I Love New York!!

Despite my dislike of hot dogs, I decided that I couldn't fully have a New York experience without eating one from a street vender. It was surprisingly good!

Eating a delicious Frrrrozen hot chocolate at Serendipitiy's resturaunt (just like in the movie!) - WAY better than Dairy Queen's mom! You would love it!
Central park is a huge park right smack in the middle of the city- it is a very welcome open space among all the buildings and streets!
On top of the Empire State Building- the view was breath-taking with all the lights
The streets of Little Italy
The Manhatten Temple/ stake center - the only temple whose grounds has a hot dog stand!
Striking a pose right in the middle of Times Square- probably one of the busiest/craziest places in NY
See the statue of liberty in the back?! So gorgeous up close!

Well I can now say that I have taken a bite out of the big apple! My trip to New York City was amazing! I did pretty much everything in the 5 days that I was there. We went to the Empire state building, the statue of liberty/Ellis Island, a broadway show (Wicked), the Metropolitian museum of art, the rockerfeller center, central park, Serendipity, Macy's (the world's largest store), Manhatten Temple, China town, Little Italy, ground zero ... you name it and I'm sure that we did it! We started early in the morning everyday and finished late at night. We honestly wore ourselves completly out each day, but I loved it! We went to a lot of appointments with people/businesses relating to fashion, interior design, and textiles, all of which were super cool, and educational too. Our (when I say "our" I am refering to the 25 girls who went, well 24 girls and 1 boy!) hotel was right smack in the middle of Time Square so that was about as New Yorky as you could get! Everything in New York is fast paced and rushed and the streets are covered completly with people and hot dog stands. There are so many interesting people and smells, it's hard to soak it all in. We walked everywhere and took the subway a lot and I also got to ride in my first taxi (the drivers in NY are Crazy!) We shopped until we dropped (Lisa you would love the shopping there- it is amazing!) Luckily we had our own personal tour guide, otherwise we would've been completly lost because NY is HUGE!! Anyways, I had a fabulous time and I made so many wonderful friends and wonderful memories- Definitley a once in a lifetime experience and definitely worth every cent! There's too much to tell, but I'm sure I'll tell you each about it when I talk to you soon! Enjoy some of the many pics that I took!

ENS Crosby reporting for active duty

So, I'm required to do at least 45 days of active duty every year. Liz, a fellow Navy officer and classmate of mine, drove to Roanoke, VA early this morning to report for duty in our dress blues. Our orders this year are school orders, which means that I get paid active duty salary to study for my board exam, pretty sweet deal.

Latest from WV

Saturday we had a falconry Elder's Quorum activity with the folks affiliated with the Greenbrier resort. It was very cool watching the big hawks swoop down and eat chicken and chase fake rabbits and to hold them. Kaemon has learned how to point to my nose and say "no" when I ask him "where is daddy's nose?" and he can point to my ears when I ask him where my ears are, but he still can't say that one...it's harder.

I

oops! these got out of order! but this is what I've been up to outside of school and work! i'll write more later!

I hope they call me on a mission, too!

"Boy, I am sure excited to go on a mission!!!"

Ladies and Gentlemen, Introducing.... Sister Kari Crosby! (has a nice ring to it doesn't it?!) So everyone, it is official; I am going on a mission and my papers are IN! I had my last interview tonight with my stake President, he will submit the info. and they will be sent off this weekend!! So in about 2 weeks I will know where I will be spending the next 18 months of my life! I feel so good about it and SO SO excited! I want to hear everyone's predictions... tons of people so far have guessed Temple Square! Hey, it that is where the Lord wants me than I would be just fine with it! Anyways, so start thinkin! Oh, and the black and white picture is the picture I sent in that they will be looking at, although I almost sent in the first one! My roommate Lexie goes into the MTC a week from today and my other roommate Amy opened hers tonight (Buenos Aires, Argentina North mission- exact same as her dad!) So, pretty much 50% of the conversations in our apartment are mission-related! It's exciting!

Mesa College Ward's version of American Idol-

Ok, by now I hope all of you know that my girlfriend is the best ever, but just in case you have any doubts I will continue posting on here to convince you. So my ward had a little lip sync activity on Friday. Becki secretly practiced with her best friend Jerrae and dragged me up on stage and did a little dance and skit to that song "Wishin' and hopin' and ... and ... and ..." however it goes. They did such a good job and stole the show, even though I was kind of embarrassed.




























