NYC

December 11, 2024

When we realized Samantha had a weekend with no basketball games or activities, we decided a little girls trip to the city was in order! We flew up VERY early on Friday morning…

and were in the city walking around by 11am!

I’m wondering if Trump was in NYC because they had half the street in front of Trump Tower blocked with a line of garbage trucks. Interesting!

Louis Vuitton looked like the Paris store!

Of course we had to have lunch at Bergdorf Goodman!

But major disappointment – they changed the menu in the downstairs cafe and took off the gotham salad! Travesty! We still had a good lunch though…lobster ravioli and a fantastic lemon tart made up for it!

It was COLD in the city and Samantha’s legs were freezing in her short jacket. After lunch we went shopping for a longer coat for her. We didn’t have much luck…

and ended up getting this inexpensive polka dot one that Samantha was NOT a fan of…but it was warm!

A trip to Sephora made things better!

We then went all the way to the Upper East to try and get some Roller Rabbit pjs but didn’t have any luck. We then headed back to the hotel to rest a bit before our show that night. All bundled up in Times Square…

and ready for Six!

The show was excellent! Divorced! Beheaded! Died! Divorced! Beheaded! Survived!

It was a great first day in NYC!

Merry merry!

NYC day 5

December 9, 2022

Saturday was a girl v. boy day! Samantha and I had a date at the Ice Cream Museum and she was pretty darn excited!!

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ice cream museum

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There was more ice cream than we could eat, tons of fun rooms to walk through, a giant slide, and even…

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a sprinkle pool!

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A successful girl’s morning!

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Meanwhile, the boys were hitting up more shoe stores, the NBA store, and Nike!

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Samantha and I took the subway up and met GJ at Bergdorf Goodman…

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where we introduced Samantha to the very best lunch in the city! She had chicken salad but I’ll teach her to love the Gotham salad someday!

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We then walked down 5th for a bit…

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and then, much to Samantha’s delight, hopped in a pedi-cab to get us over to Bloomingdales!

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pedi cab

We tried really hard to find something to buy for Samantha at Bloomingdale’s but the best we walked away with was a perfume sample! But she was pretty excited about that!

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On the way back to the hotel we did a carriage ride through the park!

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That night the boys had an appointment to make custom hoodies at Nike! We met them at Serafina for dinner after their own pedi-cab ride!

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They were pretty proud of their creations, as they should be!

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We then saw Wicked which was phenomenal!

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wicked

Another really full and really fun day in NYC!! Sadly, it was our last full day. We said goodbye to GJ that night because she was leaving early Sunday morning.

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We had time on Sunday to have one last NYC meal…

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and then we all flew home with no flight delays or issues at all! That is indicative of how the entire trip went – everything just worked out better than we could have hoped. I have to believe my Dad had his hand in that. I know he would have loved to have taken my kids to NYC for Thanksgiving. Since he can’t do that, he did the next best thing and orchestrated the most epic NYC trip ever! He loved the Christmas season and since this is our first Christmas season without him, I think this was his way of letting us know that everything is going to be ok even if he’s not here with us. Merry Christmas indeed!

NYC day 4

December 8, 2022

Friday morning was our only bit of bad weather. It was raining but it worked out well because we had tickets to go to the 9/11 museum. GJ took the morning off to rest her knee at the hotel. We all took our time going through the museum which was really well done.

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By the time we got out of the museum, the rain had stopped and we walked around downtown a bit. We saw the fancy train station…

the NYSE…

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the Brooklyn Bridge from the deck of Robert’s old office building….

and the Statue of Liberty from across the river!

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The kids found a playground…

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and then we headed up to Union Square to a shoe store I had found out about called Flight Club.

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Maxwell was in heaven! They had some really cool and rare sneakers. The boys checked a bunch out…and got some sticker shock on some!

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shoes

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Maxwell ended up walking out with a pretty cool pair of Jordans!

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I then took my city kids back uptown…

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where we stopped into Nordstrom!

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Samantha found plenty of things to add to her Christmas list!

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We then got ready to hit up Madison Square Garden to see the Knicks take on the Portland Trailblazers! Of course the boys visited the store as soon as we got there!

