November month of family and friends

So the first weekend of November my dad so graciously came out to visit me and not as a side note on a business trip:) I really appreciated him taking the time out of his schedule to come out and visit me. We had a broadway marathon because A- We both like broadway shows B- my dad can afford the shows C- my dad isn't too physical active and since visiting NY is a physical sport (aka the excessive walking) that was the best route to go.... so we want and saw the inspiring "Tale of Two Cities" "13" and South Pacific. All were very good, he also was so kind to take all my friends ( my little NY family) out to dinner at Ruby Foo's. It was much appreciated and this is a shout out to my dad:)

Then the following Tuesday my sister Loni and her husband Todd and their two youngest, William and Grant were PA to do a interview for Todd's residency and stopped by to visit me- it was fun to have more family in town. Except realization, it would be hard to have kids in this city... however I do love my darling nephews.

Then my darling friend Tracy came into town with her three friends and they stayed at our place, a little crowded, but I always think, "more the merrier". We ad fun shopping, hunting down the desert truck, walked across the brooklyn bridge, attended our ward luau (yeah, in NYC in November... kind of ironic... don't you think?) and just hanging out at my apartment:)

Then the last photo is a picture of my sweet roommate Brenda and I in front of the empire state on the Sunday of our "special" stake conference where Elder Jeffery Holland came to speak to us in a ballroom in mid-town, so it could fit the whole stake- only in NYC. 

Halloween!

Happy bir.... I mean Halloween..... so for Halloween a bunch of my friends desired to dress up as a group theme and that was going to be Giligan's Island.... so I was going to be Mrs. Hawl, however my friend was going to be Mr. Hawl, however it fell through, so I tried earnestly to find a replacement but no one was catching on to the enthusiasm of being Giligan's Island, so I already bought a blonde wig for like $5 at K-mart and decided to just be Marilyn Monroe, however more people on the streets mis-taken me for Anna Nicole, even a photographer on the streets kept yelling Anna at me, I was a bit confused at first. It was a fun halloween, I went to the infamous Halloween parade in the city, with so many outrageous and creative costumes, the highlights were the zillions of Richard Simmons performing their n-synce workout routine and the zillions of MJ thriller's, and of course the Pallins, Obama's and Joe the plumber. My favorite and most creative costumes was a couple from the back look like they were swings and in the front they were the states Ohio and Flordia, needless to say NY really played off the election year for this Halloween:)

I then so gracefully tripped on the curb due to wearing my high heels (never wear heels in the city) and scraped up my knee and ripped my nylons.... "classy" then headed to the stake dance and danced the night away- it really was a good halloween-

Autumn in New York

The fall in NY is so beautiful and enjoyable. It is one of the two times of years that the New York weather is "just right" not too hot nor too cold. It is fun to walk around the city and get glimpses of the changing of the leaves on the little trees we do have in the parks.... So for the month of September and October, I enjoyed New York with Sunday walks in Battery Park, going out to eat at the good restaurants, hanging out with friends, going to ward activities, saw some broadway shows, my favorite was  "Tale of Two Cities," which is now closed:( and my personal highlight was getting general admission tickets to WEEZER!! I rocked out like it was 1997 all over again:)

I did go to Utah the second weekend of October because I got Columbus day off, plus my good friend Bethany Allen was getting married, and is always fun to see family and friends:) However I took many cute and good pictures but those were some of the ones on my memory card which I lost:( 

So here are some pics....walking in Battery Park, me and my new friend I made while participating in a service activity to run with special needs children in Central Park,  my friends going out to eat and checking out the CMJ (College Music Journal),  Weezer pics and 

Ogdensburg...

