Celebrating Forty Three in New York City.

Ever since I moved to Jersey six years ago Maggie & I have attempted to keep our yearly tradition of attending the temple on or around our birthday week. It took a while for us to make this goal, and even though there have been a  year or two since my moving up here that we skipped & had lunch locally instead we always got back on our feet, and reminded ourselves to just go! This year our birthdays fell on a week where the temple in our district was closed for cleaning. Well...luckily we have the Manhattan Temple (which in my opinion should be our temple district because it's a lot closer) to serve in, and have fun afterwards in this magical city we Texan gals have grown to love. 

Attending the temple in New York is always so interesting. Interesting because once you enter through the doors all the sounds of the city dissipate, and the only sound you hear are the voices of the people that are inside the temple, and the beating of your own heart....and then all you feel is peace.  

Once we stepped foot outside the temple the noise returned, and it was okay. We love this city! We walked around the upper west side, snooped inside a couple of shops, filled our stomachs with lunch at The Smith restaurant, and after walking a few more blocks down Columbus avenue we  parked ourselves on a brownstone stoop and enjoyed our delicious cookies from one of the best bakeries in town...Levain Bakery! 

Because we were enjoying the city so much I didn't take too many pictures. However, I did manage to capture the beauty of the temple from a few different angles...

^^^ Beautiful shot of the Angel Moroni at the top of the Manhattan temple ^^^

and some photos of the yummy lunch I had...

 ^^^ If you plan on ordering the hamburger make sure you come hungry because it's a good size burger! I didn't get to finish it all.  ^^^

^^^ The hot potato chips, and blue cheese dressing was soooooo good! My husband was jealous when I told him about it, because anything blue cheese is his favorite!! ^^^

Can't forget to document these delicious cookies as well...

Days like this are always at the top of my "life list". They are categorized under "the best days of my life".  Attending the temple with my one of my very best friends is the next best thing to attending it with my husband. I thought a lot about my hubby while inside the temple as well as my family members, but at the same time am grateful to have gone with my dear friend, and to have a girls day out! We all need those don't we? It was so much fun, and we both said to ourselves the next time we go we may just have to spend an entire weekend here so that we don't rush ourselves driving back to Jersey. Knowing this girl for 23 years seems surreal because on some days it feels as if I met her yesterday. I never thought that I would end up living in the same area as Maggie, and because of her I was taught of all the do's and don'ts of Jersey (I also learned a lot of them on my own too!) 

Thank you Maggie for all that you did for me on my special day, and for driving us into the city we love! You truly are a gem in my life!

Here's to 43 years, and to looking forward to many more trips like this!