NY Trip - Sunday

We checked out of the Roger Smith, aka Gorilla in the Mist Hotel, left out bags with the bell boy and jetted off to our first day in New York City. We had breakfast at a diner that would best be described as a Denny's with flair. After our $45 eggs and toast, we decided to walk to Central Park in search of a playground for Little Miss. We entered Central Park, the walks lined with benches and huge beautiful trees in yellows, reds, and oranges. Street vendors were singing, playing saxophones and drums, drawing portraits, and selling all manner of pictures. There were tons of people meandering about or playing soccer or doing yoga. I fell in love with the Park, from almost the first steps we took into it. Searching for all the places that I could remember in the movies was fun, I even sang the "How Do You know" song from Enchanted while circling around by the bridge. Daddy took a great video of my madness.
We finally found the playground, and Little Miss went haywire. She tunnelled, she ran, she slid, she climbed, she ran, she swung, she... where is she? LITTLE MISS!! LITTLE MISS!! Daddy and I looked frantically for her. In the first 4 minutes I was just mildly curious as to where she went, at 5 minutes I was heart thumping, at 5 minutes and 30 seconds I remembered we were in NEW YORK, and at 6 minutes we were at full out HEART ATTACK. Several minutes after that, when Daddy and I had laid out a cris cross search pattern, we found Little Miss in a concrete tunnel on an adjacent park. Daddy didn't let her feet touch the ground the rest of the time in the Park. We had a long long long too long discussion about safety, which she probably didn't retain at all. Whew. Still. I loved the Park. We rode the old time carousel, watched people ice skate, and ate the first of many hot dogs from street carts.
We walked back for our bags and had the doorman hail us a cab. More than 8 cabs stopped, but when they found out we were only going to the Village and not the airport they took off. Finally we got a cab and made our way (very late) to our condo for the week. Our gracious landlord gave us the tour and left. The condo was smaller than my bedroom, on the 4th floor with no elevator, and hot as the dickens. But it was cheap, clean and a fantastic central location for our travels.
We took our first adventure on the subways that evening to Madison Square Garden for the Knicks v Rockets game. We came to love the subway, taking it everywhere. We are Masters of the Subway. We ate pizza at a corner bistro, YUMMY!! and I put Little Miss's Snapple in the inside pocket of my jacket. When walking into the Garden, security made Daddy throw away the Coke in his hand. We no more than got through the metal turnstiles than Little Miss yells "THANKS MOM FOR HIDING MY DRINK IN YOUR JACKET". It was hilarious and we SSsshshhhhhhhhhh'd her. She must have thanked me a million times during the game, all whispering in my ear. The tickets that we got through a favor were unbelievable. We were on the floor of the Garden! Little Miss actually loved the game yelling DE- FENSE all night and almost always at the wrong times. We had blow up whacking sticks to make noise and put up when the Rockets shot free throws.. very fun. Little Miss was asleep across our laps by the middle of the 4th quarter, so when the Rockets sealed the win with 8 minutes to go we took the subway home. It had been a Great Long Day. We got home and fell asleep shortly before midnight.

