Pioneer Day in Manhattan

A most unusual yet perfectly appropriate pioneer day.

Bring me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...

...your children yearning to be on vacation!

If you're happy and you know it raise your hand!
We are delighted to host RayDean and Jon Hill, who mustered
up these smiles despite missing their 6 fantastic kids!

We found the best possible souvenir!

Our first trip to Ellis Island was mesmerizing, moving,
intense, gratifying and humbling.

All true immigrants pass through Ellis island AND Times Square.
Re-enacting a metropolitan trek can be tiring
so we look for a quiet place to set a spell.

Central Park was the only spot considered for our pioneer picnic.

Do you recall that pioneers often made
butter as they walked and walked and walked?
Well, we made this easy ice cream as we trekked across the park.

This recipe turned out surprisingly good.

EASY HOMEMADE ICE CREAM

You don’t need any fancy equipment to make this ice cream,

just some zip-top bags, newspaper and tape! Kids love making this!

In a quart size zip-top bag put:

1 Tablespoon instant pudding mix

(vanilla, or your favorite kind...don't use sugar free)

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup milk

Stir ingredients together. Remove the extra air from the bag and seal it.
You may want to ’double bag’ the ice cream mixture.
Put the bag with the ice cream mix into a gallon size zip-top bag.
Add 4 cups ice and 1 cup rock salt (we substituted regular table salt).
Remove the extra air from the gallon size bag and seal it.
Wrap the gallon size bag in several layers of newspaper & secure paper w/ tape.
Now comes the fun part!
Toss the package, play ’catch’ with it ...whatever, just keep it moving!
Periodically check the progress of the ’freezing’ and when the ice
cream has set up, enjoy a refreshing treat!

As the week drew to an end RayDean and Jon continued
their trek west, arriving in SLC in a mere 6 hours. We
have stayed behind to provide rations for those who follow.

The live MTChoir/Osmond Concert Saturday was a fitting close to
another great week. How was your holiday?

We congratulate Tyson and Meredith Kelley as they rejoice
in the arrival of our latest grandson, July 23rd. Thank you
for this cute little bundle and for looking after him for us.

Temple Square and more

Temple Square...

...or is it square Temple?
Either way, this spot of Manhattan is pretty cool, even sacred.

The flowers on Temple Square - earlier this Spring

Temple Square flowers even spread across the street onto Broadway.
The heat of July is taking it's toll...
Our Temple Square...such a blessing to the Latter-day Saints.
Serving 15 stakes; 8 in New York State (5 of these are in New York City limits),
6 stakes in New Jersey and 1 in Connecticut.

The temple offers a place of peace and spiritual renewal just
steps away from the honking of taxi's, sirens of fire trucks
and jack-hammering of construction.

Construction is 24/7/365 in NYC. If not an area of the temple building,
it will be a street, or subway, or neighboring business. Currently it is
the 3rd floor of the temple building AND our apartment building.

Our apartment entrance should look something like this.
The whirling corner revolving door has been
ripped out and will be replaced with a side entrance.

Our elevator access has been reduced to 2. The other
is walled off for use by workers remodeling the hallways.
The remaining elevators work hard to service the 37 floors
of this building. Some residents are unhappy about the
changes but we think the upgrades are needed.
After all, we are located on Temple Square!

Our formerly grand/but dated lobby now looks like this...
(You can understand why we are using a temporary entrance
and have walled off the elevators.)

To get away from construction at work and home we meandered
up the street for a FHE treat at the ice cream truck. On the
way we pass Loews, a 15 theater complex two blocks away.
It often looks like this...

As we walked up we saw this. Take a guess...

...only in Gotham City, the Batmobile!
And the World Premiere of the latest version.
Cheers for Bruce "Christian Bale" Wayne.

The crowds were scarier than the movie. Coming through
the crowd to say hello was our friend Amy, a producer at ABC.

Following our FHE treat and "activity" we went home.
Quickly, our focus and perspective were reinforced with our lesson.

***Howell Family Marquis***
Upcoming features:
Jerry turns 27 tomorrow!
RayDean & Jon see Times Square tomorrow!
Luke turns 363 days tomorrow!
We await Meredith's baby, tomorrow????

Have a great day...TODAY,
because tomorrow never comes...but don't tell that to Meredith :)
xoxo

Manhattan moments

Our mission continues to be challenging but we know that the Lord

is with us to strengthen us and increase our capacity. This week
we are especially grateful for an understanding public affairs
director who works to ensure that we feel needed.

Since photo opportunities in the office and during international
affairs events are often limited we share now some of the
memories of the week that we did capture on film.

Smiling at the news that we survived the last batch of transfers...
Last Sunday we waved goodbye to an old friend.
He's been like a son to us...

On the subway to Harlem we were bold enough to
befriend every person on the train :)

Over the weekend the senior sisters got together for a Jello cookoff.
Pity our husband's who did the judging. See all the ladies snickering?
(Guess what kind of salad Carolyn made with Jello pudding)
Seeing a stand alone house is an oddity in Manhattan.
The mission home in Scarsdale feels like a mansion to us.

The marquis above a small downtown Manhattan theater
announced the premier of a Sandy, Utah favorite.
We were tipped off by niece Cheyenne's blog.

