Hot Time! Summer in the City! (Day 1--July 2, 2009)

Our good friend, Steve, is from Long Island, NY and he and his wife, Robyn, invited us to join them on a road trip to LI and NYC. We couldn't turn down an offer like that! So on Thursday, July 2, we loaded up their SUV and made the 14-hour trip to NY. We left at 4:00 pm and drove through the night. The kids did incredibly well. They watched DVDs for most of the trip. (THANK GOODNESS for modern technology! I'm not sure how we would've survived that trip without the DVD player.)

The best part of the drive (well, okay, not the best at the time, but now it's definitely the funniest) happened at a rest area in New Jersey at 3:30 in the morning. We stopped to use the bathroom and to take a little nap. The kids had been asleep since 10:00ish, so I stayed in the car while Steve, Aaron and Robyn went inside. After a few minutes, Robyn came out so I opened the door to let her back in the car. Big mistake! It set the alarm off. At 3:30 AM. In a parking lot full of sleeping travelers. In a car with my two sleeping kiddos. And we didn't have the keys to turn the obnoxious noise off.

To make matters worse, Aaron and Steve were inside waiting for Robyn to come out, so they didn't hear the alarm going off. And since they didn't know Robyn was already outside, they waited for a long time. Thankfully they came out after a few hours, I mean, minutes and turned the alarm off. We got out of that rest stop as quickly as possible!

We drove for about an hour and then stopped at another rest stop for Steve, our dedicated driver, to take a nap. Needless to say, Maddie and Wesley were WIDE awake at this point and they didn't show any signs of going back to sleep. I decided to get them out and take them into Burger King. I couldn't find Wesley's shoes in all of the back-seat craziness and I didn't want to turn on the light to find them, so I just carried him inside and let him run around. I definitely deserved White Trash Mother-of-the-Year Award for letting my two-year run around barefoot in a nasty rest stop Burger King at 4:30 in the morning!

After a pitstop in Pennsylvania for showers at Steve's sister's place, we got back in the car and headed into the city. The boys were going to the Yankees game and the girls were going into the city. We were super excited!

Our first stop was Central Park. We just walked around, enjoying the sites and sounds. I love the busyness of the city, and Central Park is a great place to take it all in!

Taking a break
I'm pretty sure this is in front of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Resevoir

Maddie & Robyn in front of The Guggenheimon the steps of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
(Someday I'll actually go into the museums!)

Maddie & Mom on the subway

With the FAO Shwarz soldier
(This store was HUGE and overpriced but fun to look at!)

Street performers

Maddie, in front of The Plaza

Times Square!
I know I'm crazy but I love this place. Lights, people, stores--it's all great!An old chocolate-making machine at the Hershey's Store

Maddie, in China Town

Maddie, the junk collector, wanted every cheap, chintzy souvenir she saw. I was able to convince her to save her (my) money and buy a cute charm bracelet in China Town. I couldn't believe what a difficult task that turned into! After almost an hour of searching, we finally found one.

Grand Central Station
Sorry the pictures are so crappy. My camera can't handle anything but normal lighting.

This is really amazing. I wish my camera was able to capture its grandness!

I have no idea who this girl is, but I love this picture.