Wendy's Convention

This year the Wendy's convention was located in Philadelphia!  It is almost always in Las Vegas, so when I heard of a different location I wanted to go!  We planned the trip so we could stay in town for the Emotion Bowl on Friday and then be back in town for Braeden and Carson's football games on Wednesday night!  It was a success we didn't miss any of the kids activities this time!!!  First stop:  New York, oh man I love that town.  It is such a fun place to visit.  We were there for 27 hours and managed to fit in:

*Taxi ride from airport to hotel

*Walked 6 blocks of Farmers Market trying all kinds of food, gyro, fried ice cream, 

fried oreo, burrito and a mozzarella cheese patty thing

*American Girl store for the girls

*Saw Rockefeller Center

*Saw Mary Poppins on Broadway

*Road on the subway

*Visited the 9/11 Memorial

*Went shopping for the boys

*Saw Wicked on Broadway

*Ate at Chipolte

*Sat on the bleachers at Times Square to people watch

*Went to Madison Square Garden to catch the Amtrak train to Philadelphia

It was sooooo fun.  The two broadway shows were amazing as always.  The kids in Mary Poppins did so good and the stage props were unbelievable.  Wicked, I can't say enough about Wicked.  That show was jaw dropping fabulous.  I have to take my kids back.  We stayed at the Marriott Marquis.  Which in this first picture is the building with the Kodak adds on it.  So we were right on Times Square.  It was so cool.  We were on floor 34.  The 9/11 Memorial was so peaceful and an amazing sight.  The whole 27 hours was just a blast.  I am already looking forward to my next trip back!

Next stop Philadelphia!  We road the amtrak right from downtown to Philly then hopped on another train that took us right to the Convention Center which was connected to the Marriott we stayed at.  We didn't go outside once and was in our hotel room!  Pretty slick.  

We had two days in Philadelphia:

*Convention Meetings

*Visited Love Park

*Hard Rock Cafe

*Took a bus tour around the city

*Liberty Bell

*Independence Hall

*Betsy Ross House

*Ate ate "The Market" downtown

(about a hundred different vendors to choose from)

*Climbed the "Rocky" steps

*Ate a Philly Cheese Steak at Sonny's

*Walked up and down the streets

Philadelphia is definitely a Government run city.  Everything closes at 5:00, it is dirty and the homeless are everywhere.  There is a lot of American History but is not my favorite place to visit and don't plan to return anytime soon!

The kids did so good while we were gone!  It was so fun to come home to a decorated house and kids so excited to see us.  They always look forward to all the Souvenirs we bring home to them.  I can't wait to take them back with us, I love all the different American experiences we get to experience in the good old United States of America!!!  A special thanks to Todd and Rob for letting me tag along!  Thanks to Wendy's for a different location and thanks to Classic Foods for providing!

Deja Vu

Braeden and Football!  The kid loves the sport, and I love to watch it! :-)  He has been having a great season.  After he broke his arm a few years back (playing football) he has been a little reserved until this year and he was back to himself.  He has been dressing down with Varsity and loves it!  It is so fun to watch him standing on the sidelines with the "BIG" boys!  Last weeks game had 26 seconds left in the game, Braeden made a hit and Deja Vu broke his other arm.  The poor kid, at least this time they could cast it and he can still play with it wrapped.  At least he can try to play!  He is #3 on JV was #24 on Varsity but they just got new jerseys so now he is #33 on Varsity!

Outdoor Movie Theatre

We have been thinking about having a big movie party outside for the last three years, well guess what? Third year is the charm.  It turned out just as good as we hoped!  The boys all invited all their friends over and they watched Despicable Me.  The screen was huge, and the concessions were movie approved!  Popcorn, pop and boxed candy.  It really was a fun time and we plan to make it a yearly event at our home!

Racing

 Racing has become so popular and something we as a family look forward to every summer.  We have participated in some fun races and things I would have never dreamed about doing a few years back!  Todd and I recently ran in the M.A.D. Half Marathon.  We did this race last year, they messed up the course and we had to run an extra 2 miles so this year they offered the race to us at half price so we signed up, but wasn't sure if we would really participate.  Anyway, we ran it but we didn't spend much time training and preparing for it this year, none the less we finished and had fun.

This week it was the kids turn.  They raced in the Rexburg Youth River Rock Triathlon.  Braeden and Carson participated in the Elite race which is timed and for kids 10-18.  Braeden took first place!!! Ashlynn and Analee participated in their age groups with shortened distances and just for fun!  This is the second year for this race, what a great experience for them.  They have lots of cousins that do it with them too.  So fun!!  Tyson doesn't care for the swimming part so he opted to sit out this year.

Braeden

Carson

Ashlynn

Analee

                                      

Bear World

We went to Bear World a couple weeks ago.  We haven't been there since they first opened years ago.  It is soooo much better now, they have added so much we spent 4 hours in the heat playing there.  We saw so many animals while driving thru the park, we rode the truck out to feed the bears, visited the petting zoo, ate snow cones, went on all the rides and took lots of pictures! 

Fun, summer day!!!