Spring Break with My Lovies at Home and in NYC

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!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A Trip to the City.

The absolute hardest part of being away from Arkansas is being away from my fab fam (I know, I know- you're shocked). Even though we still talk via phone, group text and FaceTime multiple times a day it's not the same. I miss them so much it hurts sometimes. But, one of my friends who moved far away for her husbands residency told me that if you just have something to look forward to once a month, you'll be okay. So, so true ... Having something on the calendar helps me tons.
One of the things I've been looking forward to for several months was our girls trip to NYC. We try to mix a teensy bit of sight- seeing slash educational activity in so that we don't have to tell our husbands what the trip really is ... A shopping trip. We shop 'til we drop and think it's the most fun thing ever. Because it is.
And honestly, our husbands are probably happy to be off the hook of us wanting them to take us on said trip.

We started counting down the days until we were reunited again almost a month ago and were literally squealing in the immediate days before. We would send each other hilarious (well, we thought they were hilarious) pics and videos doing happy dances and giddy smiles of excitement. Our husbands even started in on it too ... Although they were just mocking us. But, believe me there was no way to rain on our parade.

Monday morning I set off on quite an adventure. I drove to the Newark International Airport in NJ to park my car and ride a train into the city. I almost broke into tears SEVERAL times out of being utterly overwhelmed and confused ... But, I finally made it. I think I thought since it was just a few hours away, driving was a no-brainer. However, looking back it would have been much less stressful and actually less expensive to just fly. Yikes. Wish I would have known that before. I had a friend who lives in NYC who walked me through the process through email before I left ... it sounded easy enough. But, actually doing it really wasn't. The fact that the NJ transit/train system and subway system is for the general public's intelligence level is beyond me ... I have never felt more stupid in my whole life.
I'll leave it at that ... Let's just say it was a very humbling experience.

Here I am setting out ... Ignorance is bliss apparently.

Here I am a few short hours later riding around the Newark airport on the AirTran that I thought was going to bring me to Penn Station. It really just went around and around the airport. Only took me 30 minutes to figure that one out ... Mmm Hmm.

Mom, Rach and SB also had a wee bit of drama after missing their 6:30 am flight.

They're the cutest.

Good morning all around ... but it got much, much better.

FINALLY reunited!!! We had dinner at a charming little Italian restaurant that was fabulous.

I look orange here ... I have no idea why. Hopefully it was just strange lighting.

SB won "best dinner selection" for the night ... Those pork chops were humungous and quite possibly the best thing I've ever eaten. Yum to the O.

My mom's sweet friend, Leigh, and her daughter, Grace, joined us for the week; they were perfectly delightful.

Cuties.

Hollllllllllaaaaa!!!!Oh heyyyy there Chris Noth! Aka "Big" from Sex and the City or Law and Order star/The Good Wife hottie. He just HAD to have his picture taken with us and we complied ... we just can't go anywhere.

That night we went looking for the new Piperlime store and were SO sad to see it was closing in about three minutes ... so we went to Serendipity. I'm not a big fan of the food, but the frozen peanut butter hot chocolate is fantabulous.

Queen of the cross-body bags.

Love, love, love, LOVE my sisters.

Sooooooooo .... after this I got bamboozled into riding the Subway. I did NOT want to at all and almost stamped my foot. But, I didn't.

I have no idea why they're smiling.

Side note:

These are what I wore ALL over NYC. MmmHmm. Day 1: Boots; Day 2: Glitter Flats; Day 3: SB's Pumas ... with Dr. Scholls socks. Bwahahaha Those things were the most comfortable thing EVER. They saved my life. Or at least my feet.
Second side note: We were so confused at why it took ten minutes to get some help in the Saks Shoe Dept. Then I looked down and BUSTED out laughing. It was even funnier in person, promise.

One of the best things we did was go to Ground Zero, walk through the museum, memorial, and St. Paul's Chapel.
It was beautiful, emotional and they have truly made beauty out of ashes. I can't believe it's already been eleven years.All I could think about was what I would have done if I had been there with babies. A'l the people searching for loved ones ... It still breaks my heart eleven years later.

Definitely worth a trip.

Then we finally got to Piperlime and it was one of my very faves. It was super nice, wonderful staff and just ... nice.Loved it. We stopped in at a fun little restaurant for happy hour with my favorites. I just love my people.

Speaking of my people, Emily Brown was in town for market for Tulips in Little Rock and we met up with her for dinner. She is SO fun and I always have so much fun with her sweet self.

We left dinner and went to "Don't Tell Mama"s for more fun.

The next morning we got a late start but woke up and shopped around before taking a carriage ride around Central Park. I don't care how Touristy it is, I love it and hope to go on one every time I visit NYC. Yay tourists!

We had the yummiest brunch at SaraBeth's and then went to shop some more. By this time I was wearing thin ... It's just a LOT of going and walking!
That night SB and I went to dinner and shopped some more while the rest of the crew went to the Lion King. I knew I would regret it later (and I do) but I just couldn't do another thing. I think Sarah Baker and I had showered and were in bed by 9.
The last morning we woke up and ate at a fun place by our hotel, Juniors and then did ... dun dun ta dunnn: MORE shopping.

Loved my rock crystal latte stirrer.

LOVED our week in NYC and can't wait to go back with y'all next year!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone