NEW YORK CITY

We finally made a New York City trip happen! Taylor has lived out there for a long time and we’ve never been able to get out there but we were determined to make it happen this summer. We actually left the night before the last day of school so the kids missed their last day but we had a few days around Memorial Day before Kayli had to be back for school things. We were so lucky to stay with Taylor now that he has his own place with extra bedrooms. Part of the fun of this trip was just hanging out at his place at night playing Unlock games and watching movies that take place in NYC like Enchanted, National Treasure and In the Heights (Taylor lives in the Heights!)

This was Sami’s first plane ride! She didn’t love it. And as soon as we got off the plane and to a restaurant for food- she puked.

We flew to New Jersey and then rode the ferry past the Statue of Liberty. The kids were super excited to see the Statue of Liberty. My pictures don’t do it justice- it was pretty cool to see!

We got off the ferry at Battery Park and the kids were mesmerized by the skyscrapers. Our first stop in Manhattan was Liberty Bagels!

Next we surprised the kids with…Taylor! He works right by where we were out so he came out to say hi!

Next we went to One World Observatory where we went all the way up and could see the sights of the city. The elevator ride up was so cool. We thoroughly enjoyed doing this!

Trinity Church was very cool as well. This church is in National Treasure and it’s where Alexander Hamilton is buried.

Some other fun things…

One of the coolest things we did on this trip was go to the 9/11 Memorial Museum. The museum is so well done and it’s such a reverent, quiet place. The kids loved it too. Kenny and I could have stayed for hours longer reading everything there was to read. We’ve read all about the Survivor Tree so that was cool to see too.

Our first pizza by the slice… Joe’s Pizza, and it was delicious!

Wall Street…

Day 2: we went on our first subway ride and it was a success! Trey became an expert with the subway system and was pretty sure he could get himself around the city without help. We were laughing the whole trip about it because- he’s probably right.

I was VERY excited to make a stop at Levain Bakery. These are my favorite cookies!

I loved walking down the streets of the city to each of our destinations. Our next stop was the Natural History Museum which was incredible. My favorite part was the building itself! The architecture is absolutely beautiful! The kids liked finding rooms from National Treasure and the big whale that everyone talks about.

So fun to visit Central Park. We mostly just explored this first time around! We liked finding movie sites from Home Alone, Enchanted and Friends.

We walked by the Plaza Hotel, Lincoln Center, and walked the streets for more pizza. We also walked by the temple but it’s being renovated and so you couldn’t even tell it was the temple!

Fun at Taylor’s that night…

We went to the NYC visitor’s branch for church! It was a pretty cool thing to do and I loved the building!

St. Patrick’s Cathedral was incredible!

Shopping at the Lego Store… the coolest Lego Store and we spent a ton of time there!

More shopping… Nintendo store, Nike Store, M&M Factory, FAO Schwartz, Disney Store, MLB Store…

Rockefeller Plaza and more pizza…

Magnolia Bakery, NBC Studios, Radio City Music Hall… such a fun part of the city!

Another highlight of the trip (although it’s hard to pick highlights because everything was awesome!) was going to a Broadway play! We chose to see Aladdin and it was perfect for the entire family. The small theater was so beautiful and the architecture was amazing. The acting and music were incredible. We loved this so much! I would love have to have seen more plays!

Times Square was so cool to see but not my favorite part of NYC. The lights and everything are amazing but there were too many people! It was the one time I felt like I needed to hold kids’ hands!

Kenny’s family told us we had to check out Empanada Mama’s… lots of thumbs up!

More highly rated cookies… but Levain wins in my book every time!

The next day was super fun because Taylor and Addison joined in on the adventure! It was so cool to have tour guides with us- they have lived in NYC for 10 years and they really know so much about the city! Taylor actually got injured the first night we were there and wasn’t able to work- which kind of worked out for us because even though he had to hobble around to hang with us- we got to have him around! We went to see the Brooklyn Bridge (and all the other bridges on the way coming down from their house). The bridges are incredible to me.

