New York, New York (WARNING: Long Post)

Aaaah, New York, a place that I honestly never thought I would ever go. That doesn't mean I didn't want to go, but nevertheless a place I didn't see myself having anything to go there for. I have always wanted to go to the Sacred Grove and to the Palmyra Temple

but who knows when that will actually happen. You see, I have this slight aversion to humidity!

even though I don't have curly hair, my hair looks AWFUL and my clothes stick to me! I tell ya, I would rather pull off each one of my fingernails to dull the anguish of being in humidity! OK, maybe that's a bit much...

However, my fate has pretty much already been decided for me, it pains me to admit that I might actually HAVE to live here some day...

I know, it's terrible isn't it...

ANYWAY... How's my random tangents doin??

So, back to New York!

After my red-eye flight, and I kid you not, this was really a red-eye baby...Picture this...Moi, squished between two handsome guys (now you're jealous) and one adorable baby on my lap counting plenty of sheep while drooling and sweating on my arm for 5 hours. I thought I might be able to get plenty of sleep, but those dang flight ladies had to go and put on the movie "Dear John" and of course I hadn't seen that one before so I had to stay up and watch it. I don't see many chick flix because my sweetie and I aren't huge into dancing queens or sexy vampires. However, I had been wanting to see this one, so I propped my eye lids open and bawled the whole way through the movie (silently so my sweetie wouldn't know I was actually enjoying a chick flick). Movie gets over, I have 2 handsome guys practically leaning on both my shoulders, a baby drooling on my neck and I think I have plenty of time to sleep before we land. WRONG! All of a sudden, I hear over the intercom that we are about 10 minutes from landing in New York. Brennon wakes up completely groggy because he has only had 4-5 hours of sleep, then he immediately wants to eat. I had to say sayonara to any ounce of sleep. Oh well...I was in NYC, I was excited to see all I could.

So, raise your hand if you have been to New York?? Am I the only one that saw a lot of this EVERYWHERE??

I was shocked, there was garbage all over the place. I thought maybe it was just the area I was in, but every where I looked, there was plenty of it. So, I have to admit, I had really high hopes of one thing...

do you know...???

Noooo, not the Muffin man...

this guy...

Well...I was really hoping to get the opportunity to meet the "Cash Cab" guy so I could win lot's of this...

I'm a little low lately, it would have helped out quite a bit, oh well, instead I just got THE SCARIEST taxi driver known to man from Haiti. OK, maybe ours wasn't the SCARIEST, my father-in-laws driver was apparently equal to the scariousness of our driver.

I happened to take a picture of one the events of our journey to New York, see how exciting below...

don't worry, we are safe in Idaho again, where MOST people drive normal, except if they are from one of these three areas: California, Texas, oh and Rexburg! p.s. my husband would like me to add that this really did not happen on our trip...

Moving on...

We finally got to our Hotel, the Park Central Hotel.

It was quite interesting inside, I was happy that Brennon and I got to crash for 2 hours while everyone else went to pick up their Tux's and to OH yeah...see Time Square!! Yes, I would have loved to see Time Square, but the beauty sleep that we were getting felt so nice! Having a happy baby feels even nicer.

Everyone came back, we all got ready and went to the rehearsal dinner here...

I love REAL Italian food.

I made nice with our waiter, his accent was fun!

See all these hotties above, let me introduce you...

To your left is my oh so adorable brother-in-law Matt (aka Mateo), me, Brennon, my handsome husband (aka pookie bear, jk, he hates when I joke about that), his gorgeous sister Hannah and his shockingly GQ brother Jacob.

After the dinner we all went back to the Hotel room with plenty of determination to see the sites, but everyone ended up crashing on their beds, except this lil guy!

That children's benadryl was sounding more and more tempting as the night wore on...fortunately we didn't have to take that route.

The next morning, Adam got up to go out and get breakfast with his family while I stayed in the hotel to let Brennon sleep. We all got ready for the wedding and I managed to snap quite a few "before the wedding" pictures.

