Tour de Central Park

Richard took the day off work today, and we decided to rent bikes and take a quick jaunt around Central Park--something we had been planning to do for two months but had never gotten around to it. We rented cruisers (complete with wide-set handlebars and brake-by-pushing-back features). It was a great (and quick) way to see all the little-known sights of Central Park. Did you know that Central Park houses a ginormous swimming pool, about 30 tennis courts in a row, baseball fields and several nice restaurants? Apparently, in our minds, it was just... a park. To walk through and buy overpriced water and ice-cream. Sorry we underestimated you, NYCP.

This is a video I took while on my bike. Forgive us for not wearing helmets, Mom.

Boo Yankees!

Last night, we traveled to a far away place (midtown) to see Damn Yankees (which will be referred to as Boo Yankees! from now on). Tickets were only $25, which was a definite plus, as was the fact that some of our favorite stars were performing in it. Jane Krakowski, best known (to us) as Jenna from 30 Rock, played the sultry Lola, and Sean Hayes, the actor who plays Jack in Will & Grace, played... well, the devil.

We gave the performance a "thumbs sidewides." Although the aforementioned actors were funny and clever, the play itself seemed to go on forever, and our seats had limited view. BUT, it was totally worth it to see our lovely Jenna perform live! Only in New York!


Lost fans will appreciate how the video opens...




After the performance, we decided to extend our date and eat a Forbidden Broadway Sundae at Serendipity, as per the recommendation of our intern friends, Adam and Becky. Sadly, when we got there, we found that there was an HOUR wait! At 10:00 p.m.! Go to bed people, seriously. Hopefully we will still be able to eat there before we leave!

P.S. YES, I learned how to link in this blog, and YES, we are blogging more often than each month! Woo hoo!

Happy 4th of July!

As Emily realized yesterday, this is the last "first" holiday that we will spend together (the last 4th of July, Richard was in France and Emily was in Utah). We have been together more or less since last Pioneer Day, so this officially ends the first year of our adventures together. We decided to celebrate in style, and what better place than America's hometown (err, sort of), Beantown!



We came in late Thursday night, happy to escape the bus (where we were sitting next to the bathrooms... leave the rest to your imagination). We stayed with the wife of one of Richard's friends (he is doing an internship in China), and she was extremely hospitable to us. We enjoyed a tour of Boston on the "Liberty Trail," and got in just in time (2:00) before they closed the gates for the 8:30 performance of the Boston Pops' 4th of July Celebration. It was sure worth the wait. Kat was excited to see the Rascal Flatts perform live (Emily and Richard, less excited). But hearing the Pops play "The Stars and Strips Forever" while watching an awesome fireworks display over the Charles River was DEFINITELY a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Watching them setting up for the nationally-televised show on CBS

A Rascal Flatts pre-show interview

During the performance... it was AMAZING

We love America!

On Saturday, we visited a few more sites and bought matching sweatshirts (because we are THAT cool), and then (after falling asleep on the way back home) had a relaxing evening eating order-in Chinese food and watching a movie.

Overall, I would give this trip a Thurman "diagonal thumbs up." (I would give it a "thumbs up," but all of the duck tours were sold out! Bummer!)

Hope you all had a great 4th!

The Past Little While...

Well, as usual, there has been a lot of things happening in our little Peterson family since the last time we posted. Here are some highlights--and lowlights--from our NYC summer thus far (in no particular order)...

• A trip to Washington D.C. to check out our future hometown, find a suitable (and cheap) residence and visit our friend Beef
• Weekly Sunday dinners with the Lincolns in Hoboken, NJ... mixed in with Rock Band sessions (Richard on the guitar and Emily on the drums), playing with our nephews and $8 trips through the Lincoln tunnel
• Watching the Yankees play Seattle and win 13-0 (so the Lincolns don't get mad at us, we were thinking "Boo Yankees!" the whole time)
• Going to the top of the Empire State Building with Emily's internship group
  
• Attending several Broadway plays including Stomp, Wicked, Chicago, Legally Blonde (and seriously disliking the actor who plays Emmett)
• Watching BYU Chamber perform at Carnegie Hall
  
• Emily finishing her Honors Thesis and successfully defending her honor
  
• Hiking in Bushkill Falls with Carma and Jenny (and respective families)
• Having an awesome day at Six Flags in New Jersey with the Lincolns and Kristen
  
• Booing off bad performers at Amateur Night at the Apollo (they told us to...)
• Dealing with the aftermath of our car being broken into and our GPS being stolen (VIP Elphie II)

Still to come...

