Wicked! (and a little shopping - a good combination!)

Yesterday we finally used my birthday present from January, which was tickets to see Wicked on Broadway. We went to Millbrook on Friday, spent the afternoon and evening with Grandma and Grandpa Field, then took the train to NYC from Poughkeepsie on Saturday morning. We walked from Grand Central Station up to 55th Street, where we did a little bargain shopping at a place that a co-worker had told Dave about. They had some fun things! After arranging for our purchases to be shipped to Heber, we walked to Times Square, where we had lunch at Michael Scott's favorite New York pizza joint (aka Sbarro's). Then we went to the Gershwin Theater for the show. And it was awesome - we all loved it! It was definitely worth the six month wait!

Last couple items of business

As moving day draws closer, we have been taking care of some last minute business like shipping our cars out west.



We figure that Rachel and Jeff probably passed Casper and my car on I-80 today as they headed east to Iowa!



And we've been packing liking crazy. This is how the kitchen cupboards look now...very disappointing for any hungry snackers.





And most important business of all - Bekah is a high school graduate!!!! Yay! Congratulations Bekah - we're very proud of you!

Getting ready to leave

Last night the Maughans had a little get-together and invited some friends from the ward to come over and say goodbye to us. It was fun to have a chance to visit with friends before we make our pilgrimage westward. There are so many wonderful people in this ward who we have loved working with and getting to know. We will miss them greatly! We are really hoping that friends and family who travel to Utah will look us up. I have to admit that Dave and I are not the best at staying in touch with people after we move - but we have vowed to do better! And hopefully we'll get a chance to see lots of family and friends as they make their trips to Utah dropping off kids at college, attending weddings, etc.

Yesterday Dave and I spent most of the day packing up our little apartment here. We've been collecting boxes from MVP (and a few from the local liquor store...) and we've got most of those filled. The trick now is to see how much of this stuff we can fit into our trailer! A lot of the things we're taking are things that we are dropping off in Iowa for Jeff and Rachel (if Iowa hasn't floated away by the time we get there!). So now the cupboards are mostly bare and things are looking pretty sparse - in fact, we're down to peanut butter, shortening, and noodles...I'll have to see what culinary delights I can whip up with that ingredient list!

Question Answered

Okay, my question from my last post about whether summer is ever coming to New York has definitely been answered. It's been 94 degrees and SUPER humid outside for about 4 days running now. So I guess summer has indeed hit NY state! We're supposed to get severe thunderstorms tonight, so maybe that'll cool things down.

But on a positive note, they closed the schools today at 1:00 because it was too hot. So Bekah got a free half-day!

Is summer ever going to get here??

Well, today it is supposed to get up to 63 whopping degrees! And be really windy, too. This has to be the longest spring on record. It stopped being really cold here in NY about 2 months ago, but it is having a REALLY hard time warming up for any prolonged periods of time. Maybe it's just because we're kind of in limbo here in this little apartment, and I just want to get on with life, or maybe it's the weather, but it seems like summer is taking it's sweet old time getting here!

Last weekend we had a fun trip to Millbrook. We drove down on Saturday afternoon after Bekah's dance class. Our plan was to stop in Millbrook at Dave's folks' house, pick them up, and then go to Amy Brown's wedding reception in Poughkeepsie. Unfortunately, Grandma Field had fallen earlier in the week during a walk down Crescent Lane. Her foot was really hurting, so on Friday afternoon she went to the doctor for x-rays, and they told her it was broken. So they decided they'd better not go to the reception since it would likely involve a lot of standing. So we went on to the reception without them. It was fun to see old friends again - we saw the Wileys, Clarks, Stratfords, Berardis, Browns (of course), Bro. Albrecht, Malcarnes, Bro. Prettyman and his new wife, and probably a bunch of other people I'm forgetting. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. We also attended church in Poughkeepsie on Sunday, and that was fun too. It was almost shocking to me to see what a tiny little ward that is. I guess when we lived there I had gotten used to it being so small. But to see it again after being in a large ward was really kind of surprising.

Anyway, lots of good memories from Millbrook. Oh, and for the kids - Dad and I walked up the driveway to our house in Millbrook, and two things struck us: the hedge in front of the house is HUMONGOUS!!! (she needs to hired Ducky back - or Jake to do some trimming big time), and the huge old tree by the house is practically dead. That is going to be one monster tree trunk to remove - but she'd better do it soon, because one of these days a good old tornado is going to rip through there and leave that old tree sitting right on top of all my hard work!

Trip to Utah

We just returned from our last trip to Utah before becoming residents there later this summer. We had a great time! Here are some of the highlights:

We got to meet Preston - and what a cutie he is! Amy was very patient with us as we all took turns holding him and getting to know him a little bit. It was wonderful to be there for his blessing, and I thought it was really nice that it was held right at Matt and Amy's house. Everybody was there, and it was a special night.

We had fun getting reacquainted with Abby and trying to convince her that she likes us! I don't think she buys it yet, but I'm sure that will come once we're out there and get to see her more often. She was lots of fun to play with and has grown a ton since we last saw her!

It was really nice to get everybody together a couple times while we were out there. We took the opportunity to have a family photo taken since the family has grown by 6 members since the last time we have a professional shot done. We've already seen the proofs, and they came out nice!

We visited Matt and Jake's motorcycle shop in Orem, and that was fun - they are very ambitious!

We spent an afternoon with Rachel and Bekah at the Nickel Arcade in Orem and sharpened up our arcade skills.

We got some things taken care of at the house, and made some progress with the commercial buildings in Heber were we are hoping to get start on renovations soon.

Most of all, it was nice just to spend time with the family. All in all, it was a great trip!

All the latest

Well, we have big news in the Field family, and that, of course, is the arrival of Preston Matthew Field, born on March 21, 2008 to Matt and Amy. He's a hefty 9+ pounder, and adorable to boot. We can't wait to meet him in person.



Another milestone...in January Abby turned 1! It's hard to believe that she's not a little tiny baby anymore. But she sure is a cutie, and we're all crazy about her.



In other news - right now I'm working on sewing a prom dress for Rebekah. Here's what it looks like so far.



As you can see, I'm not very far along - in fact, the front is just pinned on, there's not even a back yet! The most interesting part is going to be inventing sleeves, since the pattern doesn't come with them.


And other than that, there's not a whole lots happening here in upstate New York. We are finally getting some sunshine, although it's still pretty chilly out. One of these days I'm hoping we can break out of the 40's!