~NYC: Seeing the City for the first time~

After resting up for a bit and bathing the stinky kids, we all crammed back into the van with Ryan behind the wheel to head into the city.  The whole way in we were star struck and super excited.  Ryan dropped us off close to where we wanted to start our day and went and found a parking spot.  He is AMAZING like that... seriously, he not only drove around looking for a spot, but parallel parked our mini-van!  (I don't know how we would have EVER done this trip without Erin and Ryan.)  To start off we headed to The Flatiron Building.  The kids were ecstatic!  (For a month before our trip I checked out 50 children's books from the library all about or set in NYC to give my kiddos a frame of reference for all the neat stuff we were going to see. Needless to say it TOTALLY WORKED and they were in awe.)  When Alec looked up and saw the Empire State building just down the street his expression was priceless. He was so excited!!! Poor Cordy was just down right confused, but luckily she's an easy going baby. 

We decided to head down the street to see the Empire State Building up close along with all the other exciting sights and sounds of the busy city.  Not long into our walk the big kids got tired and asked for a ride.  Luckily I brought along my sit and stand stroller so all three could fit on at the same time... until they started falling asleep!  I strapped Cordy onto me to give them a little more room and they were out like a light.  It was hilarious walking down the street with their feet flopping to the ground, shutting everything out while we were surrounded by loud cars and thousands of people.  Lots of people gave us funny looks, especially when they realized all three kids were ours!  At a certain point a man full on took a picture of me trying to give Cordy a drink from a straw while surrounded by sleeping children in the stroller.  I must admit I was kind of embarrassed.  We were quite the show for people!

We eventually met up with Ryan at the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) for Free Friday!  It was exciting to get to see Starry Starry Night in person, especially after reading to the kids about it for a whole month prior.  Too bad Alec was in a foul mood most of the time, but he warmed up to some of the crazy art.

Then we were off to see other very touristy things, like Radio City!  We also made a mandatory stop to get ice cream.  Did I mention that it was 98 degrees downtown?  It was crazy hot and I really wanted to keep the kiddos happy so they were spoiled with ice cream any chance we could get.  

Then we finally made it to Times Square... the center of all the hustle and bustle and lights and glam and overstimulation.  It was insane, exactly how I thought it would be.  The low point was when a street performer pulled a shady move and con-ed us into buying over priced balloon animals. (He came up, made them and handed them to the kids despite our protests and then expected ridiculously high payment. Lame.)  The high point was finding ourselves on the jumbo screen and watching the kids expressions.

Because I'm a really crazy mom I offered to take the kids into the Disney Store at Times Square.  It was huge and super hot because their a/c was broken.... but the kids had so much fun!  Of course they wanted almost everything, but I was very clear from the start that we might not get anything at all.  When I finally broke down and offered to get Lyssa some Rapunzel figurines her eyes almost popped out of her face.  It was pretty awesome.  (Don't worry, Alec got another pirate guy to fight his Jack Sparrow.  His current obsession is Pirates of the Caribbean, though he's never actually watched any of the shows.)

Then we were off to fulfill one of Alec's requests... to ride the Subway.  The books make the subway sound super cool and it was a much faster way to get back to our car.  As you can see from the photo below, the ride was everything Alec hoped for and more.  

We were exhausted, but happy as we rolled back into Erin and Ryan's place and ate dinner.  Cordy slept in Erin's closet like the rockstar sleeper she always has been. The rest of us piled around her living room, but it really wasn't a problem!  We were so tired that no one had time to pester me for more drinks, middle of the night potty breaks, or "creepy noises".  It was the end of a very exciting day!