NYC - Final Day!

Our last day in NYC started out extremely overcast with the occasional drizzle. We were hoping that the weather would mean less crowds at Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, the two spots on our itinerary for the day.

On the ferry ride to Ellis Island with the beautiful view of New York City behind us.

Ellis Island was awesome! What a fascinating place to visit, especially knowing that some of my own ancestors made their way through here as they arrived in the United States.

We each got our own headsets to listen to various stories and journal entries written by the immigrants. Little No did such a great job wandering through the displays.

The Great Hall.

Record books.

Ahhh, Noah! He keeps us entertained at ALL times!

After the Ellis Island tour we took another ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. We were all so excited to see her!

Unfortunately tickets to go up in her crown get sold out months in advance but we were still able to go up to the base of her pedestal. There were tons of interesting displays to look at inside. They have the original torch in there as well.

Outside with a beautiful view of the city. Thank goodness the day had cleared up!

Taking this upward shot of Lady Liberty left me feeling extremely dizzy but I like how it looks!

I love this picture of me and David.

Noah drew this picture of our visit to NYC. Noah had such a great time there and still talks about it. I love how he drew all the tall buildings, our bus, the IHOP that we ate breakfast at each morning, and his Statue of Liberty. What a fun vacation for all of us!

NYC - Day 2!

Due to our late night the previous day, we slept in a little later than we should have and didn't get into the city until late morning. Oh, well, we were on vacation. Once again we got on for another bus tour.

One of our favorite stops of the day was the LDS temple!

One just can't walk the streets of NYC without buying a pretzel from a street vendor, right?  I've seen my Law & Order! 

Pretty tasty!

Our bus tour continued with more beautiful old buildings;

a statue of President Teddy Roosevelt;

the Hudson River;

Duke Ellington;

and other famous spots!

We eventually made our way to the Met where we spent the remainder of the afternoon. Xander was enthralled with the pigeons and didn't quite believe me when I told him he wouldn't be able to catch one. He sure tried but then decided to settle for just a picture with them.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is absolutely amazing! Since it is so huge we narrowed it down to things we just HAD to see. For Savannah we hit the Ancient Near East section since we had covered that time period in her History class.

For Noah it was the knights.

I followed him around as he viewed all the various armor and sword displays and he insisted on me taking a picture of him in front of about 100 of them. I've narrowed the pictures down to just 2 for the blog post.

Xander also enjoyed this section and posed with Henry VIII's set of armor.

Eventually we split up - Jackie to the gift shop, Dave to view paintings, David to corral the boys who knows where, and Savannah and I to Ancient Egypt, our absolute favorite exhibit.

They have an amazing Hatshepsut display!

After the museum we took the kids to Central Park to run around for a while.

Before we caught our bus back to the hotel we stopped at the Cake Boss store and picked up some yummy treats.

Savannah totally approved!

New York City - Day 1

When David's parents were visiting last May we had discussed them coming out for Thanksgiving and maybe heading up for a few days to check out New York City. Dave had never been there and my NYC visit a few years ago had only lasted a day so it sounded like a good plan. Sometimes good plans just remain plans; in this case, we made it happen. The Pierces arrived on a Tuesday evening in November and we were on the road for New York City the next morning. It's a quick 3 hour drive up there so, once we arrived, we checked in to our hotel, ate some lunch, and grabbed a bus into the city.

At the bus station, ready to start our adventure!

We decided that the best way to see as much of NYC as we could with kids in tow would be to take a tour bus. The buses make periodic stops where you can get off and explore the sights if you want. When you're ready to move on, you just jump on the next bus. We were able to see most of the city this way. One of the first stops we made was to check out this beautiful cathedral.

Another stop was Ulysses S. Grant's tomb. Unfortunately the tomb was closed that day for some unknown reason but it was still nice to check out the beautiful building and walk around a bit.

We were able to see a lot of famous buildings, like The Guggenheim...

and lots and lots of beautiful old buildings that I just could not resist taking many pictures of. I'll be kind and only post one picture out of the numerous amount I took.

By early evening Noah was tuckered out!

After an afternoon of sightseeing, we headed over to Times Square.  The kids insisted that we just had to stop at the M&M store.

Each of the kids took the scanning test to see what their M&M mood color was.

Back on the streets we saw a lot of famous people, including this one!

We had a delicious dinner at Bubba Gump's. Savannah tried on Forrest Gump's famous tennis shoes!

Although the night was absolutely frigid, Noah had been begging ALL day to go to the Lego store which happened to be several blocks away, near the Rockefeller Center, so off we went. It was amazing to walk the streets of New York with all the thousands of people and the towering buildings. I made the kids look up from time to time, just to check out how amazing the skyscrapers are! On the way we got to see Radio City.

The famous Rockefeller skating rink! I was amazed at how small it was.

And finally, the Lego store!

One happy little boy! The store was pretty cool with all the displays made entirely of Legos. My favorite was the Lego dragon that went all throughout the store.

Dave really wanted to take a night bus tour so he could see the Brooklyn Bridge so around 8:00 back we went onto the bus. I can't even explain how cold it was that night and poor Xander had refused to wear his big coat that day so he was freezing. He huddled with his grandma down below but the rest of us braved the top deck so we could see the bright lights of NYC! The Empire State Building.

And the Brooklyn Bridge!

After seeing the Bridge I just couldn't take the cold anymore and Noah and I hurried below. David and Savannah soon followed but Dave persevered and remained up top for almost the rest of the tour. Unfortunately I think it was that exposure that brought about the terrible cold and cough he developed a few days later. We ended up not getting back to the hotel until late that night but it had been a fun and fabulous first day!