NY Trip - Saturday

Saturday morning we woke up late. The Grooms family had breakfast accounted for and tables set up with cookies, sandwiches, drinks, snacks and the like to make packed lunches for the bus. We took touring buses into NYC. Little Miss sat with her buddy Lucy and played the whole 2 hour ride there. It was only a 45 min drive, gotta love NY traffic. We got dropped by the bus, leaving all our stuff for safe keeping, and literally RAN through Times Square to the Theatre District. Our huge group was 10 min late for Rock of Ages, but they shuffled everyone in discreetly. My first Broadway show on Broadway!! Tainted ever so slightly, only by the thought that this moment should have come with Auntie K sitting beside me. What an amazing show! A small cozy theater with a show full of loud and energetic 80's music. During the "strip club" scene, Little Miss asked me why the girls were dancing around in their underwear... and I replied that it was just like us dancing around the living room in ours. (blush) Later, after a reference to the Gentleman's Club... Little Miss told Daddy that he was a gentleman and she was his lady. Funny German Franz was my favorite character and I was the amusement of everyone by not knowing Dee Snyder was the front man from Twisted Sister. BORN in the 80's people... I didn't listen to Twisted Sister! Crystal ran up to me after the show apologizing for the content, but we waved it off as all in good fun. It went WAY over Little Miss's head. After the show, we lazily walked back through Times Square to our dinner venue of the evening. Carmine's. We were taken upstairs to the large back room. Pictures of mobsters, old movie stars, and old Times Square on the walls were awesome. We were seated 10 to a table, with 6 or 7 tables put back to back. We all were talking about how the restaurant was still owned by the mob and what scary and crazy things must have happened in that very room over the years. We had 12 or so courses over the next 2+ hours. Salad, broccoli (it was yummy), pastas, calamari, rack of lamb, fillet, eggplant Parmesan, shrimp, and then two desserts. There was so much food.. So Much Food! I thought I was going to explode. Little Miss was entertained by the man sitting behind me, who missed his two little boys and played games with her all night. Best Italian Dinner I have ever had. Hands down. An amazing experience of food. At 8:30, the early bus took the small minority of people back to NJ. We took our bags, said goodbye to Crystal and Kane, said a heartfelt Thank You to Mary and Kenny for the weekend, and got in a cab to our 1 night gap hotel room. We were on the 15th floor of an old classy hotel named the Robert Smith. I kept calling it other names, Robert Jordan, Hunter Smith, etc. It was clean and cute. We had a relaxing night and Little Miss watched Barbie then fell asleep on an old lounge next to our bed.

NY trip - NJ Wedding Thursday and Friday

After lots of changes and turns and all, we were finally on our way to NJ for Crystal's wedding. Little Miss loves to ride and airplanes, but this would be her first flight of more than an hour or so. She kept asking when we were going to be in NY city. After takeoff. Can I have my coloring book? After takeoff. Tray table down? After takeoff. Once we actually got in the air, she was great. Watching out the windows and making up stories about flying animals kept her busy for a long time.

When we landed in Newark, we took a train to Morristown. We were told that a cab would be $75 but the train was only $35 and would be about an hour. No sweat, Daddy is sure that we need to learn the transit system early. After 2-1/2 hours, we arrived at the hotel. Never never never getting on a train in NJ again. I was absolutely sure that the $35 we saved was not worth it! Little Miss was at the end of her rope, we were at the end of our ropes, but ready to settle into our trip.

When we arrived at the hotel, we were given the itinerary for the wedding and a bag full of goodies from the wedding party. We walked a half mile to Cluck U for dinner. Daddy has been talking about this place for 10 years. He always tried to get Crystal to UPS him one next day air. GROSS. She never did. Because its gross.
Our dinner, however, was wonderful. Cluck U makes a sandwich called a Little Roman, which was great. We went to the ice cream social provided by the grooms family at the hotel. Saw Crystal for the first time in 3 years. Missed her bad, we both did.

Friday was Wedding Day. We walked to find somewhere for breakfast and then we were going to Washington's Headquarters. Not very exciting but there wasn't much to do without a car. We got to the headquarters, but oops.. didn't pass anywhere to have breakfast. We were all hungry. The museum was a bunch of old stuff. Surprise! The old house was having a tour, so we took it. Another hour, and Little Miss was touching everything in the BORING OLD STUFF HOUSE. We left and Daddy said "5 year old in a 100 year old museum house, um, Bad Idea. My bad". Now we had a very hungry and pent up 5 year old and a cold and cranky Mommy who have yet to eat. We let Little Miss play in the grass to get some energy out and went for pizza.

We took the shuttle to the church around noon. The Catholic in me showed through, standing/sitting and repeating the words. Daddy was mad that I quote "Didn't tell him the secret password to get the cracker". Sorry Catholic family, but it was humorous. Daddy just wanted to see if I would squirm when he threatened to get a cracker just to make Auntie K furious. Don't worry Auntie K. He didn't. The wedding was beautiful and in a great church. Crystal was shaking in a time honored tradition that I can relate to. She looked absolutely beautiful.

