New York, 2018

I've been hoping to make it up to New York ever since my nephew Harrison was born back in October.  Now that Rachael and Ian are moving to Ohio this week (!!!) we figured we'd better get out to see them in the big city one last time.  Poor Leah has been renovating two of her bathrooms, leaving her with only one while she's had lots of visitors.  Fortunately for all of us, her contractor got one more toilet working right before we arrived, so that made everything MUCH easier!  It can be challenging to have 7 people come flooding into your home, but as always, Leah made us so comfortable!  (We can't wait for Rachael to have a little more room in Ohio so we can stay with her next!  But for now, we didn't think she'd appreciate all of us trying to squeeze into their 2-bedroom apartment!)

This was a very quick trip.  I picked Craig up after work with the car all loaded and we DROVE.  We got to Leah's place around 10:30 that night (after being charged extra to drive across the George Washington Bridge!  Grrr!!!).

The next morning we had planned to visit One World Trade, but it was gloomy and overcast, not exactly ideal for going to the top of a 102-story building.  So our whole day was put in flux.  We drove into Manhattan and Craig dropped me off and I went to see about getting our vouchers changed to Monday.  It turned out to be absolutely NOT a problem, so that was great.  But then we had to figure out what to do instead?  Ryder was incredibly whiny (he was mad that we'd taken him away from his cousin Eliot), so we decided on the one thing he might be enthused about: the Museum of Natural History.

My kids have been watching all of the Night at the Museum movies, so they had favorite "characters" from the movies that they were hoping to see.  At the top of the list?  Rexy!

Craig drove while I tried to figure out parking.  Waze led us all around the museum, and finally to the basement parking lot under it.  I couldn't imagine that that was a viable option, but since we were there, we figured we'd ask while I stared at my phone trying to come up with a plan B.  The parking attendant came out and informed us that we were a group.  Craig corrected him that we were, in fact, a family.  But when he insisted again that we were a group, Craig played along.  And our Group got to park all day at the museum for only $15!  It was amazing.  Yay for our awesome parking attendant.  When we climbed out of the car, we were literally 30 steps from a museum entrance!  Happy day.  Ryder was still whiny, so we hurried to the dinosaurs...

Ryder is super into dramatic poses, as you'll see.  So here's he's scared of the T-Rex.

Craig is there, too!

Ryder is trying to look like he's been impaled on the dinosaur's tooth...

Four of the five kids in here!  (Ryder was somewhere else, whining about something.)

A 14-foot crocodile.  Yikes!

Rachael and Ian and their two boys joined us, so that was great.  Also great was that they picked up Levain Bakery cookies for us!

I refused to pose with the orangutan.

Another favorite from Night at the Museum.  My kids call this statue The Dum Dum Guy. I'm not sure what Bentley is doing here...

The blue whale exhibit had been closed, so I was pleased that it was open again.  Colton has taken up my love of whales, so I was excited to share this with him.  Unfortunately they were setting up the bottom floor for some event, so we could only be up on the balcony. 

Strong Bentley

The kids were now starving, so we decided it was time to hit one of our other favorite New York places, the Shake Shack!!!  Craig fought the crowds inside while I took the kids to a park bench and Rachael fed Harrison.  After eating, Rachael and Ian had to leave (they had to write farewell talks to be given the next day).  And we had spotted a nearby playground that Tracy used to take our kids to, so we let them run around there for a bit.

Happy Ryder (finally)

And happy Camille

I love how Bentley and Camille are in the background photobombing Colton and Kendra

Super cute picture of our kids plus one other random kid who happened to be in it, too.  His mom looked apologetic and we all laughed.

I convinced everyone to go back to the museum for a few more minutes.  We'd missed the main floor of the Africa wing, and the elephants are just SO impressive when you're on the ground looking up at them!  Everyone loved that wing (minimal whining from Ryder) and then Craig declared that it was time to head out.  He knew I'd keep finding things to look at and that the kids weren't going to put up with me any more.  We bid a fond farewell to our amazing parking place and headed back to Eastchester!

