Camera pics

Matt brought his camera home since I don't know where mine is and has been letting me use his to take pictures of our family happenings. I just downloaded the pictures and they have been fun to look at. I got this camera for Matt the summer of 2007 and sent it to him to Afghanistan so he could take pics and send them back to us. Well, before I sent him the camera, I took pictures of the kids and their various activities that were going on at that time. I can't believe some of the pictures. The kids are sooo cute. They grow so fast. Here are a few that I couldn't resist putting on here.

Brian and Ethan

Ethan

Katheryn w/arms up

Hip hop Diva

Jazz

Ethan and Mommy going to Chicago

Katheryn and Brian going to Chicago Ethan living it up; in Chicago (it was empty!)

I also found some pics of our Thanksgiving. I know I wrote about it but here are some pics of us enjoying the feast. Yum!

Thanksgiving dinner '08

Thanksgiving dinner '08

Pumpkin Pie (courtesy of Ethan)

It never fails..at least it hasn't yet...where Ethan destroys at least one pie during the holdiay dinner. Last year he threw up on an apple pie.

Just living

Time surely is flying by. My dad told me the other day that when time starts flying by for you, it means you are old. lol. Some days I do feel that way; especially the days that I'm chasing Ethan around and trying to clean up after him. It can really tucker you out. Since becoming a mom, I realized the other day (yes, my oldest is 9 so it's taken me 9 years!) that nothing is ever the same nor is anything that you thought was yours is yours. For instance, I like to make myself oatmeal with raisins for breakfast. All part of my eat healthy, lose weight concept that just doesn't seem to be working for me right now. Anyways, I make the kids breakfast and most school mornings they like to eat waffles. Ethan will eat three waffles and once finished will peek over at me and see that I have a bowl. He demands that I share with him. At first I tell him no way, this is mine but he keeps bugging me so I eventually give in. He takes two bites for every one of mine. It's not my oatmeal...it's his. And as I sit here typing this blog, I look at my water bottle that I filled so I would know how much water I have had for the day and I think it looks to be a little cloudy in there. Upon closer examination, I realize it must be cloudy because of all the bread crumb floaties in it courtesy of who else...Ethan. Yumm! So much for it being "my" water bottle. A few weeks ago, Matt and I created a play area in the basement for the kids in effort to reclaim the living room. We painted the wall, threw up some huge wall stickers, carpeted and put in shelves so the kids would stop dragging toys in the living room and I could get a break from cleaning up after them. Wanna know who has spent more time in the basement?? Me. My kids own our house...not myself or my husband. We find ourselves "hiding" in the basement just to get a break from the craziness upstairs. Atleast the basement area has toys for us to play with. The kids really aren't as bad as I am making it seem. We love our children and want them to be the best that they can be with all that we can teach them. It's just some days, I would really like to eat my entire bowl of oatmeal without any help. It's been a long time since I've done anything really for myself. Mostly my days are dedicated to making sure the family has clean clothes, a clean house, healthy meals, rides to and from dance/gymnastics, dog fed, etc etc etc. All the wonderful things mommies do even though they would rather be doing something else. lol. So, rather than "just living" and letting the days fly by I decided that I needed to help myself get back focusing on not only my family but myself also. My first step is to figure out why the heck I can't lose weight even after Ethan claims my breakfast and water. And I figure that if I post my journey here, it'll hold me accountable since I will know that some of you, my friends, are following me and are curious to see where I will make it to. So today I called the doctor's office to make an appointment. When asked what the appointment was for, I really didn't know what to say and I just blurted out because I'm overweight. lol. I think I need to have some bloodwork done to make sure my body is okay and if it's not, well, then maybe I can get it fixed. I've been teetering back and forth with my weight since our first child was born and I'm really just tired. I'm tired of going to my closet and seeing all the wonderful clothes I used to wear knowing that I can only really fit into a couple of shirts and maybe a few pairs of jeans. I want to be back in my size 7/8 jeans and I want to just love me again. Hopefully taking this initial step to have a doctor's point of view will help. I've heard the B12 shots work wonders for energy and may even help boost metabolism. We'll see. I'll let you know. I guess I'm getting my New Year's resolution out of the way here too. Lose weight, be happy and reclaim my breakfast and space.