• ANOTHER trip to Washington D.C. for Pan's birthday party
• A 4th of July trip to Boston!
• Going to a July 26 Mets game with the Lincolns (so they forgive us for going to a Yankees game)
• A trip to Canada with the Lincolns and Emily's parents
• Emily and Thurman's Week of Fun (after Emily finishes work and when Thurman is between summer camps)
• A weekend of showing Beef around NYC
  
• Continued job searching (if you know of any PR jobs in the Washington area, let us know!)
• Finishing my last independent study class... Business Finance :(
• More plays including The Little Mermaid, Hairspray and Wicked (yes, again.. you can't see Wicked too many times).
• Moving our stuff to our new home in Washington D.C.

Will post pictures later (hopefully)!

Our Trip to Yankees Stadium

Last week Richard went with his dad to Yankees Stadium and watched them suffer a terrible loss. However, the tides turned when he went with Emily and they won by 11 runs. Here is a short video clip of their adventure.

The Journey to NYC's Golden Streets and Avenues

Well, since the last post a lot has happened again. Emily, Richard, and Kristen all graduated last week (well, mostly graduated for Emily). The days of graduation were long but we had a lot of fun with David and Elaine being in Provo. We had a sweet graduation dinner at the Melting Pot (even though the waiter wasn't very nice and took away Emily's and Kristen's plates after they put raw meat on them--by his reaction, we were afraid someone was hemorrhaging or something). Also, Elder Bednar was the Commencement speaker, and we enjoyed his talk. He talked about learning to love learning for life--or something very close to that. Emily's convocation was at 8am, Kristen's was at 11am, and Richard's at some time in the evening. We took a great many pictures throughout the day and they turned out well. After Richard's convocation we went to Aunt Linda's house for a fabulous barbecue. We started with ice-cream cake (for Richard's birthday) as an appetizer and then moved into the main courses. There was an endless supply of steak and chicken; there was humus and flatbread; there was salad, and it was all very wonderful. We left after being very well fed.

We spent all of Saturday (the 26th) packing up all of our things. We were surprised by how much stuff you can accumulate in a month. However, we were able to get all of it packed up and still have time to go out to dinner with Richard's parents and a couple friends (Skylar and Sabrina). After dinner we worked off the calories playing Dance Dance Revolution for our new Wii (Richard got DDR for his birthday from his parents).

Sunday morning we finished up final preparations for coming to NYC and unloaded and reloaded bags that came out to 50 lbs. exactly. Richard's parents dropped us off at the airport and the voyage began. We made it through to Minneapolis, Minnesota without any glitches, but things changed a bit when we got there. They informed us when we were checking if we were at the right terminal that they had overbooked our flight to NYC. We were then informed that we could be "bumped" with perks. They offered $600 towards future flights with Northwest, $50 in food vouchers, lodging for the night, and first-class passage to NYC. After short deliberation, we decided to take the deal and spare Carma from picking us up at the airport around midnight on Sunday night.

So we left the airport in Minneapolis for our hotel. We went to the restaurant in the hotel after leaving our bags in our room and we were treated to the greatest meal we have ever had in a hotel in Minneapolis. Seriously though, the food was surprisingly good. Emily had the filet mignon and Richard had the Minnesota walleye (of which he gave some to Emily who is a self-proclaimed non-fish-eater... she may have liked it). The next morning we went to the Mall of America to ride as many roller coasters as we could in an hour. Unfortunately, we learned upon our arrival that their ticketing system was down. Our curse turned blessing though when they let us take a ride for free. We chose the Sponge Bob ride and it was incredible. We will try to post some of our video of it later. We went on another ride that was a lot of fun too. It was called Avatar or something. After our two rides we had to run back to the pick-up point for our shuttle back to the hotel. Luckily we made it.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare and then that time multiplied because our flight was delayed due to zero visibility at JFK airport. The wait wasn't too bad. We met an older woman who was traveling with her 20 year-old blind cat and another woman who couldn't understand why people kept walking up to the counter to ask questions. The delay wasn't too bad and it was worth the wait for a first-class ride (Richard's first ever). The flight was rather short and we made it to JFK safe and sound. Then came the mishap of the missing luggage that would continue for several days after.

In Minneapolis, they told us to go to a luggage counter when we arrived at JFK. Unfortunately, when we were walking to said luggage counter, the woman who worked at that counter was walking to meet us at the baggage claim. When we arrived at the luggage counter, they told us to go to the Information desk to have the woman paged. The Information desk told us when we requested the page that they do not do anything like that and sent us to the ticketing counters upstairs. We went to the ticketing counters and they looked at us confusedly. They didn't know where to send us so Richard asked for a phone number to call. He called the number as we walked to the baggage claim to see if we could spot any of our luggage. While Richard was talking on the phone, Emily found two of our bags, but that left one bag missing. We then ran into the woman who was in charge of lost baggage. She told us that she--not according to custom--put our luggage on the baggage claim belt and that somehow one of our bags was apparently picked up by someone else. So we had to fill out a claims form and they assured us that our bag would be found. Two days later they called us at midnight and asked if they could bring us our bags. Richard groggily (we were sleeping) told them to bring it to Carma's and Greg's (we gave Northwest their address because we didn't have one yet) either Wednesday or Thursday evening. They made several calls in the span of a couple of days (including one visit to Carma's and Greg's without our bag with them) and we finally gave them our new address and they brought us the bag on Friday morning. We are very glad to have our bag and to have the midnight calls stop.

