Utah and New York Part 1

My sister Andrea and her family that graciously let my kids stay at her house! Thanks Andrea!!

We spent the week of the 9th getting ready for our cruise. I wanted to be sure that the kids were going to be comfortable and Andrea was ready to take care of them without being totally overwhelmed. We also did a little shopping, watched baseball games, played games with family, and Jason even did some golfing. We even realized the day before we were leaving that we booked our return tickets one day too early. What a big and costly mistake!!! Jason got on the phone with the airlines and tried to talk his way out of the change fee but unfortunatley weren't able to get the fee waived. That is one thing we will never mess up on again! On Thursday the 12th we got the kids all packed up and ready to go to Andrea's. Tanner was so excited for his sleepover....little did he know it was going to be for 10 days!! I was so worried about leaving all the kids but I was especially worried about Paige. She is such a daddy's girl and doesn't really like strangers all that well. I know my sister isn't a stranger but we don't see her all that often. It was so difficult leaving my kids, I had to pretend to be happy but I was dying inside. We stayed and made the last minute instructions, and gave the kids one last hug and kiss and we were out the door. It was so hard to leave them I knew that they would be fine. I fought the tears the whole way back to my parents. We got our luggage and my mom and day took us to the airport to catch our flight to NYC. Jason got us the red eye flight so that we could spend a whole day in the big apple.

I forgot how uncomfortable it was to fly....especially when our seats were in front of the emergency exit row and didn't recline. It made it difficult to sleep....so needless to say we were thrilled to land in Newark, New Jersey. We got our luggage and headed for the bus to drop us off in the city. Jason did an amazing job of planning all the details and we didn't even have to take a taxi. We walked from the Port Authority to our hotel which was right in Times Square and we were able to check in early. That was so nice to have a place to sit for a bit before we decided to go and explore. We wandered around Times Square and then headed toward Rockefeller Center.

We stopped and ate breakfast and then happened upon the Today Show Summer Concert Series where we were able to hear Kenny Chesney sing a song. Too bad it was the last song but still we got to see it! We headed back to the hotel for a little nap before we did any other exploring we were both so tired. After our nap we headed toward Central Park and made a few shopping stops along the way...

we then walked back and we were starving so we stopped and got some food at a little shop. It smelled so good and it was nice to sit down and eat. We headed over to tkts and got tickets to see Hairspray, and then got tickets and toured the city from a open topped bus.

We headed back to the hotel and got ready for the play and then walked over to the theatre. It was really funny Norm from Cheers was the mom and was hilarious. We enjoyed it but I still liked Wicked better!

After the theatre we headed out to get a snack before bed...we hadn't eaten dinner but didn't want to eat a lot because it was so late. So we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe and got a salad and Jason got a dessert that was so good! Then it was off to bed for us...it had been a fun day but we were exhausted!!