Boston and New York

How lucky are we to have frequent reasons to go to Boston and New York?  What treasures we have there!  Saydi picked us up at the airport and Jeff met us at a very swanky Asian fusion restaurant in Boston where we enjoy absolutely scrumptous “tastes” of about eight different dishes.  By tastes, I mean there was simply one bite for each of us which added to the wonder of our tastebuds.  It was such a food sensation…and then we went home and the guys finished their dinner and we all had delicious hot chocolate!

Dad and Jeff, always in the depths of a conversation came up with some great ideas..

 

Saydi and I threw in some of our own and a great time was had by all!

The next morning was like Christmas for us as we were shown the new “Shumway Wonderland” that Santa put in the attic!  It was SOOO fun to play with the kids for hours up there!  Saydi has a good picture of us all spread out amongst the toys up there so check her blog for that!  Here we are though at the bottom of the stairs to the great new attic at the Shumways:

Emmeline’s room is where Charlie and Hazel’s used to be and Charlie and Hazel’s new room is at the base of the stairs to the magic room in the attic!

On the 7th, Dad and I did a presentation to the New England chapter of YPO and WPO. It was a sell-out crowd in Weston and Saydi was the star of the show!  It always adds so much to have a “kid” there to add credibility!  Sorry no pictures. DARN! By the way, did I mention that it was COLD??? 

After the presentation, Saydi drove us to the Chinatown bus and we had a bucking bronco ride to an even colder NYC. We left at 10 o’clock and arrived by 1:30…pretty great timing!

We grabbed a cab to Noah and Kristi’s where we slipped to their cozy warm and lovely apartment for a lovely night’s sleep.  Noah had gone from Utah (after the Imagine Learning Conference at Aspen Grove that week with Eli and Ben) to Houston to pick up the kids and they weren’t due to arrive for another day!

We spent the next day getting Indian visas, not only for us, but for Charity and her two roommates who will be joining us in India.  Long story but the ending is great…their passports are on their way back to them as I write, complete with Indian visas stamped inside.

Our special treat, after figuring out how to stand in the half price ticket line for only 15 minutes in the freezing cold instead of and hour and 15 minutes was 4th row tickets to see South Pacific at Lincoln Center.  It was simply spectacular!  It won 7 Tony Awards last year including best musical revival! It brought back so many memories for us and brought the history of World War to in the South Pacific to life! 

Noah and Kristi arrived on Saturday night with those two adorable kids and we’ve had so much fun with them! Sunday was a joy, although Noah left at 6:30 a.m. for meetings and we didn’t see him until about 2 o’clock. How fun to feel the love for Noah and Kristi as well as McKay and Lyla in that ward!  Anita and Tal, you are not forgotten either. So many people asked about you and Faith said to tell Anita that she can come back for macaroni and cheese any time!  What wonderful people and what a great history we have in that ward!

This morning, Kristi had Joy School. She is a champion teacher of 5 little boys (one was missing today) and one little girl (two of the boys are 2 1/2). What a heroine! (And of course, McKay was the star!) 

 

While she taught we scrambling to get our visas for Saudi!  It didn’t look too promising on Friday when the consulate was closed because everybody was at the mosque, but a bright young man, who looked for all the world like a prince from a royal family, met us and walked us through what should have been a three day ordeal in about 90 minutes.  We were so grateful to have that visa in our hot little passports and so were the YPO guys in Saudi.  Thank goodness for connections! 

So we’re now in the air flying off to Monaco. I have successfully spilled hot chocolate all over the only warm turtle neck that I brought and dad has watched all of Casino Royale because someone told him it was made in Monaco. As it turns out it was in Montenegro and the battery burned out just at the climax, but he’s happy and relaxed and that counts!