Leah was very gracious about feeding us dinner even though I'd told her not to worry about us.  (And then showed up at 5pm with five hungry kids!)  And then we put our very exhausted kids to bed!

The next day was a relax with Leah and her kids day, and we loved every moment of it!  It was the happiest Ryder was the entire trip, now that he could just play with Eliot all day long!  I spent several hours just sitting on their screened in porch, reading my book, chatting with Leah, eating delicious eggs that Brian cooked up, and watching Brian take Bentley and Kendra out rowing.  Eventually we went to Leah's pool, where we got to observe a 3-year-old's birthday party that involved a mobile petting zoo (really!!!  for a 3-year-old!!!).  Rachael and Ian joined us again, as did my cousin Jan.  Craig spent a lot of time pushing the kids on the swings...

Ryder and Eliot (who is looking a LOT like Bentley here) on the swings together

Goofy Camille

That's Harrison who I'm holding (who is loving Camille's curls)

Kendra, my brown child

I love Camille and Theo on the swing together!!!

And that evening, once the kids were asleep, we went back to sitting out on the covered porch, watching the fireflies.  It was perfect.

The next morning I woke Craig up early so we could get all packed and out the door.  I forgot that it's easier to pack to return home, and we were ready about 45 minutes before I'd been hoping to leave.  This was dumb, because that meant we'd just be leaving during the worst part of rush hour.  Leah assured us we were better off waiting a bit, so I got some breakfast and went back to enjoying the porch.  Then we went back into Manhattan to try One World Trade again.

The weather was DEFINITELY better-- in fact, it was about the most perfect weather imaginable.  Unfortunately, I had a bit of a bathroom emergency, so I had to make Craig drop me off at the building again and I dashed inside while Craig parked the car.  Feeling much better, I met him and the kids as they were coming down the street.

Craig and a bunch of kids (Camille is behind Ryder) on a New York City street

We spent a few minutes staring up at the building before we went inside.  It is impressive!

It is impossible to get a selfie with a building that tall-- either we were in shadow, or it was washed out into the sky...  But we tried!

Craig told them to stand there and look up.  Why they faced away from the building is a mystery to us...

It wasn't terribly crowded and we pretty much walked right in.  The presentation is really wonderful at this place-- the elevator ride shows you a video of Manhattan changing and growing from the 1600s onward, as you skyrocket up all 102 flights in 44 seconds.  Then you see a 1-minute film about New York before they lift up the screen and reveal the actual view!  It was awesome, and elicited some well-deserved oohs and aahs.  And then you could just walk around the observation floor for as long as you wanted.

See the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island?

This is actually a live camera feed showing you what's going on right below you on the street.  But the little kids believed they were looking all the way through the building!

Ryder, once again, showing how afraid he is

This shot actually looks terrifying

As does this one

I was slightly disappointed that the kids couldn't see Central Park from this angle, but what can you do?

I think Ryder was hiding behind Craig at this point?  (This may have been when we promised Ryder he could do one of those flattened souvenir pennies if he didn't whine any more.  He didn't make it...)

The Brooklyn Bridge!

Bentley took this-- Craig and I NEVER get to be in a picture together on trips like this!

And then Bentley got artsy, too...?

We finally headed down to look at the World Trade Center Memorials.  They were very beautifully done, although every time I tried to explain anything to the kids, I'd just get all choked up.  I finally just tried to deal with Ryder and let Craig explain history.  They placed white roses on any names whose birthday it would have been that day, which was lovely.  There were at least two women who were pregnant, so their names were listed along with their unborn child.  That made me cry even more.

No one knew if they should smile or not.  And Ryder was off with me whining (predictably).

And Craig took this last amazing shot of One World Trade before we found our van and began the long (and very whiny) drive home.

It was such a wonderful trip!  We're so glad we were able to make it back up to New York again!!!