New York

 New York is awe-inspiring, crowded, loud and overwhelming, and I love every minute of it.  Although other people get tired of the chaos, I love to visit big cities and get right in the middle of the rush.  I would not want to raise my family there, however.  I honestly only saw a handful of kids during the entire time there.  I'll stick to my country living with space and friendly neighbors.

 

On Monday night we got the kids tucked into bed at Christine's house about 9:00 p.m.  I thought it would be easiest to take them all to her house for the first night so I wasn't interrupting too many bedtime routines.  After a few short hours of sleep, Ryan and I headed to the airport at 4:00 a.m. to catch our 6:00 flight.  We are super lucky with plane delays however, so our plane didn't even start boarding until 9:30.  I was feeling badly that I'd pawned my kids onto Christine the night before when I ended up still being in Kansas City.  At least we had a direct flight to NYC, so we landed in Laguardia airport at lunchtime.  We quickly caught a taxi and were at our hotel within 30 minutes.  We were stunned that the transportation was so easy, considering the news we'd been hearing about the subway system and streets since Hurricane Sandy hit the week before. 

 

Christine helped shuffle kids off to the many places they needed to be the next morning.  Brevan stayed with his friend, Tanner, who lives right by the Junior High.  Bryn and Lindsey stayed with the Napiers so they could ride the same bus to school (and spend time with some of their best friends).  Logan stayed with his friend, Thomas, who is also five and attends preschool with him.  I have AMAZING friends who are willing to help me out any time.  I hope they can say the same thing about me. 

 

I love flying into Laguardia, because the plane flies right over the Statue of Liberty and Staten Island before flying parallel to all of Manhattan Island.  It's an incredible sight to see from the sky.  It was especially fascinating to witness on the morning of a historic presidential election.  I was feeling so proud to be an American as I pondered my freedom to vote.

 

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island are pictured on the left side of this picture, next to the wing of the plane.



The Financial District

The Theater District and Times Square can be seen in the picture below, where there are tall buildings just to the left of Central Park.

I love the natural beauty of Central Park right in the middle of a sea of concrete buildings. Queens is pictured in the bottom half of the picture. 

After checking into our hotel, we headed outside to meet up with the other couples.  It was so convenient to stay in a hotel right in Times Square, which is right next to the Theater District.  Big lights, loss of noise, every ethnicity of food, all the shopping I could ever want, museums, and most importantly Broadway plays.  It's pure heaven.

The trip revolved around laughing with friends, food, shopping and Broadway.  The real reason for the trip was a business convention for the men, but they didn't do much work while we were there.  The day we arrived in NYC was election day, so we watched the updates on a few enormous jumbo-trons in Times Square.  CNN had live cameras and a stage set up for reporters, so we had up-to-the-minute results.  Anytime Obama would get more electoral votes the crowd would erupt in cheers.  When Romney collected more electoral votes we would cheer loudly, making many people give us dirty looks.  Besides the fact that I was really hoping Romney would win the nomination, it was fun to stick out in the crowd.  The friends we were with are very political, so they spoke to many people about the advantages/disadvantages of each candidate.  We had some people tell us we were only voting for Romney because we are white and our husbands are businessmen.  How offensive.  I also didn't like when people thought we were only voting for Romney because he's a Mormon.  From the beginning of the election, I have weighed the issues and never let religion persuade me one way or the other.  One black man walked up to Ryan, loudly claiming that he couldn't believe we would vote for Romney.  After the man ranted for several minutes, Ryan asked him why he chose to vote for Obama.  The man's reply was, "Oh I didn't vote."  We laughed so hard!

It was so fascinating to be right in New York on election night, and even though the election didn't go the way I was hoping, I don't think the country is going to hell in a handbasket.  Some of our friends are distraught over the results, but realistically there will be both positive and negative changes during every presidential term.  I also have many close friends who are breathing a sigh of relief since Obama will continue for one more term.  I'm just glad the political phone calls and commercials are done! 

