NYC: Day 3

We were exhausted after the first couple days in NYC. Day 3 was a pretty relaxing day. First, we went to the Manhattan New York LDS temple and did an endowment session. The outside doesn't look like much but the inside of the temple is beautiful!

Then we had lunch at Rupert Jee's Hello Deli. The sandwiches were yummy and of course, it was cool to see Rupert...

Next we headed to the Gershwin Theater to see Wicked! Love, loved it! Seeing that, the Yankees game, and Ellis Island (Day 4) were probably my favorite things from the trip!

After the show, we walked back to our hotel. We took a nap (did I mention we were exhausted?) and then went to Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center for dinner and a Jazz show. John Patitucci, Joe Lovano & Brian Blade performed...not totally my type of music but it was enjoyable.

New York City: Days 1 & 2

Rob and I just got back from our trip to NYC for our 10th anniversary. It's not actually until the 27th but with school starting and all, we had to get it in before it never happened! We flew out Monday morning and got into JFK around 3:00. We took the subway from the airport to our hotel...and got out of the subway to find Trump International Hotel and Tower greeting us to NYC...
For dinner we found a "hole in the wall" pizza place that was so good, we both ended up ordering another piece! YUM! Then we walked around Central Park for awhile until it got dark...

(The Sheep Meadow in Central Park...it is an area reserved for quiet enjoyment)

Rob by a fountain by the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir

A view of the city skyline from Central Park

This was the view from our hotel...Day Two started with a bagel and cream cheese from a street vendor (pretty much how every day started!) Then we hit the streets of New York, first stopping by the Late Show with David Letterman....

We didn't get to see a taping since they weren't taping that week. We kept on walking to Radio City Music Hall...

(This was taken the night before we left on our way to Times Square)

then the Rockefeller Center (we didn't make it early enough to see the Today Show outside, but did peek into the window of one of the buildings and saw Kathy Lee Gifford doing her show)...

then to the New York Public Library...

then the Empire State Building...

(I love this picture from the Empire State Building showing Central Park among all the skyscrapers)

Next it was off to Grand Central Station (where it's grand and it's central...movie, Marcy??) to take the subway up to the Metropolitan Museum of Art...

The night ended with an awesome Yankees game...

In the seventh inning, the Yankees were down by one and I turned to Rob and said, "The Yankees better win, and I better see a homerun." Have no fear, Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada are here! Bottom of the 8th, they hit back to back homeruns! Melky Cabrera and Johnny Damon added RBI singles to extend the lead to 7-4. Then they brought out Mariano Rivera in the 9th to finish off the Blue Jays ...okay so they hit a homerun off him first thing, but then he finished them off :). Yeah, it was awesome! They ended up winning 7-5.

The wait for the subway ride back to the hotel was miserably hot, sweaty and crowded...but hey, what better way to experience NYC, right?

Kovacs/Hatch Reunions July 22-25, 2009

A couple of weeks ago, we had the Kovacs and Hatch Family Reunions. The first reunion was July 22-23 with the Kovacs side of the family (my parents and siblings plus my dad's brother's family). My dad's brother, my Uncle Mike, has 13 kids (8 of which were either there with their families or some of their kids were there).

On Wednesday, July 22nd, we started the reunion with many of us going to the Oquirrh Mountain LDS Temple open house (some hadn't made it to Utah yet). Here are a few of us afterwards in front of the temple...

Then we went to Ogden Valley around Liberty and camped there for a couple of days.

Activities included hiking to a waterfall...

discovering a rope swing over the river...

tying a quilt...

and getting really dirty...

On Friday morning, we headed to the Heber Valley Camp for the big FIVE generation Hatch Family Reunion. This is my dad's mom's side of the family. My Grandma Moore is one of ten children (they call them the Ten Tribes). Each tribe is assigned a color of shirt to wear so we can all distinguish who is from which family.

We took family pictures...

Big group shot of all Kovacs that were there

My immediate family...minus my brother, Jeremy, who is in Korea

and my brother-in-law, Jake, who is in Iraq
I have mentioned before that all of my siblings and I had kids within a 15 month period. Here they are with their moms (we didn't ever get one with just my siblings). They are in order from right to left according to age.

From right to left are Clytie (Jeremy) and Lindsey, me and Trevor, Amy and Emily, Mary Anne and Sadie, Allyson and Brock, Heather (Tim) and Gavin and Noel (David) and Kieran.

Other activities included coloring posters for the "I Have A Family Tree" song...



mischief with cousins (Emily and Trevor...SHE did it!)...

Ten Tribe Concentration with yours truly as Vanna...

dancing the Virginia Reel and Macarena...

a Lasso or "Redneck" Golf tournament (sadly I was knocked out in the first round)...

and a Pioneer Day parade, ending with songs by the little ones...

Each of the ten tribes was supposed to make a quilt for everyone at the reunion to sign. A few of my cousins and Mary Anne and Clytie came up to my house before the reunion and we sewed together the blocks. Then we tied it at the Kovacs reunion and had people sign it at the Hatch reunion...