Slys in the NYC

YES THIS IS GOING TO BE A VERY LONG POST... so if you don't have time just look at the slideshow instead... :o)

So I posted this slideshow last week without any narration... Chris finally got home from Paris so now I have a little extra free time to write all about our New York trip! In July we will celebrate our 10th anniversary and since we have so much else going on in July and Chris was going to NYC for work anyway, we thought we would celebrate early! We had lots of awesome family watch the 4 older kids and we took the baby. Good thing she's such an angel! She hardly cried at all, but would just fall sleep in the stroller and only cry when she was really hungry... which didn't happen a whole lot.

Thursday, May 22nd we spent all day travelling... well it sure felt like all day! I guess it didn't help that I only got 2 hrs of sleep the night before. We woke up at 5:30 am and finally got to our hotel at like 7 pm, Ne York time. Riding the air train and subway at the end without eating for hours kinda put me over the edge of exhaustion... I'm a big baby that needs her food and rest!

The next day, Friday was much better. I didn't mind being squished in the subway so much... especially without any suitcases... just a stroller. :) First thing we did was head to Battery Park, the place where you catch a ferry for the Statue of Liberty... and good thing we bought tickets online ahead of time! We saved at least 2 hrs of waiting in line with those tickets! In fact, we were at the front of the "reserve" line (I have a husband who prides himself on being way earlier than necessary for these types of things) and this guy came up and asked Chris how to "get in that line..?" which Chris proceeded to tell him how we bought tickets early, and then he asked, "well how do I get in this line?" and when Chris tried to tell him he basically couldn't he just kept asking in different ways. He finally got the picture. It was so beautiful on Liberty Island... such a great view of the city and the ocean and of course, the Statue of Liberty. There was a cool museum that told all about the history of the Statue... and had those replicas of the Statue's foot, and also her face. The original idea for Lady Liberty came from a French man who wanted to celebrate the US's democracy at a time when some of the French wanted a change for their government. It was meant to be a gift for the US's centennial celebration in 1876, but wasn't finished for like 10 years after. We learned a lot about the amazing people who contributed to this amazing monument. After hours on Liberty Island, we headed to the World Trade Center site... Ground Zero. I was shocked at how vast it is! Its just a giant hole! They are done cleaning up, but haven't built anything yet... I guess things take time when its such an incredible disaster. Wow, 7 years later. They are building the Freedom Tower, which will be finished in 2012... it will be 1776 feet tall... which is amazing since the Statue of Liberty is only like 150 ft tall (300 ft including the base). We told the kids we would take them to NYC when the Freedom Tower is finished (we'll see). We were also able to see Ladder 10, the Fire Dept nearest to the WTC site... its seriously like right there across the street from the site. All day long we kept seeing sailors in their Navy uniforms... then we realized it was Memorial Day weekend... needless to say NYC was extra busy that wknd. After this we headed to Chinatown and Little Italy (on the subway of course) and had dinner in Little Italy (yummy!) while this marching band came through the streets and serenaded us! We went home that evening and zonked out!

The next day, Saturday, I was pretty tired, so we took it a little easier... in the morning, we walked down to Rockefeller Center, where the famous ice skating rink is... but its an outdoor restaurant in the off season. We were able to head to the "Top of the Rock" (top of the Rockefeller Bldg) and see the awesome view of all the incredible buildings in NYC, and Central Park. We were able to see people walking around when we put a quarter in the telescope. This building wasn't as tall as the Empire State Bldg, which we went to on Sunday, but I actually liked the view better, because you could see things closer, and mostly because we weren't packed in like sardines like on top of the Empire State Bldg. We were able to hang out a bit and take some great pictures. We also got to see a lot of things that were nearby, like Radio City Music Hall, the NBC Studios, the M&M's store, and the NBC store... where we saw lots of funny stuff from the Office (one of our favs) and lots of other shows, but since it was all too expensive, I decided to just steal a Friends magnent for Michelle... hey thats what friends are for, right? Actually, it was an accident, and we didn't realize it until we were far away, and I my legs were about to fall off from walking. Needless to say we took a cab to our next destination, FAO Schwarz, a super amazing toy store. We got to see the Piano from the movie "Big" and lots of cool toys you would never see anywhere else. My kids would have been in heaven. And no, I didn't actually buy any of the baby clothes from there since they were like $100 for a sundress (a very cute sundress though, I must say). We did buy the kids some vintage toys, which they absolutely love... space guns and handcuffs for the boys and old school kaliedescopes for the girls. We also saw St. Patricks cathedral somewhere in there... its this amazing giant church with gothic style architechture inside and out... and there was an acutal wedding just ending when we got there! They opened the giant doors and let the wedding party come out... it was cool. We headed back to the hotel after that so we could get ready for the HIGHLIGHT of our trip... Wicked the Musical! It was so neat! We had great seats that were ridiculously expensive, since the show sells out months in advance, and this was a last minute trip for us. But it was worth it. We were able to get a babysitter through the church to watch Mia at our hotel room, which was wonderful, because I felt so much better leaving her with a 16 year old girl that I was able to get to know a little bit ahead of time then just some random stranger who could just take off with my baby! I know, I'm paranoid. Anyhow, the story of Wicked is about the witches from the Wizard of Oz, and what REALLY happened before Dorothy came to Oz. It was fun and very clever.

