Here in Denver: NY.

It is about time that I get these dang things up! I had them all ready to go just before leaving for Oregon, however after uploading them all... I just didn't feel up to writing anything so I've saved it so I can hopefully share the magic I felt with all of you. I still can't believe that we were able to go to such a great city and yet again, I can not wait to go back! It truly was an amazing experience. So with that, I will leave you with some images :) Welcome to the Big Apple!

Our hotel.

This is a pano from out our hotel window.

First arriving in our room.

Jake's hotel in West Point

Mom's all ready to cheer for Jake... we all got decked out in OU wear and mom went above us all... we had face stickers, and all kinds of cheering things thanks to mom... I was busy shooting most of the meet, but on occasion I used the finger lol

Driving to the even site and saw a plane go over head while men parachuted out!

The competition site.

This was the opening night in West Point, NY.

One of the nights we were there, the military men jumped from the ceiling and repelled down the rope and eventually stood in front of the flag for the national anthem.

Team OU!

Vault.

Getting congratulations from his teammates.

Mom holding up one of her famous signs... the funniest thing about this is that the glitter from that sign ended up everywhere! Literally everywhere... her eyes, nose, mouth, my camera and clothes, the guy in front of us lol dang glitter!

Parallel Bars.

Rings.

Pommel Horse.

In between rotations the marching band played a catchy little tune.

Floor.

High bar.

After the competition finished, the OU boys had a little banquet at their hotel. They have a tradition with this jacket where at NCAA they choose who had done an outstanding job or helped contribute the most during the season. The one who had the jacket last, in this case Pat, gives the jacket to the freshman... Jake was honored with the jacket! The jacket is really neat. On the inside of the jacket is a list of the names and year in which each individual has had it. It dates back to 1996 I believe so that was really neat to see that Jake will be able to leave his name as well. Each person who owns the jacket is also required to leave something either on the jacket or in the pocket... It's cool to see notes with guidance and all of the inside jokes that the jacket has. We are so proud of Jake!

Here's Team OU getting their 3rd place NCAA trophies!

Driving in NY...

Now entering New Jersey!

Getting ready to cross back into NY

our first traffic encounter.

After crossing the bridge we catch a glimpse of this smoke... We later found out it was an apartment complex on fire in NJ.

Skyline from West side.

New York Stock Exchange! We walked up and down Wall St... what an experience :)

This is what Ground Zero looks like now.

They are building the new freedom that will be 3 stories taller than what the trade centers were making it 110 stories high made out of all glass.

All that we could find from the original attack, everything else was taken down for the construction of the new building.

Proof we were on Wall St...

Trinity Church right at the end of Wall St.

Dad in front of the NY stock exchange.

Driving in the city for the first time all wide eyed and snapping pics of everything... this is an air and space museum called the intrepid. We really wanted to go, but every time we made it over to it, it was closed.

first glimpse of the empire state building!

the crazy parking structures... the sink into the ground in order to get the top car.

This was our ferry boat as we just landed on the statue of liberty's island. We tried to get tickets to walk up into the crown of lady liberty, however they were sold out 3 months in advanced... so if you ever plan on going, book early!!!

I have about 5,000 pictures of the statue of liberty and was able to limit it to the following lol

You can see how tall the twin towers were compared to the rest of the skyline. I'm still in disbelief that it all happened...

On the way to Ellis Island, mom and dad bought me this awesome foam hat and I wore it all the rest of the day lol it's now hanging in my room as a constant reminder!

Welcome to Ellis Island. You need a whole day just for this place. We wandered around, but weren't ready to leave when we had to head back in order to catch our river boat cruise around the island of Manhattan.

Our boat is back... heading back to the island.

LOVE this!

The start of our 3 hour cruise. Between the 1st and 2nd green dome buildings on the left is where they're building the new freedom tower and where one of the twin towers stood. The second twin tower stood between the 2nd and 3rd green domed building.

Driving past the Lady Liberty again :)

Just look at that bridge... Brooklyn Bridge!

I told them to say cheese and dad paused between bites of his snickers to make this funny face lol I was lucky to catch it and laugh every time I see this!

take 2...

So beautiful...

I love the old sign sticking up above the buildings.

Long Island.

another great shot... probably because of the HDR treatment I did lol

Pepsi!

Just behind the bridges are some CRAZY expensive condos... Welcome to the Upper West Side haha

I saw the tents and freaked out because it's the Kooza show from Cirque du Soleil that Zach and I went to here in Denver.

Yankees!

What a crazy bridge! It twists open to let boats through.

Looking back towards the river that would lead us to West Point.

I just liked this little red guy... I was hanging on the open front of the boat. Felt so great outside and was able to get some great images.

The great big bridge! This is the bridge that connects NJ and NY.... George Washington Bridge. Check out the little red light house. There's a book made about it :)

Making the final circle back into the city.

Cool church.

Check out those trump towers... right here V

After we were docked back in the harbor, we started the walk back towards Times Square. Here's the Intrepid.

This was the cruise we went on. As we crossed the street, I had to do a running snap shot lol

We decided that there was still a bunch of time left in this beautiful day (even though we had been out and about since like 8 that day) and we went to the Empire State Building.

MY FAVORITE SHOT! It was such an incredible view. We only went to the 86th floor, but still just beautiful and we stuck around time sunset!

Looking up to the point of the building which allowed it to beat the Chrysler building in the race for the tallest building.

Check out the Macys! Largest department store in the wold and it's an entire block! I had to stay out of there... lol

Check out that flat iron building!

Chrysler building!

You can see Central Park in the middle of all those buildings lol

AHHH so beautiful!

1 block over from our hotel is 7th avenue which also turns into Fashion Ave!

Yes we rode the subway :) We took it from our hotel to the bottom of the island so we could go see the Statue of Liberty.

Now entering Times Square... Dad loved that he got to see Nasdaq and NY Stock Exchange. Just wish we were allowed inside to check it all out, but we all know that the terrorist attach changed everything.

Looking into Nasdaq.

Our entrance to Lion King! What an amazing show that was. Even dad enjoyed it, mom cried, and I was just in awe. I can't wait to go experience that again. It was more than words can describe.