ODE TO GRANDMA BROWN...the best babysitter!
Grandma Brown flew out from Chicago to Baltimore to babysit (or in her words "play") so we could celebrate our 5 Year Wedding Anniversary. In one of Logan's prayers he thanked God that Daddy and Mommy were leaving and that Grandma was coming to babysit. :0) This was the 1st time both of us left the kids overnight.
We stayed at Westin Hotel @ Times Square & loved having a home base right in Times Square. I have finally included a side shot of me for all of those who have been asking. I am at 25 weeks.
I would have to say one of the funniest, if not craziest, feelings I had right when we got there was leaving our car running and handing a key over to a stranger (valet parking) right in Times Square. Rich ended up staying there until he saw Valet get in the car since it was so busy. He just wanted to make sure the "right" person got in the car. I couldn't stop laughing as I was walking away from it.
After we checked in we walked through Times Square and were on our way to (Jenn's craving) a 4.5 star NYC Steak House. First, when the waitor brought us our menus I was holding in the biggest urge to laugh ever! Check out the SIZE of those menus. I mean, being pregnant you already feel big...but just leave it to an oversized menu to make you feel like a pig! :0) haha. It was so funny. At first I thought things were just overpriced since we were in NYC...but NO WAY!! This was we would have to say THE BEST steak we had ever eaten. HONESTLY! It was sooooo good! Of course, we had to have some NY Cheesecake. Afterall, you can't leave NY without it. YUM!! After dinner, we walked slowly towards the Gershwin Theater for our broadway show...WICKED!! We walked down down 5th avenue, past St.Patricks Cathedral (pic below) where the pope would be the next morning (lots of security guards).
Why the picture of a random NYC pigeon you say? Well I am putting it up in honor of my little sister Cindy. When we went to Chicago to watch Wicked, we almost ran into a bazillion pigeons with our car and the funny thing was, we both ducked our heads and tried to defend ourselves (even though we were in the car, with the windows closed) and just kept screaming and saying Ewwwww!! Yes, we are not the most bird loving people...to say the least.
Of course we had to walk by Tiffany's since that is the home of my wedding ring...HAHA!! There would be one item of jewerly in there equal to our student loan debt! It was so crazy. It was neat seeing the exact spot of Tiffany's though...I remember seeing it in Sweet Home Alabama. We only looked at the 1st floor of the store though. We also had to get a pic in front of David Letterman's show. We don't watch it at all, but what can we say, we are tourists!
Then we arrived to our final destination for the night.....WICKED!! I was soooooooooooo excited!
This was Rich's 2nd time seeing it, and my 4th time seeing it. I think it is just so hilarious, heartwarming and moving all at the same time! It was absolutely wonderful.
The pictures above is of NYC at 11:30pm at night. Every store was still open and the streets were crowded still. It felt like it was the middle of the day, besides the hour and it being dark outside. We stopped by a side store to buy some yummy "breakfast" pastries and orange juice so we could have breakfast in bed the next morning. It was the most delightful and awkward feeling...not only sleeping in...but not having kids waking up in the middle of the night or waking us up telling us it is morning time! We enjoyed every second of it. Of course, we could only sleep in until 8:30am. Aahhh...I remember the days when I was physically able to sleep in until 1pm.
The next day we woke up, had our breakfast in bed, got ready and headed out for our walk in Central Park. Along the way we saw the Statue of Liberty, as we had Rich take a picture with it. I am afraid that is as close as we got to seeing it. We wanted to save the day to see the real Statue of Liberty for when the kids are with us so they can experience it as well. I had to take a sit down break once we got to Central Park. I am a weakling when I am pregnant. Anyway...below are pictures of us stopped under a walk way in Central Park.
Again you are probably asking...not another animal picture. Well...this one is also an "in honor of" picture. Laney LOVES squirrels and stops in her path with eyes wide open everytime she sees one. We have a "pet" squirrel in our back patio area that we have named Marvin. She squeals or runs to get Logan to look at it everytime she sees it. So...in honor of our little Laney Lynn, we took a picture of the Central Park NYC Squirrel. :0)
It was nice being able to just hold hands together and talk and relax and just be with each other and have no worries for that weekend. Also it was different not to be chasing around the kids. But by this time, we were both starting to get excited to see Logan and Laney again. After our walk through Central Park, we headed back to the hotel to check out and drive back home.
Here is us at our ever so beloved...Applebee's when we got home. Grandma took these pictures otherwise there would be some of her in them as well. Laney LOVES the spinach artichoke dip. YUMM!! Thanks Grandma for watching the kids (they loved it and missed you when you left) and letting us celebrate having been married for 5 years already. We loved seeing you also!!
WELL THAT WAS OUR TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY IN A NUTSHELL!
