The City!

Okay, so my second week was still good...but who knew 4 and 2 year olds could try to take advantage of you so often! Their mom keeps telling me that she loves me because I am so tough with them...I make them follow through and don't give in.

The 4 year old always says to me, "You have to..." do whatever. I look at him and say, "Are you asking me or telling me?" He says, "Telling." and I say, "Okay, how do you ask me?" and he always asks me nicely...with a please and a thank you. Lately after I say, "Are you asking me or telling me?" He has started to say, "First I was going to tell you and then I was going to ask you." Hahaha, I'm sure that's the case! He is also REALLY into the "why?" questions and it's driving me crazy because most of the time I JUST DON'T KNOW! Hahaha...just today he was writing capital "R"s and he showed me his paper and asked if he did it right. I said yes and then he said, "Why?" Hahaha, how on earth do you explain to a 4 year old that that's just how Rs are meant to be. The person who created the alphabet just decided that that is what they wanted the letter R to look like. Hahaha, my mom told me to try to direct it back to him and ask him why he thinks that. He gives me answers like, "Because I think that..." but will ask me again and then won't accept the same type of answer from me, hahaha!

Tripp playing tee-ball :)

The 2 year old is so cute...but has lately been on a "mommy" kick. She's been going into the city for work and he's been asking for her all the time. But when she's home, I don't know how much to let him go upstairs when he wants her and how much to keep luring him downstairs. Oh well...I'm sure she'll tell me if it's ever too much!

Garrett wearing my sunglasses :)

Anyway...last weekend I went into the city. My friend Aubrey is now living in New York for 6 weeks doing and internship and so I went to the city with her and her mom...since I REFUSED to go alone! I took the bus in at 10am Saturday morning. It was $30 round trip and my boss paid for it, which I wasn't expecting her to. I got in to the city around 11:15am and Aubrey and her mom were meeting me at Port Authority Bus Station. That place has WAY too many escalators and way too many ways to get to each floor! We were on the phone, but had NO IDEA where the other person was! It took us probably 20 minutes to find each other! That was pretty much the hardest part about our whole city experience!

Our first New York Subway experience ever!

When we found each other, we made our way outside. Directly in front of us when we stepped outside was the New York Times building. We walked through Times Square to get to the subway we needed to take to get down to Battery Park. We planned on coming back to Times Square early to explore before I had to come back for my bus! We were all expecting the subway ride to be way longer than it actually was. We went down to Battery Park and took a couple pictures as wee made our way to the ferry. There was a HUGE line to get on the ferry...when we went to buy tickets, they told us it would probably be an hour and a half wait in that line, in the 85 degree weather. Aubrey's mom bought a discount book which had luckily put her in the Reserve line for the Statue. The lady said that we could go with her, even though our tickets weren't Reserve. We waited in line for probably 30 minutes before we were through security and on a ferry. We walked around the statue and went to the gift store. Aubrey was talking about how she takes a "jumping picture" in about every place she has been. So we decided to do one. Pretty much I am horrible at these. It took us like 3-4 times to be in the air at the same time! We finally got it and then as we were walking back, we saw this kid that had a shirt on that said, "Been there, jumped that." Needless to say, because of our previous conversation, Aubrey really wanted a picture of this kid's shirt. It was on the back of his shirt, but he was rarely turned that way so we could see it. After following him for at least 2-3 minutes trying to get a good picture (yeah, we were pretty creepy...) Aubrey's mom went to his parents and asked if we could take a picture of his shirt. They were all for it, but the little kid was NOT. Hahaha, Aubrey got shut down...it was pretty creepy, but also pretty funny...all three of us chasing an 8 year old boy around hahaha! After we saw the Statue of Liberty, we went to Ellis Island. We were really disappointed that, unlike "Hitch" led us to believe, you can NOT ride jet skiis right up to the dock on Ellis Island, AND the whole book is NOT available to look at in the Registration Room. It took us a lot longer than we expected and we got back to Battery Park at 4:15pm.

We decided we wanted to try and be "real tourists" for a picture. We also decided that one day we are going to both buy "I (heart) NY" shirts and get strings for our camera and buy the foam Lady Liberty hats and where them everywhere...however we will most likely get mugged when we do this! Hahahaha!

These masks were at the Ellis Island gift shop!

We then walked to the World Trade Center site, but there wasn't much to see...just a lot of cranes and construction because they are building a memorial. I thought there was going to be more to look at, but oh well! However, on our walk there, we saw Wall Street and Trinity Church. And there was a "carnival" going on. At least that's what they New Yorkers said was happening. I don't know if it was what I would call a "carnival." There were no rides...just booths of food, jewelry, scarves, clothes, t-shirts, and purses. It was pretty sweet! But we were on a mission so we didn't stop and look too hard! :) It was really crazy though! Everyone was pretty much selling the EXACT same things, but everyone had a different price! It was so weird!

After that, we had made plans to go up to SoHo to check out the shopping and have dinner. We got up there and there were people EVERYWHERE. We didn't know where to start. We went in to H&M and LOVED it, but it was so crowded that I didn't feel like really SHOPPING...just looking. After that, we tried to look for a place to eat, but decided to just go back to Times Square. Aubrey and I were a little unprepared for SoHo. We're going back this weekend with lists of places we want to go to and hang out in so that we can get the full experience! I am so excited!

We went back up to Times Square and walked around this time. We got into the Times Square area around 6pm. We looked around for a bit...at all the things we wanted to do sometime. The ferris wheel in the middle of the Toys-R-Us is DEFINITELY on the list! :) We tried to go and eat at a place a cop suggested, but they were full and were only taking reservations. The Hard Rock Cafe had an hour wait, and by this time it was 6:45pm and I was supposed to be back at the bus station by 7:45pm so I could catch my bus. We stopped at a place that sold slices of pizza, salads, and sandwiches instead....mentally planning on going to the Hard Rock some other time. When we were all done eating, it was 7:30pm, so we decided to go back to the train station. We were all SO EXHAUSTED...and my feet hurt SO BAD! We sat and rested for a good 45 minutes and then my bus showed up.

I saw Leonardo DiCaprio outside (his wax sculpture, anyway...) and I have LOVED him since his Growing Pains days, so I made it my goal of the day to get a picture with him! There were millions of people around him the first time we were at Times Square, but not so many the second time around so I was lucky! :)

Anyway...so I get home that night and post all of my pictures on Facebook. I wake up to a comment by my friend Stef saying that it was a good thing I wasn't there when it was being evacuated! I was SO confused, so I Googled it. Sure enough, it was evacuated because of a car bomb. My boss talked to me the next morning and told me that it was supposed to go off at 6:30pm...which is EXACTLY when I was there! Wow. How crazy! But one car bomb didn't scare me away from the city! :) I have lived through my first terrorist threat in New York...hopefully something that scary doesn't happen again!!!

I am going to the city again on Saturday and staying for Sunday and going to a singles ward with Aubrey for church! I am SO excited! We need to find cute/rich boys that will take us to the Cirque du Soleil because I have always wanted to go, but don't want to pay for it! Hahaha! :)