Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

I've been putting this off for years but today I finally did it!  I went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!  I woke up super early, got on the earliest train there was, hopped on the subway and started looking for a place to stand on Central Park West.  Man there were a lot of people there!  I met my friend Sally there and we got really lucky because some people let us stand with them right next to the road!

Here we are waiting for the parade to start

It's STARTING!  Here are the first balloons!!

Kermit!

 This is what it looks like when he's right over you, it's so cool!

Jimmy Fallon and his band

I thought this one was really cute

These guys were weird and scary!

Miss America!

Spider-man!

 Look what the people holding his strings wore!  So cool!

Whoopi Goldberg!

Ain't that the truth?!

Ok these guys were the best!  They were marching and then they would do funny movements in sync, I can't even explain how cool they were!

Look I was really there!  Mickey's behind me!

The women's USA Gold Medal gymnastics team!

A girl in the parade threw a TON  of confetti on Sally, a TON!

I want a car like that!

Colbie Caillat!

Rachel Crow from the X Factor

Elf on a Shelf!

SANTA!

 All in all the parade was GREAT!  This is something I would actually do again!  Luckily I had great weather and great company!  What a fun start to the day!

Mormon Helping Hands

This morning my entire Stake had a short 30 minute Sacrament meeting and then we got on buses and drove to Rockaway, NY.  I won't lie, I was nervous, I knew it was going to be really hard work and that it would be an extremely long day!  But you know what?  I LOVED IT!  I worked so hard and so long and for once was doing something for someone else!  When I got on the bus at the end of a long day the first thing I did was ask my bishop if we could come again next week!  Wow it's amazing how good it feels to serve others!

Here's the group I was assigned to!  I couldn't have asked for a better group!

Here's how you get your supplies to the different houses your helping, put it in the sled and pull!

We passed a Red Cross Truck and it was weird to me to see people getting supplies from the truck, I'm so used to being on the other side donating to causes like these, not actually seeing the fruits of those donations!

The devastation here is horrible and they need all the help they can get!  As we clean out homes we just stack everything outside for crews to pick up and throw out.  People are losing EVERTHING, it's heartbreaking.

This was in one of the homes we were helping at, it's one of the only walls that survived the flood waters.  That's definitely something to remember!

This is a view of their beach now

It's times like these that I can't help but take a moment to pause and thank God for everything I have and am blessed with.  Then after I thank God for what he's given me I need to get out and serve someone who wasn't as lucky as I was this time around!

This video was made exactly a week before I went here

Katie seals the deal

Today my little sister got married!  Crazy right?!

We haven't always liked being around each other but I can now truly say that my sister Katie is one of the best friends I have!  I'm so excited for her to start this new journey in life and I'm really glad she picked such a great guy to join our family!  I love you Kates!