Here is Adam and Paul just as they were leaving to meet everyone down in the lobby to get their boutonnière's

Of course, no picture taking moment would ever be complete without the "Paul Pose"

He gets mad if I tell him he looks like Ben Stiller, even though he always does those poses...I don't get it...

I made it down to the lobby to meet up with everyone and it didn't come as a surprise that as soon as everyone saw Brennon they wanted to hold him and this was the face he made any time ANYONE tried to hold him that wasn't his mom or dad.

luckily, he is still adorable, even when he is ornery.

We also managed to get a quick little family picture too...

Brennon cheered up and we were able to say hi to everyone while we waited to get in the Limo's to go to the ceremony.

This is just a secret between you and me, but Adam found out that morning that because he was the Best Man, that he was supposed to give the "Best Man's Speech" at the wedding reception, so I snapped a picture of Adam typing on his phone what he was going to say as documentary of his ability to "wing it".

This is us still waiting...

Brennon LOVES his Elmo doll that Grandma and Grandpa Wickern bought him while we were in NY.

Then it was time to go...

The wedding ceremony took place at "St. Patrick's Cathedral"

I guess I didn't realize how much of a tourist attraction the Cathedral is until there was a huge crowd of people standing outside the Cathedral and when we pulled up in our Limo's they all started taking pictures of US. K, that's just weird! I felt like posing as the Mormon girl from Utah, living in Idaho...snap your hearts out people a real live Mormon standing in your midst!!

There were tons of people inside lighting their candles and saying their prayers. I did find it awkward that the wedding ceremony wasn't even private, all those people were able to stand off to the side and watch the entire ceremony, then when we were walking down the 100 yard aisle, they all stood by and snapped pictures of us.

Here are a few pictures at the Ceremony.

So, funny story, as we walked outside of the Cathedral this woman with a really strong accent came up to me and asked me where the Bride was from because the ceremony was "very different". I told her that she is Italian and she is from Florida, then I told her that the groom is LDS, or Mormon. She got this really shocked look on her face and said, "he is? but he doesn't look Mormon". I then politely asked, "really? what do Mormon's look like?" She said, well, their hair and their clothes are very different, he doesn't look Mormon at all." I got a smile on my face and said, " I am Mormon", she immediately looked me up and down and said, "you are?? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you." I told her that she didn't offend me. She then asked me if I believed in Jesus Christ, and I confirmed that I do and that we believe he is the Son of God. She said she didn't know that and was so shocked, then thanked me for talking to her and quickly walked away. Then I kicked myself for not having a pass along card with me!! What kind of missionary am I? ;)

We drove over to The Plaza, where the cocktail hour and wedding reception was held.

This wasn't Alyssa and Paul's actual reception, but since I don't have any pictures of it, this was all I could find. However, this was the room the reception was in.

We waited inside the Plaza for pictures to be taken, so of course I snapped pictures of my own.

Everyone finally came back from taking pictures at some park, but little did I know, there were many more pictures to take. My little guy crashed and we just waited off to the side.

The reception started after the cocktail hour and after they introduced the Wedding party, it was then time for the Mother and Son's dance, since Brennon was wide awake again, he and I went and had our dance too. I was sad this picture didn't turn out that great, but I decided to put it in here anyway.

Who knew that Brennon would be a party animal

This is the Groom's cake. Paul is obsessed with watches, for Christmas Alyssa bought Paul a watch and this is what the groom's cake looked like. It is the exact replica of the watch that she bought for him. I heard through the grape vine that this cake was delish! I didn't get to try it. :(

Wedding cake...

My dessert...

So, when Paul pulled off the garter and then turned around the throw it behind him, he got it stuck in the chandelier. They pulled out a huge ladder to get it down.

of course Matt caught it...again. He caught it at our wedding too.

then...Matt didn't know it is tradition that who ever catches the garter has to put it on the girl that caught the bouquet. He was terrified because he had a girlfriend (now fiancee as of yesterday) back home and he didn't want to get in trouble.

This was Matt putting on the garter and the girls dad threatening him...it was too funny!

Well folks, I think I have shared about enough.

The End.