Thanksgiving in NYC

I've always wanted to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We live just 4 hours from NYC, so it's a very doable trip. So, when we found a killer deal on a hotel room on my favorite Travelzoo website, we decided to go for it! We packed the kids up in the car Wednesday morning and were in the city by lunch time.


That night we headed out to see all of the balloons being blown up.

Here's Tanner in front of a really big Smurf.

Lacey watching the parade with her Daddy and Papa.

And here's our view of the parade. Lacey was thrilled to see Micky Mouse, but the thrill was followed by great disappointment that there was no Minnie Mouse. Luckily, Dora wasn't far behind so we could move back to the "thrill" stage.

After the parade, we returned to our hotel for nap time and then headed out for Thanksgiving dinner. We found a great little place that had a special Thanksgiving menu and it was a definite highlight of the trip. Here we are with Dave's parents who, thank goodness, accompanied us on this trip. First of all, it was nice to be with family on Thanksgiving, but secondly, they were a HUGE help with the kids!

And of course no trip to NYC is complete without a few celeb encounters. Here is Hugh Jackman shaking Dave's hand. I'm taking the picture, but I was too close to Dave to get him in it. However, if you look closely, you can see them shaking hands at the bottom of the picture and you can see Dave's orange hat in the upper left.

And here's Daniel Craig. Who doesn't love to meet James Bond?

And the delightful Catherine Zeta-Jones.

And Jennifer Love-Hewitt (she was at the parade).

So, those are the highlights of the trip. But here are my thoughts on the trip for posterity's sake, since this is basically my family scrap book/journal. Am I glad I did it? Yes. It was fun to be in NYC, I loved seeing the parade and some of the behind-the-scenes things that go into the parade. However, would I ever do it again? Absolutely not! Unless we had tickets to sit on bleachers and our kids were much older. The crowds were horrendous and it was really stressful to try to keep track of the kids, especially Tanner who had about a 5 minute attention span for the parade. Also, about half-way into the parade, as I'm lifting Lacey on my shoulder to see the parade, I feel something wet. Oh no! Yup, sure enough, Lacey's diaper was leaking through her pants.... and it wasn't pee. I was stuck in a crowd of about a million people. I somehow managed to wiggle my way out and found a bathroom, which was no easy task. And by the time I finally made it to the bathroom, Lacey's diarrhea (from the antibiotics she is on from an ear infection she was diagnosed with last week) was literally covering her pants from the waist band all the way down. Panic!!!!!! I thought I was being a responsible mother by packing diapers, wipes, snacks, sippy cups, etc. But I didn't bring an extra pair of clothes because it never occurred to me in the 3 hours we would be away from the hotel that I would need a change of outfit. I honestly didn't know what to do. But I couldn't put the pants back on her. So, I changed her diaper, went through my whole thing of wipes cleaning her up and then walked out of the bathroom with my almost 3-year old in nothing but her Dora coat and a diaper. She's not happy about this and is screaming "Pants! Pants!" as we walk out of the bathroom. I ignore the stares and keep walking with the Lacey soundtrack at my side. Thank the good heavens, we were by the Time Warner Center, so we look around in there. The stores were closed - it's Thanksgiving. Oh no! More panic. But then I noticed a store was open. Benetton. They only had adult clothes. Oh no again! But then the nice lady at the counter told me that there was also a Benetton for kids right around the corner and it was open. Hallelujah! So, while we missed the last part of the parade, at least my 2-year old had pants again! So, there you go..... Never a dull moment!

103

= the number of bags of leaves we have in front of our house after raking today. This is the half-way point.


We finally stopped when the sun went down (after starting at 10am).



Dave and his mom proudly displaying the results of their hard work! And the reason why Dave is with his mom instead of me is because, sadly, I can't take any of the credit. I spent my day taking Lacey to gymnastics, hosting a baby shower and taking care of my sick baby T, who is battling a cold. And the only thing in the world he wants is to be held by his mommy.... every waking second of the day!

