Two for One
Today, you all get a two for one since I'm two weeks behind on updating my blog. I did start a post for last week but completely forgot to finish it and post it before heading off on my NYC excursion. So now you get two whole weeks of updates! Lucky you ;)
Miss Penny is 21 weeks today and will be 5 months old on Thursday! Can someone please tell me where the last 5 months went? I seemed to have lost them...
Two weekends ago was a fun, but busy weekend. The girls and I made a trip to Mississippi with Reesee to celebrate my cousin's wedding. We got to see family that we only get to see once or twice a year and they were all smitten with Miss P! Emma, of course, was the entertainment for everyone all weekend lol! Both girls did great with the rehearsal dinner Friday night and the wedding on Saturday. Emma had a blast dancing at both! That girl loves to dance! She was excited to get to see and play with her cousin, Mary Frances, or as she called her "Mary Princess". She got her second busted lip of her life when she face planted on the ramp in the fellowship hall at the church, but I think her pride was hurt more than anything. She wanted to keep up with Rook and Jackson and Mary Frances so badly! Poor girl is just so little ;)
Rory didn't accompany us so he got a nice quiet weekend to prepare for the NYC weekend that was coming up. He got to have some guy time and went to see Rodney Carrington at the Stardome Friday night and then golfing and video games all day Saturday. He says he missed us (and I don't doubt he did) but Penny made sure she made up for lost time and spit up on him twice within the first couple hours that we were back home! : / I was going to brag to him about how good she was doing with not spitting up a lot all weekend, but after that, I decided it was better not to say anything lol!
In milestone news, Penny is now a pro at rolling from her stomach to her back...in her crib, at night. She also army crawls up to the corner of her crib and curls up in a little ball to sleep. It's the cutest thing! This also means, though, that when she spits her paci out, 9 times out of 10, it falls through the bars and either under her crib or under her rocker. Trying to find a paci that falls out of a crib in broad daylight is hard enough. Trying to find a paci in the middle of the night with a baby screaming for it is near impossible. She has started babbling so much more and tries to blow bubbles now. I remember this as the age that Emma really started showing her personality and Penny has started to as well! She loves to grin at people and loves to have people talk to her. She LOVES her big sister too! I can't wait to see them continue to interact as they get older.
Now on to this past week! Tuesday was spent celebrating the 4th with my parents and brother and SIL. We grilled out (between thunderstorms) and played some games in the dark after the power went out. Thankfully, the power wasn't out super long and came on just as it was getting a tad warm in the house from no AC. I was slowly packing things over a span of a few days so I wouldn't get overwhelmed on Wednesday and have to stay up really late packing, or so I had planned. I still ended up staying up late getting the girl's things ready for Thursday since I didn't want to have to try and put everything together at 3 am before I left. I did get about 4 hours of sleep and the rest of the energy I can only credit to my excitement and anticipation of NYC. Poor Rory had to wake up with me and take me to meet the girls at 3:45 am because my parents' car battery was dead :/ I did try to make it so no one would have to wake up besides me, but that's how life goes. Our flights were surprisingly quick and we actually made it to JFK earlier than we expected.
Once we made it to NY, I had my first Uber ride to the hotel and then we were off to explore the city! Thankfully, our room was ready shortly after we arrived at the hotel so we were able to take our bags up after only having to wait a little while. Since we were staying only a few blocks from Time Square, we hit that first to give Jennifer her first real look at NYC.
We had a nice lunch at Juniors and then made our way to Rockefeller Center to do Top of the Rock. We then took a stroll down 5th Ave. Tiffany's was just as awesome as I remembered and we were even around Trump tower when all the craziness of that guy trying to get in to stab Ivanka was going on! We didn't see anything actually happen but there was definitely an increased presence of police and secret service, so my guess was that it probably just happened.
