NYC for Tal and Anita's Wedding

What a trip we had! My brother Tal married the fabulous Anita this last Tuesday in the Manhattan Temple in New York City (the place where they met and where so many of their friends are - plus it was the half-way point between SLC where my parents are and Switzerland where Anita's family lives).

The travel distance and nature of the wedding festivities led to everyone leaving their kids at home and we could all barely contain our excitement at being able to enjoy an adults-only weekend of fun in the Big Apple - a city we all love dearly (many of us have lived there - starting with my dad who served his mission there - and all of us have spent significant time there over the years).

Here are the highlights of the trip:

• We wandered through endlessly interesting (and wonderfully distinct) neighborhoods where the architecture and people-watching and street entertainment was better than what you get at most fine museums and shows.
• We ate fabulous food in picturesque spots - from beautiful fancy restaurants to lip-smacking bagel or falafel joints.
• We rode subways and buses and walked and walked and walked - always so much to see and experience even when in transit.
• We saw what is now one of my all-time favorite Broadway shows - In the Heights - and enjoyed the excitement of Times Square at midnight.
• We went running in Central Park
• We checked out some of my favorite art at the Met.
• Jared, Saydi's husband Jeff and my brother Jonah "geeked out" over all the cool airplanes and equipment on an old aircraft carrier made into a museum - the USS Intrepid.
• We had a fancy brunch with Jared's sister Michelle who was in town with some friends and got to meet up with one of Jared's best friends from his MIT fraternity and his family.
• We celebrated with just Anita's family the night before the wedding - lovely dinner in a garden near the place Tal's been living for the last while - really enjoyed getting to know her wonderful parents and siblings.
• We talked and laughed together until late at night at the great accommodations my brother Noah and his wife Kristi (who live in the city) set up for us (a whole brownstone belonging to some of their friends who were out of town).

My photographer siblings have way more - and way better - photos than I do - but here are some of the highlights of our wanderings around NYC from my little point-and-shoot:

After seeing "In the Heights"

Times Square - all four sisters reunited!

It's been so long since we've all been here together.

Jackson Pollock at the Met - had to take this for the kids -

we studied his work in our little art class
The roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art - cool organic sculpture, city skyline, and Saydi

Washington Square in Greenwich Village - art, music, great food, interesting people all around
on the USS Intrepid

taking the bus to the wedding

By far the biggest and best part of the trip was Tal and Anita's wedding day (which was also me and Jared's 11th wedding anniversary). We enjoyed a truly perfect wedding day with Tal and Anita complete with the sweet solemnity of their temple ceremony, photos in Central Park with ideal weather and lovely backdrops, and a classy ring ceremony and reception. Anita looked truly gorgeous in a wedding gown that seemed to be made for her and with Tal's height (and good looks) and Anita's beauty along with an enterage of photographers (I've got a lot of siblings whose "third arm" is their fancy big black camera), we ended up with a lot of tourists wondering out loud who this famous couple was.

At this lovely restaurant in Brooklyn, Tal and Anita treated us to a beautiful evening including a great mixture of scripture readings, music, poetry, amazing food, laughs over photos of them growing up, and heart-felt toasts from such a diversity of friends and relatives. It was wonderful to be with loved ones and to get to know Anita better through her wonderful family and her devoted friends. I'm so grateful to have Anita as a new sister!

How many wedding photos at the temple have taxis and buses in them? Truly unique.

Walking from the Temple to Central Park
All the Eyres - even without all the grandkids, we're still a pretty big group!

If you want to see some of the great photos caught by some of the more professional photographers at the wedding, here are Eva's photos (Eva's our Bulgarian "sister" - I just had to bring her back from my mission with me - and an amazing photographer). I'll link to Shawni, Saydi and Josh's stuff when they post theirs. With 4 professional photographers who know and love them, I think Tal and Anita will have the most beautifully documented wedding ever!

It was so nice to have such a beautiful anniversary day all planned out for us so we could just go along and enjoy. We got to relive our own wedding through Tal and Anita's. Here we are, enjoying their day while remembering our own 11 years ago:

Lest this post come off as entirely and unrealistically exuberant, I do have to say that we had some serious logistical issues that caused more stress than we care to dwell on - messed up flights causing waiting time when we could least afford it, a cab driver who mysteriously couldn't find the airport until we found directions for him, a wonderful babysitter whose sister is dying of cancer and took a turn for the worse while we were gone causing a little scrambling for babysitting to cover the end of the trip, so many things turning out to be so expensive, the usual issues in trying to coordinate schedules with 20 other people who you really want to be with but who have a variety of different things they really want to do...But it really was a wonderful trip and I wish I could go back and do it all over again!