Anyway, as you can see from recent posts, due to being out of town and having cram-packed weekends, we have gotten a little behind on the yard. We have over 30 trees in our yard. We can't afford to get behind! So, this morning Dave called his sweet dad and asked him if he could help him bag some leaves since I was busy with the kids and the baby shower I was hosting. His dad showed up, rake in hand at 10am.... and didn't leave for 6 hours. Unfortunately he left before the "103" picture. My mother-in-law joined in about half-way through and between the 3 of them they raked the entire yard. Unbelievable. So thank you to Dave, Rita and Larry for spending their ENTIRE day raking and bagging leaves. Our yard looks 103 times better :)

Beantown

We just returned from spending 4 fabulous days in Boston! The last time I was in Boston was 14 years ago when I went to visit my college roommate, Kelli, who lived in Belmont. And Dave has never been and has always wanted to visit this beautiful city, so when Jet Blue announced a sale for $19 tickets to Boston, we jumped at the chance! Here we are in Boston's Public Garden.

Day 1: We started out the day in Boston Common, the oldest public park in the United States. It also happens to be the starting point of The Freedom Trail.

The State House was our 2nd stop on the 2 1/2 mile, 16-stop Freedom Trail.

About half-way through the trail, Dave turns to me and says, "So, when do you want to turn around?" My response: "What are you talking about? We are finishing what we started!" Now, 2 1/2 miles may not seem like a lot, but when you are toting around a 1- year old and a 2-year old in the wind and cold, it's a lot! So, we compromised and took a break at Quincy Market where we had lunch and Dave tried the Boston Cream Pie.

Paul Revere's house. He was living here during the time he set off on his famous midnight ride in 1775.

We did it! The last stop on Freedom Trail, Bunker Hill Monument.

And not only did my wonderful husband stick with me and finish the whole thing, but he then stayed with the kids so that I could climb the 294 step monument. I wasn't about to get all the way there and not climb to the top!

Aside from the $19 tickets, another major reason we went to Boston is that we have several friends in the area, including our good friends Mike and Brittany. They also have a 1-year old and 2-year old, so we all have fun getting together! The live in an awesome building with a Movie Theater that they reserved for Friday night. The kids loved having their own movie chair and I loved that they could run around and be noisy and it didn't matter!

Saturday.... it STORMED! Needless to say, our original and admittedly rather ambitious plans of heading to Martha's Vineyard didn't happen. We weren't quite sure what to do, but our dear friend Brittany told us to leave our kids at her house and to do some things on our own. So, we headed to Fenway Park. I love baseball, and this is the one major-league park that I've been dying to see. I would love to see a game there some day, but this was definitely the next best thing - touring the park. It was great! We sat in the press box, the famous Green Monster and the Grandstand seats.

We also were able to see my cousin Scott as well as Dave's college friends Brittney and Emily as well as my good friend Cami (not pictured). We ate at Border Cafe in Harvard Square and enjoyed an "inside" tour of Harvard from my cousin, who is a student there. It's amazing where a Harvard ID can get you.....

And on our final day in Boston, we started out at the Boston Public Garden to enjoy the beautiful weather. I love this little monument, dedicated to Robert McCloskey, the author of the famous "Make Way for Ducklings" book. I grew up on that book!

The kids may not have appreciated the monument in the same way, but they sure had fun playing on it!

And last, but certainly not least, we spent the remainder of the day at the Boston Children's Museum. The kids absolutely loved it! We were sad to leave beautiful Boston behind, but are grateful we got to see and do as much as we did. And thank you to all of our wonderful friends (especially Mike and Brittany who even let all 4 of us spend a night at their place!) for being such wonderful hosts and tour guides!

The White House.... From the INSIDE!

I have lived in the DC area on two separate occasions for a combined total of nearly 6 years. As a result, I have seen the White House literally dozens of times. However, the one thing I have always wanted to do but haven't, is to go inside the White House. The only way to do it is to write to your Member of Congress and get "on the list." I started this process over the summer and finally got an email stating that we could go inside the White House the following Saturday (yesterday).

State Dining Room

East Room (the largest room in the White House). Seven Presidents have lain in state here. Also included in the tour were the Library, Vermeil Room, China Room, Green Room, Blue Room, Red Room and the Entrance and Cross Halls including the Grand Staircase.

Following the White House tour, we decided to have lunch at Old Ebbitt Grill. Dave and I have had our eyes on this place for a while, but the timing has never been right. We finally got the opportunity to eat there yesterday and loved it! The food is fabulous, the service is great, the atmosphere wonderful and the history incredible. It is located across the street from the White House. Founded in 1865, this "saloon" (the oldest in all of Washington) has served countless Presidents, diplomats and political leaders.

