New York in the Fall

We had planned on going to visit my sister Leah back in May, but things got so crazy busy that we decided to postpone.  Until October!!!  In May, Craig had been planning on seeing Stranger Things on Broadway.  I lost interest in that show after the first season (I should say-- it's a good show, I just don't like seeing desperate moms searching for their kid), so I said I'd see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child instead.  Craig was slightly indignant-- "But I want to see that, too!" -- so we compromised and we all saw Cursed Child!  

But first, we had a big problem to figure out.  

In our rush to make plans with Leah, we'd forgotten to run it all past Kendra.  Who was already very excited to go to homecoming that very same weekend.  Big oops.  After talking about lots of ideas and throwing out most of them, we finally decided she would stay with Adam for two of the nights, and then the last night she'd spend in Culpeper with Grandma and Grandpa.  And all the grown ups were happy to have her (and Adam was happy to help her get ready and take her picture and everything!).  So we got that figured out at least.  (And homecoming will get its own post!)  

We also thought we'd have to wait until after the halftime show to pull Ryder away and begin our drive.  That was going to be terrible-- I was guessing we'd arrive around 4am???  Fortunately, it turned out that the marching band doesn't do a halftime show at the homecoming game, so that made things a lot easier.  I had started to dread the trip before it had even begun!  Now suddenly everything was very doable!

So, yes, as soon as everyone was home from school we finished loading the van and drove to Leah's!  Even then, we didn't arrive until well after midnight.  I would have felt bad about keeping Leah up so late, but that was one of the games the Mariners were playing against the Tigers in their final division series game, so Leah was still up anyway!  We dropped our suitcases, put the kids to bed, and kept watching the game with her and got to cheer as the Mariners won in the 15th inning!  Craziness, but a great way to start our trip!

I'd hoped we could make it to the Met in the morning before our show, but we were all pretty tired and slept a little too late for that to be feasible.  (We could have made it, but we would have had to rush like crazy just to have an hour at the museum, and that hardly felt worth it.  It takes me about that long just to find the right room!)  So instead we took our time, letting the kids hang out and play before we headed into the city.  Camille and Theo made the best of their time together:

Camille picked out costumes for Theo and he was very nice about indulging her!  

Then we took the train into the city. 

Usually we just drive, but since there were only five us (and since it's hard to find parking for the van), this seemed more cost effective.  And it was kind of fun for the kids

We got off at Grand Central Station and took a minute to let the kids enjoy the huge ceiling and everything there.  (Camille pointed out a mouse running around in the food court!  Welcome to New York, kids!  I guess I should be glad it wasn't a rat...)

And then it was a short walk to Times Square:

We go to NYC fairly often, but we don't usually go near Times Square, so it was fun to show it to the kids for the first time (although it would have been more impressive at night).  As we were standing taking it in, Colton commented, "That lady just picked up a pigeon!"  We turned to look and-- sure enough!-- there was an older woman clutching a pigeon to her chest.  As we stared, she pulled out a reusable shopping bag, put the pigeon in it, and clipped the bag shut!  Either she's a weirdo who finds hurt birds and patches them up, or (and this is probably more likely) that pigeon was dinner that night.  Welcome to New York, kids!

We had some time before our show, so Leah treated us to lunch at the Brooklyn Diner right there-- they actually managed to seat all seven of us right away, which was sort of a miracle!  Then Leah took Theo to a bubble show (she'd already seen Cursed Child twice in the last year and figured that was plenty for now) and we headed to our theater!

And we LOVED the show so much!!!  The story alone was very cool, but the special effects were AMAZING!!!  We were totally in awe of the whole thing!  So glad we finally got to see it!  Now I want to go back with Bentley and Kendra and see it again!!!

So that was just a fantastic afternoon.  We'd talked about getting Shake Shack after the show, but we were still pretty full from lunch and Brian had offered to cook for us, so we just took the train back.  There had been all these predictions of rain, but we hardly saw any at all, so that was a relief!  But no need to push our luck, either!  Brian made us tacos and we had a nice cozy evening with everyone!

The next morning we went to church with the Westchester Ward.  They had the coolest tree in front of their building, I just loved it:

I enjoyed sitting together as a family, and Craig enjoyed not being in charge.  (And it wasn't terrible leaving after the first hour, either!)  Craig took Theo, Colton, and Camille out in the row boat, and I mostly followed Leah around talking.

My Uncle Bob and Aunt Lorraine are living in Queens serving a mission right now, and they had to go to a stake conference in Connecticut, so they stopped by on their way home and it was so nice to catch up with them!  True to form I didn't take any pictures, but we had a lovely time!  It was especially brave of them to come by, since the last time they came Griffey bit Uncle Bob!  😬  But he stayed very calm this time, only pacing around so he could eye my Aunt's turkey sandwich (that is-- Griffey stayed calm and eyed the sandwich, not Uncle Bob!)

We had planned on going to Blaze and the Eastchester Columbus Day Festival that afternoon, but they were predicting a big storm so the festival got canceled and we kept watching to see if Blaze would be shut down, too.  (And while we waited, we watched K-Pop Demon Hunters, which was pretty fun and Leah was also watching the Seahawks win!)  But we never heard any news about Blaze, so we loaded up every rain jacket we could find and wrapped Camille's foot in plastic (since she was still wearing a boot for her broken toe) and headed out, fingers crossed that it might be fun and not terrible.  And it was awesome!!!  Not only was it NOT canceled, it barely rained while we were there (it was just picking up as we left, in fact) and Blaze (as I'd heard!) was so cool!  AND double bonus-- because of the storm predictions, there weren't too many people!  Jackpot!!!

We lost Brian for this shot!  But we've got everyone else, at least!  Those are all carved pumpkins making the sign behind us

Us Seattle-ites have to get excited about a kraken!  (This was in a lake with steam rising up all around it!)

They had different themed sections.  This one was mostly farm stuff and featured a moving windmill!

Ryder still likes pigs!

And Camille likes horses!  (I liked those sunflowers!)

There was a whole row that had various Celtic knots!

And I just thought this blue pumpkin was so pretty with all its intricate carvings!

Did I already say Welcome to New York?

Seriously, how cool is this???

Zodiac signs for our two pisces!

The Emerald City from The Wizard of Oz!

I think these dinosaurs were my favorite!

Another water-themed zodiac sign

And for the big finish, this amazing Headless Horseman!!!

So yes, we really enjoyed Blaze!  And I was so glad the storm held off for us!

Once we got home, Brian whipped up several dinners for everyone's dietary needs (spaghetti and meatballs for us, vegetarian for Leah, pizza for Theo, and non-acidic for himself) and we stayed up late watching the Mariners beat the Blue Jays in their first game of the playoffs!  It was a very happy day!  When I was finally turning off my light, I could just barely hear Ryder and Eliot still up talking and it just made me so happy that they got to spend some quality time together.  Cousins are the best!

The next morning we packed up and headed home!  Leah had zoom meetings so we were anxious to get out of her hair before those started, and I needed to get back in time for choir.  Considering all the major cities we were going through, the traffic wasn't too horrendous, and once we got on the express lanes around DC we were able to zip on home.  Yay for always being a carpool!

I was so glad we were able to have such a fun time with the Maddens!