After the play, we were all so exhausted we were delirious! It was only 10 pm Alabama time, but after having been up since about 3 am, we were ready to crash! We went ahead and bought tickets to the 9/11 memorial for 12 pm on Friday so that gave us plenty of time to get ready the next morning. My body was still on Alabama time and after waking up at the same time EVERY morning for the last while, I was wide awake at 7 am. I felt pretty rested though and was ready to see the memorial! We were a little late getting to the museum after taking a couple wrong turns, but we made it and it was well worth it! The museum was incredible! I had been to the small one they made at the fire station across from Ground Zero six years ago. This one had all of the artifacts plus some! The museum is actually in the basement of the original twin towers. It's under the current reflecting pools that are built in the exact spots that the towers stood. It was humbling, to say the least. Seeing how massive and well built these buildings were and all of the plotting and planning that those terrorists did to bring them down was mind-blowing. It definitely freaked me out to see just what all went into the planning of the attacks and the utter devastation that followed. I couldn't help but remember that day. 9th grade. History class when the first tower was hit, and my history teacher was giving a test and said that nothing was going to interrupt it (even though the principle had come over the intercom to instruct them to turn on the TVs). I didn't see what was happening until 2nd block in math. From there, we did absolutely nothing the rest of the day but watch the TV. I didn't see the second tower get hit, but I did see the first tower fall. It was like watching a movie. It didn't feel real. Everything felt broken for a while after that. It was kind of like when you get punched and you're so stunned that you just stand there wondering "what happened?" and it takes you a while to get back on your feet. It was scary to think about the fact that these men were glad to die for their cause. Nothing would have deterred them and a threat of death would have meant nothing but honor to them. It's truly eye opening just what power misplaced zeal and faith can have.
From there, it was a delicious lunch at Shake Shack and a visit to Battery Park. I didn't get pictures at Battery Park because it was so hot, but I got a super cute dress at a small street market that was set up and some of the BEST chocolate ever at Max Brenner! Seriously, if you're in New York, you HAVE to stop by there! We then decided to have a fun dinner at the Rock Center Cafe at Rockefeller Plaza. We wanted to eat outside in front of the fountain, but it had apparently just rained and they were having to do some major clean up. The inside was beautiful too so we settled with that. It was another full day of fun!
Miss Penny is 21 weeks today and will be 5 months old on Thursday! Can someone please tell me where the last 5 months went? I seemed to have lost them...
Two weekends ago was a fun, but busy weekend. The girls and I made a trip to Mississippi with Reesee to celebrate my cousin's wedding. We got to see family that we only get to see once or twice a year and they were all smitten with Miss P! Emma, of course, was the entertainment for everyone all weekend lol! Both girls did great with the rehearsal dinner Friday night and the wedding on Saturday. Emma had a blast dancing at both! That girl loves to dance! She was excited to get to see and play with her cousin, Mary Frances, or as she called her "Mary Princess". She got her second busted lip of her life when she face planted on the ramp in the fellowship hall at the church, but I think her pride was hurt more than anything. She wanted to keep up with Rook and Jackson and Mary Frances so badly! Poor girl is just so little ;)
Reesee bought her a new dress for the rehearsal dinner. It's now our new "Princess" dress ;)
Dancing with baby sister
My adorable grandparents! Don't they look snazzy!
My wedding dates :)
Love my girls!
Emma and Mary Frances dancing with Paw
Rory didn't accompany us so he got a nice quiet weekend to prepare for the NYC weekend that was coming up. He got to have some guy time and went to see Rodney Carrington at the Stardome Friday night and then golfing and video games all day Saturday. He says he missed us (and I don't doubt he did) but Penny made sure she made up for lost time and spit up on him twice within the first couple hours that we were back home! : / I was going to brag to him about how good she was doing with not spitting up a lot all weekend, but after that, I decided it was better not to say anything lol!
In milestone news, Penny is now a pro at rolling from her stomach to her back...in her crib, at night. She also army crawls up to the corner of her crib and curls up in a little ball to sleep. It's the cutest thing! This also means, though, that when she spits her paci out, 9 times out of 10, it falls through the bars and either under her crib or under her rocker. Trying to find a paci that falls out of a crib in broad daylight is hard enough. Trying to find a paci in the middle of the night with a baby screaming for it is near impossible. She has started babbling so much more and tries to blow bubbles now. I remember this as the age that Emma really started showing her personality and Penny has started to as well! She loves to grin at people and loves to have people talk to her. She LOVES her big sister too! I can't wait to see them continue to interact as they get older.