Catch up

So here I am and still no camera. I can not find it anywhere. I had Matt bring his camera home from work so that we could use it to take pictures of Katheryn as she participated in the two local parades here with the dance studio she attends. The parades were on November 22nd. The Greencastle parade was held at 9am and then the Waynesboro parade was held at 2pm. It was a very long and very cold day. The weather temp in the van flashed at 28 degrees that morning. Luckily Brian had spent the night before with my parents so we only had to worry about keeping Ethan frostbite free. We bundled him up with layer upon layer and finally draped Katheryn's coat over top of him while he sat in his stroller waiting for the parade to pass by. It seemed like forever but finally we saw the dance group make the turn by the tree. Yay! We kept pace with them to the stopping point so we could get Katheryn and go. I know she had to be cold..she had on long johns and just a sweatshirt and dance pants. She did have gloves and an earwarmer but the wind was just awful. She was thankful to be in the warmth of her coat. We then left from there and picked up Brian. We grabbed a few warm things from WalMart before dropping Katheryn off for the second parade. This time she kept her coat. The temp in the van said it was warmer...32 degrees...however the wind was unwilling to cease. It felt worse than the morning. We drove across town to the end point to park and found a place on the side of Main Street to plant ourselves. I had stuffed "HotHands" into Ethan's pants to attempt keeping him warm but the moment he stood up, out they came from the bottom of his pants. lol. The Waynesboro Parade seemed to be a lot better than the Greencastle one. There was more to enjoy. After about an hour, it was really starting to feel cold. Finally, the dance group peaked the hilltop. Again, we rushed to the end point to meet with Katheryn. We didn't stay for the parade, it was way too cold. So we then went to Franks Pizza and ate ourselves warm. It was nice to be warm that day. lol. And later that week we found out that the parade had been judged and the dance group received 1st Place. Katheryn was excited about her ribbon she received at dance class later that week.

Coming down the hill

A&B Dance Dimensions

Katheryn dancing in the parade

A very cold Ethan

The following week was Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun and for once it was stress free. My brother came home with his girlfriend and we celebrated her birthday the night before at a local bar/restaraunt. My friend Wendi joined us and her kids watched my kids while we were out. We played some pool and from there went to a local bar in Waynesboro...lol...Pappy's Pub. Not a really nice place, definately has all your "locals" and let me tell you, you were taken back to the 70's in this place. Funny thing is though, since we have been here, I really haven't run into too many of my friends from when we lived here before and all of a sudden at Pappy's, I run into a handful. Matt decides he's going to get Wendi and I drinks and heads to the bar. He comes back with a minature drink that we just kind of laughed at and he also came back with tequila shots. Wendi downed hers and I followed afterwards. We went to sit and all of a sudden Wendi is having a tough time staying awake. lol. It was pretty funny. Anyways, we got back home and the next morning I started cooking. We had so much food. I always make butternut squash soup for Thanksgiving and it's a long process. I really enjoy the soup and I just found out this year that Matt really doesn't care for it. I don't know if anyone else really enjoyed the soup as much as I did but oh well, more for me! I just know now to make less of it. Dinner was wonderful, we had the usual turkey and ham. I tried out a new dressing recipe that was absolutely delicious. It was called cornbread pomegranite dressing. I got it off of Martha Stewart's website. Delicious!!! I can't wait to make it again. With Thanksgiving out of the way, it was time to set up for Christmas. We put up the tree and brought up tubs of decorations from the basement. They seemed to have sat for about a week before we actually did too much decorating. Matt put the lights up on the porch roof and maybe this week he will finish the rest of the house in lights. I put up some garland around our porch and bought wreaths for all our front windows...10 to be exact! I tied a red bow to the bottom and we got those up...it looks really cute. I then decorated the door to look like a present and you can see our red door when you drive over the hill by the school. It sticks out and looks really cute. We bought little candle lights for all the windows and timers too so when dusk hits, all the lights automatically go on.

