The Rest of our New York Get Away...

On Thursday Scott and the team did another amazing Revolution Tour at the Crown Plaza in Times Square. I read How Children Learn most of the morning, which is an AMAZING book. (Once I've finished I am going to definitely write a paper on it about what I learned and what I am going to start 'DOING' because of it!!) Anyway back to the point...around 1:30 the boys were done with the Revolution Tour and we were ready to start our 'Anniversary' portion of the trip. Watch out NEW YORK here we come... YAHOO!!

Th hotel we were staying at was right in Times Square, and believe me when I say there is always something going on in Times Square. We had only been out of the hotel 5 minutes when I over heard someone talking about David Letterman tickets.

{We found it! David Letterman's Studio!}

I thought that sounded like fun, and we were soon on our way to be part of the studio audience at the David Letterman show. It was quite the production to get tickets, but after waiting in two lines we finally made it in and had a blast! It was definitely a New York thing to do.

{WHOO-HOO...we got our tickets and are now standing in line to actually go into the show!!}

{Here is the LONG line of people waiting to go into the Letterman show. What a lucky break that we got it! We were in the right place at the right time.}

The Letterman show happened the day after Sarah Palin (VP running mate to John McCain) spoke, and so most of the show was making fun of politics. At least I kind of could follow what they were talking about. If they had been talking about other news, politicians, or pop culture I may not have followed him so well. Being a mom of 6 doesn't give me much time to watch TV or read the newspapper. I had however watched Sarah Palin's speach the night before. So I got Late Show staff to laugh at EVERY joke Letterman said even if it wasn't funny. We got quite the pep talk before entering the show. Scott and I were laughing because it was so crazy!

After we got done filming the Late Show it was time to move hotels. The hotel we were staying at was awesome, but over $400 a night. A little to pricy for us to afford once we started paying. So we moved down to 32nd Street and Broadway to a Raddison that was less than half as expensive. It was a great hotel, and we were happy to move and save a little money.

By this time it was almost 5 and we hadn't really eaten anything yet. So we found a cute little 'healthy' fast food store that had awesome fruit and salads grabbed something and jumped on a bike to take us back to Times Square.



After making our move we decided to get theater tickets. I LOVE musicals!!! There was a half off ticket booth in Times Square that sold same day tickets.

{Before the show started.}

With so many shows to choose from we decided on Grease, since Scott had never seen the movie and it had been forever since I'd seen it we thought it would be great. Well, maybe if we had tried to watched the movie again we would have remembered how terrible the plot was. Ooops! When the whole premis is about sleeping around and being a rebel it wasn't exactly an uplifting play. Oh well! It was fun to hang out with Scott and enjoy the evening together.

{Still excited...}

After the theater we were starving and decided to be boring and hit the Hard Rock Cafe. We split a burger and a milk shake and I felt fat and happy!


Still Thursday...days and nights are long when you are in NY City. I don't think they ever sleep. As we left the Hard Rock we realized that on the HUGE HUGE screen in Times Square they were playing Presidential Canidate John McCain's speach.
CNN had set up speakers and chairs in the middle of the road on a median and were letting people sit there and watch it. I jumped all of over this because I totally wanted to listen to it, and when else was I going to be able to sit in the middle of Times Square and watch something like this...mmmm...NEVER! So we pulled up a chair and enjoyed McCain's speach, which I personally thought was fantastic.
It was after one am when we finally got back to our hotel that night, but when we left Times Square you would have thought it was still the middle of the day. There were still tons of people out roaming the streets, a lot of stores were still open, and thanks to the lights from the LCD screens it was bright bright. What a great day.

So the next day Friday I slept in until noon I think. I guess I am not used to staying up until 1am. My party days are definitely a thing of the past. When we finally did start moving we ran into none other than Spiderman. For a mere $10 (we found this out after we took the picture) we could take a picture with him. We thought the kids would get a kick out of mom and dad posing with Spiderman...and they did!
We ended up going shopping for a while on Friday which was so fun. We aren't use to being able to blow 3-4 hours window shopping and just chilling without worrying about getting back to the kids. It was a totally awesome day just hanging out together with no particular plan. LOVED IT!!

We ended our window shopping at the Times Square Foot Locker, and both ended up getting some running shoes. I haven't owned a real pair of work out/running shoes since before I had Hyrum (so 3 years) and Scott's were pretty shabby. (I guess my lack of workout shoes would explain my lack of exersise.) After having Becca and Brea one year a part my body is in need of a little fixing, and I am determined that I am going to start working out, eating healthier, and by golly get toned and more importantly get rid of my muffin top!! Now that I have my shoes I am good to go! Goodbye muffin top!!