So my friend Nate who lived in the city was coming the second weekend of September to visit my friends and I in NYC. We planned to take a camping trip to Vermont, however, it fell through and we had to come up with a plan B. So then I remembered my family technically has a house in upstate New York, but it feels like forever away from the city and is in Amishville, so did not know if my friends would find that appealing. However they were up for it  and it ended up being a riot! So my friend Heidi, Joe, and his friend Tracy joined in Nate's birthday get away weekend to the exciting, Ogdensburg, NY. It was seven hours away, but we were with good company:)

We did the Ogdensburg routine, made a trip to Wal-mart, dollar store to buy Nate some "birthday crap" (quoting him directly),watched scary movies, played tennis, went swimming in the river/lake, pondered, read and had tin foil dinners. It really was a good time:) And we even found a new toy that kept us entertained.... a ball with a string....WOW!

Never too late to update!

So it is the Sunday after Thanksgiving and I am in Cleveland talking with family and we talked about writing Thank you cards late, and my brother-in-law and I both agreed it's never too late to write and send a Thank You note.  So I thought I would apply that to my blog.... don't worry it has been three months, by far the longest I have gone without updating it.... let's just say I am not the best at managing deadlines in my life, especially when there is no grade involved:) 

There is a reason to my not updating, the biggest and saddest of all is that I lost my camera:( and due to my data overload rusty computer was unable to download pics properly so was waiting for my new computer (which I now have) and lost my camera with my memory card of pictures taken from August to October, I won't lie I am quite sad for I am quite partial to pictures and wish I had them, so I had to use pics from my face book, but I am going to try to do a quick update..... so here it goes.......

I returned from my Study Abroad in Costa Rica the end of August. I then went to Cleveland, OH to visit my sister Loni before school starts, then returned to NY to start school, move into a new place and started school and a new internship, Arms Acres a substance abuse agency in the Bronx.

I did go to "Dirty Jersey" for labor day weekend with my some friends from my ward. We did the suburbia lifestyle of going to the local wal-mart, going bowling, eating at a mexican restaurant and getting ice cream and chillin at the house watching a couple of episodes of the John Adams series......I mean what else do you do in Jersey?

PURA VIDA! en Costa Rica!

The pure life of being in Costa Rica. So I am in Costa Rica for two weeks with NYU Master's of Social Work students attending a study abroad. We are attending two Spanish classes in the morning, one Social Policy of Latin America (for NYU credit) in the afternoon, eat four meals a day (two breakfasts) and I live with a host Tica (Costa rican) family by myself- who has three dogs and the smell of dogs and humidity is never a good combination:) There is no such thing as hot shower's just freezing cold and not so cold, the later is the ones I dread to take every morning. I fall asleep in my cave of a room, for there are no lights, however there is a plastic skeleton peridactal glow in the dark hanging in sight to give me comfort (it creeped me out at first)... and I spend every evening I have in my cozy room reading and studying and every once in awhile step out to converse broken phrases of spanish with mi madre.......so how is this the pure life?

Well this drama does get better- I did get four days off for the weekend and went to the West Coast to visit my life long friend Mehgan Knauff, who is living and working at a resort there. She lives near her co-workers, fellow Canadians, so while she was at work, I had people to play with. It was great- we went to the beach, I learned how to surf- my first time ever and loved it, got up for a split second and surfed in the rain!!! How many people can say that (ps in the photo with the group of Mehgan's friend, the one with the Lava lava is Al- he's the one who taught me how to surf) went on a zip line, went dancing and even made it to church at a local branch- it was great and lifted my spirits for the next and final week!! So all in all, I am having a great time and learning a lot of Spanish, which I hope I will be able to practice with my spanish speaking friends:)

California Lovin! A "yacht" of Fun!

So after our brief Hava su pi venture my sister LeNae and I headed to stay with my family in Venice Beach, CA. We had fun spending time at the beach, drove on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, even went and did baptisms at the LA temple. I then headed down to Orange County to visit some of my friends (Kari, Monica and Charlie) from my Holyland trip. I spent a day with one of my dearest and closet's friend Monique- and caught up with my good friend Sarah Beecher from my home town LaVerkin, who is living in Pasedena while her husband is finishing up his last year of his doctorate- in like rocket science, he is a smart one!

