Likely to be Lost in LaLa Land: New York, New York

Wow, am I behind or what?! Life has been so busy but on top of that our computer crashed... not once... not twice... but three times!! We lost everything but THANKFULLY I backed up all our photos to my phone. 7,000 photos roughly saved... like I said, thankfully! So many memories would have been lost! Our next purchase was an external hard drive to save these important things.

Anyway, June 2-9 was our trip to New York!! Before we even left Salt Lake airport, Adi met her first famous person... Faizon Love (best known for Couple's Retreat, Elf, Blue Crush, and Bruce the Bear in Zookeeper).

Mama, Adi and Faizon at SLC Airport

We were so nervous about taking Adi on a plane at just two months old... we didn't want to be "those" people with the screaming child the whole flight. She did AMAZING though! She slept pretty much the entire flight and didn't cry more than 30 seconds the whole time. We are so lucky!!

Adi slept almost the entire flight!

Landing in New York! It was so late, baby was sleeping!

We got in at about midnight and then had to wait for a very clueless car service to get us to our friend's Ali and Dave's apartment. We didn't arrive until 1:30 and went to bed close to 2 am. Poor A's sleep schedule was a bit messed up!

Welcoming view!

When we finally DID get to Ali and Dave's we were welcomed by the most AMAZING view of the city. They have the iconic view people would die for and a HUGE deck to enjoy it on!

This was the view out our bedroom window when we woke up in the morning, WOW!!!

Mommy with A

Daddy with A

After lots of picture taking of the amazing view, apartment and deck we had a New York bakery style breakfast. Delicious! Then we set out to walk the Brooklyn Bridge into the city to start exploring!

Brooklyn Bridge Walk

First we found the Hershey's Factory with Adi sized bottles of syrup... it was too funny not to take a picture. Ben was not amused with me but oh well.

Adi size!

Next we went to time square and met the Naked Cowboy. He sang to me... I think he liked me :)

Naked Cowboy

Us in Time Square

We took one of those tour buses to ride around the city and see everything and make a game plan for the week. There's just so much to see and do! We saw some amazing things as we drove around the city. One of our favorites was the Flat Iron building... pretty awesome to see.

Flat Iron Building

The Next Day was really rainy so we took our tour bus around for a second day, but took shelter below deck and made it a museum day. Here's one shot we took while the rain was sort of taking a break on the evening Brooklyn tour.

Rainy evening in Brooklyn, looking back at the city

The next day was an incredibly busy one looking back at all the pictures! First we went back to the heart of the city to go to Ali's dress fitting (well I did that, Ben and Adi had no real interest in dresses). We saw Saint Patrick's Cathedral while we were waiting to go into Saks.

Outside the Cathedral

After the dress fitting we went to Rockefeller Center and went to the "Top of the Rock". The views were incredible!!

Looking at the Empire State Building from Rockefeller

Us at the Top of the Rock (Adi was on Ben's belly most of the trip)

Ben and A

After the Rockefeller Center we stumbled upon a Lego Store and of course had to go in for Ben! We had some fun photo opps in the store.

Ben feeding A to the giant dragon that wrapped around the store. She wasn't pleased.

The "Big Apple". Get it?

We did more wandering but this post is going to get waaaaay to long so I'll shorten things a bit. But I have to include our stop to FAO Schwartz. While Adi wasn't big enough to play the giant piano yet, I did find her next big present... holy race car anyone?

Ferrari! Yes please!!

Next stop: (The main point for our journey across country) Yankee Stadium!!! The Yankees were starting a three game series against the Tampa Bay Rays. We originally booked so I could see Johnny Damon... stupid Ray's didn't pick him up again this year. Oh well, still an amazing set of games.

They might as well have Pearly Gates

Batting Practice

A did so great watching the games!! She attracted quite a bit of attention in her adorable hat.

First Yankee Game!

Ben packed on some poundage! (About 10.5 to be exact)

Yankee's won the first game. It was a blast!
The next day we went to the Natural History Museum. It was fun to wander around. A slept through a lot of it but had wide eyes at the giant animal and dinosaur exhibits. See size matters.

Outside the Natural History Museum

Next, we went to Central Park and wandered around for quite a while. What an amazing calm in the middle of the biggest city in America! It was beautiful and so great to see.

Ben and his bundle all shaded up

Crazy to be in such a calm place and see the city

After Central Park was Yankee Game number 2!! Of course the Yanks pulled out another win for us! They had several home runs in both games we watched. We also went to the Yankee Museum inside the stadium. We saw some incredible famous signatures including Babe, Mickey, Jeter and of course my FAVORITE Johnny Damon!!

Pre game: Us at the last game we went to

The next day was our super American-Patriotic Day. We went to the Police Museum. It was really amazing to see all the history in such an amazing city through the eyes of the Boys in Blue.

Adi's first (and last!) mug shot!!

Next we went to see the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island. We also went to Ellis Island but I'm not including any pictures of that.

Liberty Ferry view

With our amazing friends (and Adi's god-parents) Drew and Kristi

Last stop of the day was the 9/11 Memorial Site. What an incredible experience. The museum was very moving and sad to see but I'm so happy we went. The waterfalls they made are beautiful.

Our last day was probably my favorite because it was so relaxed and fun! We slept in and then rode the subway into the city to Grand Central Station. It was really fun to see this very active and busy terminal in motion! We ate at the amazing Juniors so we could have their AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING cheesecake. It was, well, AMAZING!

After that we wandered around a park in Brooklyn near Ali and Dave's apartment. We napped and hung out until our gracious hosts got home from work. Then we took Ali and Dave to the famous pizza place Grimaldi's for dinner. Having beer and pizza with two incredible people was such a great way to top off the vacation! We took a scenic walk back to their apartment and couldn't help but take a bundle of pictures while the sun was setting. It was such an awesome evening!

Wandering back home we saw this guy making HUGE bubbles

Me with our awesome hostess Ali!

Little Family with the New York setting sun!

See the building in front of Ben and Adi... with the lights strung on the balcony. Yeah, that's Ali and Dave's apartment where we stayed. It is a miracle I got Ben off their deck at all. It was so fabulous.