Love Quotes

With the upcoming wedding mom is preparing for the breakfast and needed some cute quotes for the center pieces. I found several that I just love and thought I'd share them.

"If I know what love is, it is because of you."

"This day I married my friend. The one I laugh with, live for, dream with, love."

"Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction."

"If I had to choose between loving you and breathing, I would use my last breath to say I Love you."

"When you are in love you can't fall asleep because reality is better than your dreams."

"Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss and ends with a tear drop."

Marriages... Seriously?

First of all, I love weddings. I love them so much that I want to be a wedding planner. And I'm excited that Alan and Hannah are getting married, because weddings make me happy. But why does my entire graduating class... from high school.... think it's ok to get married so soon? Gads people, it's only been a year and a half. So take some time, live life, have fun, and wait for the whole marriage and baby scene. You can't run off to Scotland for a semester if you have a baby. You can't take a random road trip with the girls if you have a husband. You can't learn uber independence and accountability if you are attached to someone who will take care of you. Yes, we should all get married at some point, but 19? Uh uh, too young. Now, with my luck I'll be engaged next month. But if that does happen... someone please kindly remind me that I'm still too young and I have too many experiences waiting for my single little self. I won't listen to you, but I'd appreciate the reminder all the same.

DC

My second to last day in Philly, I really wanted to go to DC. So we did. Annette, Cambrie and I drove up in the morning and had one day to do about a million things. Of those million, we accomplished only a handful, but I'm glad we got in as much as we did. First we stopped at the DC temple. It was a lot bigger than I imagined and I'm disappointed I couldn't go inside. I'm glad we got to walk around it however.


Then we happened across the Iwo Jima monument. I hadn't seen it in person and I was kind of surprised when we ran into it. It was good that we had the unexpected stop though, because I learned a little bit about history that I hadn't taken the chance to learn before.

Next we got lost around the Pentagon while looking for Arlington. It was pretty amusing. I'm surprised we weren't military escorted away from the premises during our lost wandering. Eventually we found the cemetery and parking to go along with it. Annette let me do Arlington by myself, and as much as I love her, I'm glad she did. It was really moving to walk through the grounds and passed the graves. I really wish I had more time there to gain a true appreciation for the place. After Arlington we made our way up to the American History Smithsonian. Cambrie wanted to play in the children's exhibit so I went and did a few on my own. Including the Star Spangled banner, the women's exhibit and the First Lady exhibit.

After the museum, I wanted to go to the Sculpture Garden, but it was closed so we went to the WW2 Monument instead. I personally really liked that one and I know my dad would too.


We then continued down the looking pool to blitz up the Lincoln Memorial

and then over to the Vietnam Wall. For the sake of an adventure, we walked through the non-tourist part of town to the metro station. That was definitely interesting, but I did decided I'd still love to live in DC for awhile. Maybe that will be my next summer experience. After getting our car (just in time, because they lock the cars in at 6 pm) we drove over to the Jefferson Memorial. I'm glad we did it last, because the sun was setting and there weren't a lot of people there so I had a more personal experience. On our way out of town we got a deep, super cheesy pizza. It was so good, but I think I clogged all my arteries with my one piece. We also got lost, but eventually found our way. Thanks Annette, for taking me to DC. And thank you for letting me live with you for four months. My stay in Philly was exactly what I needed in my life and I'm so grateful to you and your family for letting me learn the lessons I did while living under your roof.

New York 2

After my mom flew home, I had the chance to go to New York again, but this time with some friends from my branch. The purpose of this trip was to go to the temple. So we set off by train, hit the subway and bam! We were at the temple. It literally was bam! Once you step off the subway, the temple is right there in your face. I've decided I love the Manhattan Temple. It is so pretty inside. I wish I could have taken a picture, just so I remember it, but that's kind of blasphemous so I don't have a picture. After the temple we went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. It was very good, and not at all what I expected, but worth it.

Next we made our way to the huge Toys R Us where we played with some of the toys.


After that we went to Macy's for shopping. Holy cow, that store is ginormous!! It's something like 8 stories tall and four blocks long. There were even food kiosks randomly on the floors.

I didn't get anything, but the other girls all did.

Unfortunately, it was a day trip and that's all we had time for. It was still a lot of fun, and I'm glad I got to go. I even got a purse that I love.

