Thanksgiving in NYC

Our weekend in NYC was so much fun. Here's a brief rundown of what we did. My sister's friend and her husband live in the city, so they were nice enough to let us stay in their place since they were out of town for the weekend. They have a sweet apartment and an awesome view of the George Washington Bridge. (Thanks so much Lindsay and Rob!) We got there late Wednesday night, around 10:30. Bryan drove around for an hour after dropping us off looking for a parking spot. The girls went to bed at about 12:00 am and we woke up at 7:00 to get ready for the parade. We caught the subway at 8:00 am and it was so crowded when we got off the subway. We stood still for 20 minutes just waiting for the crowd to disperse. We ended up at Columbus Circle to watch the parade. It wasn't the best spot, we could only see the balloons and no people. Niah was really mad when the 'Bolt' float went by and we couldn't see Miley Cyrus. I was a little disappointed for her too. We decided about halfway through to walk up the street and see if we could find a better spot. Well, we did and it ended up being so much better and Niah loved it! It was so much fun seeing the parade, I have always wanted to see it in real life so now I have! After the parade, we headed down to 5th Ave. to check out the FAO Schwartz toy store and the decorated windows. Just a bit of advice if you ever go to the city with kids- go without the stroller! NYC is not a stroller friendly place, the store aisles are too narrow and the subways are a pain with them. We actually ended up leaving the stroller home on the second day. We had sore arms from carrying Chloe but it was worth it. Anyway, after 5th Ave. we headed to Times Square and ate lunch at a place called Ellen's Stardust Diner. The waiters and waitresses are Broadway wannabes so they sing while you eat. The atmosphere was great but the food, not so much. I love Broadway so I thought it was a great way to get that theater feel when we didn't go to a real play. We then took the girls to the gigantic Toys R' Us store. There is a ferris wheel inside that you can ride, we didn't because the line was soooo long. Out of all the toys in the store the girls picked out stuffed giraffes. Bryan and I tried to talk them out of it, but that's what they wanted. Whatever makes them happy, right?! We were all so worn out that we decided to call it a day, it was only about 4:00 in the afternoon but we had had enough! The second day we went to the Statue of Liberty. Niah loved seeing her in real life. She had to pose for the camera in front of the statue. It was really funny. This was probably the highlight of the trip. After the Statue, we went and saw Ground Zero and then headed to Times Square again to eat lunch/dinner. Niah wanted to see the Disney Store so we went back to 5th Ave to let her see it. The store was awesome and we even got to see Minnie and Goofy. The walking was exhausting. We walked a ton and when I woke up in the mornings I could hardly walk because of sore feet and legs! Since I didn't get much shopping in the first couple of days, Bryan took the girls to a park near the apartment while I went into the city by myself to shop. It was a ton of fun and I want to do a girls trip now! I had a great time shopping all by myself! On our way home, we missed a turn off and got pretty lost. We eventually found our way back to where we needed to be and then got lost again in Albany when we tried to find somewhere to eat. Needless to say, our drive home was not that fun and a little longer than it should have been.

I'm so glad we got to visit NYC. It was so much fun and I want to go back someday for sure.