This is the table we sat at. The place was actually packed, but considering Tanner got ketchup all over himself and the tablecloth and Lacey was busy yelling at Tanner every time he took her crayons, I thought it best to use a picture from the Internet instead of the "actual" picture.

That is the short version of our day. For those of you that actually care about the longer, much more stressful version, read on: When I submitted names to go on the tour of the White House, I included my in-laws because I thought they would enjoy it as well. After literally waiting for months for these tickets, we finally got the okay just a week before we were scheduled for the tour. As a result, we had enrolled Lacey in gymnastics and it was her first day. We didn't want her to miss her first class (9:00am) and thought we could do both since we were told we didn't need to be at the White House until 10:45. As Lacey and I were rushing out the door for gymnastics, Lacey slipped and fell on the juice that Tanner just spilled on the floor. Luckily, she recovered after the initial melt-down and we were able to enjoy our time at gymnastics before rushing out of there early to pile in the car with Dave, Tanner and Rita and Larry to head to DC. We cut it too close. We got to the White House area at 10:45 on the dot, so Dave and Larry dropped off me, Lacey and Rita and we ran to the White House while they parked the car. We arrived at the White House only to find an insanely long line. "Good news" I thought to myself. "Dave gets to see the tour after all!" Dave, Larry and Tanner joined us in line. However the good news turned to bad news when we realized that the reason the line was so long is because they stopped the tours in order to wait for Obama to leave the White House in his motorcade and head to the Capitol for the Congress vote on the health care bill. It took him forever to leave, but admittedly, it was kind of cool to see the Presidential Motorcade pass right in front of us. However, I don't have any good pictures of it because we were told in our information that the only things we were allowed to bring was a wallet, keys and a cell phone. The motorcade returned an hour later (we got to see that too, from inside the gates) and we were then told we could go inside. However, by this time, Tanner was tired, hungry and poopy. And remember, we have absolutely nothing to resolve any of this because we weren't permitted to bring anything with us. As a result, Dave, Larry and Tanner didn't go on the White House tour. Larry reserved our table at Old Ebbitt Grill while Dave proceeded to lay down our screaming one year old son on the cold, dirty floor of a public bathroom and take his onesie off and throw it in the garbage. The poop was up to his hair. No new diaper, no wipes -- all of this is in the car a ways away. He simply wiped him up the best he could with paper towels and then put his pants back on sans diaper.

In the meantime, Rita, Lacey and I get up to the front of the line. We give our names and show our ID's. Rita's name is on the list as is Lacey, Tanner, Dave and Larry. But no Kerry. What? I'm the one that reserved this! I'm the only one of this whole party of 6 that actually cares about doing this!!! But my name isn't "on the list." I hold my tongue. My first reaction is to plead my case in a raised voice of frustration. However, as I look around at the security covered from head to toe in various forms of ammunition, I think better of it and do as the lady tells me -- step to the side and someone will be out to speak with me. Luckily, someone did come out to speak with me, we got the matter resolved and Rita, Lacey and I proceeded on our much anticipated tour. Lacey was so funny. She was jumping up and down saying "I'm at the White House!"

Anyway, despite all the stressful events leading up to the tour, I'm still glad we did it. Now we can say we've been INSIDE the White House. And it was really fun to eat at Old Ebbitt afterward!

Trick or Treat!

Before taking the kids Trick-or-Treating, we got together with the cousins for some pictures. From left to right: Jacque, Jordan, Tanner, Lacey and Alexis.

This is the only picture I got of the Banana and Monkey together (which was the whole point!) I can't get either one of them to stand still, much less both of them at the same time!

This was Tanner's second Halloween, but last year he was a 4-month old nursing infant. So, it was fun to see him actually go up to a couple doors and hold his little bag. He got tired pretty early on, so I took him home.....

and Lacey went back out with her dad. She wasn't about to turn in early once she realized she could walk up to any house on the block and get candy!

This is a side-note picture. A friend gave this costume to me and I really wanted to use it because I think it is the cutest thing ever! But, alas, the Monkey and Banana idea won out. So, I decided to dress him up as a Bee for a 5-minute photo session so I could at least have a picture since he definitely won't fit into this next year. Happy Halloween!