well, hold on tight. it's going to be a long one. i have a lot of catching up to do. we had one last fling the weekend before we left. it was about 4 pm on friday august 17th and we decided to go to new york. so we raced home packed and left by 5:30pm. it was awesome and fun to be so sporadic . we were really lucky to have some friends to stay with in new jersey. thank you nordquists!! we drove into new york saturday about noon and didn't get back in our car to drive back to new jersey until midnight. elliot and sam, you are amazingly great little boys to put up with your parents and spend 12 hours in new york. we love you. so here we were standing on the corner of central park and 5th ave. what an amazing place. my eyes didn't stop drinking in new things to see the whole time we were there.

here we are standing in front of the met. umm. . . so we were inside the museum for about 35 minutes. hehe thank goodness we knew that we only had to donate what we wanted rather than pay 40 dollars for 35 min. thanks for the tip amri.

times square. what an insane place. cool . . . but insane.
i love you jeffrey. you are the love of my life!

in all we saw grand central station, the met, central park, the glass apple computer store, times square, and the rockefeller center (we went up to the top of the rockefeller center to view the city). and a trip to new york wouldn't be complete without a ride on the subway. we had a great time. it was definitely worth it.

here is elliot's most recent haircut. it was his first time at a real haircut place. he did so awesome! isn't he a babe!

elliot and maryirene above the subway. boston we already miss you. my heart breaks if i think about you too long.

goodbye massachusetts.
so we packed up and left boston. it was sad but we made it out without too much sadness. we went straight into more fun though. here is a darling picture of our friend's baby simon who we got to go visit in pennsylvania. thank you shephards. you were so generous. hope to see you soon.
we headed straight for cleveland the next day to see my brother's family and we had a wonderful stop along the way in kirtland , ohio to see the kirtland temple. jeffrey has such a talent for beautiful photography doesn't he? if you haven't already you should definitely check out his gallery at www.allen.ihomer.net


after cleveland we headed to chicago and spent a day downtown. here is jeffrey standing by the hancock tower.
yes. the 4 of us went in the ferris wheel on the chicago navy pier. ok maybe it wasn't worth the $18 but at least we can say we got to really see chicago.

the classic night shot of lights in the big city at night.

wow. after that believe it or not we made it through two days of about 10 hours each in the car. the kids did as good as could be expected. we still love each other if that is what you are wondering. our last stop before we got home was helena, montana. jeffrey's relatives had a family reunion there. most of his mother's family live in canada and the allen's live in utah so we met half way. we had a great time. i wish i would have gotten some better pictures, but i forgot to pull out my camera more. here is one cute shot of sam and his cousin kd playing.


we really loved our time with jeffrey's family. what an amazing group of people. a lot of love. i left really feeling like a part of me is definitely a hampshire now. i am proud of that part of my husband and my children's heritage. julie, thank you so much for making it happen. God bless.

sammy . . . drive . . . play . . . eat . . . sleep. 7 days in the car was plenty. about 3,300 miles. that's quite a trek wouldn't you say.


here is my final picture for the night. we are going to print this and frame it in memory of the hours we spent in our subaru while traveling from utah to boston and from boston to helena, and finally back to utah. in all about 6,000 miles of cross country traveling. wow. boys you deserve a medal.


hope you enjoyed our little voyage. thanks for staying interested. we love you all. utah is already treating us good. sad to not be in boston, but good to be back. friends and family, we love you. mi