Carma and the boys picked us up from the subway after we left the airport. They drove us to the International House and gave us brownies :) and hugs :). If you know the headache we've had getting into this place and all the frustrating conversations we've had with the Internship Office of the Communications Dept. at BYU you might know that we were expecting to have a dormitory style room for the both of us for a few weeks before getting a studio apartment. We were pleasantly surprised when we opened the door to our apartment and we saw a refrigerator, a sink, and a table... all tell-tale signs of a kitchen. A kitchen it was indeed. The bedroom portion is much larger than we expected and the bathroom is very neat. We are very pleased with our--in Emily's words, "adorable"--apartment.

We are unpacked and Emily has started work. Richard will start at the warehouse on Monday once our car arrives. We have explored the city a bit and we are planning many excursions into the city as well as other cities on the Eastern seaboard. We've already made it to Hoboken once last night for a great evening at Carma and Greg's place. Great food and great fun! We never knew we had it what it takes to be part of a Rock Band (as defined by the "Easy" settings on the Playstation 3).

Well, that should about bring us up to date again. These posts ought to shorten a bit with increased regularity.

A Kentucky Wedding

We would like to begin by apologizing to our faithful readers for the long periods of time between posts. Here is a reader's digest version of our lives since the last time we wrote:
*we got married and had 2 receptions (one in Draper and one in Omaha a week later)
*we are less than a week away from graduating college/ moving to NYC for the summer
*we got a Wii (Richard thinks this is most exciting thing on the list thus far.... Emily disagrees)
*we went to Lexington, KY so Emily could present her Honors Thesis at the Kentucky Conference on Health Communication
*Emily learns that her sister Carma is a celebrity in the Health Communication world
*The Office came back on the air
*we got addicted to "Arrested Development"
*Richard sent in his seat deposit to George Mason University Law
Whoo... that's a lot. Continue reading at your own risk....


Well, first and foremost, we got married on March 22. During that week, all of Emily's immediate family and some friends came in, and we had a great time playing games, eating, attempting to watch BYU games and taking lots and lots of pictures. We can't believe how old our nieces and nephew are getting!

(apparently Nico and Spencer weren't as happy to be there as everyone else)

The night before the wedding, we had a great groom's dinner at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. The food was great (we hear... we ate very little), and it was only a little awkward to be constantly stared at for hours (something we would get more used to in the next 24 hours). It was also that night that Aaron presented Richard with "The In-Laws' Guide to the Bylund Family," a compilation of weird and funny things about the Bylund family to make his transition easier. Emily thinks that Richard needs to read the book more carefully, as he often questions her on things that are IN THE BOOK. Examples: "Why did Carma tell you to only take a dollar?" "What is the address Jenny and Aaron's blog?" "What are family team numbers?" Luckily, Emily can refer him back to this manual instead of attempting to explain.





After the dinner, Emily's friend Bethany threw a FANTASTIC bachelorette party complete with drinks, a unique game of Twister and Emmigories. Thanks Beef!!



The wedding day went by with only a few hitches. On the way to temple, Emily was driving with her parents slightly freaking out that something would go wrong. Suddenly, the car started shaking (one exit away from the temple!) and Emily's dad informed the riders that the car had a flat tire, and one of the riders began hyperventilating (we won't name names). Luckily, Emily's brother Kevin et al. came to rescue by driving in from Draper and dropping them off at the temple with seconds to spare.

The ceremony was beautiful and the weather was surprising good (albeit a little cold in the shade), and we continued to take pictures throughout the next 4 or 5 hours. Richard commented later that night that he knows what expression his smile was, because he could feel the muscles in his face hurt when he tried to smile that way again. But we sure had a lot to smile about!! We had a fun reception catching up with family and friends. There was great food (we hear) and the venue was gorgeous.



























Whew. A week later, we had another great reception in Omaha at Emily's parents' house. It was also amazing (however, I'm sick of putting pictures up)

This weekend, we traveled to Lexington, KY so Emily could present her Honors Thesis at KCHC. It, too, was great. Emily met a lot of people who tried to convince her to attend various graduate schools. She had a good lunch with the chair of the health comm masters program at GMU. We also went to the horse races and lost $4. Sad day. We spent an afternoon walking around downtown Lexington (it didn't take very long), watched a few episodes of Arrested Development, and tried not to think too much about the week of finals ahead of us :)

Well, here we are. We are about to spend our last week in Utah and then a week from today we are moving to New York City (where the streets are paved with gold!)!!! What exciting lives we have!

P.S. Do people still read this? Or have you all given up on us?