Day 4

**Just a little note if you checked the blog early yesterday--I was having computer troubles, so I didn't post the pictures until last night, so if you missed them, they're there now.


We actually got up a little earlier on this day in order to grab breakfast at a restaurant instead of our usual feast from those oh so familiar golden arches. The diner we ate at was housed under a bridge and flanked on either side by a street, so it was fun to watch the city activity as we ate our delicious food. Satisfied, we walked to our first stop of the day, one of my favorites, the New York City Public Library. As the daughter of a librarian, I was eager to visit this place and take a lot of pictures for my mom. It was amazing to see the collections of books housed amongst such beautiful craftsmanship. I was quite amused by the printed signs stating "drop books off here" taped to the gorgeous fluted wood columns at the receptionist desk. I guess it seemed odd that something with such beautiful history and architecture was actually a functioning library. Before we left, we took a quick glance at the Gutenberg Bible and the actual stuffed animals that inspired A.A. Milne to write Winnie the Pooh. The next stop was St. Patrick's Cathedral. We spent a good 45 minutes inside trying to get pictures from every angle, but our pictures don't do this place justice.

As with the library, the detail and craftsmanship put into this structure is remarkable. On to the next thing on our agenda, a trip to FAO Schwartz. Finn was sleeping as we arrived in one of the most magical toy stores in the world, but he woke up just in time to try out the big piano made famous in the movie Big. Still sleepy, I sat him down on the keys, and he proceeded to walk off the piano, lay on the floor, hide his face and cry. Audrie, however, impressed us with her skills, playing Chopsticks as far as her legs could reach. After watching the big piano show, the kids scanned the store to find a special small gift courtesy of their MiMi. Now, when you tell a kid that they can pick out a small souvenir in a toy store like FAO Schwartz, some stress is involved. Finn picked out a collection of small tractors, while Audrie eventually settled on a magic kit. We grabbed lunch at a pizza place determined to be the best pizza in the world by Oprah's best friend, Gayle. It was a little hole in the wall, but full of character and local flavor. Our last stop of the day was Sheep Meadow in Central Park. We let the kids run and play to their heart's desire. I imagine that this was Finn's favorite part of the trip after spending most of the time riding in a stroller. We finally had to drag the kids away and head back to the hotel. And I just remembered, this is the day we took our detour to Queens, not on Day 3. Oops! Oh well, we eventually made it back to our hotel. Then, at 11:00 PM, Jonathan decided that we couldn't leave New York City without seeing the Empire State Building up close, so we grabbed our jackets and headed out, leaving Finn behind with MiMi and Aunt Susie. It was quite chilly atop, but so worth it to see the lights illuminating the land as far as the eye could see. Popsie put a few quarters into the coin operated binoculars, peered through and informed us that The Gap was having a sale on jeans, AND that he read the price tag on one pair and they were a bargain at $19.99! He always knows how to crack us up. We rode down the elevator, snapped a few more pictures, and called it a night.

ND

Day 3

After lazily awaking (again) and checking our list, we decided to go take a ride to Ellis Island, as well as visit Wall Street, and Ground Zero. A good tip if you're planning to go to NYC in the future: arrive early. After a brief stint in a line for the ferry to Ellis Island, we discovered that we were about an hour away from the sign that read "two hour wait from this point." So we nixed that idea and decided to take the cheap ferry (free to be exact) to Staten Island and catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty as we sped by. We then took the ferry back and caught a great view of the city. Next, we took a pit stop to grab some lunch and then headed toward Ground Zero. After zigging and zagging and heading east, and then retracing our steps back to the west, we finally asked someone for directions (we were almost there). Seeing pictures of the two towers along the way, and then actually standing there, I couldn't even fathom just how enormous those buildings must have been. We then moved on to our next challenge....finding Wall Street. I have to give a big thank you to Susan again because she was the only one who thought to bring a map.

Even with the help of a map, we still had a hard time finding places, so I can imagine that without it, I'd be writing these posts from my new home somewhere in the Bronx, unable to find my way out. After stopping by the resting place of Alexander Hamilton and Robert Fulton, we finally made it to Wall Street, took some pictures, then hopped on the subway, and went to Queens. No, we weren't staying in Queens, we happened to miss our stop on the way back to Grand Central Terminal, and took a little detour.

With help from a nice cop, we avoided having to pay more subway fees, or worse spend the night in the subway.

That evening we took a trip back to Times Square for some dinner, and a visit to Toys R Us. We faced the giant animatronic T-Rex, gaped at Lego models of buildings New York City, and rode the indoor Ferris wheel before having to drag the kids and Jonathan and Chris out of the store. With a quick stop into Roxy's Delicatessen for a few slices of cheesecake to go, we were ready to get back to the hotel, get into some pj's and enjoy our midnight snack.