I then met up with my good friend Sara Olds (who I met in NY) and her family at Newport beach to aboard her family's fraction Yacht. It was amazing and as my roommate Courtnie described it- ridiculos... and it was- flat screen tv's in the four bedrooms, a captain, first mate the whole nine yards- it was beautiful and fun. Her family was so generous, and welcoming. We had so much fun playing crazy games of mafia (they killed me three times in a row, I tried not to take it personal:) catch phrase, and other games. We went to Santa Barbra one day, then spent a day in the Chanel Isle's which was gorgeous, and I tried to go tubbing- but it kicked my butt, we jumped off the top of the boat for kicks, probably the funnest activity especially when my dare devil buddy was nine year old Skyler- he was a riot! We then went to Catalilna for a day, played miniature golf and returned back to Newport, the funnest was the relaxation, seeing hundreds of dolphins, a couple of blue whales, a sun fish and even a shark- it was better than the $100 I spent on Whale watching in Vancuver, and only saw them from a far- I was so grateful to the Olds hospitality and their fun company- and at the end I even got to drive the boat for a couple of minutes- Ahoy Captain Lyndee!

HAVA SU PI FALLS

So after my visit of a total of two weeks of New York, I headed west again back to my southern roots of LaVerkin, Utah to spend a short visit with my family a total of two days- got there Wednesday evening (July 23), went and saw Les Mes at Tuachan for Pioneer day then on later on Friday night around 9PM (July 25) LeNae and I headed out at for Vegas, met up with Amy at 11 PM, picked up her Asian exchange student friend- more of an acquaintance and headed out for Hava su pi, AZ, which took four to five hours, we did get off track, so we had to backtrack a bit☺ PS- I did most of the driving, arrived around 4:30AM- met a crazy drunk Native American, then took a power nap of 45 min. then headed off on the ten mile trail with my 20-30 lbs pack, WOW!!! It was a bit intense and such a workout, the weather was mostly overcast, so at least we weren’t dying of heat, but it was long and hard with a pack, we then arrived to camp- which we had to cross the river in, which got my only pair of clothes/pj’s- ya, that was a lot of fun later on. We then met up with the group tired and exhausted from the hike and lack of sleep, and we were going to do this tomorrow- we are CRAZY!! So we met up with my friends, Ange, her bro- Royal, Michelle and her friend Alan, Nate and his cute girl friend Katie Rose. We walked down to some smaller falls, then meet up with the group to Navajo falls, where we spent most of our time swimming and watching people jump off the waterfall, it was intense and cool, if I had enough energy I would consider it, but so tired to think straight. Amy and her friend then left, we went to Hava su falls, the biggest and prettiest, LeNae and I hardly even participated because we were so tired! We did jump off a little ledge, at least we had some excitement, man I was so tired, I hate it when you are just that tired. We went back to camp and I literally laid on the hammock and felt myself have no power to wake up, we then ate the great dry food packs Ange had brought, they were really good☺ we talked amongst ourselves, I was concerned to talk to Nate to make our plans for the next day, we decided we would wake up at 4AM so we could walk before it got too hot, Nate and KR were heading out earlier, so we planned to get a ride with Michelle and Alan back to Vegas, we also lucked out to get a spot to put a pack on the horse, but as we were hiking our two miles to the village, both Lenae and I so tired and sore decided we were going to opt the hike and helicopter out, because we got there at 6:30 AM we were the first one’s there, the rest of our group hiked out, we ate breakfast met some people from Mesa, AZ, one of the guys, Chris Johnson’s brother went to Cross Creek-small world, praised my dad as a saint it helped his brother a lot- love little conicidents like that. We ended up teaching them out to play scum, they all liked it, and said with beer and money it would even be better, they were a bit wild, but fun. After the first two groups of locals, we were able to copter out, I sat next to the pilot, and Michelle and Alan didn’t have to wait too long for us:) so it ended up being an intense and beautiful experience, highly reccommend it to anyone-

Summer of FUN!!!

