NYC part of our trip.

okay now off to NYC. i've already updated about ohio and connecticut..so our last part of our trip was to NYC.

i'll say i was nervous way before we left for our trip to go to nyc. as far as driving and such goes. yet i wasn't even the one driving. i'm a paranoid passenger and was worried i'd be bad for shaun. but god. i totally felt the peace of god during our entire trip, and even more so during the busy times of driving on our trip.

it was kind of rainy on our way down to nyc. and shaun just found a semi-truck to follow and stuck with him for most of the way. apparently it made him feel safer. whatever works!! and the semi pretty much went where we needed to go to nyc! (must be a god thing huh?)

as we got closer to the city you could sense the traffic coming. all those cars!! the highway going into the city was not bad at all. when you got off the highway? completely different story.

traffic was at a standstill. but that didn't stop others in the other lane wanting to get in your lane...they just went...even a huge limo!! who shaun was convinced held donald trump. lol. doesn't he have a helicopter!?! anyways. it literally took over an hour!! to get to our hotel, once we got off the highway.

the initial busy streets of nyc weren't anything compared to near our hotel...did i forget to mention we were on 32nd street?! just blocks from times square. just blocks from macy's on 34th? just blocks from pretty much everything.

but that also means. people. tons of people. in cars. in delivery trucks. in buses. on feet. everywhere!!

we had never ever been to nyc. we really didn't know what to 'prepare' for either i guess. but man...NO ONE can prepare you for the chaos!! lol. it literally is chaos. but a fun chaos...well fun once we found our hotel.

little did we know it'd take a whole long time to find it. our gps was annoying us. and shaun at one point almost hit 'home'. but we made it through. as we drove down 32nd street. we looked and looked for our hotel. our gps kept telling us to turn. but we knew we didn't have to turn. and then when it did want us to turn...we couldn't. or we missed it because the blocks are sometimes short ones. so we basically shut the gps off and PRAYED harder that we'd find our hotel.

shaun was getting stressed and he'll admit he yelled at me. then i sort of yelled at him for yelling at me. and broke down and started bawling. i started bawling even harder when all of a sudden instead of english...all we saw was korean! then i really just calmed down. prayed again. the tears stopped. and 'by chance' (which i believe is only god) i turned to the left. and saw it. a sign. that held our hotels name on it!! praise god.

but now our problem was this. parking!! the lady when i booked the hotel said it was right across the street. ummmm yeah, BEFORE the hotel. if you don't know where your hotel is...then you miss the parking. so we drove about three blocks down and found parking. we ended up spending 47/night parking there. but didn't care!! we were happy to be able to get out. the only issue with parking was that they parked the cars for you. so we had about five minutes to get our stuff out and we left so much in our van that we should've grabbed!!

shaun carried two huge duffels full of stuff. and pushed the single stroller with caitlyn in it. i carried the diaper bag. dustin on my back. shoved bags under the double stroller i pushed. and had amelya with a bag on her lap...

...did i mention it was raining!! we looked like drowned rats by the time we got to our hotel. but we were just happy to be there! the elevators were tiny. so we made it up in two trips. and when we got into our room. which was small...but nice...we literally just sat there. taking it all in.

one super cool part of our nyc trip was that i was able to visit with a friend from high school. she's an assistant designer for the clothing company dallin chase living in brooklyn and working in nyc. we met her at planet hollywood for supper our first night. it was fun to catch up with her. and planet hollywood was down in times square.

times square is SO cool. the lights are amazing. the amount of people in one area is amazing. it all is so amazing to see. the girls loved the lights. and even though it was raining still...they were such troopers. we had no choice but to walk. and walk we did!!

planet hollywood is a cool place to eat at as well. i had never eaten at one. the movie artifacts all around are neat to see! it was a little 'weird' to have a bathroom attendant though. i was like seriously?! i can get my own paper towel. lol. the girls loved eating and shaun even let us get dessert...

that's all we did on our first day in nyc.

our second day was great. we had prayed with the girls that it would not rain the next day. guess what?! even with rain in the forecast!! jesus made it not rain. and the coolest part...the girls noticed. as we stepped out of our hotel they said...look jesus made it not rain! it was so neat to see them realizing it!!