At the reception, we had great food and danced. We were at the "work" table and we know work people know how to have a good time. Kelly, Lars, Laura, and Hailey were good people and we hung out with them the rest of the wedding events. Crystal danced the night away, we joined her, Little Miss went until 11:30pm. She did fall asleep on my shoulder during the last slow song. Daddy tried to capture it, but she woke up when he flashed the first time. It was adorable. To say that this was the most thoughtful and elaborate wedding that I have ever been to - Would be an understatement. Flat shoes in multiple sizes for women to change into, free food everywhere and sometimes homemade, drinks all night, and thoughtful people always around to direct and help.

HaLloWeEn 2010 (it lasted for 10 days)

We had a crazy 2010 Halloween, um, season. We had pumpkin patch day, we had swim class dress up day and parade, we had pumpkin carving, we had Trick or Suiting, and of course the actual Halloween... phew. It was amazing and fun and wow busy busy. It was made ever more meaningful by the sudden departure of our dear friends, the Spice family, who moved far far away.

First was the pumpkin patch. We drove all the way out to a patch on the outskirts of town for the "flavor" of farm. The Spice family, Houles, and Nasons all came.. it was great big group fun. The kids rode horses, did a petting zoo, hay maze, games, hay rides, roping, and of course Pumpkins. Each kid did their best to get a timeout, but they were thoughtful enough to do it at separate times! Daddy refused to pick a pumpkin, so Little Miss and I did the honors. Mine had a wicked scar that I had plans for...but didn't end up using... such is creativity's way. We were invited by the adoption agency to attend a Hilton event, Trick or Suite. We went with the Houles and Spice families. Prior to the event, thoughtful costumes were delivered to our houses by our respective representatives. We were floored. Expecting Tshirts or paper craft costumes, Little Miss got a full blown Belle dress. Her best friend Asha got Ariel.
On the day of the event, we carpooled to the Hilton because it was downtown. We had a malfunction of a seat belt and ended up taking 2 cars instead of 1... much to my dismay but Chris's obvious delight. Only 1 boy in her car! At the Hilton, we had a nice dinner and then were split into 2 groups. We got a nice little show and tell display from the Zoo while the first group trick or treated. The show was all spiders and snake stuff... so Mrs Spice kept her distance... it was hilarious. When we got to trick or treat, we were AGAIN blown away. Each hotel room was a different theme, each group of people elaborately dressed up to match, and most had games for the kids to play and candy to hand out. We learned while walking that the Hilton employees are financially responsible for their own suites, the decorations, the ideas, the candy, etc. The employees switch hotels and swap shifts to cover the ones doing the event and they throw the party every night for 1 week- each time for a different disadvantaged group: foster/adopted, medical disability, low income, veterans kids, etc. We don't hear enough about these kinds of events. The people of the Hilton touched my heart that night. Mine and every other person attending, kid or parent. Pics were tough cause the rooms were small, but I got a great one of Little Miss with the Wizard of Oz group... which was in my top 5 favorites.. but by no means best of show that night... to give you some perspective of how great it was.
We did pumpkin carving at our house and were delighted when the Childs came! Racer had hockey, so we ate and delayed and delayed... then Princess, Bella, and Little Miss started their pumpkins. I was the master of the pumpkin design, Daddy was the kids Carver Assistant, and everyone got mucky gooey arms! Luckily Auntie K and Racer made it for most of the fun.Then lastly came Halloween night. It was Sunday. It was a school night. It was a religious day. It was the shortest Halloween I have ever seen. Kids started coming at 7pm and stopped coming at 7:45pm. Racer, Princess, and Little Miss were the first kids out. We thought no one was going to be trick or treating. There were a good number of kids out in our neighborhood, but not for a long time. Odd. The best part of Halloween was my new decoration... Napoleon Blownapart... HA ha ha ! I LOVE HIM! I thought he might scare Little Miss.. but she helped me set him up and was totally fine.