NYC!

The end of July Derrick had to travel to New York City for work and asked if I wanted to come as an early anniversary trip. Um…YES! My good friend Ann and our awesome babysitter Ashley took over and watched the girls while were were gone from Saturday to Wednesday. I knew they were in great hands and having a blast so I didn’t worry one little bit while we were gone. Nor did I really miss them…does that make me a bad mom?? I was happy to see them when we got back if that makes a difference. :)

Derrick and I would have all of Saturday and Sunday together and then he had to work Monday through Wednesday. When I found out I was going I started making a list of all the places I wanted to. All the places I saw on Martha Stewart, Food Network, wherever. We pretty much ate our way through the city, and it was divine. Seriously, it was so much fun, and so great to be able to spend those days with just Derrick. We had a great time.

We saw two shows, Mary Poppins and Rock of Ages. Mary Poppins was cute and fun, although we could have used some subtitles at times…those British accents can get a little tricky up in the mezzanine! We had amazing seats for Rock of Ages and was such a great show. So much fun, such great music, just a really cool show. A little more crass than I was expecting, but I really had no idea what it was about to begin with. We loved every minute of it. Now we gotta watch the movie!

We saw the new 9/11 Memorial which was very cool. Definitely worth the trip downtown. We took a 3 hour cruise around the island, which was one of my favorite things that we did. We had great views of the island and learned a lot from the tour guide. It was a gorgeous day when we went and was just so fun. I highly recommend it—and only like $28 for a 3 hour tour! That’s a bargain!We got to see our friends the Gardner’s, which is always a treat. We ate at the Shake Shack with them, and oh man, so freaking good. I could have eaten there every day. We also got to see our friend Chong, who used to work with Derrick at Kohl’s. We ate at Il Cortile in Little Italy with him where I had the tastiest lobster raviolis. Mmmm. Followed by gelato. Mmmmmmm. Luckily for our waistlines, we did a ton of walking. How can you not in the city? One day while Derrick was working I took a 3 hour walking food tour through Greenwich Village. Probably my favorite part of the trip. We went to 8 different restaurants in the village and sampled different types of food including cheeses, meatballs, cookies, 3 different kinds of pizza, and a cannoli. I made friends with another lady who was there solo and we became each others new BFF. We had a great time eating and walking and I loved everything I ate. Except for the olive. Still can’t do olives. I did some shopping on Canal St. and scored some new purses and some jewelry. I got to see Mood Fabrics, Eataly, Purl Soho, the Highline Park, take a picture with Tim Dekay, who was on location shooting for White Collar, and walk RIGHT past Snoop on the sidewalk. Not too shabby! I got cookies at Levain’s Bakery, which might possibly be the most delicious cookie I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. And at $4 a cookie, it better be! We got donuts at the Doughnut Plant, which were heavenly. The PB&J donut was to die for. Milwaukee really needs some better donut joints. We ate at Peter Luger’s, a well known steak place in Brooklyn. An amazing meal. I had sliced tomatoes that tasted like no other tomatoes I’ve ever had. I hate tomatoes, but I ate an entire slice by itself. I think if all tomatoes tasted like that I’d probably like them! And they have a bacon appetizer…..man. I could probably do a blog post just on the food. Maybe I should. And I need some new adjectives besides “amazing”.

I loved every minute of this trip. I am way more of a city girl than a country girl. Armed with my NFT and the NYC subway app I was all set to go wherever my heart desired. (Seriously, best app ever.)I know I’m leaving out so many fun details that I’m just not remembering anymore. I had a great time taking pictures though…so many great photo ops—I was in heaven. There’s already too many in this post but I have so many more, too. Oh well.

I sure hope this becomes an annual tradition. :)

Road Trip part three

The riveting conclusion!

We left Erie for Kirkland, Ohio where there are some LDS church history sites. We met the lovely Lindsey Green and her girls there and took a quick tour of some of the homes there. Our guides were a little over ambitious, even though we asked for the super abbreviated, we have 4 small kids, tour. Still, it was very interesting, especially the Newell K. Whitney store. We stopped by the Kirkland Temple but it was another 90 minute tour and we knew that was a no go with all 4 girls. So we walked around, snapped a few pictures and headed to the Green’s home.

