Day 3 Times Square Toys R Us

Cam's "picture smile"



We went to the Toys R Us at Times Square to ride the indoor full size ferris wheel. While we waited we explored the store. Carson loved bowling with the Wii with the huge screen. We also saw Ironman and Spiderman.

Day 3 M & M Factory at Times Square

Definitely some cool shopping going on at Times Square. The streets and every store, were packed with people-Cam said all with tourists-"New Yorkers don't go there." We visited the M & M shop. Any merchandise you may have ever wanted that has to do with M &M's you could find there. Carson especially loved the M and M dispensers on the second and third floor and filled a large bag with colors you couldn't normally find. $22.00 later we purchased all the M and M's we could eat!

Day 4-Radio City Hall Christmas Spectacular Show

Monday, brought a trip to Radio City Hall, at the Rockefellar center. We saw the show "Radio City Christmas Spectacular" with the Rockettes. I think this was both my mom and I's favorite part of the entire trip. The show was great. Carson loved it and Hannah was pretty entertained as well. The show had amazing special effects and backgrounds. I can't put into words what we saw-it was amazing!





The theme of the show was mostly based around Santa and that aspect of Christams but I was pleasantly suprised at the ending. They performed the nativity story and read it from the bible, singing hymns we are all familiar with. It was a wonderful ending to a wonderful show.



The top pictures are from the Radio City Hall website, the bottom is my attempt at capturing the nativity scene at the end of the show.

Day 4 Rockefeller Center

We walked around Rockefeller Center and saw the Christmas tree. Maybe it is more impressive at night, because it looked pretty saggy and like it needed some water to perk it up a bit. It was surrounded by flags from many different countries and below it was an ice skating rink.



On our walk, we passed St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was so beautiful. Carson and I ran inside (in search of a bathroom) and I was amazed at the inside. It was breathtaking. Sorry mom, you didn't get to see it (she was guarding the toy purchases and Hannah).

Day 4

After the show we walked to F.A.O Schwarz. The coolest toy store on the planet. This huge toy store has three levels and many unique toys. It is also protected by this guard at all times.





We spent a few hours and spent a few $$$ at the toy store. :) Carson and Hannah played on the piano (you know the one from the movie BIG?). Carson picked out a treat for his school class-gummy peaches (they don't have those in Utah ;). Mom and I picked out two large bags of things we couldn't live with out. My favorite purchase was the Noah's ark set we got. It was interesting carrying the huge bags back to the hotel and riding with them on the subway.

Last Day...Airplane ride home

We got to the JFK Airport two and 1/2 hours early. Yuck... The entire drive there I was pestering Hannah trying to keep her awake so she would sleep on the airplane. No such luck, she fell asleep and had a 30 minute nap. Not to long, but Hannah likes cat naps and can wake up and be energized for hours so I was worried!

Also, our ride to the airport came to pick us up about 10 minutes early. We got a call in the apartment saying they were here and to hurry down. In our rush, I forgot the filled, ready to go, sippy cup in the fridge door. This was not good. Hannah LOVES her sippy cup, and although I am embarrassed to admit this, it is basically her pacifier. If she is upset, the sippy cup can always calm her down. It is also the secret to getting her to fall asleep easily. I was so scared to fly 5 hours home without the sippy! You really don't know how important that dang cup was to our happiness and the other passengers happiness!!!

When we got to the airport I went on a sippy cup hunt. I asked an employee if anywhere sold sippy cups. He said to me "What is a sippy cup?" Not good. We looked in a few stores and there was NO sippy cups to be found. I was having major anxiety at this point, imagining Hannah screaming the entire ride home. I gave up looking and bought a water bottle with a cap top hoping that it would be able to trick Hannah.

Trying to pass the time Carson and I went browsing again in the airport and I asked the store employee if they sold bottles or binkies (I was desperate!) and sure enough the had a bottle. I immediately bought it and hoped for the best. Now to clarify, Hannah has not had a bottle in over 7 months, when she did have a bottle it was very rarely, as I fed her with alternative methods. :) I wasn't sure the bottle would do the trick but luckily it did!! Yeah for bottles!! My mom said now I was just going to have to wean Hannah again for the next two months, but she hasn't seen the bottle since and hasn't missed it, so it was worth giving it back for peace on the plane!



Looking out the window for take off. I love this picture. SO cute.



This is how all airplane rides should be.

Last Day Continued

This isn' t very good...I don't know how to flip it the right direction or to make it not so dark. The picture is quite larte 16x20 done with charcoal. Click on it to make it bigger. You get the idea but the original is much lighter and far more beautiful.


Hannah and Carson posing...The artwork itself was $30.00 and the frame was $20.00

After Central Park we rode the subway back to Chambers Street and walked to Battery park. We had been there before and thought they had the best souvenier shops. We picked up a few things and also my favorite souvernir. There were multiple artists along the sidewalk-some wanting to paint your picture others selling artwork of some of the sights in NYC. Most of the artists did caricture pictures which I didn't really like. Who wants a picture of their kids with their mouth (or ears or nose..whatever feature they chose) distorted?? Not me. We found one artist who did "normal" (for lack of a better word) drawings and had him draw Hannah and Carson.

I was so impressed with him. He was very talented. He drew both kids in about fifteen minutes and it turned out pretty good I thought. It is by far my favorite keepsake.

December 9th-Our Last Day

We waited until 10:00 am for the Carousel to open and had our own private ride. That thing went about 90mph-I thought for sure the kids would be sick but they did fine!

Natural rock formations jutted out all over the park- they were very beautiful. Carson and I climbed all over them while Grandma and Hannah watched. Hannah wanted to be up there with us.

Hannah loving the swing.

We started with an early start on our last day to try and finish all we didn't get to see but still wanted too (and to finish shopping!) We woke early to say goodbye to Cam-thinking that we wouldn't see him before we left to fly home then we hopped on the subway to Central Park.

We were so early that Central park was pretty much a ghost town. We had fun walking around the park though and letting the kids play on the playground. Hannah loved the swing and giggled and laughed. I loved being able to let Hannah run free after basically being strapped in the stroller and unable to move because of all the coats and blankets!

The park was very pretty and a little Haven from the skyscrapers and the busy city. I talked to one mom there and she said that if we were there one hour later the park would be full of kids and their Nannies-not any mothers just the Nannies. That was a sobering thought. Who would rather have a Nanny raise their kids-over themselves? I guess that's the way they do it in NY but it is definitely not the way I would ever want to.