Katheryn sorting the ornaments

Brian hanging an ornament

Katheryn hanging an ornament

The trio

Matt was back to work the Monday after Thanksgiving and the kids had off from school. To keep my sanity, I decided to take them out for some Christmas shopping. Katheryn had her money and Brian had his wallet. He was so proud of his wallet. We couldn't let it out of his sight, not for a minute! He was determined to buy 5 trains with his dollar bill. As we were going to the shopping center traffic started to become heavy. Great, the interstate was closed at this particular exit. Thankfully though we were able to immediately get off at the next exit and we went to the mall instead. Brian loved the train table display they had set up and it was hard to pull him away from it. Matt and I had talked earlier about letting the kids each pick out an ornament from Hallmark and starting this tradition so that when they are ready to venture out of the house and spread their wings, they would then have a decent starter set of ornaments. My friend in NC does the same with her kids where they can each pick out an ornament each year. Well, we get to Hallmark and Brian starts pouting and screaming that he doesn't want to go to Walmart. lol. I don't care for Walmart much either but it was funny to hear him say that. It took some tugging and I told him that I was sure they had trains in the store trying to just get him to come along. We go to the ornaments and I couldn't believe the ornaments start at $15. Yikes. I would have been okay with just one but I had to buy three! One for each kid. They looked and looked and finally we had ornaments. Ethan picked out the Little Einsteins rocket ship (which plays their theme song), Brian picked out The Polar Express and Katheryn chose a set of three which features the old Minnie, Mickey and Pluto. We left out of there and toured the mall windows and left and headed to Target and Michaels. We were headed back out to get to the shopping center that I had originally wanted to get to and traffic was still heavy and the interstate was still closed. I decided to just head home. We had done a lot for one day and I was happy that there weren't any hard to deal with tantrums. Oh, I will post pictures on here soon. Matt did bring his camera home and somehow the USB cable for his camera is missing. It was here, I know it was. I think Ethan must have found it and hid it somewhere. It's been missing now for about 2 weeks. ugh. lol.

Home Sweet Home

There is nothing like be welcomed back home by your children after a short getaway. Ethan decided to welcome me home with crayon all over the coffee table, kitchen table and television and armoire. I tell you, some things just never change. Last night I was just a little stressed and I decided to look up Supernanny online. I printed their 12 page application and started to fill in the blanks. As I was filling it out and answering questions, I began to think to myself, geesh, maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm the bad parent. As I started to describe how Ethan behaves at the grocery store, I realized, it's not me. Ethan is just a different being all on his own. Matt even became concerned with his tantrums and did a little research at the University of Google. Matt's diagnosis is that Ethan is fine...he's a very intelligent child who can not express himself. Hmmm. I think I'll ask the doctor in February at his appointment. If anything, maybe his doctor can hook me up with some vicodin. On Wednesday, the kids had their first dentist appointment here in the new area. I was amazed while making the appointment that they said they would bring all three kids back at the same time. We got there and while I was filling out paperwork, I hear the receptionist ask the kids to be a little quieter. Hmm, I thought they were okay. I continue on with the paperwork when the dentist opens the door to the waiting room and asks us to come on back because she thought they were getting a little restless in the waiting room. In other words, they were really loud! Katheryn is the first in the chair and all is well. She has a loose tooth. Next it's Ethan. He was ready to go and hopped right into the chair. He's great too, no cavities! Then Brian realizes that he is to be next so he runs the other direction screaming, "let me free!!" over and over. I grab him and take him over to the chair trying to soothe him. I told the dentist it may be easier if I just held him and leaned him back. So we did and he began to relax a bit. No cavities for Brian either!! yay! Now mind you, while I am holding Brian, Ethan is running all around to the different stations and checking things out. On our way back to check out, the dentist shows the kids the treasure box. Great! The treasure box sits behind the receptionist in their office. It's an open office and the kids are going nuts looking to see what they can find. It seemed like they were in it for 15 minutes while I was trying to schedule their next appointments. Then all of a sudden, a little bouncy ball comes our way and hits the receptionist in the back of the head. Oops! Katheryn and Brian say, "Ethan did it!" I was so embarrassed and furious. I counted to 5 to get them out of the box. They moved away and I sent them to the waiting room when Katheryn comes back in to dig through the box. I shooed her out and finished scheduling the appointments. I told her to stagger them if she needed to so I wouldn't need to bring them all back in at the same time. After she scheduled the appointments, it occured to me that Matt would probably have some time off for the holidays and I asked her if I could reschedule the appointments so all the kids could come in together when I knew what his days off would be and she just looked at me. So I took that as a no and gathered the kids and left. I am sure she was happy to see us leave. Boy though, what a week it has been trying to catch up on everything. I have lost my digital camera...I can not find it anywhere. I would love to post pictures up here from our Halloween and some family fall pics we took in front of our house. Once I find the camera I will be sure to post the pics. I've been looking for three days now and still no luck. :(