And yes we rented a car and drove around NYC because we are crazy! It’s actually one of Kenny’s favorite parts of the trip- driving the streets with all the other crazy drivers. But it worked out really well for us having a car and we still experienced walking the streets of NYC plenty- and got some subway rides in as well. We purchased parking ahead of time based on our itinerary and for the most part it worked out really well! The hardest part of driving our own car was actually finding parking on the street near Taylor’s house but Kenny loved the long walks back and to experience The Heights culture- just like the movie!

I was so excited to check out The Strand bookstore and it did not disappoint. I could have spent hours in there!

Loved looking at the brownstones…

We went by Chelsea’s Market for Los Tacos No. 1 and shopping and then Taylor and Addison wanted to show us the coolest park…

The High Line was also very cool!

Walked to Madison Square Garden, Macy’s on 34th Street, and saw the Empire State Building!

Grand Central Station…

Beau was super excited to find the NHL Store…

I had read about how much fun the Stardust Diner is but that the waits are usually super long. It’s basically dinner and a show with waiters/singers that eventually make it on to Broadway! They sing Broadway hits while they serve dinner. We decided to give it a shot and got in line thinking we’d wait a long time on Memorial Day and with a party of 8. However, after just a few minutes they called us out of line because they had a table for our party of 8! We got so lucky and it was such a fun time! The singers were so talented, the food was fine but overall the experience was wonderful. It was definitely a fun NYC thing to do!

Really wish we could have seen Wicked on Broadway… maybe next time!

Taylor and Addison had us each paint a square on their visitor board so that was fun to do one of the nights. Also, when the kids heard that Taylor and Addison had a cat they were a little worried about staying there but by the end of the trip most of them were best friends with that cat!

Taylor adventured with us the next day as well because he was still injured! We went to Yankee Stadium because we love to find stadiums and what an iconic stadium to find! I’m obsessed with Sami in her Yankees hat…

Went into the New York Public Library… I just love the architecture in these old buildings!

The Museum of Modern Art was next on the agenda. We really wanted to see The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh that is there. The kids have all learned about this painting so it was cool to see the original in person!

Fun building and more pizza…

We went back to Central Park to scooter since it started raining the first day we were there but it worked out because we had Taylor with us this day! We went back to Levain on our scooters, went by the Central Park Zoo for Trey (it was closed- but we hadn’t planned on going to it anyway!)

More exploring the city… we came across tons of fire trucks… there was a fire in one of the buildings! We drove around and looked at more of the Brownstones near Central Park.

Our last night at Taylor’s was so much fun. Kenny had gone to the bodega right outside of Taylor’s building every night to buy treats and sometimes Taylor would disappear and come back a few minutes later with popcorn he had just bought at the Bodega too. The kids liked going up to the roof and checking out the view. The kids loved playing more Unlock games and hanging with the cat and the adults loved ordering Thai food and watching more NYC themed movies. Taylor and Addison were the best hosts and we seriously had the best time visiting them!

We had to say goodbye the next morning…

We left NYC and drove up to Palmyra. It was cool driving through beautiful upstate New York, seeing the Erie Canal, and Syracuse.

We first stopped at the Hill Cumorah which I loved! It was raining which seemed to make it extra peaceful. It was so neat to think about what happened here.

Palmyra temple…

The Sacred Grove was so cool as well… we walked through and were the only ones there and it was still lightly raining which I loved. Very cool to think about what happened here too!

We found the Grandin Printing Office to be so cool! We took a super fast version of the tour which was perfect for us. Learning about how the first copies of the Book of Mormon were published was super interesting!

Drove by the Martin Harris home…

We saw Niagara Falls from the American side… didn’t get over to the Canadian side for the better views but still so cool to see! Had to go by the Buffalo Sabres stadium for Beau and then headed on our flight home!

This was such a fun trip! It’s one we will never forget and we’d love to get back to NYC again!