{Our new shoes. Scott says his feel like he's walking on air.}

After getting our shoes we went to another musical. I was trying to make up for the lame Grease experience the night before! We went to a show called [title of show]. It was really great! It was a musical about making a musical and also made fun of musicals. Super funny! I am so glad we went, because it definitely made up for the flop the night before. We sat next to this nice couple who was from NY City and after talking to her we realized how little we knew about NY City and how much there was to see.

That night we ended up taking a night tour of the city after we got out of our musical. It started at 10 and got over around midnight. It was so fun to see the city at night and the weather was PERFECT!!

{On the upper deck of the bus taking the night tour.}

{Our one night tour stop. Looking out on the Manhattan Skyline.}

Saturday was forecasted to rain all day. So when we woke up and the sun was still out we decided to get moving and make the most out of the day in case the rain did come. Our biggest mistake was that I couldn't resist and once again we bought 1/2 price show tickets...this time to a matinee showing. After not being able to get tickets to Jersey Boys we decided on Young Frankenstein which was funny and strange all at once. We enjoyed it, but during intermission when we tried to step outside we found that the rain had come and it was pouring. It was still pouring when the show was let out, so we ended up hanging out in some a Quicksilver store for an hour or so, until we finally found someone who was selling umbrellas. We walked for a while, but then found a bicycle ride (with a rain proof cover) to take us the rest of the way to the hotel.

{It was a total crack up trying to both squeeze under this 'one person' tiny umbrella.}

After getting spruced up we were ready for something really tasty to eat. The hotel concierge recommended a fantastic Italian Restaurant Anos (I think) that wasn't to far. It was still lightly sprinkling so we walked to the restaurant with our umbrella (it was a little one), and ate one of the most fantastic Itallian dinners I've ever had. When we were done eating (around midnight its crazy how late everything stays open there) it wasn't raining anymore, and by morning it was blue skies and sunny.

It never ceased to amaze me what we saw on Times Square. I should have taken more pictures of all the crazy stuff we saw, but here are a few I did take pictures of.

SNAKES...

{Someone was just walking around with this huge python letting people hold it and take pictures with it if they wanted to. We didn't hold it, but did get this snap shot of someone else holding it. CRAZY!!}

The Naked Cowboy...

{This guy calls himself the 'Naked Coyboy.' He walks around Times Square with white underwear on, a guitar, and takes pictures with people for a $2 minimum donation. There were postcards, and other items for sale with his picture on it throughout Times Square. He's famous in his own way I guess.}

The Spray Paint Artist...

{This guy was amazing. He could make the most detailed painting using spray paint. The pictures were all sci-fi looking, so nothing I would hang up in my house or buy, but I have to give it to him that he was one talented spray paint artist!}

Tallest Man Alive...

{We also hit 'Ripley's Believe It Or Not' museum which was pretty much a freak show. There are some crazy things in there. Here I am standing by a replica of the tallest man ever documented.}

Sunday morning we woke up and got ready for church, however, after taking a taxi to church we found out the building was under construction. So we ended up jumping back on the double decker tour bus that roamed the city and doing a little sight seeing. We forgot our camera for the first half of the day, which was kind of a bummer because we only got pictures of us in Central Park on Scott's iPhone. Oh well. Central Park was great, and busy busy! Scott and I were constantly blown away by the number of people we saw everywhere we went in NY City. You were never alone on the street, in the park, or anywhere. There were people everywhere and the park was no exception!

Scott and I both wish we could get our backyard to look more like Central Park it was beautiful with huge trees, amazing paths, neat plants, and lots of activities. What a fun place to visit!!!

After Central Park we headed back to the hotel to change and check out so we could do a little more sight seeing before going to the airport.

{First we went to Top of the Rock to look out over the city. The view was incredible.}

{Then we went on a 75 minute Circle Line Cruise that took us all around the island of Mannhatan and by the Statue of Liberty. It was awesome and once again the weather was PERFECT}

{Here is a little photo of me and the hundreds of other passengers taking the 75 minute cruise.}

After the cruise we quickly ate a fast lunch and caught a cab back to the hotel to grab our bags and onto the airport. It had been such a fun trip. We were sad to have to go back to reality, but excited to see the kids!!!

I am so grateful to be married to such an amazing man! Logically things should be harder now that we have six kids all 8 and under, but we are seriously more happy now than we have ever been. Here's to 11 great years, and 100's more to come. LOVE YOU SCOTT!!