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!! NYC BOUND!

Wow! Turning another year older didn't seem to phase me much but I was never great at keeping up with dates. I always have to subtract my birth year from the present year to figure out my age and when it comes to remembering my wedding anniversary...forget it. Matt always laughs at me but I guess it's a good thing for him that I don't remember it all the time. For this birthday though I was excited just to escape from the house with a dear friend whose birthday is the day before mine. Our plans have been ongoing for years that when Matt and I returned stateside to an area near home, my friend and I would celebrate our bday's together. The plans were on for 2008! The plan was to meet Matt for dinner and then afterwards she and I would head out to have some fun. Friday night my parents picked Brian up to sleep over with them and once they picked him up, the rest of us were out the door on our way to Frederick to meet Matt. We didn't know where we were going to eat, we just knew we were going to meet him at the Exxon. Matt told me the Exxon on 40 and across from the FSK mall. I didn't realize until I got there that he actually gave me two different locations. We drove by the first location on 40 and didn't see him so I continued on to the mall area. We pulled in to that Exxon and waited. He should have been there by now BUT because he lost his phone the day before, we had no way of communicating with each other. Well, finally he calls. We are not at the right place. We then tell him to meet us at a mexican restaraunt that we had passed on our way out. I get back onto 70 and no where is there an exit for 40 going E. So I see Frederick come and go before we make it to an exit outside of Frederick for me to turn around at. About 30 minutes later, we finally meet up with Matt. By this time, both Katheryn and Ethan are asleep. At the end of the meal the waiter hands me the black folder with the bill. He says that since it's my birthday, he would hand it to me. Ofcourse my immediate response was, "yeah, it's my birthday, he is paying" and I give the folder to Matt who ofcourse pushes it back my way saying that he gave it to me. Grant it, we share the same account so I was a little annoyed that Matt wasn't taking the bill. Then he tells me that he left his wallet in his car so ultimately I had to open the folder up. As I'm opening it, I'm thinking to myself that there is a lot of junk in this bill...why so many papers?! Then I see my friend's name on one of the papers and I asked her how the waiter knew her name and if she had given him her credit card already to pay because I thought I had gotten her bill. I was baffled when she said no and so I kept digging through the papers in the folder to then discover Broadway tickets to Phantom of the Opera and meal vouchers....OH and LOOK...plane tickets too! I was so engrossed in trying to figure out why the heck I had Wendi's name on our "bill" that I wasn't really able to give Matt any other kind of reaction. He and Wendi, my friend, ofcourse are laughing hysterically at me. So it's now around 9pm when I find out that we are leaving the next morning at 4am!!! I was happy and excited but at the same time flustered because I only had a few hours to pack. As every girl knows, nothing ever fits that is in your closet.

