the big apple

After being apart for 3 months while I was doing an internship, Katie and I were really looking forward to our vacation together to New York.  I realized going while going through our pictures that we have A LOT so I'll try and post some of the highlights of our trip.

This is a restaurant on top floor of our hotel.  It was on a wheel that rotated around the entire building in an hour, so it was pretty slow.  It was kind of weird because it was buffet style, so every time I got up to get something to eat, it took me a minute to find where my seat was!

Times Square - you could drink the water! 

NBC Studio - the logo is full of M&Ms! 

Lego store - yes, the dragon was made out of legos.  I was tempted to jump on top of the dragon... 

Rockefeller, as seen on the Today show 

FAO Schwarz, i think it's the biggest toy store in the world.  I had to save Katie from the elephants.  They wanted her baby I think. 

Central Park - it's really big! 

I caught the pregnant girl trying to satisfy her cravings 

Hard Rock 

Times Square - this picture doesn't do it justice.  It's crazy how many advertisements light up the sky here. 

May the odds be ever in your favor! 

It rained on our bus tour. 

This is the part of Wall Street that a lot of protestors used to be at 

One of the new World Trade Center towers.  It just passed the height of the Empire State building when we were there. 

The tall brown building has no windows.  I'm convinced it's some sort of CIA building 

I thought the Don't Honk sign was pretty funny.  But the parts of the city that don't have this law, New Yorkers are not bashful about using their horn! 

A cool shot of an alley in China Town 

Katie wants to move to this part of New York 

A very small statue of liberty 

The M&M store 

They had every color imaginable (about 4 or 5 more walls like this with different colors) 

This was most certainly the highlight of our trip.  I absolutely loved Wicked!  I recommend it to anyone that hasn't seen it.

spring fever

It's really starting to look and feel like spring here in Provo (if you don't count the day last week when we got several inches of snow)!  We're loving the weather, the blossoms on all of the trees, and the fact that it's Spring Break this week!!  Since I had some extra time on my hands today, I decided to finally make a new wreath.  I also brought out the rest of our spring decorations this weekend, which really isn't much, but it adds to the feel of spring in our apartment.

I had plans when we found out we were pregnant to be good about documenting every week by writing my thoughts and taking pictures... unfortunately, that hasn't happened.  I'm finally getting to the point in my pregnancy where I'm big enough that people are noticing so it's feeling more real to me.  Now that I'm showing, I'm reminded more to take pictures so here is our first belly shot (17 weeks in isn't too bad of a starting place, right?)

We're excited to find out in just two weeks what we'll be having so we can start planning more!  We're also excited for our trip to New York on Wednesday!!  We will definitely have more pictures coming soon!

fried what?!

This past weekend, I had the chance to go to Texas and visit Grant (only 3 1/2 weeks!) and my family!  My family had tickets to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo so we were able to go and have a blast!
The rodeo is full of tons of rides but, being pregnant, I had to sit out of most of them.  Granty still went on a lot of them with Stevie, and his friend Shianne.

One of my favorite parts of the rodeo is all of the delicious (although terrible for you) food there is to try.  There was even a place called "Fried What?" where they had everything from fried pickles to fried kool-aid!! We tried our fair share of fried foods, including:

fried cookie dough on a stick

fried oreos

fried red velvet cake

and fried snickers (my personal favorite!)

Stevie liked it so much, he had to have two things at once!

After all of that eating, we headed into the rodeo to digest for a while before taking on more rides.  I LOVE the rodeo!  We saw cowboys riding bucking broncos and bulls, barrel races, cattle roping, and even muttin bustin' (5 and 6 year old kids riding sheep)!

After the rodeo, we stayed for part of the concert, where Luke Bryan performed.

When we got back out, it was dark and all of the lights were lit up across the rodeo.  We rode the ferris wheel (I could actually ride that one) and got to see the view from up above.

We had a great time and I'm so glad I got to be there for Grant's first Houston rodeo experience. 

We didn't get to see a lot of Fleming over the weekend.  Her best friends were in town for The Woodlands Marathon, so she and her friend Shannon spent all of Saturday biking around town to cheer on Emily.

I can't wait to visit again next weekend, and I'm even more excited for Grant to come back two weeks later!  We're almost there!!

do the math

the most wonderful time of the year

I'm very sad to say that Christmas break is now over and tomorrow I will be heading back to work.  I am excited to see my kiddos again, but I'm missing Grant and the rest of my family.  We had a great couple of weeks, packed with lots of fun activities!
Grant and I started a new tradition this year of getting new pjs for Christmas.  Our tree looked beautiful and Fleming helped us experiment with candy cane pictures...

Here's my favorite present:

We were able to do a lot during the week...

We cooked:

We played putt-putt (and I beat everyone!  that's never happened!)

We practiced archery:

We danced:

We went to the bowl game:

and I even got to try out my new cricut:

I do miss Grant, but one good thing about coming back to Provo was getting to see my old roommate, Sarah, who just got back from her mission.

Happy New Year from the Zinns!!!