The Perfect Weekend

Everyonce in a while, the stars align...

and you have the most

perfect.weekend.ever.

It all began with a Morningside

(it was at 9 in the morning, can you call that a Fireside?

I like Morningside, we'll go with that)

with one of the Twelve Apostles,

Elder David A. Bednar (this guy!)

It was incredibly powerful and I felt the Spirit from the beginning.

It was a Question & Answer session and he was so friendly and engaging.

I was uplifted and edified and my Faith in Christ was strengthened.

I love starting a weekend like this!
After that remarkable session with an Apostle,
some of my favorite DC people and I headed up to NYC.
Here they are pictured:
Kat Fleming (our fearless and inspired leader),
Amber Pack (our on-site medical expert),
Ashlee Berry (whose use of an iPhone kept us all very informed)
and our brave driver, Meradyth Moore
(her ability to weave through city streets,
pouring rain and grasp the
concept of "alternate merging"
still has me impressed)
The purpose of this NYC excursion?

A little band by the name of...

BON JOVI.

That's right, I'm a fan.

We spent the majority of the drive (about 5 hours)

belting out Bon Jovi music,

analyzing Elder Bednars' remarks

and just bonding as girls do.

Once we arrived in the city, we met up with my brother Nathan.

I had arranged with Nathan to have us all stay at his place in the city,

but being the Shurtleff that he is,

he didn't want us to be cramped in his "little place"

so he got us a hotel room nearby!

How sweet is that?!

He of course won over the girls right away ;)

We headed to dinner at a little place nearby and just enjoyed some delicious salads

as we began to get jittery with excitement to see a little JBJ.

Here we are awaiting the concert. Notice Meradyth's shirt, we all bought a t-shirt but she couldn't hold back her excitement and put it on right away. Love it.
Now if words could only describe the absolute bliss that was this concert...unfortunately, I'm no Jon Bon Jovi, so I am not as eloquent with the words...
Needless to say, it was perfection.
They came on about 8:15pm (no opening act!)
and didn't leave the stage until 11:00 pm.
That's right, 2 hours 45 minutes of pure magic from
my favorite Jersey Boys.
They played it all:
Bed of Roses, Always, Living on a Prayer,
Lay Your Hands on Me, Have a Nice Day,
Bad Medicine, I'll Be There For You and 21 more songs.
My voice was nearly gone by the end and
the only downside was no Blaze of Glory (my fave Bon Jovi song).
Looking pretty good for turning 50 next year!
Such a rock star.
Love it.
Love that black leather vests never go out of style :)
Awwww...that side grin melts my heart every time.

Our throats needed some soothing after hours of screaming our hearts out.

A little black & white (basically reese's in a cup- delish!) shake

from The Shake Shack fixed that right up.

We didn't fall into bed until after 1am, but we were all giddy like school girls.

It was such a perfect show.

I'm seriously considering becoming a Bon Jovi groupie...

I hope Bono would understand.

Now if we had gone home right then, I'd still say that the weekend was wonderful.

But it just continued to get better!

We attended Sacrament at a Church building

near the hotel the next morning

and the meeting was a beautiful and

uplifting experience.

We then met up with Nathan for brunch at 7A Cafe, his favorite place for breakfast.

I love it and I've missed it!

(He used to live right up the street from it but now lives in a different part of town)

It was a rainy day in NYC, but we came prepared.

After saying farewel to Nathan,

we headed into Brooklyn (a first!) for the Brooklyn Flea Market.

It was awesome!

Found an old Vinyl of Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet album

and a beautiful scarve (i have an obessions with scarves).

We headed back into Manhattan and grabbed some lunch at...

The Shake Shack! Yup again.

That place rocks my world and I'm excited for its arrival in DC this summer.

We then grabbed some sinfully delicious cookies
from Levain Bakery and started the trek home.

We spent the next hours belting out Bon Jovi while reading the lyrics on my iPad and laughing about all the moments and memories we just made together.

I haven't stopped smiling, and it's Wednesday.
I love weekends like this.
Pure Perfection.