At the last minute Becki and I decided to do a number as well. At EFY one of the counselors taught me the little dance to 'NSYNC's song Bye Bye Bye. I taught Becki what I could remember of it and she made up the rest, even though she almost killed me right then from my stubborness on how I thought it should be. We practiced for like only an hour right before we had to go. She borrowed some of my clothes so that we could have matching brown outfits as you can see and well, ya we pretty much rocked the house. We are the cutest couple ever!!













































Ya, Becki looks like a boy, doesn't she?

Camping and the Renaissance Festival!

Hi Family- I haven't posted anything on here for a while. A couple weeks ago (more like a month or so probably) Becki invited me to go camping with her family at Estrella Park way out in Goodyear. Her brothers and sisters went with all their little cute kids. I think I have an advantage on all you guys cuz I get to play with the funnest cutest little kids. So I don't have to wait on my family to have lots of nieces and nephews running around everywhere- Ha!


































The next morning we drove to the totally opposite side of the Valley with Becki's parents to go to the Rennaissance Festival- I had been once when I was like a deacon and I only remembered the jousting and the cleavage. But it was sooo much fun! We went to two jousting shows, a glass blowing demonstration, tons of comedy acts on all the stages they have everywhere, a falconry and archery show, and lots of little shops that Becki LOVED- She got some cool little jewelry stuff. We ate the GI-NORMOUS turkey drumsticks and shephard's pie. So good. Becki got a little sunburnt but she didn't mind. Everybody there dresses up in Medieval clothing and stays in character the entire time. The next Saturday her parents took their entire family cuz they liked it so much. I would recommend it to you guys to do as well. Good times- Oh by the way I LOVE my girlfriend!!

pictures!

Here are some pictures of Ryne asking me! You can also see my wonderful room that Lisa re-decorated for me ! Once again thank you mom and Lisa I love it! Isnt it beautiful!?

What a great week!

Hello there family!So I have been trying to post this for about a week and it hasnt worked to hopefully it will this time!
First off -thank you all so much for remebering my birthday! I really loved your messages, Lisa and Kari the songs were wonderful! It was a great 17th birthday. The night before Marcae and Ryne brought me over a shirt they made that said "Birthday Girl" you can kind of see it in the picture, it was funny, I did actually wear it too. Mom made a delicious lunch for all my friends, and Jayde and Hilary took me to breakfast, and Jayde decorated my car so I felt special! Then friday I got another suprise when I walked into the house and found rose petals leading up the stairs into my room, and my room all decorated, the biggest most beautiful bouquet of flowers ive ever seen,and a little poem inside a long stem rose asking me to Prom. It was great, I felt like a princess! So this week has been fun! It was also good to hear where Reed is going! That is way cool. Well I better go write a paper for english! I love you all and hope you have a terrific week! Oh by the way when I get my pictures back from tour I will tell you all about that! Much love!

I GOT IT!!!

Well as you all know I got my mission call to Joao Pessoa Brazil today. I'm way excited and just can't wait to get out there. I've done a little reading on it and the city of Joao Pessoa is said to be the 2nd greenest city in the world, coming 2nd only to Paris. It is a city of about 600,000 people and is the most eastern city in the Americas. Natal is another big city in my mission and has more than 700,000 people. The weather says it is tropical and from what I've seen on websites the temperature doesn't drop below 60 degrees but luckily I probably won't have to wear a suit because it says I only need 1 suit and 4-5 pairs of dress slacks. I'm going to go to the Bookstore tomorrow and pick up a Portuguese Book of Mormon tomorrow and see if maybe I can start learning a little Portuguese before I go down to Brazil. Well here are a few pictures of Joao Pessoa that I thought were pretty cool that I found. Anyway, I love you all. Brazil here I come... in three months.

Happy to be home with Mom and Dad

For those having Kaemon withdrawals...here he is on the ride home in his new car seat.

Caribbean Cruizin

So we just got back from a week cruise to the Western Caribbean for our spring break vacation! We visited some cool places like Key West, Cozumel (island off coast of Mexico), Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. We ate a lot of good food (here's a list of the different meat dishes I ate: hamburger, bacon, ham, mollusk, shrimp, octupus, crab, lobster, red snapper, salmon, rainbow trout, chicken, veal, cornish hen, quail, fillet mignon, steak, prime rib, mahi mahi, tuna fillet, lamb, roasted duck, turkey, calamari (squid), clam, SWORDFISH, cod, bbq ribs, perch and caviar) did lots of snorkeling and had a very relaxing time with lots of fun in the sun. We left Kaemon with Gma Jill, a win-win for everyone (except Gma Crosby, but your turn will come). For where we went, what we ate, etc it was an excellent value, I'd recommend it for anyone wanting to escape for a couple days.