Pennsylvania Trip

Last month we had a chance to go to Pennsylvania for a little over a week. Hayden's whole family went there to spend the week with Hayden's brother Michael before he left for his mission. It was a wild and fun week! We did so much! I felt like we were there for a month because our days were so long and we did so many things. Here is a recap of what we did.

Saturday May 12th:
We flew from SLC to Denver. In Denver we met up with Hayden's sister Crystal and her family. We then flew into Philly. We got there pretty late, so once we arrived at Hayden's sister Tiffany's house we went straight to bed.

Sunday:
After only a few hours of sleep we woke up bright and early to get ready for church. Church started at like 9:30 in Philly but it takes 45 minutes to get to the church building from where Tiffany lives. The building isn't very far from their house, there is just a million stop lights. Church was very interesting in downtown Philly. Tiffany's ward has a lot of Liberian people. They all show up in church in their native African clothes. I had a very hard time understanding them when they spoke, but it was a fun experience. On our way back from church, Hayden's dad drove us through West Philadelphia (no I didn't see the fresh prince). That place is scary! I felt more unsafe driving through there than I ever did in Armenia. We had a beautiful BBQ to celebrate Mother's Day and then we drove to Hershey Pennsylvania.

These are the condos that we stayed at for the week while we were in Hershey. 

Monday and Tuesday: We spent these two days just hanging out. We went shopping, cooked yummy food, toured the town, and went to Hershey Chocolate World. At the chocolate world they take you on a little ride that shows you how they make their chocolate. It was fun and the whole place smelled like chocolate.

                 

 My wonderful sister in law took these pictures. I told her that I would be stealing them for my blog. She is a super talented photographer. All I had was my piece of junk phone to take pictures with. I am sure you will be able to tell which pictures those are. Anyway, thanks Jessica!

Wednesday: NYC!!! We left early in the morning and drove the 3 hours to Staten Island. Once we found a parking spot (not an easy task) we caught the ferry to go to Manhattan. Hayden hates NYC so he went fishing, and I went alone with a few people in his family. We had a lot of pressure on us because we were trying to make it to the Broadway ticket lottery so we could try and get tickets to Wicked. It wasn't meant to be because we barely missed our chance. But we got something better instead (well at least I think so). There was a guy on the street asking people if they wanted to go to the David Letterman show. Yes please! Sign me up! We got tickets to go see his show...and they were free! To waste some time until we had to go get in line for the show, we went to TOYS R US, Rockefeller center, Times Square, and just walked around. While we were in line for the show the craziest thing happened! We saw two missionaries. So we called them over and they told us that they were doing their "tourist" P-day because they were going home the next week. While we were talking to them, 2 more elders came up. I looked at the one elder and I was like " ARE YOU ELDER DAVIS!?!" " I SERVED WITH YOUR SISTER IN ARMENIA!!". I couldn't believe that I just happened to run into Cami's brother in the middle of Times Square. Such a small world! I couldn't spend much time talking because we were being herded into the David Letterman show. Before they let you into the show they give you a long speech about how you are supposed to constantly clap and laugh. Even if you don't think a joke is funny, laugh anyway. So we did just that! We clapped and clapped and I only had to fake laugh 1 or 2 times. The music was loud, the energy was high. We had a blast! And we got to see Betty White. She was the guest on the show that day and she was a hoot! I loved it all. I want to go back someday and try to go to more shows. After that we caught the ferry again and headed home.

 Naked Cowboy in Times Square

                 

Humidity is rough on my hair when I want my hair to be straight. I had a Gyro for lunch. 

 

   The Staten Island Ferry

                       

Thursday: We went to Hershey Amusement Park. I just have to say...I hate roller coasters!!! Now that I am an old woman, they absolutely kill me! I get so sick on them. I went on about 5 roller coaster rides and then I left the roller coaster group and went and helped with the little kids. I took my nephew Thomas to the tap dance show so his parents could go on some rides together. He loved it. Then we got ice cream. He was a great date! We spent all day at Hershey Park. After we left the park Hayden, his dad, and brother went on an overnight hike. They are absolutely insane! We tried to head back to Hayden's home town Lewisburg that night, but 5 miles into our trip we had car troubles and didn't want to risk it. So we went back to the condos and stayed with Hayden's grandparents.

Sleeping Thomas

                                              

Chloe on the ride with her cousins

                                           

Thanks AAA for towing the van!

                                       
Friday: After lots of clothes shopping for our family pictures, we finally made our trip to Lewisburg. We spent the day chilling by the pool and just relaxing.

Saturday: We had a birthday party for Matthew, got ready for family pictures, and then took the family pictures. They turned out beautiful! I only have a few because we are still waiting for the disc with all of the pictures to be sent to us. Here is what we have...

Sunday: Michael's farewell and Eagle Court of Honor.

Monday: We left bright and early so that Hayden and I could drive Michael to the MTC in Utah. A man in their ward needed his truck brought to Utah so he asked if we could drive it there. He said he would pay for gas and hotel. We agreed. (just to save our plane tickets for another time) It took us 2 full days to make the trip. We drove from Pennsylvania to Iowa City and we spent the night there. Then we made the rest of the trip the next day. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We took lots of breaks (too many in my opinion).
When he said he would pay for gas we assumed he would just give us money. Well that was not the case. He had two giant barrels of diesel gas in the back of his truck that we had to try and siphon. That was no easy tasks. Michael ended up swallowing a mouthful of gas when he was sucking on the hose. That added a good 4 hours to a trip because it was not a fast process. We got to Utah at about 1 am Wednesday morning. We slept at my aunt's house, visited with Hayden's grandma, then took Mikey to the MTC.

Loading up the truck

                                         

What a pain!

                                           

 Golfing in the middle of nowhere Nebraska while we filled up on gas. (These boys were in no hurry to get anywhere)

      MTC

                           
                                                                         

Much thanks to Lisa and Doug for making this trip happen!! We will be going to another family reunion in Gatlinburg Tennessee for the 4th of July. This summer is gonna wear me out! :)