Top Ten Vacation Memories

We spent nearly two weeks of our summer tasting life in the big Apple.

It had been nearly 20 years since my last visit. Back then, I was visiting on the company dime. In a previous life, I was a jewelry buyer for Macy's. Seeing New York City with my kids was an even better adventure!

We started with a plan, trying to organize our activities by interest level and location. We soon realized that we could pound through the list and see everything once...or maybe even twice. It helped that the kids are now big enough to keep up! In hindsight, it might have made more sense to visit the Empire State Building when it wasn't overcast and stormy. We thought we were pretty clever to have found the one attraction in the city that didn't have an hour wait. Come to find out that all there's to see 80 floors up is clouds and rain drops when it's raining.

Duh!


My hubby found the perfect nesting spot, smack dab in the middle of Time Square. The window to our room opened up right on to the square. The kids loved the action so much we never closed our curtains. Our trip took place during the World Cup. (We happen to have an avid ...sometimes it's borderline rabid, soccer fan in the family.) He was in seventh heaven to be surrounded by other soccer enthusiasts. The party in Time Square celebrating Spain's win is something my son will never forget!


I always have the best intentions of putting together a family memory book of our adventures. I could easily fill a 200 page book with all of our memories of two weeks on the road... but that's not going to happen! I've found that if I want any hope of finishing a project, it has to be SHORT and SIMPLE. Pocket books are the perfect format!!

We decided to document our top ten favorite memories of our time in New York.


Before we even got home, we had a book. Let me rephrase that... we had a FINISHED book! I could have printed it from home, but I wanted a larger version for each family member, so I sent the file off to our printer for a professional print job.

Because we limited our pages to the TOP ten memories, we didn't document some of the more obscure experiences...like the two brothers ditching their youngest brother on a bike ride through Central Park. I'm sure he'll need counseling to get over the fact that his mother told him to wait for his brothers on a park bench since I was just walking into the Metropolitan Museum of Art when he called (and given that the Museum was closing in less than an hour, wasn't about to leave for a rescue). I know...no mother of year award for me.

Our sixth Top Reason for LOVING NEW YORK was the FOOD! The book pays homage to a dinner spent in Little Italy. We could have easily had a page dedicated to cheesecake, or pizza, but this dinner held a special memory as we lost our youngest moments after dining on the most amazing meal of creamy cheese and garlic! What was that? Lost our son...again? Yes, it was a reoccurring theme with this child. The next twenty minutes were a blur as we vacillated back and forth between reason and panic.

The child did end up coming home with us, although there were a few other moments during the two week jaunt that his father and I seriously thought about ditching him.

Our #2 reason for LOVING New York was being able to connect with neighbors thousands of miles from home!

The best thing about the Pocket Book format is that each page makes a pocket which is the perfect place for holding extra stories or memories. I now have a place for all of the tickets, maps and brochures that I hauled from place to place. You know the stuff that you typically sit on for a year before throwing it out because you don't know what to do with it.

Last night, we took some time to write down some of our personal memories of the trip (to be stored in the pockets...of course!) It was fun to get the different family members perspectives of each memory.

While our memories might differ slightly from activity to activity, we were ALL in agreement about the NUMBER ONE reason that we LOVE New York...

Swiss Days, 2009 - Find us here!

We now know where we'll be located at Midway, Swiss Days on September 4th and 5th. Bummer that it's not as easy as steering you to the exact same location as last year (see the map B50 for reference).

Commit this to memory - C7! You'll find us in the north/west corner of the lot. One row in from the end.

Haven't experienced Swiss Days? You gotta try it, if only for the fabulous food and wonderful entertainment ...but we'd love for you to stop by and say hi and see what keeps us so insanely busy (or is it just insane :) )!

Upcoming Events

I think everyone will agree that it has been a crazy week in regards to our economic news and the financial crisis that we have watched unfold. We are grateful that our business moves forward during these uncertain times and we are moved by the meaningful stories that are being preserved through these projects.