Now on to this past week! Tuesday was spent celebrating the 4th with my parents and brother and SIL. We grilled out (between thunderstorms) and played some games in the dark after the power went out. Thankfully, the power wasn't out super long and came on just as it was getting a tad warm in the house from no AC. I was slowly packing things over a span of a few days so I wouldn't get overwhelmed on Wednesday and have to stay up really late packing, or so I had planned. I still ended up staying up late getting the girl's things ready for Thursday since I didn't want to have to try and put everything together at 3 am before I left. I did get about 4 hours of sleep and the rest of the energy I can only credit to my excitement and anticipation of NYC. Poor Rory had to wake up with me and take me to meet the girls at 3:45 am because my parents' car battery was dead :/ I did try to make it so no one would have to wake up besides me, but that's how life goes. Our flights were surprisingly quick and we actually made it to JFK earlier than we expected.
Once we made it to NY, I had my first Uber ride to the hotel and then we were off to explore the city! Thankfully, our room was ready shortly after we arrived at the hotel so we were able to take our bags up after only having to wait a little while. Since we were staying only a few blocks from Time Square, we hit that first to give Jennifer her first real look at NYC.
We had a nice lunch at Juniors and then made our way to Rockefeller Center to do Top of the Rock. We then took a stroll down 5th Ave. Tiffany's was just as awesome as I remembered and we were even around Trump tower when all the craziness of that guy trying to get in to stab Ivanka was going on! We didn't see anything actually happen but there was definitely an increased presence of police and secret service, so my guess was that it probably just happened.
The Empire State Building
Radio City Music Hall
Top of the Rock - looking at Central Park
Hello Jersey!
Empire State Building, and WAY in the background, you can see the World Trade Tower
Downtown!
The super tall, skinny building is newly built condos!
The Chrysler Building (behind the MetLife Building)
Time Square is in there somewhere :)
I forgot my sunglasses :(
30 Rock!
I think this was St. Paul's Cathedral?
Beautiful!
Jewelry anyone?
We headed back to the hotel after sightseeing so that we could rest and get ready for Broadway! We saw the Phantom of the Opera, and let me just say, plays are so much better than movies! Don't get me wrong - Gerard Butler will forever be my favorite Phantom and Emmy Rossum is definitely uber talented, but there's just something about seeing an actual play ON BROADWAY! My experience was great, but it definitely would have been better had it not been for the rustling M&M bag and the constant audio translator that was turned all the way up behind us. I did tear up a few times taking in the whole experience and I would totally do it again! Next time, I'm thinking the Lion King ;)
It was raining when we got there, but it didn't last long :)
A couple of the original iron arches from the towers
A picture of the morning of
A map showing the flight paths each of the four planes took
Stories from around the world of where everyone was when it happened
The original supports
This was some of the steel from the 93rd-99th floors of the south tower, where the plane hit
After both towers had fallen
This is a mosaic of pieces of paper trying to depict the color of the sky on that day, one for each of the victims.
More mangled steel from the towers
The original supports in the basement
One of the fire trucks that was parked below the towers to help in the rescue effort
You can see my name right above Tennessee!
One of the hundreds of quotes along the walls
One of the reflecting pools
Definitely a trip to remember!
After the museum, we walked back through the Oculus (almost like a mall, that connects the metro to the larger commuter trains). They had an exhibit of the Sistine Chapel in the center while we were there. It looked very cool! Just another place on my bucket list that I'd like to visit for real ;)
Yum!
Federal Hall
The most delicious chocolate you will ever put in your mouth!
Saturday was our Central Park day. We decided to rent bikes and ride through the park, which was a blast! We rode through just a little bit before running into the boat house and decided to rent a row boat and row through a little more of the park. We were talking about how cool it was to see all these places that we've seen in movies. I love 27 Dresses and the boat house looked just like it did in that movie! We also walked by the fountain that was in Enchanted, although no one burst out in song and dance lol! I also wanted to find the Balto statue since I'd watched it recently on Netflix and realized that it was a real statue!