On Wednesday morning the boys needed to attend their convention, so me, Stephanie, Sandi and Michele decided to be adventurous and hail a taxi to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  This was the day the nor'easter storm was making landfall in New York, so it made the day rather interesting.  The weather was fine on the way to the museum, but we got caught in the awful snow/rain/ice combination when we were done touring the museum and weren't able to get a taxi to take us back to the hotel.  So we started walking!  After about a half-hour of freezing and getting soaking wet, we were able to talk a bus driver into giving us a ride.  We didn't have the City Pass required to ride the bus, but the driver took pity on us.  I sat next to a man from Africa who has been working in NYC for 6 years while his wife and children are still in Africa.  He is hoping to have his Green Card by next year so he can travel to see them and hopefully bring them over to America.  I was already fascinated by his story before I asked where he was living now.  When he told me he lives on Staten Island, I asked about the condition of his home since the hurricane hit.  The stories he told about his entire neighborhood were devastating.  I was glad I had brought cash with me that day so I could hopefully send him on his way with a little more hope.  I considered volunteering with the Red Cross while in town, but the transportation to get to the destroyed areas was hard to come by.  One fireman suggested we hitch a ride on the back of his engine, but we didn't feel comfortable taking off without our husbands with no idea when we could return.

I took a lot of pictures inside The Met, but I decided not to include most of them here.  These fully decked-out soldiers and horses were quite a sight.  It reminded me of putting on the whole armor of God.

Crazy storm!  I took this picture of Stephanie while we were walking the busy streets back to our hotel.

Stephanie, Sandi (in the red pants) and Michelle (in the green coat).  All we could do is laugh at the situation!

After reaching the hotel, we changed clothes and blow-dried our boots before meeting up with the guys for the best dinner EVER, hands down, at Del Monico.  Then we walked to the Broadway theater showing Newsies.  I love, love, love Broadway plays - the music, choreography, scenery, atmosphere, everything.  Newsies did not disappoint, although it wasn't one of my favorite plays.  Poor Michele wasn't able to understand most of the play because she is legally deaf.

Steph and Nate - our roommates at the hotel.  We love hanging out with them!  Many inside jokes were created on this trip.  We laughed, cried, and ate chocolate until the wee hours of the morning.

Brian and Sandi

Jed and Michele

Thursday morning was gloomy, but at least it wasn't storming!  The boys had a meeting with the owners of Tax Club, which is on the 68th floor of the Empire State Building.  Our husbands are used to meetings with important clients in high-rises, but it was pretty amazing for us wives.  Can you imagine having this view outside your office window?!?  It was fun to sit in a business meeting and witness Corporate World Ryan. 

The office manager at Tax Club gave us an access pass to tour the building.  We were able to walk past everyone in line for top-floor elevators.  The site was even more incredible from the 102 floor!

We had delicious sushi for dinner that night before seeing Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.  Ryan and I saw the production 10 years ago when in New York City, but it was much better this time because we knew the storyline and music.  Ryan got teary-eyed many times and has been listening to the Phantom music since we got home.  We have become a Broadway family.

Yes, Ryan is trying to lick me while I'm cuddling him.  Dork.

Brian photo-bombed a picture I was taking while seated in the theater.  I had to stand up for much of the performance because my back was killing me from sitting on the plane a couple days earlier.  My back issues are quickly becoming my biggest annoyance.

On Friday we did more shopping, relaxing, saw the newest James Bond movie in the theater, and packed up to head home. Pictured below, Ryan and Nate liked to stop at food carts to get "appetizers" before we all went out to eat.  The guy serving them this day was wearing a shirt that said, "World's Best Daddy."  He told us all about his cute kids. 

Superheroes are seen all over town.  I'm glad they are keeping the streets of NYC safe.  :)

I will miss the crazy streets of NYC, where road rules are completely ignored.

We had a fairly un-eventful flight home, besides the fact that I had intense back pain even though I was on strong painkillers.  We were so excited to get home and see our kids!  After lots of  hugs and kisses, I told Ryan I wasn't feeling well so he tucked the kids into bed.  It didn't take long for me to realize I had gotten food poisoning from a suspicious hamburger in the NYC airport.  It was a LONG night, followed by a LONG Saturday. 

I'm so grateful for everyone who made this trip possible!  It was so fun to explore the big city while bonding with my husband and friends!