New York City

I'm back from our girls trip to New York City! I figure I'll post everything and you can read what you feel like!

Favorites about New York: I love walking everywhere, the beautiful parks that you stumble upon every few blocks, my favorite LONDON food is in New York!, unbeatable shopping....even for a pregnant lady, & the energy that the city has. My only complaint was that it is pretty smelly as you walk around. I'm sure part of it is my enhanced sense of smell, but I gagged daily & finally just resorted to plugging my nose on some streets. :)

As you can see in some of the pictures, I "popped" while we were gone. My little boy definitely grew in the last week. Until last week, I truly didn't feel any different since becoming pregnant but I could defintely tell my belly was growing! I actually look pregnant now instead of just a little chubby. :)

Here's a little of what we did each day!

Day One

Laurel has lived in New York for over four years now and I finally made it out to see her! We got to Laurel's late the night before ~ she has such a cute apartment! It was fun to see where she lives. She took us out for the day & it was wonderful. We started with yummy waffles at a bakery just outside her building and then walked through BATTERY PARK, WAGNER PARK, along the water & by GROUND ZERO. We played with Avery at the parks which is always fun. She's such an adorable little girl. Then we took the subway up to the Shake Shack...a delicious "shack" in the middle of a park where we got great burgers, fries & shakes. I've heard a lot about the SHAKE SHACK so it was fun to finally go! Later in the afternoon we made our way back to Laurel's apartment & after a quick rest, Sam and I left to meet my mom at our hotel. We had a bite to eat and then walked around by our hotel. We stayed at the Omni Berkshire on Madison & 52nd Street....a perfect location to walk everywhere! We were all still in Pacific time so we had a hard time sleeping!

Day Two

We started the day with a fabulous brunch at NORMA'S. It's a little restaurant inside a hotel that my parents go to every time they are in NY. As we sat down, the waiter remembered my mom! They got to chatting and then he brought us the best fruit platter I've ever had as a "welcome to NY" from him. My mom and Sam were determined to find me some maternity clothes. We headed to Destination Maternity and on the way found another maternity store where I hit the jackpot. Great stuff for cheap! I was so excited! I was in desperate need of some clothes so it was great to end up with bags full! Who would have thought that the pregnant lady would have the best luck shopping?!? After a little shopping, we walked to the MUSEUM OF MODERN ART. Great museum! We had dinner at a cute deli & then we met Laurel at WICKED which was by far one of the best musicals I've ever seen! I absolutely loved it. There was a crowd of most likely theatre students so there was a lot of energy in the theatre which made it really fun! I have a feeling the Wicked CD will be in my car for a while.

Day Three

Today we headed down to SOHO first thing in the morning. We wanted to get some shopping in before we met my cousin, Elizabeth, for lunch. I haven't seen Elizabeth in years and years so it was great to be able to have lunch with her! Soho is such a charming area ~ cute shops and restaurants line the streets and it isn't quite as busy as other parts. We really enjoyed it. Today kind of turned in to a shopping day....our next stop was MACY'S which is the largest store in the world! It was absolutely enormous. The EMPIRE STATE BUILDING was around there so I got to see that. We also went to H&M where they had a kids/maternity section. The little boys clothes are adorable and super cheap! I couldn't resist. :) We had dinner at another deli and then walked to The Rockefeller Center where we did the "TOP OF THE ROCK". Instead of dealing with the crowds to go to the top of the Empire State Building, we went to the top of the Rockefeller Center which was really neat. We went at night so it was fun to see the city and the water at nighttime. It's such an amazing city!

Day Four

It was raining pretty hard this morning so we took a cab to the METROPOLITAN MUSEUM. The building itself was amazing...plus all of the art & sculptures inside. We tried to go to SERENDIPITY for lunch but we were too hungry to wait in the line so we ended up at a familiar place....California Pizza Kitchen. It was actually nice to see a familiar restaurant! We went to Bloomingdales & while my mom tried a bunch of stuff on, Sam & I went across the street to DYLAN'S CANDY BAR where we got a frozen hot chocolate...my new favorite treat. I am absolutely addicted it was so good! After a brief rest at the hotel, we went to a fun diner near our hotel. All of the waiters sing and dance & it had a great atmosphere. We walked down near Times Square to see MARY POPPINS, the musical. Another fabulous production! I absolutely loved it. The scene with Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was fantastic! Broadway is so great....we could have seen a show every night!

Day Five

We started out the day shopping in ROCKEFELLER CENTER. They have the biggest Anthropologie I've ever seen! We had lunch at Pret-a-Manger...one of my favorite sandwich places in London! It was a great surprise to see them in New York! We walked down to CENTRAL PARK which turned out to be one of my most favorite parts of the city. We walked through parts of it & then sat on a bench and relaxed & just enjoyed the scenery. There are ponds, baseball fields, volleyball courts, etc. I could spend every day there. We then took a taxi to one of the Piers where we took the CIRCLE LINE boat ride. It was a 3 hour boat ride around Manhattan Island. It was a little chilly but it was so cool. We went under countless bridges and it was neat to be able to see the island from the water and get a better idea of where everything is. With tall buildings absolutely everywhere you go, it was somewhat hard to figure out exactly where we were all the time so the boat ride really helped! We met Laurel, Brad & Avery at a cute little Italian restaurant in Soho for dinner. It was great to see them again. We managed to do some more shopping after dinner! We LOVE the endless SHOPPING! Wes is lucky I'm pregnant and couldn't buy anything in most stores. :)

Day Six

We went to a cute & popular restaurant today for breakfast called SARABETHS. The food was great and they had the best juice...."four flowered juice". We walked around.....back through central park.....before we went back to the hotel for a rest before we went to a matinee of BEAUTY ON THE BEAST on broadway. Loved this one too! The costumes were amazing. We grabbed dinner and then Sam went back to the hotel but my mom and I wanted to keep walking so we went through Central Park again. It was a perfect, beautiful evening in New York.

Day Seven

Today was all about the pregnant lady's cravings. :) We went back to NORMA'S this morning for breakfast. I had to have that fruit platter one more time before we left the city! We wanted to walk around since we had a long journey of sitting on a plane ahead of us. We walked over near Bloomingdales so I could have one more frozen hot chocolate from DYLAN'S CANDY BAR. We kind of did a lot of shopping so we had to buy a rather large suitcase to get all of our goodies home. We managed to find a reasonably priced duffle bag & so I carried the thing throughout NYC so we could get everything home! With delayed flights, our journey back across the country took over 12 hours but it was nice to get home! I love being on vacation but I always look forward to coming back home....especially this time so I could see Wes! I have to say that I think I have the best husband. He always does so much for me while I'm gone! Amongst many other things, he painted the nursery for me! We had discussed colors before I left and he went ahead and painted it so I could start getting it put together! What a nice surprise....thanks babe!

I had such a great time with my mom and Sam. We've never done anything like this before and I hope it's a tradition we will continue over the years! Ali wasn't able to join us on this trip so we hope we can do another girls trip soon so she can come!