Just a cool ride through Central Park
The Boat House
Row, row, row your boat
The fountain from 27 Dresses and Enchanted
Another view of the boat house and all the row boats
Balto!
Ever since the first trip to NYC six years ago, I've wanted to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. That trip was too cold and rainy to do it. Thankfully, I got to mark that off my list this time! We rode the metro over to Brooklyn and walked from that side back into Manhattan. It was amazing! We planned to do it at sunset so we could see the New York lights when we reached the other side. It was definitely worth it! It also helped that the temperature had dropped considerably so we weren't miserably hot! I would do it over and over again too!
Brooklyn!
Our adventure begins!
You had to make sure you were on the walking side or you would get straight run over by bikes!
View of the Manhattan Bridge
The lights are beginning to shine!
A view of uptown Manhattan
The cityscape
There were SO many people on the bridge!
I loved this!
We packed as much as we possibly could into our 2 1/2 days in NYC, and I don't regret a single thing! I'm already making a list for next time :)
Sunday was a full day of traveling back home that provided more excitement than our whole trip lol! We had to be up at 4:15 to get down to our Uber at 5 to get to the airport by 6 to catch our flight at 7:15. Saturday night was the beginning of the excitement when we called to get a couple extra towels for showers. We figured it would be better to get showers the night before so we could throw on clothes and get going. After waiting 10 minutes and getting no towels, we called down again to ask if one of us needed to come get them. They explained that their computer system had gone down so our ticket was never processed for extra towels. They entered it again and said they were on there way. After another 10 minutes and no towels, Jennifer decided to just go down and get the towels. Once she returned to the room, wouldn't you know the staff showed up with extra towels. At least we had plenty of towels! We finally got into bed after midnight and were rudely awoken at 3:45 am by our room phone ringing. Shockingly (and not funny at the time), they were calling to tell us that no one had answered the door to receive our extra towels that we had requested. Not kidding. We all got another 30 minute power nap before getting up for good. Once we were all packed and ready to go a little early, Monica went down to check us out and it was then that Jennifer realized she could find her wallet. We went through her bag and purse several times and ended up being locked out of our room because our cards had been deactivated. After getting another card, we searched the room high and low and weren't able to find anything. Monica and Julianne decided to go downstairs and return the extra room key and meet our Uber to explain what was going on while Jennifer and I ran the half block to the deli where she had bought a sandwich the night before (and the last place she remembered having her wallet). In true NYC fashion, the deli owner did not speak English well so didn't understand Jennifer when she asked if someone had turned in a wallet. He mistakenly thought she said "water" and kept pointing to the drink area. Jennifer just happened to look at the counter behind him and saw her wallet sitting there. Apparently, she had dropped it on her way out the night before and someone had picked it up and gave it to the deli owner. Thankfully, the deli is open 24 hours a day and she was able to get her wallet back! Then it was a mad dash back to the hotel to catch our ride. We were about three minutes too late. Our Uber driver had decided he couldn't wait and asked Monica to cancel the ride. I guess it was a blessing in disguise because Monica said the driver was very rude and we probably wouldn't have enjoyed the ride. Instead, there was a driver and SUV sitting right outside the hotel that offered us a ride to the airport. We were a little nervous because it was another company other than Uber (I want to say it was something that started with an S) but the driver didn't speak English well at all. Monica and I had our phones out watching where he was going and ready to text someone should he try to take us somewhere else. By the grace of God, we made it to the airport just fine and in 20 minutes flat! Security was a breeze and we were at our gate and ready to go almost 2 hours before our flight took off :)
I was so glad to be back home and even got a Sunday afternoon nap to boot! I missed my Rory and girls so bad but had so much fun! We've already talked about planning another girls trip soon, but for somewhere a little closer. It was definitely a much needed trip and I loved the conversations! I couldn't have asked for a better group of friends to go with!
My girls! Emma likes to dress herself these days. Notice the boots with shorts ;)
Now it's back to the grind and a look forward to another trip this weekend to Muscle Shoals for Garrett's 3rd birthday! I can't wait to see old friends and get to spend some time with the Agee's!
I hope everyone enjoy'd their 4th and has a great week! Stay cool!
God Bless!
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