New York City

One of the advantages of living on the other side of the country from your family is how close you are to things you never thought you would see in your life.  I remember growing up having thoughts of "I'll never go to Disneyworld, because we are so close to Disneyland."  or "I will never see the Statue of Liberty in person."  As you know by now, I've been to both of those places, and many more.  It's time to continue to add to the list....New York City, specifically, Times Square.

We had a BIG surprise for the girls on this trip, so I decided to keep it all a surprise.  The week of Thanksgiving, we sent the girls to school on Monday, like normal.  However, when I came to check them out around 10:30am, I told them to go to the bathroom, because we had a surprise for them.  I also told them to tell their teachers good-bye until December.  Andie and Ali were SHOCKED when we got to the car to see Shawn there as well.  They jumped in, I handed everyone a donut (another surprise) and said - "Happy Thanksgiving Break!  We're going on a trip, and the only hint I'll give you is that we will be there at 2:15pm"  To say we were all excited was an understatement.

I love at each state line, the girls, namely Andie, would come up with a new destination guess.  "We're now entering Vermont!"  She quickly responded, "YES!  We're going camping up at the Joseph Smith Memorial!!"  Ali quickly chimed in her excitement, "yes!  camping!"  Me, "Um...no, it's too cold to go camping."  "We're leaving Vermont and entering Massachusetts!"  Ali this time was the first to say, "Are we going to the Boston Temple?"  "Nope!"  "We're now in Connecticut!"  No response.  "We're now entering New York!!!..."  Andie, more excited then her camping idea, "YEAH!!!!  WE'RE GOING BACK TO GEORGIA!!!!"  :(  "Nope, not back to Georgia.  But I'll tell you, we are stopping somewhere in New York!"

 We made it to New York, and only had to cross on toll to get in for $5 (score!)  The hotel was easy to get to and we didn't have to fight any crazy NY traffic.  Let me make it clear, we could take my kids anywhere and sleep in a hotel and they would think it was the best vacation ever.  They love it!  Here they are looking at all the tall buildings and counting Taxi cars.  I think they saw 36 taxi's within a matter of just a few minutes.

 We all had a chance to use the bathroom, so we decided to bundle up and try to go find the Manhatten Temple.  According to the map, central park, the temple and times square were all just a few blocks away.  Great Location!!

 We got about a block out and it was time to pull out gloves.  It was chilly, but bearable. 

 At the next cross-section we could look one street left and see Central Park!  We decided to continue to our original destination to see the temple.

After a while, we realized the GPS map was pulling us in the opposite direction.  So, we quickly put in the direction for the Gershwin Theater and we were just a few blocks away.  We turned the corner, crossed another street and all of the sudden we saw this sign!  WHAT?  I was so excited.  I have seen a few Dave Letterman in my day and instantly said, "We need a picture"  Of course, we sent a text to all of my family.  Tyson is now on board to come and visit.  There was a short line for the standby tickets and had we no children, I would have encouraged Shawn to jump in and go see the show.  Next time!

 Next Up...Cinderella.  I would love to see this on Broadway!

 Let's keep walking and see what else we can find.  We foung the Gershwin Theater, where we were headed at 4:30 and had another half hour before then.  I saw the lights for Radio City, so we decided to walk a block or two up to get a good picture.  It was a little further than we thought and the kids were starting to get tired of walking.

 Then we turned the corner and they got all excited again!!  BIG Christmas train in the water fountain.

 A BIG Christmas Tree of lights at Radio City

 HUGE Christmas Ornaments in the next water fountain.  SO FUN!!!

 By this time, little buddy had gone to sleep.  And slept for about an hour walking around.  Such a good little boy!

 Times Square is just behind us!

 Time to make our way back to the Gershwin, where we had another surprise for the girls (the whole reason we decided to venture to NYC in the first place!  We were going to meet our good friends, The Palmer's!!  Wicked is the broadway show shown athe Gershwin theater.  The goal was the meet there at 4:30 to put our names in the lottery to win tickets for $30.  Each person can enter for 2 tickets, so between all of us, we would have 11 different chances to win.  Well, the Palmer's got delayed and so our chances were down to 4, Shawn, Me, Andie and Ali.  Out of about 150 people, 10 people would win.  Guess What?!  My name was called!  I was so excited - I never win anything.  I was the 8th person, and then guess what?!!  Shawn's name was called!!  He was the last person to be chosen!  Isn't that crazy?  So, we got 4 tickets, you had to pay cash right there, and we were lucky to have just enough.  The kids were definitely tired by this point, cold and hungry.  It was just after 5 and I said, "Okay, let's go get something to eat, how about you turn around first"  All of the Palmer's were just coming in the door and I'm sure people around us thought we were all crazy and we screamed in excitement and everyone started hugging everyone.  LeAnn had decided not to tell her girls we were going to meet up with them - so ALL kids (except Amy) were super surprised!  IT WAS THE BEST!!!!  The Wicked Tickets went to the 3 older girl's and their grandma, which gave Lance, LeAnn and Megan to us for the next few hours.  It was too perfect and everyone was happy!  Little best friends, reunited, holding hands walking the streets of New York City!!

