Dancing the Night Away - Church Prom 2025

The day after the sleepover was Church Prom so the girls got ready at our house. It was so fun having them here.

Beth Bailey (my homeschooling bestie) and I went to a park to take pictures of them. They are such a fun group of girls and pay each other such compliments. They are not afraid to build each other up and speak positively of themselves and each other. It's wonderful.

They got their dresses at the Cinderella Project, which offers free prom dresses. Such a great program and they were able to get beautiful dresses that were also modest. What a blessing. I love these sweet girls.

Baylie's 17th Birthday

 How is this little doll baby 17?!

Baylie wanted spaghetti and meatballs with Red Baron biscuits. I also got some bundtlets. We were saving the cake and ice cream for her friends to share when they came to sleep over on Friday.

Jalen got her some Harry Potter Butterbeer Skinny Pop. I guess I forgot to take pictures of her other presents, but she got a Wicked Monopoly game and a cute purse from NYC. Jalen also got her a ring in New York.

She got some giant purple lips.

For her mini-party, I made her a lemon bundt cake and resurrected some of the purple decor from last year's party.

Baylie has been blessed with sweet friends.

I didn't get a picture before Rachel had to leave.

Kaitlyn, Baylie, Talia, Natalie

Baylie is a remarkable young woman and it is a joy being her mother. She works so hard at everything she does (and she does a lot). She has high ambitions, she is kind, and she tries hard to do the right thing in all circumstances. This year has been one of many challenges and disappointments, but she has pushed through and continued to thrive. We are so proud of her. 

NYC - Day 5 - St. Patrick's Day Parade & Headed Home

Monday was our final day in the city. It was also St. Patrick's Day, which is a big deal in the city. The St. Patrick's Day parade was just a couple blocks from the hotel so we decided to walk a couple blocks over to see it. I'm so glad we did.

Some people were really dressed up. (One of my friends thought this was Joey Fatone, but I don't think so.)

This was also the day Grammy, Baylie, and I got stuck in the elevator. We even dropped half a floor or so. It was a bit scary. We were with four other people, two of whom only spoke Spanish. It was at least partly my fault. There was a Wet Floor sign in front of the elevator when we went to buy some souvenirs. When we got back about half an hour later, the sign was still there, but obviously the floor would have dried by then. When we called the elevator, the other one didn't come, but the wet floor one kept coming. Another lady that was waiting with us said she was sure it was fine and she got on the elevator. So I moved the Wet Floor sign and we all got on. She got off on the first floor and we continued up. That's when the elevator dropped and stopped! None of the buttons worked. We sounded the alarm and called for help. It seemed like a very long time before anyone responded. It was probably 15 or 20 minutes. 

When help finally came, they dropped us a little bit more so the elevator was even with the floor. That is such a terrifying sensation. When we got off, they asked who moved the sign. I stayed quiet at first, but then realized I needed to be honest so I fessed up. They sent us in the service elevator and comped Grammy & Grandad $40 for the incident. It all ended well, but it was definitely a stressful experience. My biggest fear was that we'd miss our flight!

We were able to catch a ride back to the airport with the choir - another huge blessing. 

One final look at the skyline

Baylie's flight left first, then Grammy and Grandad's, and last of all we flew out. April took Baylie home from the airport.

We were happy to see the Welcome to South Carolina sign.

We made it home around midnight, tired but so happy with this perfect trip.

NYC - Day 4 - Church & Carnegie Hall

Sunday was the big day - performance at Carnegie Hall!

It also turned out to be the New York City half marathon. We didn't realize the marathon was going to run right in front of the hotel. This ended up being a huge disappointment because we found out Conner Mantz - whose dad Rob was my classmate in Blanding and who is trained by our family friend, Iain Hunter - was in the race. We could have cheered him on! He ended up taking second and breaking his own American record. It would have been a great opportunity to cheer him on.

We caught an Uber to Church, which was harder than it sounds because of the marathon interfering with traffic. We had hoped to go to the building that is adjacent to the temple, but it is being remodeled. The building we met in was pretty cool and sacrament meeting was held in a gym on the 4th floor. We came to learn that it was a visitor's branch. There are only a handful of these in the church in areas that get a lot of visitors. They always have a testimony meeting. The regular ward met on the first floor. We would have preferred to attend there, but we didn't know that was the set up until after the meeting had started.

We took another Uber (or Lyft?) back to the hotel, but the race was still going.

We joined the rest of NYC in walking under the road by way of the subway tunnel.

For lunch, we splurged and got some pastries we had been spying for the previous couple of days.

Grammy approved!

So did Jalen.

After that, it was finally time for the reason we had come - the Carnegie Hall performance. That place is fancy!

Elevator

Café - so snazzy!

The venue is stunning.

We lucked out and ended up on the same side of the stage as Baylie. Our seats were up close, so we were lower than the stage. She was in the very back, but we still had a pretty good view.

You are not supposed to take photos or videos during the performance, but I snuck some as she was walking in and out.

Some of my friends - who will remain unnamed - snuck some during the performance...

Her group performed a very powerful piece called A Vision Unfolding by Kyle Pederson, who was the pianist for the performance. It was a piece on social justice with poetry readings by Shanelle Gabriel. 

It was so cool to see Baylie's name in the Playbill.

We ran into Ms. Gabriel at the elevator and I grabbed a quick picture. She was very kind.

We tried to catch Baylie for a photo inside or outside of Carnegie Hall, but it was pretty chaotic. So we took one without her.

She did get some pictures with the choir at Carnegie Hall and the hotel.

with Ava

At the hotel.

And finally we were able to get some pictures with her, and with her choir director, Frank Turner. He's such a good man - and a great educator.

He's been such a good role model that now Baylie wants to become a high school choral teacher.

We had to go back to Times Square for one more trip to Junior's Cheesecake.

Baylie spent her final night with the choir. I'm glad they're such a fun group for her to hang out with.

We hated for the trip to end, but we were ready to go home. (We don't usually spend five days in the same place when we travel.)