Wendi and I holding "the bill" at dinner

Wendi and I then trucked on out of there taking Matt's car while he took the kids home. We drove to the outlets to find that they had just closed. We went on to the mall and the same thing. Thankfully Target was still open....for 20 minutes....and I was able to find two sweaters and a scarf. A scarf is a main necessity in NYC! When we were told to leave Target, we headed to WalMart but found nothing there. We got home around 11pm and ofcourse I had to go to the internet to see what I could find that we could do in NY. I got some directions but that was about it. I got to bed by 2am but didn't really sleep well since I knew I had to be up in about an hour and a half anyways.

At 3:30am we were up and by 4:30am we were out the door and on our way. I couldn't find our digital camera...I just had it a few days before...but it seems lost now. We got to the airport but it was too close to boarding that I couldn't check my bag. I threw out some hairspray and some makeup remover and prayed that they wouldn't take my MK facial cleanser and cream that I just bought. Hooray! I made it through security! We got onto the concourse and thought that we would miss our flight because we almost were crashed into by another one. We finally get to our gate and there's no time to pee....they are boarding!!! Off we go!!!

On the plane to NYC!!!!

We arrive to JFK by 7:15am and hail a cab to take us to our hotel....The Hilton Millenium. The cab ride was a shocking $45. Yikes! The hotel is right next to the plot where the World Trade Towers stood. We didn't realize that until we looked out of our room window. You could look straight down and see the construction going on. It was unreal to imagine what went on that day. After dropping our bags and freshening up a bit we were ready to hit the city and grab some breakfast. We ended up by Trinity Church, which is right near the hotel, and taking a look inside. Then we grabbed breakfast at a typical NY style cafe. It was really neat. We each got a veggie omlet and croissant and a hot beverage. We ordered from the cook and paid at the cashier. I think that was the cheapest meal all weekend.

Hotel...the shiny black skinny scraper...you can see the crane from ground zero on the left Ground Zero from our hotel window

View of NYC from hotel window

mmmm...breakfast!

At breakfast

From there, we mosied on up to the metro/subway only to find that most of the red line was closed. The tracks were being serviced and I guess most of the subway was being rerouted and new trains were running routes that weren't normally supposed to. This is not great for tourism!!! I found their system to be a little confusing at times...okay, most of the time. If you get on at a certain stop, you better make sure it stops at the stop you want it to stop at. Even though it's an orange line doesn't mean it stops at all the orange line stops. The lines also had numbers and letters that you had to pay attention to. Anyway, we managed to get onto the subway (after running my ticket through several times before it worked) and we headed uptown to Union Square. On the subway, we met an artist name Phyllis. She was very nice and recommended some places for us to shop. She also shared her story of 9-11 which was again unimaginable for me to place myself there. So, then it begins to rain but we see the shoe store, DSX, I believe, straight ahead and that's where we go. The shoes were pretty reasonably priced but we didn't buy anything. It was fun just to look. We went back out and headed towards the Salvation Army. We wanted to see what the thrift stores carried in NYC. Probably not a typical tourist site but it was interesting to see "Nine West" in the thrift stores. We atleast found 2/3 of the thrift stores we were looking for. As the rain continued to poor and Wendi's feet ached, we trekked on to Payless and TJ Maxx to see if we could find some shoes more suitable for walking. I was okay but Wendi was really hurting. Having found none, even after Old Navy, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel so we could get ready for the main event...dinner and Phantom!

Wendi and I on the subway

We got out our map to decide our course and then went to the Concierge just to double check our subway directions and headed to dinner. Our vouchers were for the Maison, a french restaraunt. It was really quaint and the tables were practically on top of each other. Definately no privacy for conversations. The meal was okay...I probably wouldn't recommend it but it was still really nice to be out having a nice dinner. I mean, c'mon, it's NYC!!!

