Happy Thanksgiving from NYC

We spent the last week in New York City visiting Tyler, Minde and Chase. Kris and Linda also came out to visit them and we all enjoyed Thanksgiving together in the city. It was a very busy trip for us, as usual.

We spent the night at Kris and Linda's Monday night before the trip because our flight was EARLY! It went extremely well, with the only issue being that Keira got upset when we had to turn off the movie on our DVD player to land. We hit the ground running, and went to start seeing the sights with Minde and Chase before Tyler finished up work for the day. We went into Times Square where we went to the big Toys R Us store, the M&M store, and posed for pictures in front of the lights. The red stairs were part of the TKTS building, which sells discount tickets to shows.

We took the subway or walked to get everywhere except for to and from the airport. Keira and Chase LOVED the subway trains.

Chase and Keira also enjoyed their evening bath together. They will probably hate us for this photo later on, but enjoy it now!
Wednesday was very busy again. We spent the morning at the Museum of Natural History. We took a ton of pictures, but here are a couple, and there is the slideshow below. Keira had a good time, except she didn't want to leave each exhibit to see the next, even though she liked the next one. There was a lot of screaming. She kept wanting to see the fish and the elephants.

This tree had oragami animals all over it and was pretty cool looking at the museum.

This picture was taken by Tyler of Soren after eating. I love how cute and squishy his cheeks are when he falls asleep nursing. He usually only falls asleep nursing once a day while Ryan is at work or in the middle of the night, so this is not a easy shot to get.
After the museum, we at at the Shake Shack, which was across the street from the museum. They had excellent burgers and custard desserts. It hit the spot after dealing with the many tantrums from Keira.
During naptime, I was able to meet up with Nikki, who I finally got to meet face to face. Minde had linked us up through email because we are both into running, and I will now be contributing to her blog, A Fat Lot of Good, about the challenges of running and parenting.

We returned to the same area later in the evening with Kris and Linda to see the balloons be inflated for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.


Thanksgiving was a crazy day. Tyler and Kris got up super early to stake out some spots for the Macy's parade, but unfortunately, the remainde of us got such a late start that it was impossible to link up with them. We still were able to make it down, and view the balloons and tall floats because we were back a ways from the parade on a side street. We stayed about an hour or so, because it was chilly and hard to keep Keira and Chase entertained while confined to a small crowded space.


After the parade, we stopped at Make My Cake to pick up some red velvet cupcakes. They were excellent. We also had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal where we reflected on many of the things that we are thankful for this year. Some of the things that we are thankful for are our family, our health, that Soren was born and Keira loves him so much, that Ryan still has his job, and that we have so many other family members that have helped us with their love and support.

After the meal, we took the kids out to a playground, even though it was getting dark. They had a blast running around and playing. They didn't care that it was cold and dark.

On Black Friday, we started the day at a playground in Central Park, so that Keira and Chase could play in the daytime. They had a really fun time playing before we went on a long walk through Central Park.

We were able to avoid the stores for some time before we finally headed out to do some shopping. It was pretty crazy out there, especially in NYC. We went to the American Girl Store without Keira (to prevent any issues since we didn't have her dolls with us at all on the trip), and Tyler was overwhelmed by the insanity of it. Ryan had already witnessed it before, so it was not a shock when the girls walked into the store wearing clothes that matched their dolls. We walked through Rockefeller Center, even though the tree was not lit yet. Next, we went to the tree lighting at South Seaport. Due to some train delays, we missed the actual lighting, but it was still a cool sight. We had dinner down there as well. We also had some cookies that evening that were purchased earlier at the Levain Bakery, which beat Bobby Flay in a cookie throwdown from the Food Network. They are the best cookies ever.

Saturday was Soren's 2 month birthday, so we got some pictures of him first thing before he could get messy.

We went to get some bagels for breakfast and then headed to enter the Wicked lottery for extremely discounted tickets for the front 2 rows. Unfortunately, even with 6 entries, none of us won. We grabbed lunch at a sandwich place called Say Cheese, which specialized in grilled cheese sandwiches. While Keira and Chase napped, Ryan, Soren, Kris, Linda, and I went to see the Body exhibit at South Seaport. It was a bit weird, but amazing at the same time. They did not allow photographs inside the exhibit. We tried again to win the Wicked lottery, but still did not win with 5 entries this time.These photos were taken at South Seaport, where the Body exhibit was.

On Sunday, we went to church. It was nearly impossible to get a decent photo of Keira and Chase with anyone or even by themselves. They looked so cute all dressed up! At least Soren would hold still since he is small enough to be held still and not become angry.

After church, we went to Amy Ruth's for some chicken and waffles for brunch. They were really really good. I almost wished I had just gotten waffles because the waffles were sooooo good, I could have eaten a ton of them. You have to get fried chicken on your waffles when you are eating soul food.

The weather was not so good for siteseeing. Ryan, Soren, Kris, Linda, and I headed out to see the store windows in the rain. It was not so fun, and Ryan, Soren, and I didn't stay so long. We did see Sak's windows and their snowflake display, in the rain, and walk through Rockafeller before bailing. Kris and Linda stayed out a little longer since it was their last chance to see them.

On our last full day in New York City, we got up and took Keira, Soren, and Chase to see the real Santa Claus at Macy's. Keira did pretty well, but was a bit nervous. Chase hated it. To make up for the torture of being photographed with Santa, we headed over to Grand Central Station. We are so glad we went there. It looked exactly like it did in the movies. I expected to see some James Bondesque chase through it or the characters from Gossip Girl. They had a kalidescope light show on the ceiling of the main hall, as well as a model train display in the museum store. Keira and Chase LOVED it. They stayed for over 20 minutes watching the trains. Ryan pointed out a miniature subway train and Keira did not want to leave that spot (similar to the museum), but eventually followed the track around to see the rest of the exhibit. The security guards were definitely pleased to see us go for sure.

During naptime, Ryan and I went out to get more cookies from the Levain bakery and walked around a bit. We had a fabulous time and wanted to enjoy our last little bit of daylight before dinner. We had dinner with Norman, my mother's cousin who lives in New York, his girlfriend Jody, his son Matt, and Matt's girlfriend, Christina. We ate at the Dinosaur Barbeque which was just a short walk from where Tyler and Minde live. It was great to catch up, it had been way too long since I had seen Norman and Matt, and had not met Jody or Christina before. Hopefully we won't have to go the same length of time before meeting up with them again. Keira, Soren, and Chase did great at dinner, so that also made it even more enjoyable.

Once back at Tyler and Minde's, we wanted to get a few final shots of Keira, Chase, and Soren. As usual, this was more difficult that it seems.

What a busy week! We flew back in to Detroit today where we were greeted by much colder temperatures and snow, but it is nice to be home. It is also even nicer to have Keira back in her own room, because we didn't get much sleep this trip because Keira and Soren are not ready to share a room on a permanent basis just yet!

Hopefully we can recover from the trip in the next day or so and get ready for the weekend. We will be blessing Soren and will hopefully get a start on our Christmas decorating.