Air Force One

On the 22nd of October President Barack Obama flew into Las Vegas for a quick campaign boost for Senator Harry Ried. We may not agree with the man's politics or why he was in our town, but the special treatment we got in the end was, regardless a very memorable moment. While getting ready for the president's arrival, Bill's time with family was put on hold for a good 2 weeks. (Bill was the lead for this visit.) Because of this, the kids were very excited to see a part of what their daddy does for his job. To get to see the President's plane land and have the chance of "meeting" him was icing on the cake.

After a very busy sky and then silence for about 10 minutes, we finally saw the jet land. Obama's plane was behind schedule and so as the 17 select few of us waited off to the side of the tarmac there was a great sense of disappointment as he headed straight for "the beast" after de-boarding the plane. Katherine, another agent's wife, yelled his name and waved. He paused for only a moment and ran over to our small gathering, Secret Service in tow. He shook EVERYONE'S hand. It was funny, nobody knew if they should shake hands or take pictures. Because I had shaken his hand previously I was more interested in the picture but wasn't quite expecting the quickness. I did manage to get this FABULOUS picture of the President with Aaron.

This is how it all went down. President shakes Aaron's hand and Aaron, without being prompted for a response says, "My Daddy protects you!" President Obama takes a step back, tousles Aaron's hair and says, "Oh, really?" leans back smiling at Aaron. Aaron, rightfully proud of the moment turns to me and "CLICK!"

Pretty darn cool.

TNT!

Such a handsome boy. Aaron had a super soccer season. He had a great friend on his team, Ali Jolley who could really score. Aaron did his best to keep up and scored several goals a game. One game in particular he scored 7 goals! At the end of the season Grandma came to watch and all he could do was run up and down the field smiling and waving at the side lines. Through the frustration of confusion Bill and I laughed a lot. It was so fun to get so excited for these little guys. Grandpa came for the last game of the season but poor Aaron was sick and throwing up so we had to miss it. Grandpa made him feel good anyways. It was a great season and we all look forward to him playing in the spring.

New York

September, 2010: How lucky of a girl I am to have the opportunity to fly to New York with a fabulous friend, to stay with my best friend (my hubby, while working the UN summit) in a hotel paid for by all of you tax payers :) for a week! WOW! What a blast. A huge thanks to Natalie B. for watching Aaron and Livi, and all the others who helped out. We had a FANTASTIC time. We even had our cab fare from the airport to the hotel paid for by 2 business men who joined us to cut in the 20min long line curb side. What a cheap way to travel. That just meant more money to shop with. Which is what we did the most of. Me, not much of a shopper, but when you're with someone having fun, why not? We hit a lot of boutiques and discount stores. Got great jeans and cute tops. Even found clothes for our hubbies and kids. We told Bill, "Next year when we come, we're going to do more sight seeing and just a minimal amount of shopping." He sent me home a day early. He told me, "You've spent all my overtime, time to go home." He was a great host. Even shared his double size bed with me and let Syrissa have her own. (I thought Syrissa & I might've had to share.)

Syrissa Jolley accompanied me, and then technically Bill accompanied us. This is in front of a great Mexican restaurant off the beaten path. A local from the plane tipped us off to some great local places to eat. And we did surely do A LOT of that! YUM! We did the famous Gray's Papaya hot dogs. Black & White cookies, pastries, great pizza at a restaurant recommended by Natalie B. and dinner at Carmines family style Italian dining. Among many others we also went to Chelsea Market for a lunch of yummy soup. Thank YOU Charlie M. for that tip!

In front of Central Park. "Bill, we are at the 'corner' entrance to the park, by the horse statue!" I can admit when I'm wrong... but who knew how many horse statues could be at 1 park?

"Wicked" on Broadway. So cool!!!

While Bill & I took advantage of great ticket prices for the play, Syrissa was a good girl and took advantage of going to the temple. She literally had to RUN to make it into the session. We found it later on our bike ride around Central Park.

We met up afterwards for the most FABULOUSLY FANTASTIC cheesecake of all time! It was too heavenly to describe. I never knew food could make your body tingle! :) Juniors is now my destination for NY. We also ordered potato pancakes, Bill remembered a friend's mom making them in grade school. (I believe I had the strawberry swirl...ahhh divine!)

And what is a trip to New York without seeing Lady Liberty? We decided to go the quick route and take the Statton Island ferry for FREE. We got to see all the beautiful sights, and keep moving.

Our last morning in the big city. We wanted to see Central Park, so, we rented some bikes and cruised in style. It had been a while since Syrissa had been on a bike, but she remembered just fine. The traffic made her nervous. Thank goodness I was used to it from riding at home.

Cathy, correct me on this one...St. Paul's? We passed it every day. We stayed at the Double Tree Metropolitan and to get to downtown, aka time square, we would go by this cathedral. One evening Bill and I did go inside of it. It's been under construction for a while, but what a beautiful piece of architecture.

I am such a lucky girl!