Pictured here playing one of their greatest hits,
"Banjo Boy"

Such a great concert.
In case any of you need help identifying the talent...

All too soon another week ends. They seem to morph into months, and seasons.

Carolyn's Dad turns 80 tomorrow.
Happy birthday Dennis Allen Creek!!!

The timeless Jerel Bullock celebrates a birthday on Friday the 18th.
Can anyone guess his age?

Make it another great week, and
remember who you are and why you are here!

4th of July Weekend

Happy Birthday America! (and my sister Cecile)
The Church New York Office of Public and International Affairs
was closed for the 4th so we went walking...This is a great approach
shot just around the corner from the Manhattan Temple.
Zoom in to see the landmark on top.

We ventured downtown.
Road repairs would wait.
The city was in celebration mode.
Ewwww, this is what lies between the
subway below and the street above.
It was fun to find a major street outside the Stock Exchange
closed off for a neighborhood festival and street fair.

Nice ship. It is kinda lame that we cannot tell you anything
about this tall ship but it certainly gets plenty of attention.

From this spot we watched fireworks over the East River.

We've enjoyed all of the picnic and fireworks photos
that you have shared. They are all appreciated.
Keep us posted. We still, and always will, love you!

---Mom & Dad---
Sister & Elder Howell
Carolyn & Lane

Happy Birthday this week to Tyson and Greg!!!

Ahhhhhh. Central Park. At the north end of "The Mall" is the Naumburg Bandshell. In the winter you can have the stage to yourself, as Jami and her friend have done.

And in the summer, you can spend an evening listening to an orchestra, such as the Brooklyn Philharmonic. Carolyn went for a quick walk and just happened onto this performance.

For the record, the tall tan building in the middle of this picture is our apartment building. Two thoughts come to mind: There are no windows looking out to Central Park, and climbing the stairs from sidewalk level to the roof is great exercise (almost too great).

Someone in the Church real estate department had the amazing idea of knocking big windows into the upper apartments and then raising the rent REAL high!

So, our famous rooftop view has been turned into a construction site.

The results? Our missionary friends, the LaFleurs, are the first benefactors of this plan. Here's their new view of midtown Manhattan from their 37th floor apartment. Amazing!

The LaFleurs now just sit and watch the city, the lightning displays, and the fireworks in Central Park. We think their low-cost, subsidized apartment is about to be exchanged for a lower floor apartment.

Did I mention how fun it is to climb 524 stairs? My initial time was 13+ minutes. When Sam came to visit, he straightened out my thinking and now I do it in 8 min 44 secs. I'm incapacitated at the end, but Sam is unsympathetic. (I suggested that Sam improve over my time, so he just ran up in 4 min 20 secs -- curses!!)

Lane developed a skin problem wherein his face began to look like that of a teenager. He called it leprosy but the doctor called it a real serious case of rosacea. On the day we went to get his blood drawn, we discovered the residential entrance to the Time Warner Towers at Columbus Circle.

Now that the big event at Carnegie Hall is over, we are settling down in the office to more routine matters. We still love the work, are fascinated with the people who live here or those who come into town, and enjoy doing all we can to support our Director, Ahmad Corbitt. Did we mention that President Uchtdorf, his wife and grandsons took a vacation here in NYC last week? It was fun to meet him and shake his hand. One last thing. We so miss our friends the Shumways, who were released a couple of weeks ago. They are back in SLC now.
Our love to all our friends and family.
Lane & Carolyn

Breakfast fixin's and the Obelisk

Saturday morning is usually the only day of the week where
we kick back and prepare a real hot and hearty breakfast.
Most mornings we snack on fruit or skip breakfast altogether.

So it was unusual for us to wake early Tuesday to cook and serve
strawberry cream cheese French toast and biscuits with
sausage gravy to some special guests in New York City.

Lunch was easier...a nearby restaurant prepared the entree.

Summer has arrived!
Here are pictures from our afternoon in Central Park yesterday.
The row boat line was too long. One day when we
have sunscreen we will wait patiently through it.

One of my most favorite spots is the Egyptian Obelisk.
Created 3500 years ago by artisans and laborers for Pharaoh
Thutmosis III. How it ended up in Central Park is the stuff
movies are made off. Nicknamed "Cleopatra's Needle", it
weighs 220 tons and was raised in Central Park in 1881.

Stunningly beautiful, lush and green, soothing and serene.

Belvedere Castle, above Turtle Pond and just south of The Great Lawn.

The Sheep Meadow; this 15 acre tract welcomes on average
30,000 sunbathers, frisbee tossers and picnickers daily!
The panoramic Manhattan skyline brings us back to reality.

Because this has been way too serial :)
...just announced on Fox News...
US Championship Rock, Paper, Scissors in Las Vegas
with the winner advancing to the Bejing
Olympics this summer. Seriously!

Congratulations to Kylie on being baptized!
This week Greg's "twins" turn 5 (David), and 3 (Daniel).
Happy Birthday June 24th, handsome grandsons!

We welcome Meredith and Tyson to the world of blogging.
That makes 10...4 more to go.

We love you, everyone! xoxo