FALL...ing behind.

Okay okay okay, so it has been a while since I've been on here. My New York trip feels like years ago and now we have begun the Christmas season. But what (you may have been asking yourself) has Carlie been doing since October?? Well your prayers have been answered, because you are about to find out.

Stranger Things Season 2 came out, and with it came a viewing party.  The house that hosted was completely decked out in themed decoration and refreshments, with a vigil for Barb, Eggo waffles and all. 

Eleven, Dustin, and Lucas. 

We watched the second season into the night, and people left whenever they decided it was time for bed. 

The next night, this group of people went to a Korean BBQ. Which apparently means waiters bring you raw meat and you have to cook it yourself. Which isn't that great if have never been before and you don't know what you are doing. 

Let me tell you, not a cheap meal. 

Now it's time for the story of the great pumpkin shortage of 2017. As a member of the FHE committee I was in charge of the pumpkin carving activity. So before the activity began, I went to Trader Joe's to buy some pumpkins, but there were none. It was a little concerning, but there are a lot of grocery stores around.  I called Safeway #1 and they had none, I called Safeway #2 and they had none, Tiffany tried to called Safeway #3 and they actually never answered the phone and she just waited on the phone while it rang indefinitely. We called Trader Joes #2 and they had none. Panic started to set in. The activity was starting in 30 minutes. I told Olivia to stall with the spiritual thought and buy us some time. I called Sprouts and they said that they had a few pumpkins left, but for $7 each, to which I said, "who do you think you are?". I then called Walmart and somehow talked to the same confused worker 3 different times before she told me that they had pumpkins in the garden center, which maybe was locked, she didn't really elaborate or seem to know. So we drove all the way to the Mountain View Walmart, got someone to open the locked garden center, and what did we find? No pumpkins. At this point I had no other option, so I decided to buy the most expensive pumpkins ever. We went to Sprouts and bought a measly 3 pumpkins. This is what happens to you when you try to buy pumpkins on October 30th. It was all okay though, because as what happens with most YSA activities, the majority of people just socialized. But after what I had just gone through, I was going to carve a dang pumpkin. 

My contribution mostly consisted of scooping out the goo. 

Then it was Halloween, I was a baseball player, and Tiffany was Dustin from Stranger Things.  

We walked around the most crazy crowded street in Palo Alto with crazy decorations (think mazes, hired actors, and fake haunted houses) and went to a house dance party. 

NOVEMBER:

One weekend in November I decided to surprise my family and I flew home for the weekend, which also coincided with my Dad's birthday.

I got to go to church with these squinty eyed fools.  

Went to the Provo Bakery with Sarah and co. 

and I even timed it so I was able to hold my new born nephew before catching my flight back to California. 

The Great Home Depot DIY Class of 2017

One day I heard an ad on the radio for DIY classes that the Home Depot does on Saturdays. I thought it would be a fun use of our time, so I signed Tiffany and I up to learn how to make a Christmas shelf. The night before the class we convince our friend Matt to sign up too, and we all headed to the Home Depot one fateful Saturday morning. 

You might think that there would be a nice workshop space that people would be gathered around, but there was not. Instead we asked a few employees where the class was and their response was "oh, is that happening today?" and eventually we were led to Deon in check out isle 3 with a cart with the supplies. We were the only students. 

So we just sat there and watched Deon half heartedly put together a Christmas shelf. We thought we would all making our own shelves along side with him, but such was not the case. 

It took an hour. 

You can tell that he really cared about how it looked. Screws are coming out the other side of the wood, and the shelves aren't screwed in. 

After an hour invested into this project we didn't want to go home empty handed, so we convinced him to give it to us instead of throwing it away or leaving it in the break room. I think we will cherish it forever. It may not sound like a very fun experience, but a lot of laughs were had and Deon is now a life long friend of ours, even though he might have little to no interest in ever seeing us again-especially in a DIY class. 

I also flew back home for Thanksgiving, which was somewhat a last second decision. It was nice to spend four days at home seeing family, eating two Thanksgiving meals, shopping, going to the movies, playing Tennis, and watching football. With all that going on, I somehow only took one picture: 

Me and Olivia on Thanksgiving taking a picture with a Snapchat filter.

I drove back to California with some other ward members and while it was a fun ride, I've decided that flying is very much worth it. 

NYC, It's Standing Room Only (day 4)

As a special treat, Tiffany will be coauthoring this post. 

Alas, our last day of being in New York was upon us. We packed up our suitcases, said goodbye to our hotel, and set off for our last day in the city.
Tiffany: Little did I know that while I was eating breakfast, it would be the only real food I would eat the whole day.

We once again were thwarted in our plans to see the NYC public library, as it is closed Sunday mornings. But we did get to witness a couple being married at the top of the steps. So at least there was that. 

Tiffany: I nearly collapsed into tears. But witnessing the marriage gave me hope that life would go on, even if I didn't get to see the inside of the NYC Public Library. 

We stopped by the empire state building lobby, just to see it, but not to go up to the top #tooexpensive.

Tiffany: We looked for Tom Hanks in the lobby to see if he was on his way to meet Meg Ryan at the top. Do you think he had to pay? How did his son get up there without a ticket? Anyway, we were 24 years too late. 

We had been lugging around our luggage all morning so we made a pit stop by Christian's apartment in the Upper West Side to drop off our suitcases. 

We then made our way to Magnolia Bakery, and there were so many tasty looking treats; I wanted to try them all. 