We can finally announce that our products have shipped to the Fort Union and University Deseret Book stores in Utah. Still trying to get the St. George store's order out the door, but for our friends in Southern Utah... it's coming! We've just picked up a store in Tucson, Arizona and we look forward to getting to know the people of that area.

Fall classes have started and that means we're picking up the pace--like we weren't already running? We haven't forgotten to write up instructions for creating the family frame --we just haven't had any time. For those of you in the Salt Lake area; we will be at the Deseret Book Ladies Night Out on October 4th. Suni will be at the Ft. Union store and I'll head down to University Mall. I don't know if you've ever attended one of these events, but we were blown away at the May 08 LNO! The store gives away all sorts of prizes and we added to the assortment by providing one of our Family Memory Tree's and a Vintage Tin. Hope you'll join us!

We'll also be doing a demonstration at the Church History Museum in the afternoon of October 4th. They are located on West Temple, right across the street from Temple Square. If you're not aware, it is General Conference for the LDS Church so the downtown area will be packed. It's the perfect time to visit the Church History Museum store since they put everything on sale, not to mention that they already start the lowest prices around AND they don't charge sales tax. Who doesn't appreciate a bargain in these tough times?!

Gotta mention all help that we've added to meet our customers needs! Bethany and Sidney are helping with manufacturing. Lindsey is doing an excellent job at preparing our class kits. Courtney is now making all of our magnets. We'd be six feet under if it wasn't for their help!

If you are getting ready to finish a SbM project, be sure to check out our blog on finishing your project. Suni got to see first hand how important it is to shake the Krylon spray before turning it loose on your pictures.

Swiss Days 2008

Thank you, thank you, thank you for making the harried days and sleepless nights so very, very worth it! Swiss Days was UNBELIEVEABLE!

We couldn't have done it without all of you!

Thanks to everyone who visited our booth and offered such warm words of encouragement.

Thanks to an amazing group of friends who gave up personal time with family to sweat alongside us. You know who you are guys... we're forever in your debt!

And a special thanks must once again go out to our families. Not only did they support our being gone for three straight days, but they gave up plenty of home-cooked meals, time away from their own activities and a life of normality as we prepared for the event. If you can imagine, Suni's husband Mike not only tended his own family during our absence, but took in two of my boys... they had such a blast, they didn't want to come home!

Check back in the next few days. We have a lot of orders to fill, but can't wait to show you how we made the fun family frame.

Oh, did we remember to thank Marilyn at Constant Growing Amazment? Gotta' check out who she claimed as a favorite vendor at Swiss Days. Now... who could it be?

What's going on?

If you're wondering why our blog has been so quiet lately, it's only because we're working at a feverish pitch to get ready for Swiss Days. There's not a flat surface that isn't covered with something Stories by Me. What isn't covered with SbM 'stuff,' is coated in the aftermath of some creation. Seriously. You can't walk across the floor without sticking or crunching.

No worries here though. We'll be polished and spiffed up by next Friday! We can't wait to share our newest products and hope that you'll come and make a point of stopping by our booth (B50) to tell us what you think.

Ready to Rock and Roll!

We've hauled in the goods, fluffed and stuffed, and now stand back to take a deep breath. We're ready. Well, we think we're ready. This is all new to us, but we're excited to meet the buyers and hope they are equally excited to meet us!

We hope we're wildly busy this week, but not so busy that we don't have time to do a short walk-about. There's some cool stuff out there that needs a closer inspection.

Special thanks goes to Suni for helping me keep my cool through late night set-ups, broken printers, and the million things that needed to be done after a long vacation. Everyone needs some Suni in their lives!

Road Trip, Days 1-2

We're on the road and makin' memories. The two hour plane trip was palatable; no delays, no screaming babies, no lost luggage. The kids seemed a little surprised that we didn't spring for a Hummer, but they willingly crammed into our midsized rental for a whirlwind tour through the mid-western states of Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin.