our first stop for the day was toys r us. the toys r us store was huge in nyc!! it has a ferris wheel in it and everything!! the girls just took it all in. dustin too. he was a trooper on my back in the ergo for most of the trip. but did take an occasional stroller ride inside stores that amelya walked in.

toys r us was fun. it was fun to take it all in. i rode with the girls on the ferris wheel. it was only four bucks a ticket, so nothing too major! and the girls loved all the themed cars. it was worth the money. and the fun.

after toys r us we got some lunch. we went to olive garden. yummy. even though we have those here. but it sounded good. and it was. i had chicken scampi. mmmm. i so want it again. ;0) we made sure to go to the bathroom while there though. my friend told us there are no public bathrooms and most places will make you buy something just to use theirs. ((good tip!!))

after eating we headed to the m&m store. it's crazy what they put m&m's on!! and the colors of m&m's on the wall were fun to see. we checked out the store and bought some m&m apparel. hats for the kiddos...it was cold, and we had left our hats in the van!!

after m&m we decided to walk down to central park. it was a bit of a hike, but we at least wanted to SEE it. it made me laugh when this guy giving cart rides on a bike asked if we wanted a ride...ummm...how did he plan on doing that with all of us!? lol. it would be fun to do when shaun and i go back by ourselves. a romantic ride around the park... so we found a mini playground and let the kiddos run and play for awhile. it was strange to see squirrels. but even stranger that they got so close to us!! it was crazy. it was also weird to see green trees and grass. we played for awhile, but really didn't venture too much into the park. mainly because we knew we had quite the hike back to our hotel! while at central park the girls enjoyed some college kid playing an instrument and we saw trump tower. maybe next time we'll stay there...lol...or not!

we stopped at a few stores on the way back to the hotel. mainly to get souvinier type things for everyone. because every needs an i heart NY shirt. :0) we also stopped at h&m. we don't have that store here, or anywhere close that i know of. the kids were tired by this point though so we didn't shop long there. we headed back to the hotel then.

we decided to venture back out for supper and check out hard rock. i must say...it's hard rock. the music is too loud and the waiters were...interesting. it wasn't the type of place you take kids to. and the food wasn't so good. we decided we should've just went back to planet hollywood! but it was food nonetheless, and now we know hard rock is good for shirts...not the food.

we checked out times square one last time in the night life. it was a friday night and more busy than the night before. but just so cool to see. i loved the lights and the crazy-ness of it all. but i don't think i could do it everyday! it was always telling which people were 'native' nyc-ers...because they walked around in high heels! there is no way i could've done that. lol.

the next morning i headed out with amelya to one last store before coming back and packing up. i was bummed to be leaving and starting our trip back home. it meant our vacation was soon ending!!

when we got to the parking garage we were impressed the attendant had JUST brought our van up. talk about god's perfect timing. i had to walk back up to an ATM to get cash though because he only takes cash for more than one night. it was interesting to go to an ATM and have to search for the word 'english'. i am used to english or spanish choices. there were russian, chinese, and a whole bunch more. just shows that it's for sure not wisconsin!! lol. i got the money paid the guy. packed the van and off we were.

the drive out of the city was MUCH better. and easier. and calmer. and a bit freaky driving UNDER the hudson river!!

we made it to cleveland for the night. and then left cleveland the next morning for home!!

overall it was a great and fantastic trip. the kids were fabulous. and it was so nice to have an entire nine days with my hubby and kids...all day. every day. it was nice to see shaun relaxed. it was just so nice. and i almost cried when we got home!!

so there you have it. a majorly condensed version of our nyc trip. we want to go back sometime. only fly! (the looks we got from people when we said we drove were priceless!!) (it is seriously yellow taxi cabs all over the city...and they drive with one hand on the horn!!)

here is a link to the pictures. mainly because i'm lazy and don't feel like waiting to load them all again! it's the pictures from our whole trip. enjoy.

i'm off for the day. we have a bit of a busy day ahead, and i hope to get some more blog reading in tomorrow!! have a great day!!