New York City (day 1)

Kevin and I have been saying for years that with living only 4 hours from NYC we need to take the kids down to see everything and attend a Broadway show. We finally decided to act on our words and invite Kevin's parents out to go with us for their 40th wedding anniversary. So Kevin called up his dad and asked if he would like to do this. His dad was thrilled because 50 years ago he lived in NYC and was stationed at Fort Hamilton in the army. We were so thrilled that they were going to join us. We just love having grandpa and grandma around. We drove down to New Haven, CT (2 1/2 hours) and took the train into Grand Central Station (2 hours). Kevin and I like going into NYC this way because you don't have to fight all the traffic and you just arrive right in the center of the city. We took a subway over to our hotel and dropped our bags and Brooke was thrilled to see that there was a Book of Mormon in the drawer next to the bible (of course we were staying at a Marriott). Then we went into Time Square and took Kevin's parents out to dinner at one of our favorite Italian restaurants just right off of Broadway called Bella Vita. It has excellent food. We then all got to see Mary Poppins. I purchased the tickets on line and purchased the very cheapest which had us sitting in the nose bleed section up on the 2nd balcony. When we got to the theater they told us that we had to check with the box office. Kevin went and found out that they had moved us to the mezzanine section and they turned out to be great seats. Amazing! Mary Poppins was a real joy to watch. The sets were incredible and they were well worth the $37 we paid for each seat. The kids just loved it and it just all made me so happy inside. After the show we walked back to Time Square to eat cheesecake at Roxy's and it was raining just a little bit but we all made it okay. We had to take 2 cabs back to the hotel because there were so many of us, but I have to say that with the company and everything that went on that night it was one of the best evenings of my life. I just love being with my family.

Here we are on the train from New Haven to Grand Central and then the subway.

We put Brooke in charge of Carley and she took this very seriously.


Carley was so excited to see Mary Poppins. She still sings "Practically perfect in every way".

A little rain, cheesecake and subways never hurt anyone, except Natalie. She did not like being on the subways. She said that they were too crowded and smelled bad. Carley had a rough time too. She kept asking when we were going home.

Here we are on day 2 at the Statue of Liberty and up on the observation deck there. Zack was sad because he tried to hike himself up on the edge to look over and we pulled him down and told him that he could fall to his death. He was mad at us.