Our last events in NY

Okay so I'm really catching up here since we moved almost a month ago! But I wanted to document some things from New York that were really great!

The first was our going away party that the ward threw us! There was a great turn-out of many friends that we've made the last year while in the Bronx:

Salinas and Diaz families. Such incredible families who were the heart and blood of the ward.

The awesome sister missionaries! We met so many amazing young men and women who dedicated their time to serving a mission. They were so dedicated and we just loved having them in our home!

Yolanda- she loved Auralia and would buy her little gifts and bring them to church! So sweet :)

You know how you meet those really special people who represent goodness and when you look at them you see the Light of Christ shining through? That's what I found in my good friend, Carla Bonilla. Love this lady & her cute family!!

Susanna & Cari became our friends from the first day. They were starting PhD students as well. We didn't see Susanna much, but she was a lot of fun when we did. And Cari was such a special person in our lives. She is so sweet and kind. She helped us move- just came over for lunch and ended up sticking around all day! Such a wonderful lady!

Living in the Bronx was incredibly challenging; being a member of the church was very demanding and some of the hardest service I've ever done. But it helped us grow and develop in ways that I couldn't have experienced any other way. I'm grateful for our time there.

The last "New York" experience that we had was taking my mom to the Top of the Rock observation deck for spectacular views of the city! I felt satisfied with having this as my "goodbye New York"/ last hoorah in the city.

Had to tickle her to get her to smile. Not my mom, Auralia.

Thank you New York for all the good times and all the life lessons. It's an interesting chapter in our book of life that we're happy we had. Also one we are happy to have over as it was so hard to raise a family there. Farewell NYC!

My mom's visit to help us move!

Wow it has been forever since I did a post.  My quick 10 minute posts turn into an hour so I never sit down and do it.

But as I'm sure anyone reading this knows, we left the Bronx and moved to Coralville, Iowa (it's part of Iowa City) on the 22nd of October. The funding for Tyron's research at the school in NY fell through, leaving us to find another option. So we contacted the University of Iowa (the other school that accepted Tyron last year) and they are working on getting him transferred! It probably won't be until Fall 2013 so we decided to have faith and move anyways. We wanted to get settled here so Tyron could find a job for the next year.

We were HUGELY blessed to have my mom fly out and help for 2 1/2 weeks! When she first came out, her and I took a girls trip down to Washington D.C. since she had never seen it before! It was a quick 2 day trip, but we saw alot of things!

We also did a harbor cruise around Manhattan island and went to the 9/11 Memorial:

Auralia loved picking up rocks from the tree planter boxes at the memorial. She would walk from one to the next getting and leaving rocks.

My mom helped us pack boxes, did a ton of the actual loading and unloading of the truck, along with a ton of unpacking. Auralia knew something was changing and she clung to me during the whole move so I actually wasn't much help at all. My mom was so wonderful and did so so much to help us accomplish this move! I love my mom so much. I know she loves me, Tyron, and Auralia- it's always so easily found in her kindness and sacrifices to help us with whatever we need. She helped us pay for food along the way and groceries & other items once we got here. She is such an incredible woman and I'm proud that she's my momma!