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It was the most fun night! We had fantastic seats with no one blocking our view. Damian Lillard on Portland was injured and didn’t play so Spence decided to cheer for the Knicks and that was the right call! The game went into overtime and we saw some really good basketball. There were lots of famous people there too – Edie Falco, Tracy Morgan, Noah from Stranger Things…even Flavor Flav and FloRida! So fun! The best part though? Spencer caught a t-shirt that was throw into the crowd!! Yeesss!

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Even better? Samantha was on the jumbotron!!!! Amazing!

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It was just an epic night!

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We love NYC!

NYC day 3

December 7, 2022

We were all excited to see the parade on Thursday. We debated many ways to watch it – from GJ’s “parade view” room, from inside the Shops at Columbus Circle, but ultimately decided (at GJ’s encouragement!!) to go grab a spot on the curb and take it all in from up close and I’m so glad we did. Even if I had to get up at the crack of dawn to get that spot! I was ready to go at 5:30 fully bundled with hotel towels and a robe in tow!

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I got what I thought was a great spot on the edge of Columbus Circle…until about 6:00am when the police officers told us all we had to move! oh no!! By that time GJ had come out to keep me company and we took off going up Central Park West trying to find another spot. I saw some friendly looking people at the corner of 62nd and asked if we could maybe squeeze into their space. They obliged and it ended up being the best spot ever – one of the guys had graduated high school in Arkansas and the other family was from Tennessee! GJ quickly made friends and they could not have been nicer or more considerate to the kids when they got there. Speaking of the kids – Robert was back in the hotel getting my texts saying “ya’ll need to get on out here asap or you’re going to get blocked!” They were closing off streets and not letting people in. They all got to the corner by 7:30 and were just in time. We managed to get them on the right side of the barricade and we were all happy to be there!!

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We snuggled up to stay warm and luckily no one had to go to the bathroom for the next 3 hours! ha!

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Maxwell had the best vantage point and got awesome pics of the parade!

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The cheerleaders! Bet they were as cold that day as I was when I marched in the parade in high school!

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Santa!!

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I spent most of the parade like this trying to get pics of the kids with the floats! ha!

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I got a few!

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Jimmy Fallon waving at us!

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Gloria Estefan too!

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This is Luperon and he was doing a good job keeping us safe…and getting in just about every single photo I took!

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It really was the best spot to watch the parade. The barricade to our left kept out the huge masses of people which made our little block not crowded. I’m not sure how we got so lucky to get to stay in that block but I wasn’t complaining! A really fun morning in NYC! After the parade we warmed up at the hotel and grabbed bite…

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and then headed to Radio City for the Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes!!

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Let me just say…it was spectacular indeed!! We all loved it, even the boys! Those Rockettes are just impressive. Even better? We had fantastic seats right in the middle and no one sat in the 6 seats in front of us! Amazing!

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After the show we walked around Rockefeller Plaza…

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We then had tickets to ice skate! Not gonna lie, I was kind of dreading it but it ended up being really fun. It was organized and not too crowded on the ice. The kids have gotten to be pretty good ice skaters which makes it nice too!

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After skating, we had a great Thanksgiving meal at Capital Grille! It was truly a perfect NYC Thanksgiving from start to finish!!

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NYC day 2

December 6, 2022

First, today is my dad’s birthday. Missing him even more today but it helps to think about him up in heaven standing tall and surely tinkering with something while watching over us all. Happy Birthday Daddo. We love you and miss you.

Day 2 of NY started with a subway ride over to Grand Central!

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grand central

We then had tickets for Summit One Vanderbilt which ended up being SO cool! Incredible views, mirrored rooms, glass floors – it was amazing!

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Maxwell and Samantha were not so sure about getting on the glass bottom balcony!!

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But they all did it!

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What a view!

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They also turned us all into clouds. ??

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We then went on the glass bottom elevator that took us up even higher! Me, Spencer and GJ had no issue with it…

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Maxwell and Robert on the other hand! ha!

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It was a really cool experience and I’m so glad we did it! After that, we headed over to Times Square to check it out and get lunch at Dos Caminos.

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We also made a stop into Foot Locker…

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and the M&M store! Note: When in the M&M store, don’t let your kids – mainly Samantha – have free rein to fill up a bag of M&Ms that will be charged at $8.99 per 1/2 pound. We learned that the the hard way and $81 later! hahahaha!!