 We had a blast the rest of the night.  We went to the Stardust Diner (shown above) for dinner.  Here, the waitresses/waiters are singing and entertaining you the entire time.  Their goal is to make it onto Broadway one day.  It was a very fun environment and delicious food.  The 4 little girls shared a booth.

 Me and LeAnn!  We would have never thought we'd see each other so quickly after moving!  It was so great!

 Shawn and Caleb.  Notice, our little family was all wearing red to be easily found.  I didn't take into account we'd all be wearing our coats, but whatever, we matched!

 The girls ordered a turkey sandwich and macaroni and cheese and split it among the 4 of them.

 Lance and Shawn had a great time catching up.  Honestly, I don't know what they even talked about, all I know is they were talking the whole time!

 Lance ordered 2 slices of cheesecake for the couples to share (BEST CHEESECAKE IN THE WORLD!!!) and then a slice of apple pie and ice cream for the girls.  They thought it was the best night ever!!

After dinner, we bundled up to venture further down to times square.  The girls instantly spotted Minnie and Mickey mouse, so I snapped a picture.  Who needs Disneyworld?  They are in NYC!!

 Next was Woody and Whinne the Pooh....that's where mom quickly learned her lesson.  Suddenly all characters wanted a picture with the kids and then, they wanted money!  Oops. 

 This was our last set, and as I was trying to get the girls back to their respective adult, the creepy characters started to surround me asking for money.  Pooh even took off his head to ask me for something for him and Woody.  I apologized over and over that I didn't have anything and imagined them all ready to tackle me to the ground.  Fortunately, I made it out alive and then we made a strict rule - NO more pictures with characters.  I also soon realized..."Oh, there are about 30 mickey mouse and 50 elmo's wandering the streets."  Lesson Learned.

 We went into the Disney Store and walked around.  Then we headed over to Toys 'R' Us...which happen to have a Ferris Wheel INSIDE the store.  I was impressed how long they got to ride, and had fun running from the 2nd to 3rd floor surprising them each time.  I felt like Where'e Waldo.

 LeAnn and the other two girls were in the Monopoly Car.  Adalyn would live with LeAnn is we allowed her to.  She's definitely her 2nd mom.

 We walked around after the ferris wheel and snapped a picture with Optimus Prime.  It was funny.  Caleb was pretty blank stare most of the night, except when I was taking this picture.  He pulled this small smug smile as if to say, "Now THIS is cool."  It was soo funny.

 Of course, we had to get a shot of the star wars wall too.  There's that smug smile again.

 Candyland section.

 I didn't think to ask, do you think the candy is as big as the box, or are there 10,000 little Mike and Ike's in the box?  If I was in Utah, I would have bought one for the White Elephant party of the 23rd.

We wrapped up the evening having a sleep over in the hotel.  Our rooms were next to each other's, with a door inside the room to get to the next room.  It was perfect.  We split and took the little girls home, while Lance and LeAnn went and picked up the Wicked watchers and toured more around Times Square.

 We ended up with 7 of the 8 kids in our room, which was awesome.  The next morning, we had to take off by 11 to get Shawn back to teach class.  The Palmer's were all exhausted from their first day, so it was nice to relax in the hotel room and just chat.  Here are all the kids in one last picture before we said goodbye.  We'll have to meet up soon for the new addition in May to the Palmer Family!!

 Cute, Cute, Cute Kids!!!

It was definitely worth the drive and I love being only 3 1/2 hours from New York City!  It did take us an extra hour to get back home because of all the Holiday Travel.  We were never really stopped in traffic, just a very slow commute.  Shawn was 30 minutes late to his class, but it all worked out.  It was such a fun surprise for our kids and a perfect of time to spend in NY with the age of our kids.  A huge THANK YOU again, to the Palmer Family for meeting us there!