In the elevator on our way to dinner Maison Restaurant

Me at Maison

Then we were off to the opera!! Majestic Theatre here we come!!! Now, do we go right or left or continue straight after exiting the restaurant???? After walking a few blocks, we pull out the map. Ooops! We were supposed to go the other way!!! We had 10 minutes before showtime and the Majestic was not in site. So we start to move faster and then faster again. Finally with about 3 minutes to spare, we found our seats. Matt had gotten us orchestra seats. We were really close to the stage and I am proud to say that I did not fall asleep this time. Yes, this is my second viewing of the Phantom. The first time I came, years ago, I fell asleep from exhaustion. I do not feel bad now since the lady to my right conked out and I had to keep nudging Wendi to keep her eyes open. It was truly wonderful to see Phantom from start to finish. I really enjoyed myself.

Majestic Theatre

Me outside Majestic after the show

With no time limit, we started to venture off into Time Square. It was so bright and just how I remembered it. Wendi had looked online and found a Swing dance club so we were on a mission to find the club. I do not swing dance...heck you're lucky to see me even shake my hips on a dance floor....but c'mon...NYC!!! You've gotta do something fun! Wendi dances and loves to dance so this was fun for both of us. As we were trying to find our way there, a lady ahead of us overheard us and we stopped to chat a while. Turns out, she went to Shippensburg University, where Matt graduated, years ago. Small world. Finally we get to the dance club and it's not very busy yet. There are a few people on the floor but not many. I find a corner seat for us and Wendi gets us some drinks. We hang out and talk and realize there's a red wine glass at our table. Ten minutes later and a guy asks if that's his. I ofcourse said something to him about thinking he had gotten it for us and well, it turns out, he was the owner of the place and he took me to the bar and introduced me to the bar tender and told him to get me whatever I wanted. So Wendi and I got two martinis on the house and before I could even finish my martini, he told me I was doing a shot with him. LOL! FREE drinks!! Free was great since for our first drinks...only two mind you....cost $20!!! This is definately not a city for the poor. As we were sipping our martinis, this guy kept coming by our table and he would stop a few feet in front of us and would just stare at me. I wouldn't look at him and Wendi and I had this deal that if a guy not worthy would hit on her, I would tell him to back off and that she was with me. Well, after the second time the guy came by, Wendi asked me if she should kiss me now! LOL!!! We got up and took our drinks to another table closer to the dance floor and darn it if that guy did not find me again. He stood a few feet from our table and just stared waiting for me to look his way. I engrossed myself in conversation with Wendi until he went away. We left a bit later...never did I do that shot...but that's okay. We were having a great time without the alcohol.

Wendi and I at Swing 46

Band at Swing 46

Me looking VERY tired!

Our next stop, the Comedy club. We got a great deal...$5/ticket when everyone else paid $10. Whoo-hoo. We were ready to laugh. We got in there and it was such a disappointment. We left when the third comic came onto stage. I told the guy who was checking us out that we did not have a great time and he took us next door to the dueling pianos and told the guy there to get us great seats and to get us whatever we wanted so we could have a great time. Whoo-hoo! More free drinks!! LOL! The dueling pianos were pretty neat. They had a drummer there also. You could get up and dance on stage with them if you were so drawn to do so. We didn't, we cut a rug near our seats for a song and that was about it. We stayed about an hour I think..maybe less...and decided to head on back to the hotel. By now it's 3am and we couldn't find a working subway. So we hail a cab. Thankfully this ride was only $11 compared to the $45 from the airport.