So I have gotten a few complaints that I have not updated my blogg, I mean come on it's only been a month, last time it took me two months. In all honesty, I have been busy so much, I have not had the time to keep on it, so I am going to do a recap of what I have done since my Holy Land trip to catch my records and everyone up to speed:)
After the Holy Lands, I was in New York for a total of two weeks, it was loads of fun! But once again a quick visit (remember I actually live there, however I have been lucky to find people to stay in my spot so all of my overly expensive rent does not go to waste) while I was in NY, I spontaneously (me spontaneous?) went on a road trip to Palmyra with some friends in my ward and even stopped by Niagra Falls for a total of like 20 min- it was gorgeous and really fun. We went to the sacred grove and stayed for the pageant. After that little venture, my oldest brother Roger came to visit me in NY for a couple of days. We of course checked out the 24 hour Mac store since he is kind of a computer geek- and won lottery tickets for Young Frankenstien (I am now 2 for 2!), ate delicious Thai food at my favorite restaurant, Spice, went to the Museum of Natural History, got a bit board with walking around the enternal circle explaining the Big Bang Theory- yeah right! Then showed him my neighborhood of wall street and took my first photo of the infamous bull-

Holy Biblelands!!!

So I recently returned from my trip to the Holyland in the middle of June and July, and Yes, it was blasted hot and I came back with a great tan- but even better I returned with 23 new friends (most of them living in Utah) a lot of history lessons and a great testimony and faith building experience. Whenever people ask me "how it was?" I really em speechless of what to say.... to put it simply it is a life altering profound experience and probably the best trip of an experience in my life:) If you would like to see more of my trip check out the group's blogg at sandnseas.blogspot.com

United Kingdom often mistaken for the Magic Kingdom (aka Disneyland)

So the generic question someone always ask right after completeing a massive accomplishment or victory is "what are you going to do now" the sarcastic comment was always "I'm going to Disneyland" well close, but no cigar... after compeleting my first year of school I took the venture to visit the United Kingdom with my good friend Sherrie Burt. We started the first leg of the trip to London, where we stayed with some lovely friends of her's who were so accommadating and insisted to make us a traditional English roast for Sunday Dinner. We did the norm of seeing Big Ben, Parliment, Leccester Square, Picadilly Circle, Hyde Park, Notting Hill, Portabella Road, a West end Musical ("Gone with the Wind") and a partridge in a pear tree (I know I am cracking myself up...obviously still struggling with jet lag:) And then the biggest event of all (the mere purpose for Sherrie coming and inviting me) was the concert of Chess, the musical.. performed by Josh Groban (don't worry about it, meet two "Grobanite" fanaticks and they about died when they found my name was Lyndee, because it's his mother's name, guess it's a sign we were meant to be, I do believe he lives in New York) and Idina Menzila. Needless to say it was a rocked out concert at the Royal Albert Hall, so classy as well:)
After checking off England on our list we made way to Gasglow, Scottland to meet up and stay with an old friend of mine.. Ericka Ensign (the main motive for my trip). She is doing a study abroad at the University of Gasglow, it is a beautiful campus. We then took a train to Edinburgh and saw their famous castle and shopped down the Royal mile, this was my favorite part of the whole trip... I loved Edinburgh and Scottland in general I could build a summer home there. The people were so friendly, down to earth and humorous, needless to say the accents are pretty sexy as well, I learned a whole new dialec of the Scottish accent- Loch's, Glens, Lads and Lassies and the famous saying to "Never, ever, ever, ever trust a Cambell" it was purely entertaining. Then we took a trip to the Highlands, to the famous Loch Ness, looking for the Nessy the monster, sorry no sight of her. We then took a ferry from Scottland to Belfast, Northeren Ireland. We traveled on the coastal road of Northeren Ireland seeing many castles(too many almost), walked across a rope bridge and saw the famous Giant Causeways. Then we finished our trip off at the last night in Dublin. We saw and did a lot in ten days and was the totally fun adventure we were hoping it would be. Also, good to know of my British Heritage is obviously present. Found a Litchfield Street in London, one of the Scottish Queen's name was Maud and found a Lyndy Lou Bridal store in the middle of no where in Ireland...good to know my name is well represented through-out the United Kingdom...