Part two: NYC!!!

We checked out of our hotel around noon and we headed up to NYC! It was fun driving in places we had never been before: Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey. David drove the whole time and did awesome. The kids did great in the car. We had to bust out some old fashion crazy songs to keep them entertained for a little while. Traffic was absolutely crazy as we approached the Washington Bridge to get into the city. I was freaking out to David about how cool it was that he was actually driving in NYC!!! We arrived at Billy and Becca's apartment, and unloaded our whole van into their apartment. It was so great to See Billy!!!! Becca got home and we were so happy to see her as well! Billy and David went in the van to find a free parking spot on a street. We visited and got to meet Mary and Pippin, Billy and Becca's house cats who are brothers, and are potty trained to use the toilet. My children instantly loved the kitty's and gave them TONS of attention. 

The next morning Becca had to work so Billy took us around town. Hazel caught on to the subway pretty fast and wanted to hold onto the bar like everyone else.

Billy showed us his favorite hot dog place for lunch, They were great!

Then we went to Magnolias bakery and had the yummy banana pudding that tempted Billy and Becca away from being 100% sugar free for 7 months

That night David and I went on a NYC date while the kids stayed with Billy and Becca having all kinds of fun playing super smash bros! We went to time square and saw all of the prep for New years eve.

Then we shared a New York Pizza! Yum. When we got back we had fun visiting with Billy and Becca. They made us laugh sooo much! They showed us the pretend neighborhood that they created in the sims computer game. They had a street that had homes that they had built that were modeled after their childhood homes. Billy made our house in kearns perfectly!

Central park

 On December 28th Hazel turned 11 months. The statue of liberty is behind her but you cant see it.

 Billy took so many great pictures of our family, it was so nice of him! He is really good at taking pictures. We have the exact same camera so he gave me some really good photo tips.

We got to walk across the Brooklyn bridge. It was awesome!

 When we got across the bridge we found a great bagel shop. This was my favorite food that we ate our whole time in NYC it was so good!

 The children loved the bagels too.

After the bagels Billy and Becca went to Julliard so that Billy could practice his french horn. We went to China town. Asher and Bridger found some Pokemon cards in a little store, and chose those as there NYC souvenir. They were thrilled and so excited to open them. I then thought that I would need to help find something for Titus that he might like. I asked him what he wanted and he immediately showed me a cute little panda that was one dollar. He held the panda most of the rest of our time in NYC. We saw little Italy. All of the restaurants with homemade pasta looked amazing! Next we saw grand central station then walked over to Rockefeller square. This was the night bore new years eve. So everyone who was planning to be on time square on Saturday and at Rockefeller sq. this night. It was packed and crazy, but still magical. We watched the 5th Ave. light show, and as we watched it began to snow:) The music, lights and snow were so wonderful and memorable ( we didn't have a camera on us) Then we hopped on the subway and made it back to Billy's apartment.

It was fun staying in Billy and Becca's apartment. I feel that we got a real New York City feel. We slept in the living room on a mattress, on New Years Eve there was a fiesta going on in the living room above us. We could here the ladies high heel shoes hitting the floor as they welcomed the new year with lots of dancing. The mariachi band music was very load, but we managed to fall asleep. Billy said that he always feels bad practicing his french horn in his apartment, but he wont worry about that anymore.

 

 We went to central park on Sunday, after church.

 The Belvadere castle is behind us.

 Subway family!

 Billy made NYC pizza for us. He has always been a great pizza chef and now he is perfecting his skills in NYC.

On Saturday we had been playing at a neighborhood park just down the street from the apartment. It was right by the Hudson river. We walked up a very neat path and saw signs for The Cloisters museum. I started to get very excited because this seemed to be something that I really wanted to see in New York City but didn't know if I would ever find it.

Going back to July of this year... We were reading a magic tree house book that takes place in NYC. In this book Jake and Anne go to the Belvadere castle and then to the cloisters museum where they use magic to bring the unicorn Dianthus to life. When we read this book I thought "When we go visit Billy and Becca I really want to go to that museum"

When we got home from the park I asked Becca about the museum and she told me all about it and how much she really loved it. We decided that we would go there first thing on Monday morning before we left to drive back home.

 This museum is part of The Met and is a collection of Medieval art. We couldn't touch anything, and there were security guards all around. My children really enjoyed this awesome museum and so did David and I. We were all excited to see "Dianthus" It was so serene.

We packed up the car and said our sad goodbyes and made the long trip home. Billy and Becca were such sweet hosts to our family and we loved being with them!