We've hit most of the local sights. Some were more interesting than others. We couldn't believe that the kids were more interested in the local wildlife (mainly frogs, hundreds of them) than the history of the area. OK, maybe we could believe that. We have learned why it's important not to drink large amounts of liquid beverage when traveling through unfamiliar territory. Especially, areas lacking the convenience of fast food pit stops, or even old, decrepit gas stations. (Not so important a lesson for boys who are willing to pee anywhere as it was for their mother with standards to uphold!) The landscape is amazingly different from our desert scenery. Tonight we learned why everything is so green. Twice we were detoured off the freeway due to local flooding. Not a worry. We're equipped with GPS and old-fashioned paper maps. We became pretty handy at negotiating the country back roads. About two hours from the day's final destination, the sky turned ominous and the radio warned us of impending hail and high winds. The Weather Channel indicated that we should take shelter immediately. We quickly calculated that we might make the next big town...if we hurried. We had already missed lunch and didn't want to miss dinner, so we hightailed it to the Coach House Restaurant in Quincy as the raindrops fell in earnest. Just as our dinner was served, the storm hit in all its furry. The storm was everything predicted, and then some. Emergency vehicles wailed outside. The winds howled and the rain pounded all around us. The lightening was intense and caused all of us to jump on more than one occasion. Within a few minutes the power was cut off and we spent the next 40 minutes enjoying our delicious dinner by candlelight. Once it was deemed safe, we headed back out in the storm to complete the day's journey. Hopefully, the rest of the trip will be less adventurous!

Here's a fun game that we called "And Then There was One." As we traveled down dirt roads, dozens of grasshoppers jumped onto the car for the ride of their lives. We cheered loudly as they were able to hang on. We cheered even louder as they lost their grip, one by one! Cheap and easy entertainment, who doesn't love that?!

Discussion Topics

Stories by Me began as a desire to help people find meaningful ways to preserve family stories. We recognize the importance of preserving history. We also appreciated the magnitude of living! The whole reason for creating this blog spot is to provide a place where you can go for inspiration to preserve your family stories. There are as many ways to tell a story as there are stories to tell. We'll share ideas that we've collected along our journey. We hope that you'll participate and tell us what you're doing to document history. Tell us what works...what doesn't. Let's learn together!

We thought it would help to introduce a different theme at the beginning of every month to get discussions flowing. Feel free to contact us regarding a topic that you would like discussed. Here are our topic ideas for next several month's:

August: Family History Summer Fun for Kids

September: Preserving Photographs

October: Gift-giving Stories

We hope this gets your creative juices flowing! Be sure to check back in early August and participate in the discussion.

Harvey Cox said it perfectly:All human beings have an innate need to hear and tell stories and to have a story to live by.

Let's start sharing our stories!

July 08 Upcoming Events

We're heading to This is the Place, Heritage Park today. If you haven't been to 'The Park' in a while, it's a good day to check things out. It's Family Day! (Go to http://www.thisistheplace.org/ for more info.) If it's anything like last year, there will be thousands in attendance. Adults normally pay $8.00 and kids $6.00 just to get in. Today, it's FREE! Don't worry about standing shoulder to shoulder with the throngs. The park sits on, what seems like, a hundred acres. (Have you ever tried to walk the entire Park in a day?) They now have a train to pull you up the more strenuous hills, unless of course your kids are doing the pulling.

If you can't make it today, then you really MUST try to get there on the 24th of July. That's the big Utah holiday celebrating the pioneer's entrance into the Salt Lake Valley. Never mind that they actually arrived two day's earlier. It's a fantastic way to discover your roots...or just learn about Utah's history.

Be sure to look for Stories by Me. For several years, we had a little shop in the basement of Smoot Hall. The Gift Shop now carries a selection of our products, but today (and on the 24th) we'll be there demonstrating how to make a memory block puzzle...just like the pioneers!