NYC

I've never been to New York City before this weekend. It was quite the experience. My first impressions of it were pure chaos. Mostly it was due to the 6 hours of driving in a snow storm and then being overwhelmed by the city. We took a shuttle that ran next to our hotel but it wasn't marked well nor did it look official at all. We didn't really know where we were going so we followed the crowd who did lead us to the right place. Then we got onto the subway. I figured the subway would be no problem... I've been riding the Metro for four years. Well, it would probably take me the next four years to figure out how to use the subway. Shaun, on the other hand, seemed to understand everything right away and got us to Rockefeller Center on the first try. I don't know what I'd do without him. Once we got into the city and actually looked around, it was very pretty. I've never been to a city with such tall buildings, so many lights, or so many people! My favorite thing there were these lights on the wall of Saks that blinked with the music of Carol of the Bells. If I hadn't had cold babies with me I would have watched a dozen times before moving on. We saw outdoor ice skating performances and the huge Rockefeller Christmas Tree. And with all the things we showed Alex that first night, what do you think he liked best... the subway. Big surprise.
The next morning was much more relaxed and now that I'd taken New York public transportation, it didn't seem so scary. We took the kids to Central Park. I loved the park. It had snowed the day before so everything was covered in white. Alex was glad to be out of the stroller and playing in the snow. We took them to a few toy stores which were the coolest toy stores I've ever been to. We got them a hot dog from the vendors on the street, which were delicious. We kind of had to get a hot dog since we don't know anything about the city and when we were hungry we could never find food! They were good anyway. Our biggest challenge was keeping the kids warm. I brought gloves and extra hats, sweaters and snow boots, but they were still freezing the whole time. Also, my kids have pretty set schedules so when nap time came and went they started to act like it. I didn't dare bring my big double stroller so we sat them in front of each other in my big single. Without fail, the little extra warmth would knock them out. I have a few pictures of them sleeping like this.
We were both excited when they fell asleep since it meant we could walk to stuff they would think was boring, like the Empire State building and Park Ave. I really wanted to see The Plaza from the Home Alone 2 and the Bow Bridge from every other movie filmed in NYC. I took this picture for my Starbucks obsessed sister when we stopped to get a hot chocolate.
The last few hours we were there we walked to the biggest ToysRUs I've ever been to. It is right in Time Square and it has a ferris wheel right in the store! We asked Alex if he wanted to ride the ferris wheel. "No, I want to ride the train." Fine, we took him down to the subway and rode back and forth on the blue A line for an hour. I think it was his favorite part.
Because of all the rain and snow we didn't manage to see the Statue of Liberty, but I"ll save that for next time when I hope to go with a local who knows their way around and hopefully catch a Broadway show.