New York, New York

New York! What a fun week we had together celebrating Mom's birthday!! It was rainy the first 2 days of our trip - so we had to be a little flexible with our plans, but we still had a great time.

We went to the American Museum of Natural History - a great museum with TONS to see. I really think you could spend 2 whole days there (or maybe more)! We visited some of the animal, Native American, and dinosaur exhibits - all of which were fantastic! We rode the double decker tour buses all around the city. Andrew and I stayed below where it was warm and dry, but everyone else braved the cold, wet, rainy weather and sat up top to take in the good views of New York. The bus was a great way to get an overall view of the city and learn some neat facts (like where some "stars" live) that we wouldn't normally have heard. We walked thru Little Italy, Chinatown, and Soho. We walked thru Battery Park and saw the Statue of Liberty. We saw the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular - it was wonderful! We went to the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center) then came down to the bottom and ate lunch while we watched ice skaters on the rink right outside. We also saw a Cirque du Soleil show, Wintuk, which is at Madison Square Gardens right now. If you have ever seen one of these shows, you know how fun they are to see - talented, talented people!! And we ate at some amazing restaurants - needless to say, I still feel full from all I ate!

Whew! We did alot!!! And Andrew did it all with us. I'll take a minute to brag on him. He was the sweetest baby the whole trip. He acted wonderfully on the plane, adjusted great to a new schedule (or lack of one), sat in his stroller as we trekked the city without ever crying or wanting to get out, napped in the stroller, ate with us in the restaurants, sat quietly thru the shows (he actually loved the Rockettes and clapped and waved thru the first few songs!)... I mean for a toddler boy who loves to walk and is so curious about life around him we couldn't have asked for more!! We were so proud! And he made lots of friends for us along the way! So to all of you who may be nervous about traveling with a babe, here's to say that it is not bad at all! In fact, I can't imagine the trip without him!!

Between me, Liz, and Mom, we took lots of pictures, and some of theirs are better than the ones posted below. I just picked out a few to show some of what we did. Maybe I'll borrow some of theirs to post later!

Taking a break from the rainy weather in a cute little cafe in Little Italy. I wish I could remember the name of it... In the background of the picture, you can see framed photos on the wall. They are of famous people with the owner of the restaurant. We had found a popular spot obviously!! It was a cute little cafe and we enjoyed their coffee and canolis. Andrew made friends with the owner who showed us a couple of movie posters that he was in....none that we recognized! It was a fun little find.

Eating in Carmines! Yum, yum - our lunch was amazing and we followed it with this fabulous ice cream dessert. Can we go back, please??

In Times Square!!

Andrew and Wilson riding on the ferris wheel inside the Toys-R-Us in Times Square. Andrew loved it (even though we had ride in a Barbie car!)! All of the seats were cars from cartoons or toys, I was hoping we'd get to ride in the Little People Fire Truck, but when it was our turn to get on, the Barbie Car was open. Oh well, at least Andrew didn't realize it! It was such a fun thing to do and the store itself is really neat.

We were riding the subway and Andrew made friends (of course) with some ladies sitting beside us. They let Andrew wear their Statue of Liberty "crown". He was not to thrilled, but I had to take a picture anyway. Can you see how bundled up he is underneath the crown? And the clear thing on top of the stroller was the rain guard that came with the stroller. It has sat in the basket below the stroller seat for almost a year, without a thought being put into how handy it could be. Boy, were we glad to have it! It was a life-saver!! With the rain guard over the stroller, we were able to just keep right on going regardless of the cold, rainy weather!

A memorable trip indeed!!