New York City, Part 1 of 4

On Tuesday, Jackie, Mom, Dad, Ellie, and I headed to NY City. (Brant stayed home with Maddie since she was still sick.) Jackie and I decided to wake up early and fulfill a dream of ours - getting on the Today Show! We caught the 6:30am train into the city and were at the Today Show at Rockefeller Plaza by 8:15am. Despite the rain, we had an AWESOME time! We were on TV a couple of times and got to meet Ann Curry. We attracted her with a sign (reading: Oregon sisters in search of a hug from Ann Curry) and shouts out to her. She immediately came over to us, shook our hands, talked to us about Oregon (she went to the U of O), congratulated me on the completion of my degree, talked about the importance of music educations in schools, and gave us lunch recommendations. :) It was AWESOME and she truly is as sweet and genuine as she appears on TV. In addition to conversing with Ann, we called out "We love you, Meredith!" in which she happily responded "I love you too!" Matt kind of snubbed us (boo!) and Al was always too far away. Overall, I think we did great! :)

Since it was raining so hard, the Today Show plaza basically emptied at 9am - so we headed to Rockefeller Plaza to check out the NBC store and area. It was a lot of fun, especially seeing every funny NBC prime time show being represented so well in memorabilia. Around 11am, Mom, Dad, and Ellie met us in Time Square to being our day of activity.

In bustling Times Square!

We made it to the Today Show!

One of our fun signs!

Meeting Ann Curry!

Jackie holding a sign that read: "We left our husbands and babies at home to get a hug from Matt Lauer." We didn't get a hug, but that's ok!

This sign read: "Oregon sisters in search of a hug from Ann Curry."

An NBC sign made from M&M's. Now that's my kind of sign!! :)

Lunch time at Rockefeller Center.

After lunch at Rockefeller Plaza, we took the subway to Ground Zero. It was incredibly powerful. We first went to a memorial museum that is next to the construction sight and then we took a guided tour around the area. In a way, I am so thankful for the day's crummy weather, because I am not sure if we would have taken the time to do the guided tour if it had been sunny. However, this was a definite highlight of the day. We were taken to several different locations surrounding the area and given a lot of history - pre and post 9/11. The most sombering part was when one of our tour guides told us his personal story and connection to the attacks. Turns out his wife was working in the building that day. She normally didn't work in the Twin Towers, but had to go for a meeting on September 11th. The meeting happened to be on the 98th floor of the first tower - where it is projected that the first plane hit. Unbelievable. To hear this man recall that day, the last time he saw his wife, and the day he was shown the small parts of her remains (to verify DNA) was incredibly powerful and emotional. Why does he volunteer his time to be a tour guide? In order to help American's never forget the tragedy of that day. The extreme attack on our nation. And the massive amount of lives that were lost and forever changed.

The memorial is set to be complete by the 10-year anniversary of the event and the new, single World Trade Center building will hopefully be completed by 2013. Seeing Ground Zero in person, hearing personal testimonies of the tragedy by people who were dramatically effected, recalling where I was on that day, and hearing of how the nation bonded together after such a horrible event made me so proud to be an American. It also made me realize how important it is that we don't lose sight of why we are in this war. I am so proud of my husband who felt called to serve after the attacks on our country. I am so proud of my father in law who served in Iraq. Yes, it is a sacrifice to my little family, but it is important to our nation. We cannot forget what happened. Unfortunately, I feel like some people already have... We must support our military and fight for what this country stands for. We must never forget.

A window piece of one of the airplanes that hit the World Trade Center.

Some parts of the museum (FYI: we did have permission to take photos)

The picture is sideways, but it shows a piece of steel from the rubble of the buildings at a picture of the site.

The victims of 9/11.

Here is a tribute of some of the victims of 9/11. Along side was a video streaming all of their names. It took 4 1/2 hours to get through the entire video.

Part of the wall of pictures. The little note in the middle reads, "Daddy, I miss you. When are you coming home?"

The construction site at Ground Zero.