When Courtney got her mission call she requested that we take a Girl Trip to New York to go see a Broadway play, then go to upstate New York. So of course, working for a fabulous airline, I could totally make that happen. This week, we did just that. We left Tuesday night, after I worked a full day, and rode jumpseat to get someone's buddy pass riders on. That is why this first picture I look exhusted already. This is us in Time Square. We had to pick-up our tickets for the play, then we had a quick lunch.
This picture is for Dad...since he is ALWAYS watching the NASDAQ, Courtney had to take a picture here.
This picture is for Dad...since he is ALWAYS watching the NASDAQ, Courtney had to take a picture here.
And here we are on BROADWAY! We have been to New York so many times, it was nice to just do a couple of things, and not try and see everything. It is such a crazy busy place, even in the rain, it was hussling.
"THE LION KING", this is the play we went to this time. Courtney really wanted to see "Beauty and the Beast", I got checking into it and found that it closed in NY, July of 2007. So this was the second choice. 
Courtney in front of the SCAR costume. We were both in AWE of the amazing costumes and how the scene's really came to life. So amazing, you have to see it to believe it!
After the play, since we attended the matinee, we wanted to just stop by the Manhattan Temple. We knew it was closed for cleaning, but still wanted to see where it was. The security guard took this picture for us. While we were talking to him, some workers came out of the temple. Then another man. He asked us where we were from and we told him Draper, UT. We told him we wanted to go to a session, but when we looked up the schedule, we saw it would be closed while we were there, but we still wanted to see it. He smiled at us and asked if we had our recommends. We said YES, then he asked if we had them with us and could show him. We both showed our recommends and then he smiled again and said he could let us come in and look around. We found out he was the Temple President. He gave us a private tour of the beautiful Manhattan Temple. Such an amazing experience. One that made our whole trip!
After our private tour, we decided to find somewhere to eat in this quaint little neighborhood. The streets were all tree lined and it really reminded us of "You Got Mail". This is Courtney by one of the cute shops with beautiful flowers. There were several shops wih flowers, we loved it! We did find a great Italian resturant and had a fabulous dinner.
When we got back to our hotel we noticed some missionaries waiting to check-in. I stopped and asked one of them if they were leaving or coming home. They were all coming home, and were all heading to Utah. Of all places, they were coming from the Ukraine! We let them know that Courtney was leaving in October for Russia, they knew some of the missionaries in her mission. Now Courtney needs to tell them "Hi". It was such a fun day! 
The next day we flew up to upstate New York, to see the Church History sites. This is us on a cute bench that was at the Rochester Airport. We wanted to bring it home and put it in the back yard. It wasn't for sale and wouldn't fit in our suitcase. We got our car and set our GPS (AKA Chickie Doodle) for Palmyra.
Our first stop. The site where the first Book of Mormon was printed.
We met Sister Esper, from Argentina. She was our tour guide. She found out that Courtney was going to Russia and had her be her companion for the tour. She put her name badge on Courtney and gave her scriptures to Courtney, then had her help behind the scene. Doesn't Courtney make a great missionary?
Courtney demonstrating how to put the ink on the letters for the printing press.
After the tour of the printing press, we headed out to the Whitmer Farm in Fayette, NY. It was an hour drive by car, so it must have taken at least 1/2 day on horse back for Joseph to run over to his friend, Peter Whitmer. This is Courtney and Sister Trujillo at the Whitmore farm.
Courtney and me in front of the Whitmer Farm.
After the Whitmer Farm we headed over to the Hill Cumorah. We drove up to the top. I wanted to take a picture of the cool road, but Courtney wanted to be in the picture...so she is.
Here we are at the top of Hill Cumorah. We met more people from Utah. They knew I was from Utah because of my great watch. Funny, I never knew that my watch say's "Your from Utah". Now I know that little secret, I will be using it!
Just s shot from the view at the top of the Hill Cumorah. It was so beautiful.
Next we headed over to the Smith Farm and Sacred Grove. The next picture is taken from the back door of the Smith home, the path leads to the sacred grove.
This is Courtney and me in the Smith family home. The glass case on the table holds the bible that Father Smith read with the family each night.
This is just a picture of the fence that lines the family property. I thought it was so neat.
And this is the Sacred Grove. Courtney and I just sat in the stillness and beauty of the grove. It was so peaceful, and you could feel a great spirit there.
Us, again.
We hurried and changed to our skirts because we had a 6 PM temple session scheduled. So this is us just before we went into the temple.
And this is when we came out. If you look close at the glass, you can see the trees from the sacred grove.
Courtney, outside the temple. After our session we had a great home cooked meal then head to our hotel. Thank goodness I brought our "Chickie Doodle" to help us find our hotel. We ended up at the wrong Radisson, but finally made it to our hotel around 10 PM. What a fun, filled to the brim day.
The next day we spent on planes getting home. We got home around 5:30 PM. This is us on the flight. Ahh.....what a great three days we had. We sure did see alot of blessings happen on this trip, and felt we were soo lucky to have this time together. Glad Courtney wanted to take a GIRL TRIP!
This is him on the day of his farewell.....
