So, this morning as I was drinking my chai tea latte and wishing I was anywhere but in my germ-filled house full of the yuckiest stomach virus from nowhere but the deepest pit in hell which is clearly some kind of demonic attack that will not overtake us ... Whew ... deep breaths ... We're going to live... Right? Someone please remind me we're going to live ...
I looked down at my little fun souvenir mug from our Spring Break trip a couple weeks ago and realized I never posted any pics of the fun few days my mom and "little" brother Emerson came up to visit.
Ahhh, happier days. Let's reminisce ... Shall we?
Mom and Emerson didn't get in until late, late that Tuesday night but of course the boys and I waited up on Aaron to pick them up and bring them home to us like we were waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve.
I was somehow still cleaning at 11:30 (I blame it on all the little people. And the bigger person who is still a little confused about where the hamper is ... I kid, I kid).
I literally was so unbelievably giddy that my mama was in my house that I woke up at 5:30am to get up to wait on her to come drink coffee with me. I miss that part so much I can't stand it.
See my ridiculously big smile ... That's pure joy, peeps. (She took Avery to school with me, that's why she has her coat on ... We have heat in PA, not air conditioning mind you, but we do have heat.)
Dede spoiled us pretty much the entire time she was here. She's kinda crazy special.
On Wednesday we took the boys to do fun things since Avery was getting to go to NYC and all ... Chili's and Toys R Us are practically the same thing as a weekend in the city, right? Yeahhhh ... Not so much. But ya coulda fooled Dalton and Sawyer.
So Mom, Emerson, Avery and I woke up super early (read: 7am) Thursday morning to drive to Secaucus, NJ about 3 and a half hours away, where we were planning to catch a train ... But we couldn't find the train station ... Clearly vital. So Mom in all her infinite wisdom comes up with a lovely plan (from the passenger seat) when she exclaims, "Rebekah, the DoubleTree has Valet, let's just drive into Manhattan, let's do it!"
Reminder: she's in the passenger seat; I'm driving. So that "we" she's talking about is her sitting in the front seat looking at the lights, sipping some Starbucks and texting my sisters. I would be the one anxiously maneuvering the traffic of New York City where people walk out in front of your car because they're in a hurry, and insane taxi drivers that may or may have been freshly immigrated to American soil completely ignore all traffic signals/ lines/ and just common sense and decency in general.
But, somehow Mom made it sound doable, and maybe it was. But it was also EXTREMELY stressful. However, we did it and survived without hitting pedestrians or even getting flipped off by any cab drivers that we know of. So, hey- I call that a success.
We celebrated our survival with brunch at a touristy haunt in the theater district that we really like- Juniors.
Then spent the rest of the morning going places we'd never gone on our girly excursions of the past: M & M World, The Disney Store, Toys R Us, etc. Quite a few tears were shed at the realization we left A's American Girl Doll at home, thus eliminating our trip to get Kaya's nappy hair braided back to American Girl perfection at the little girl Mecca -The American Girl Doll store. Oops. But, she pulled herself together when we found an H & M and she could get her shopping on.
Avery sort of ran the show... Which was fine.
Unfortunately it was FRIGID. I will never ever go back that time of year ... So windy and cold and just not fun weather. To be honest, most of the time it was just way too much for Avery- All the walking, plus the weather, just exhausted her. She had moments of delight, but that was mainly while we were eating ... Like mother, like daughter.
Here's the Instagram-version of our trip since I couldn't talk myself into taking my big camera out and about.
We were oh-so-sad that the Lion King was totally sold out ... Next time, sister!
In line for the Ferris Wheel at Toys R Us ... She was pretty pumped about it.
Loved it.
I didn't take any pictures of walking through St. Patrick's Cathedral, but Avery loved that too. We lit candles and prayed and just sat in the amazing structure. It's still having a lot of reconstruction right now, which was kind of a bummer, but it is just lovely. So, I'm really glad we made the stop.
That night we walked next door to The Palace Theater to see Annie.
It. Was. Darling. I totally thought Avery would sleep through the whole thing because she was so exhausted, but she was absolutely enamored with the whole show. Literally on the edge of her seat the whole show. We all loved it- even Emerson! Those kids were crazy talented ... encore! encore! (Do you say that at the theatre? No, wait, I think I meant Bravo, yes- Bravo! Bravo!)
We're hoping to go back for a couple days with Aaron's mom, Aunt Mandy and Avery's favorite person in the whole wide world, Maci, this summer and Avery is already counting down to seeing it again.
Not gonna lie, she was pretty pumped about the hotel stay. She's always extremely excited when we stay in hotels, so it was a highlight for her.
Okay, so I've only been to the city a few times, so I'm obviously not an expert, but Bond 45 is definitely our fav spot for brunch and we've gone back every time. It's DELISH!
We were going to do the NBC Studio Tour with Emerson but it was sold out for the day, so we just looked around.
Then we did a touristy walk through Rockefeller Plaza ...
Clearly Avery was wearing thin.
We also did one of my very favorite things to do in NYC, a carriage ride through Central Park for almost two hours, which makes me laugh typing out. But we totally love those as I mentioned after our last trip too. :)
How huge are Emerson's feet? I swear people mentioned them everywhere we went. I'm sure it had nothing to do with those neon yellow shoes you could see from the top of the Empire State Building.
I shouldn't make fun since he was more than gracious enough to let me borrow his humungous coat so I could pass mine to Mom ... (That's my way of saying I'm not quite as poofy in real life as I look in these pictures.) ;)
We stopped at Magnolia Bakery for some cupcakes and tea and then at one more yummy eatery before deciding we had really had enough fun for one weekend (read: Avery was falling apart).
So we made our way back through the streets of Manhattan:
And back to our quiet little town where we belong.
Loved, loved having them here for almost a week ... I just love them with my whole heart and am so blessed when they get to come live life with us for a little while. Being able to reach out and hug on them whenever I want was far too wonderful.
xoxoxo dear ones, come back soon!!
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