Tiffany: I'm sure all of the display cases have nose and tongue prints left behind from me admiring and coveting all of the baked goods. 

I went for the chocolate banana pudding. I wish we could have gone more than once-but I mean, you've seen our eating schedule so far, it was already packed tight. 

Tiffany: I got the pumpkin pecan bar. It was delicious. I'm still regretting not getting more treats. Nothing is worse than food regret. Let this be a lesson to you all, buy the dang pastry.

We then spent the rest of our afternoon walking around Central Park before heading to Church. 

We walked in this castle. 

Tiffany: No Prince Charmings were found. Surprise, surprise.

We saw the Alice in Wonderland statue-the hottest kid hang out in all of NYC. 

Then guess who showed up with his nice phone camera. That's right. Christian. Which means ANOTHER photo shoot was upon us. 

Tiffany: I hope you can all appreciate this photo, because it is one of the few where my eyes are not squinty. The same cannot be said for Aubrey.

It was very very bright. 

Tiffany took a nontraditional route. It was time to start switching it up. 

Tiffany: I call this photo, "Elegance".

Or maybe the heat was getting to her. 

Tiffany: It was not. This is just who I am.

Tiffany: I checked this out for a bit of light reading.

Grateful I have such a great friend who will travel and eat with me. 

Tiffany: Ditto. Also, unlike Carlie, I am moved to tears every time I look at this photo. Of the two of us, I am the emotional one. 

Tiff is a crack up, but I'm hard to impress.

Tiffany: I spend a lot of my life just trying to impress Carlie, and make her laugh. It only works 54% of the time.

Don't mess with us. 

Tiffany: When I first looked at this picture, I thought I was flipping the bird. I'm not. Just to clarify.

Before church we made another stop at Levain Bakery because we had just two more flavors to try. We also bought some to bring home to our friends 1.because we are nice people and 2. Because they are nice friends to drive/pick us up from the airport. 

Tiffany: My overall review of Levain is: it's good, maybe even great-depending on what cookie you get (chocolate peanut butter, duh).

We had one last food to try, and it was the chocolate babka bread from Breads Bakery. It was delicious, a definite top contender of the best things we ate.

Tiffany: I had been anticipating this bread the entire trip. It didn't disappoint. I would later be grateful for this loaf because it turns out Virgin America doesn't give complimentary snacks. What the heck is that all about??

Then it was off to the airport. The flight home was slightly miserable because we were (maybe unbelievably so) hungry. As Tiffany mentioned, our flight offered us free drinks and nothing else (unless you wanted to buy snacks/meals). We were kind of banking on eating dinner on our flight, and as you saw, our diet after breakfast consisted of a cookie, pudding, and chocolate bread. I was dying for vegetables/protein, but water it was. 

It was fun to watch a movie set in NYC and to see all of the places I had just been to. In all it was a great trip and it only left me wanting to go back and do everything else I didn't get the chance to. Also, I didn't eat sugar for a few weeks after our trip. Sugar overload. 

Tiffany: I ate sugar the next day. I love New York. I've been dreaming about going there since I was a kid and it lived up to my expectations, hopes, and dreams.  I'm already planning what I want to do on my next trip there. As Alicia Keys says, "Let's hear it for New York,"

Concrete Jungle Where Dreams Are Made Of (Day 3)

For those who have lost track, it is now Saturday October 21st.

On this fateful day we brought ourselves to lower Manhattan to see the 911 memorial/museum.

After purchasing our tickets to the museum, our tickets showed that our tour time was in an hour, so to pass the time we walked to the Wall Street Bull.

There were so many people there that it took away any desire we had to actually get a good picture with the bull, or even walk up to it and touch it for that matter. 

We took a selfie and called it good. 

The 911 museum was great, and made us feel a whole range of feelings. After the museum, Christian met up with us again to spend the rest of the day with us. Then we all went to get lunch. It was a record event because it was the first time we were purchasing food that day and it was already 3pm. 

We went to Eataly- a cafe/grocery store that had different stations for gelato, pizza, meat, cheese, bread, and pretty much anything Italian you could think of. It was fun to walk around and try the samples. 

Tiffany and I got this, and Aubrey and Christian chose to get some street food. 

We then traveled on the Staten Island Ferry to get a good free view of the Statue of Liberty.

We didn't go on the island, but just passed by in front of it. 

This is the kind of photo you get with the Statue of Liberty when you take the bargain option. 

Then (after a stop at the candy store) it was to the Brooklyn Bridge!

Us and 1057 other people were walking across the bridge. 

We decided it was another good time to take advantage of Christians phone camera and have a photo shoot. 

We made it about halfway before we decided we had a enough pictures and were ready to turn around and go get dinner.

These are our best "Brooklyn" faces. Just imagine your Italian uncle Tony asking you if you want more pastrami on your sandwich or something. 

After an Italian dinner (which again was cash only...), we decided to just stay with the theme of the day and get some Gelato. The "only two samples" rule made the choice extremely difficult. 

Aubrey once again had the pleasure of trying to find a restaurant/store that had a bathroom she could use. We will be forever thankful for the woman at Whole Foods who let her into the restroom without her having a bathroom code (something you get once you actually purchase something from their store).

Aubrey hadn't seen Washington Square Park yet, so we went again. There were a lot of people hanging out there, and there were a few street performers as well. It was a fun atmosphere.

Then back to the hotel it was, with one more day of NYC ahead of us.