Sam!!! New York City!

I was lucky enough to have Sammie come out for her senior trip. I really can't believe that she's done with high school. I remember moving away to college when she was five years old. It's amazing how quickly time goes by. When did she become an adult? I've lived away for so long it was fun to have her here.

One of her cute friends, Crystal, came with her and they were busy! I picked them up at the airport in Buffalo on Monday. The plan was to head straight to Niagra Falls and ride the Maid of the Mist, but it was raining pretty hard and I wasn't sure if the boat would even be running, so we decided to check it out later in the week. Later that night we went to Dinosaur BBQ -- a big Rochester hot spot.

The next day we checked out the Sacred Grove and Hill Cumorah in Palmyra. We took off right after Jacob hopped on the bus. Lexi ripped out her hair and looked like this.

Trevor had a blast walking around the 'lovely' Sacred Grove . . . his words.

Wednesday was a blast! We woke up early. . . 4:30 a.m. I wanted to get out the door by 5:00. We stopped and grabbed a bagel and took off for New York City! The drive was so much fun and went by really fast. It took us about 6 hours. We sang songs and played truth. So fun. After we checked into the swank hotel we caught the Subway and went shopping. Oh yeah. I'm hanging out with 18 year olds! We did a ton of shopping. Then we went to the hotel and primped for dinner and Phantom of the Opera. At five our limo was waiting to take us to dinner at Sardis. The food was so good and it was probably 200 feet from the theater. We sat dead center third row back at Phantom. It was amazing to be so close. After the show we walked to Carnegie Deli and had dessert. We were all so full, but stuffed ourselves more with $10 slices of cake because that's what you do on vacation, right? Then we walked back to the hotel. I was in high heels and I seriously think we walked two miles. I hit the pillow at 12:30 a.m.



Thursday I woke up before the alarm went off. I think we set it for 8:00. It felt so good to sleep in. We quickly got ready and headed out to shop. Right after that we went to Central Park and walked around. It is so gorgeous in there. Then we seriously raced back to the hotel to meet our 11:00 check out time. Had we been one minute over our 24 hour parking we would have had to pay $90 (which is the discount hotel rate). CRAZY, I know! We finally got the car from the valet -- which was pretty hilarious. They're driving BMW's and luxury cars to people and then they pull up in a 1998 Saturn full of stuff for us. We stopped at TGI Fridays in New Jersey on the way home and then the Outlets in Pennsylvania. So, so fun. We pulled in at about 9:00 that night. Thanks Wayne for taking the time off to watch the kids! We had a complete blast!

Friday I drove them to Darian Lake -- a six flags amusement park.

Saturday was shopping.

Sunday we went to church and planned on seeing Niagra Falls before their flight left that evening. We were getting ready to head out at 2:00 (thinking that their flight left at 7:00) and Sammie checked her flight and noticed it was leaving at 5:00! I'm so glad she looked because they would have missed it. So, they weren't able to see Niagra Falls. I told Sam to just come out again :). When we dropped them off at the airport I walked in with them and was helping getting things squared away. After the luggage was on the belt and everything was in order the worker looked at me and said, "Are you a parent? A sibl. . " I loudly said, "A PARENT!?!? She's my sister!" I'm not normally one to make a scene, but I did then. His co-workers were looking at him like, dude, you messed up big time. Then he said, "Oh, you just look more mature." Um, yah. OK. SIGH.
It was sad to see Sam go. You're welcome anytime. I love you!