Dueling pianos Time Square

After spending about 4 or 5 hours in bed sleeping, again we awoke. The sun was blazing in our room...kinda like that commerical with the Jimmy Dean sausage or whatever sausage that is with the guy in the sun costume. Anyways, we pack up our things and head to check out. We left our bags at the hotel and then headed out once again for breakfast. This time we went to "The Soda Shop." It was okay. I wouldn't recommend it. It was a bit pricey for what you got. I had oatmeal for $8 I think. From there we had a plan to start at central park and work our way back toward the hotel. We get to Central Park and pass one of those buggy's hooked up to a bike. We told that guy no thanks. The next buggy we were curious about the price so we talked to this guy and he said it was $60 for a ride around central park. We said again, no thanks. As we continue to walk we pass a few more and Wendi takes note on one guy and says outloud that he was kinda cute. Well, he heard her and responded back saying that she was kinda cute too! We started laughing and just kept going. A few minutes later, there he is behind us asking us if we would like a ride. So he said he would take us for $40. Okay, let's go! It was an hour ride around the park and we stopped off at a few key places. Our main intent was to get to the Tavern on the Green. I wanted to do some celebrity spotting. We eventually made it through the park and we stopped off by John Lennon's memorial and apartment. I didn't realize he lived next door to Celine Dion. The biggest laugh of Central Park was seeing a big black guy walking two small poodles dressed in hot pink. He allowed us to take a picture and when I asked him what their names were he said Cocoa Chanel and I can't recall the other one. It was funny. Only in NY!

Our Central Park Tour Guide

In front of a fountain in Central Park

Buggy ride around Central Park

"Imagine" J. Lennon's doorstep memorial

John Lennon's Home

Taken from Central Park

Bridge in Central Park

Outside area at Tavern on the Green

The pink poodles!! Only in NY!

From Central Park, we headed toward 5th avenue. Our goal was to reach American Girl place. I wanted to get an outfit for one of Katheryn's dolls for Christmas. It was a total mad house!! Anyway, I got what I needed and we hopped across the street to Saks 5th Avenue! It was beautiful inside. Perfume everywhere! We walked around and browsed and that was about it. We then headed off to Rockefeller center and the plaza. Had I known that the Today show was taping that morning, Wendi and I would have been there on the plaza so we could wave to the rest of America. Instead we settled for standing in front of Dean and Deluca and waved to our cameras.

Wendi on the plaza

Me at Rockefeller Center

SAKS 5th Avenue

Inside SAKS

Radio City

Next it was off to China town. We had to get back on the subway for this trip. We got off and were in the heart of Chinatown. What a busy place. I didn't care for it as much but it was really neat to see. If you want a bag...Cabanna, Dolce, Coach....this is the place to go. It seemed like we were there forever looking for a pastry place called Ferrara's and we just couldn't find it. Turns out, we were walking in the wrong direction...yet again! LOL! We turned back around and found it but were so hungry by this point that we decided to go back to Manhattan to grab a bite from a street vendor. We decided that you can't truly experience NY unless you eat a hotdog from the streets. We saw the Empire State building in passing and made it to a vendor with gyros. We ate that and walked a bit more to another one with hotdogs. By this point, we were both so exhausted and just could not wait to get back to the hotel and get our things. We kept walking and walking that we didn't realize we walked right past our hotel. Yep! Here we go again....we had to turn back around. The funny part was that on the way to our hotel we stopped and looked at Liberty Plaza and kept going. Well, Liberty Plaza is literally right beside our hotel!!!! Crazy!

Liberty Plaza

Beams from WTC that formed a cross

We felt as though we had been in NYC for atleast a week with all that we had seen. We were truly exhausted and couldn't wait to be home in our own beds. Our taxi cab driver to the airport was greek and was very intent on getting Wendi to sit in the front seat with him. Yuck! We finally made it to the airport and were just happy to sit for the hour before our flight would board. We grabbed a McFlurry from McDonald's and waited at the gate with our shoes off.

Matt picked us up from Dulles airport and the kids were all asleep. Once we got back to the house, it was about midnight and Wendi still had an hour yet to drive home over the mountains. I don't know how she did it. We were both so very tired. My eyes had turned red from exhaustion. Thank goodness Matt had Monday off because I don't think I would have made it on my own with the kids that day. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful husband who loves me and who likes to see me happy. He is selfless and just all around wonderful. I don't know if I could have spent money on tickets and send someone else other than him with me. He really amazes me. Must be why I love him so much. :) What a great way to spend a birthday!

Wendi and I at the hotel...Happy Birthday to us!