should probably take her in. Then he added, "But her teeth look great." Nice. Idiot, I can get new ones of those. A broken head can't be so easily found.
I took RyLeigh with me to try to keep Amy awake. We got to the ER where they asked if she had thrown up. I said no. Apparently that's an immediate sign of brain injury. Didn't know that. And with little ones, a brain injury will manifest itself in minutes. With adults, it takes a day or two because our brains are shrinking, and thus have a space between our skull and brains. Babies brains are squished in there.
Anyway, after a few minutes in ER she started to come around and was back to her old cusshead self in about 30 minutes. We stayed for x-rays, just in case. It doesn't look too bad in the picture. This was two days after said accident. Now she's just bruised.

Long Time, No Blog . . .

The end of the school year is always completely out of control. We took these pictures about a month ago of Duncan being a pirate, one of his favorite things to do. I haven't had time to sit and update our blog until tonight. How damn cute is this kid? I'm not kidding, I love him. He is hilarious. I had the annual Advanced Theater cabin retreat last weekend. I walked downstairs and he was lying on the bed watching a movie with Bre (who is gorgeous), Jud and Joni. He was snuggled right up against Bre. I told him it was only okay to do this because he was five. He said alright. Then he tried to put his arm around Bre and tickle her neck. But it was Jud's neck and duncan didn't know that. Jud said, "Hey, Dunc, that's me." To which Duncan replied, "oh, sorry man."