ND

Day 2

After getting up a little late, we checked our list of things to do in New York City, a list that, thankfully, our super organized, NYC visitor veteran Aunt Susie put together for us. (Otherwise, we probably would've spent all of our time trying to figure out what we could do instead of actually doing it.) So, we started day 2 with a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We decided that in order to keep the visit manageable with two kids, we would only visit two galleries, the European paintings, and American paintings. Now, I knew the place was going to be big, but I just didn't realize how massive it actually is until after we spent 3 hours roaming through ancient armor and Egyptian artifacts trying to find the European paintings section. By the time we found it, we had to rush through the collection before the growl of our hungry stomachs grew so loud that it would ignite panicked patrons to reenact a scene from Cloverfield. We decided that we would have to catch the American gallery on the next trip. Our next stop was Central Park for lunch. With spring in full bloom, the cherry blossoms were gorgeous. We grabbed some lunch, and proceeded to picnic in the park to enjoy the beautiful scenery. Finn decided to skip the main course, and go straight for dessert. Smart boy!
After lunch, we strolled through the park to take in a bit more sunshine and a few more sites. In general Popsie fashion, my father-in-law separated from the group for a brief moment only to reappear with a chocolate ice cream bar. I have to say, if we were ever lost in a remote, uninhabited jungle, Popsie could wander off, only to return a short time later with a hot dog, or Frito pie. He has a knack for disappearing and reappearing, holding some sort of delicious treat. It's a specialized skill really. We let the kids "have tea" with Alice and the Mad Hatter for a while before returning to the hotel via subway. After a short rest and refuel, we got all decked out to go see Mary Poppins on Broadway. The show was absolutely fantastic, and watching Audrie's face, even more so. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera along that night, but a few pictures were taken by some of the others in the group, so I'll have to post those later. After the walk home, we were pretty exhausted, so we hit the hay, and recouped for day 3.

ND

Day 1

Alright, here goes.

Day 1:

The plane ride, Finn's first. It was kind of nerve racking knowing you're about to take a rambunctious 2 year old on a plane for the first time, but I have to say it went pretty well. Thanks to my husband who thought to book our flight at a time that I didn't know existed so the plane would be fairly empty, and a bag full of Tootsie Rolls, the flight was mostly painless. The only problem we really encountered was trying to get Finn to not giggle so loudly while others were trying to sleep.

The limo ride to the hotel. If you ask Audrie, it was one of her favorite things about the whole trip!

Of course, we had to lock up our valuables, which just happened to include a few toy cars.

Sheer excitement!!

Tempting treats along the way.

30 Rockefeller Center

The top of the Rock....what a view! Finn slept through the whole thing, a trend throughout the trip.

Atlas from the front.....

and back. Plus, St. Patrick's cathedral.

The Chrysler building, right next to our hotel.

We ended our day by going to see Spamalot on Broadway with none other than......American Idol 2nd place winner, Clay Aiken! Now, although I'm not a big fan of Clay nor the show from which he attained his fame, I do have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised with his performance. The show was a riot, and I would have loved to have posted pictures of the occasion, but unfortunately, I didn't have the extra $250 on hand to have my picture taken with Mr. Aiken. Instead, I'll show you how my children spent their evening with their MiMi....

There it is, the end of day one.

ND

Mother's Day

Before I embark on my endeavor to post five whole days in a row, I had to say something about the Mother's Day gifts I received yesterday. Now, I'm not one to demand diamonds or flowers or any kind of fancy gift, really. For me, the old standby of a bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper, a candy bar and an "I appreciate what you do" will suffice. But, as I toted the kids off to church yesterday morning, I didn't even get a "Happy Mother's Day" from my husband, which could mean one of two things: 1. He was planning some kind of elaborate set up to surprise me with as I arrived home from church. Or 2. He genuinely forgot.
When I pulled into the driveway, I noticed on our front porch, the mop sitting in our kitchen trash can which was filled with soapy water. "OK," I thought,"He cleaned the house and mopped the floors with soapy trash can water. That's alright, it's the thought that counts." Then, he greeted me, mad, demanding the whereabouts of the mop bucket (on the back porch) and the video camera (also on the back porch-not my fault). With the realization of the location of the video camera, he ran to get it, pressed record, and led me into a house, which to my dismay was dirtier than when I left it that morning. I noticed the full laundry basket in the middle of the living room floor with a sign that read "I put the laundry all in one place for you!" On the counter, a bowl of nuked chip crumbs and cheese and an open, mostly eaten box of chocolates with the sign "Nachos and Chocolate!" On the table, a quarter of a dozen roses with a couple of water filters with the sign "Because I know how much you love water!" The counter housed every last spice we owned, a couple of cans of cream of chicken soup, a pot of boiling water on the stove, and this sign:

And lastly, my favorite, the card he "bought" from Wal-Mart which read:

**Just a bit of Jon and Ness history--Jonathan and I met at the beginning of our freshman year in college. After a year of randomly running into each other on campus, he finally asked for my number, only after almost calling me Valerie. I've never let him forget it. :)**

He explained as we drove to Jack in the Box for lunch that he had every intention to clean the house, run to the store to buy chocolate, flowers, and a Diet Dr. Pepper, and race to get my favorite rice/chicken/cilantro stuffed burrito, but ran out of time, so, he just went with the whole "messy house" thing.

I have to give him credit, he knows me well. I'll take humor any day over a pair of diamond earrings!

To all of the mother's, I hope your special day was as wonderful as mine!

ND

5 Days in New York City

It never fails to surprise me when I sit down write a new post to see the amount of time I've let pass since my last post. The last few weeks have been pretty busy with the end of the school year rush, a few commissions needing to be completed, and a vacation under my belt. "What vacation?" you might be asking yourself. Well, 3 weeks ago my family and I finally got to go to NYC after our trip planned for December had to be postponed. It was my first time in the Big Apple, and it was quite an experience, especially with two young children in tow. Thankfully, we had convinced my in-laws that they couldn't miss seeing their granddaughter's first time in New York City, so we had a lot of extra help with the kids. ;) There is much to tell, and many, many pictures from our trip and I can't put it all into one post, so starting tomorrow I'm going to post for five days straight....one for each day of our trip. I know, I know, given my record of a post every two weeks, there must be some doubt as to whether or not I can pull this off, but I'm determined. In the meantime, I will leave you with some pictures of some mixed media collages I have been working on this last month for a friend.

Until tomorrow,

Nessa Dee