That night we had dinner at Chick-fil-A (delicious!) and went to an Indians game. That was pretty fun, even if we were cramped in the smallest bleacher section and it smelled like sweaty balls all around us. And no, not baseballs. The girls got Dippin Dots so they were happy. And really, so was I. The next day while Casey slaved away at his new job, we went to the Christmas Story house and museum. This was really cool…you could walk through the house and check things out and touch things. The 15 minutes of guided narrative at the beginning was torture though…our girls were seriously animals. But then we got to pose with the leg lamp, the bb gun, and Derrick even got to try on the bunny suit and come down the stairs. Hilarious. That night we went to a great burger restaurant owned by Michael Symon called B Spot. I had the gyro burger which was amazing and a vanilla bean, apple pie and BACON milkshake. Divine. The girls both played on the iPad and iPhone (which I am completely against while at restaurants—but I made an exception) plus we fed them beforehand, so we had a nice pleasant meal. We had a great time with Casey and Lindsey, as we always do, playing games and just chatting. We sure do miss them here in Milwaukee! We left for home on Saturday, making a pit stop in Chicago to stop by one of our favorite movie scenes.Overall, it was a really great trip. The girls are at great ages for road tripping. The key is plenty of snacks, books on CD, dollar store surprises, gummy bears, and lots of movies loaded on the iPad. We had tons of fun, and I’ll remember our little family vacation for a long time.

Road Trip part two

5 weeks later, here it is!

We stayed in Erie, PA with my grandparents through the fourth of July. We hit up the Erie Zoo (which we got in free thanks to our zoo pass) with my grandma my aunt and some of my cousins and their kids. It was really fun, and my kids got along well with their other 2nd cousins. It was cute to watch them. That night we went down to the peninsula and got orange sherbet cones at Sara’s, one of my most favorite places on earth. Their orange-vanilla swirl cones are to die for. The girls devoured theirs, as did we. After our treat we drove around the peninsula and walked on the beach for a few minutes. There was a gorgeous sunset and the girls loved running in the lake up to their knees.

Tuesday the four of us headed to Pittsburg to check out the sights. Our first stop was PNC Park, where the Pirates play. We took a 90 minute tour of the park. Our kids lasted 1 of those minutes before going completely spastic. Thanks to iPhones and the endless videos and apps we have they lasted a couple more minutes. Unfortunately, we would make the mistake of taking our kids on TWO more guided tours before the end of our trip. Don’t worry, the lesson has definitely been learned by now. But the ballpark tour was pretty cool, and Derrick liked it a lot.

Next we hit up the Children’s Museum. Two words: Awe. Some. They have a bunch of props and artifacts from Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, including the tree, the trolley, the castle, the puppets, his sweater, and his shoes. And to top it off, they were doing a special program that day hosted by none other than MR. MCFEELY!!!! And I got to take a picture with him!!!! It was amazing. I watched that show all the time when I was a kid. The museum also had a Wizard of Oz exhibit which Summer loved, since she is kind of obsessed with the movie right now. It was a really fun and interesting museum, and the kids absolutely loved it. Especially the entire floor dedicated to water play. A definite highlight of the trip.

Afterwards we went to dinner at Primanti Brothers, which we were told was a must. They have sandwiches with french fries and cole slaw ON them, and they were pretty good. Then we went on the Mt. Washington Incline—a steep little gondola type ride up the bluffs along the river. The view was amazing from the top, and the kids liked the ride. It was a really long day and the kids were totally wiped out. Unfortunately, Hannah’s pacifier broke as we were getting in the car to go home so she didn’t sleep a wink on the 2 hour drive home, and cried instead. Which meant Summer didn’t sleep either. And then we drove home in a torrential downpour. I laugh about it now but I wanted to kill myself then.

Wednesday was the Fourth of July which means parades! My grandpa restores antique cars and we got to drive his ‘66 Mustang convertible in a little parade in a neighboring town. It was hotter than blazes that day and with the top down we were a hot sweaty mess. The girls loved riding with the top down and put their hands in the air like on a roller coaster. And then they passed out. But they loved throwing candy to the crowd and had the time of their lives. We ended the day with a barbecue with family and some sparklers and called it a night.

    We left the next day for Cleveland, which will be in the next post!