The next day we had lunch plans with one of Chris's longtime work associates and his wife so we decided to head on over to the Empire State Building first. That was actually really amazing once we made it to the top, after standing in 5 different lines. We did get the VIP treatment a few times because we had the stroller... that is we got to take the back way up. We met his friends in Central Park at Tavern on the Green Restaurant... it was beautiful with all the different themed rooms. Afterward we had a relaxing afternoon in Central Park- including a nice little nap n the grass. That evening we went to check out Times Square... I was shocked at crowded it could be so late at night! Mia sure likes the night life I must say. Especially since she was still kinda on AZ time.

Monday was our last day in NYC and I was kinda sad, especially since I was finally getting used to all the walking around! Actually, I was really only tired on Saturday... all the other days I was fine! I really loved walking around and seeing the city. After the first couple of days we realized taking a cab was much better than the subway because 1. it was cleaner 2. we didn't have to lug the stroller up and down the subway stairs and then try to get thru the turnstiles and 3. It didn't cost that much more, especially if we weren't going that far. So we had tried to go to the Museum of Natural History on Sunday but there were way too many people so we just went home and took another nap and decided to go back on Monday. I'm glad we did because we got to stay almost all day! If it were up to me, we would have stayed all day, but Chris was done after about an hour or two. There was just so much to see! And we didn't even get to see it all. We started off with the coolest part, the Butterfly Exhibit, which isn't a regular exhibit, but one of their featured ones. They had a butterfly room and we got to see them close up, some of the butterflies even landed on peoples' heads! Not ours unfortunately. :( But we got to see some amazing butterflies close up... we got to watch them drink with their little curly tongues and everything! We also got to see many halls of animals, my favorite was probably the Hall of African mammals, where all the big elephants, and lions and giraffes and zebras were. I also really liked the dinosaur bones.. Cameron would have loved that we kept saying. I think my very favorite part was the hall of Biodiversity I think its called... they had specimens of thousands of types of living creatures, grouped in their different families... ie mammals, birds, arthropods, invertebrates, bacteria, etc. It was amazing, seeing all the types of living things, especially that mammals were only one group out of like 25 or 30! I also really liked the giant blue whale in the Ocean Life exhibit. I really learned a lot that day. I felt kinda bad for Chris, he kept wanting to leave because he had a headache, but I'm just such a museum nerd I guess. Early in the day he actually thought we might have time to do the museum and Coney Island that day... silly Chris. We did get to go back to Little Italy again and pick up some more souveniers and have yummy Italian food again. You know we did see one Mexican Food restaurant while we were there, and I wondered what it was like, but I thought, come on, how good can Mexican food in New York be?

Tuesday morning we got up early and were actually smart enough to take a cab to the airport this time. :) I said goodbye to Chris as he was driving up to Connecticuit that day and then off to Paris the next day. I was really lucky to have a nice lady sitting next to me on the plane that helped me with Mia. And I actually got home around 1 pm... that wasn't too bad. It was kind of a shock to have to take care of myself again, along with 4 more kids! What a difference 5 1/2 days away from home can make! But I was so happy to see my kids... especially my little Ava. She did so well while I was gone. And when I came home she just kept saying, I missed you Mommy, I missed you! It was so sweet. In true fashion Isaac immediately started climbing all over me and smothering me with love. I picked the kids up from school and they both ran to the car in excitement, "My Mommy's home!" It was bittersweet coming home... leaving Chris for another 10 days and all the fun stuff we did together... but it was wonderful seeing my little sweethearts again and sleeping in my soft comfy bed... zzzzzz.... (I'm sure you're close to sleep by now too!)