New York 1

If you follow my sister's post, this will be a recap to you. If you don't, then this will be new. Funny how that works. My time in Philly was coming to an end, with only two weeks left my mom flew out to spend some time with us. One of the things I wanted to do was go to New York because I haven't been in seven years. So we went, but only the girls: Annette, Cambrie, my mom and I. We drove to Staten Island and ferried past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island into the business district. Then we continued our journey up the state on the subway. We had a lot of gear and the other riders were pretty gracious about giving us the space we needed. Our first stop was at the hotel where we discovered we couldn't check in until 3, so we dropped off the bag and headed out. Annette and Cambrie went to a park for Cambrie to play in while mom and I went to the Natural History Museum a couple blocks away. Lucky us it was free that day, unlucky us the front entrance was closed and we went the long way around the entire building to the right door. Lucky us, the right door led to the thing I was most interested in seeing. A huge golden rug made with Madagascar spider silk. It was very pretty. Because it was free, we decided to call Annette and have her come join us. When she got there, Cambrie ran up to me exclaiming, "I found Camille!" Apparently the deal was when Cambrie found me, she could go to a big toy store. Thanks for the love babes :). The reason the museum was free is that they were having some big benefits extravaganza and many of the halls were closed. But it was still fun to see what was open.

After the museum we began working our way down to FAO Shwartz. We passed Tiffany's and just for the sake of saying we had, we went inside to look around. The first floor was nice, but not what I was most interested in. I wanted to see the engagement rings. The elevator attendant was very accommodating and oohed and ahhed at our floor choice. As soon as I stepped out of the elevator I wanted to cry at the collective sparkle provided by the huge diamonds in each showcase. I approached to nicest looking employee and asked if I could try one on. She graciously said yes. Oh gads, the thing was beautiful but sooo expensive. I loved it.

We soon left Tiffany's and finally made it to FAO Shwartz. Poor Cambrie had to wait all this time to get to her toy store. Annette took her to the huge piano and after a few timid moments, Cambrie began chasing her new friend up and down the keys. Unfortunately, a little boy fell and got a bloody nose. Now if you ask Cambrie about New York she'll only tell you about the little boy bleeding.

My mom and I had tickets to Wicked for that night, but we still had time to kill. After street shopping, walking past a restaurant we wanted to try and almost not succeeding in finding a new place to eat, Annette had an epiphanous moment. We were right by the David Letterman studio and lucky for us, there was a pizzeria right next door. The food was super tasty, especially to our particularly empty bellies. After eating we made our way to MnM World. I loved it! Everything was MnM and colorful. Mom and Annette bought their own packages, but I only got a deck of cards. I must have been either cute or pitiful, however, because the guy behind the checkout stand gave me two complimentary boxes of MnM deluxe. Mom was slightly jealous.

It was time to split up, Annette back to the hotel room and Mom and me to our show. Needless to say, Wicked was everything I hoped for. I have been wanting to see it since before most people even knew about it. I'm really kicking myself that I didn't get pictures of us in the lobby with all the decor.

The next day we woke up and went to the Today Show. We were on tv!! But we were in the background, so it was hard to see us.

Afterword we went to get our cupcake treats at Crumbs. They were huge and so tasty. We then proceeded to the Guggenheim museum, and luckily enough, it was another free day. My favorite exhibit was the golden curtain room. Those beads young girls hang up in their doorways had nothing on this room. A huge curtain of gold beads hung from the twenty foot ceiling. Behind it, a gold leif sheet lay artistically on the floor. I was afraid for that sheet, and I really hope it survived. Cambrie loved walking through the curtain and it took us about five minutes to finally convince her to leave it behind. All over the museum I continued seeing a print called Several Circles. At the end of our tour, I decided I wanted a print. Much to my dismay, the store claimed to be out of it. I wondered around looking for another print to catch my eye when I suddenly saw a man glancing through a pile with my print on top. I booked it over to him, asking if he wanted the Several Circles print and nearly jumped for joy when he said I could take it. I was thrilled with my luck. I grabbed it and made my way to the check out counter.

So now I have my very own Kandinsky print from the Guggenheim.

It was time to start heading home and so we walked through central park and hopped on the subway. I'm glad I got to do New York with my mom and sister, especially because we got to do so much. I really love the way they travel, with the "no, I'm not really a tourist" attitude. Thanks mom, thanks Annette. It was a really good opportunity.