girls trip....

This past weekend, I went on a girls trip to NYC with my sweet friends Dawn, Anne, and Ashley. I've been so excited about this trip because, well it's no secret NYC is my favorite city! I have to say, this trip was different because it was the first trip to NYC that I've ever been sick! I don't know if it was sinuses or a cold, but I looked like rudolf the whole trip and sneezed and blew my nose more times than I could count. Regardless of being sick, we had a blast! 

Friday, we started our trip with lunch at John's Pizza[my favorite pizza in NYC]. We did a little shopping on 5th ave and had our make up done at Henri Bendel's. We went back and got ready for dinner and ate dinner at Fig and Olive at 9pm and ended the night at the rooftop of the Empire Hotel. It was such a gorgeous view. We stayed out late Friday night, so we slept in saturday morning which was SO NICE!

Saturday, we shopped and ate! We had brunch at Bubby's, shopped in Soho and the east village. We went on a cupcake tour that was a total bust, so we skipped out after the 3rd bakery and instead bought gelato and crepes:) If we weren't full enough from all the food we'd had that day, we finished the night off with dinner at Dos Caminos! 

Sunday, we walked the high line, walked through Chelsea Market, shopped a little in Time Square and ended our trip where we started, with lunch at John's Pizza:)

It was a great trip! We shopped and ATE the whole time:)

 we got photo-bombed by minnie mouse;/

 This was the size of our cupcakes...

annual labor day trip...

Over Labor Day, we went on our 7th annual Labor Day trip with our good friends from college, the Burns and the Newmans. We go some where different every year. This year we went to the beach, and we couldn’t have made a better choice! The kids absolutely loved it and had the best time together! It was so nice to see them all play together. When they went to bed, we played our annual card games until we couldn’t stay awake any longer and ate lots and lots of cookies:) The last night we ate 29 chocolate chip cookies;/ Annie Rice and Ashlynn became best buddies. They look very similar and had the same bathing suits, so we had to do a double take sometimes to see who was who. We also got a good glimpse into what having 2 girls is going to be like:) One minute they were best friends and couldn’t get enough of each other, the next minute they were fighting and upset. Regardless, they had a great time playing together and Annie Rice has prayed for all of her “friends from the trip” every night since we’ve been back!

We had such a good time and we are so thankful for our friends! We’ve already started planning next years trip;)

 Annie Rice and Ashlynn

 the whole crew[I was on the phone when this picture was taken;/]

most memorable vacation ever...

Well, our beach vacation this year was certainly the most memorable vacation I've ever had, AND one I will never forget! Annie Rice was so excited to go the beach...She still had a great time, but I wish she could have at least PLAYED on the beach! Yep, we spent the whole week AT the beach, but not on the beach. We didn't even get to walk on the beach because the weather was so cold, nasty, and rainy, AND WE ALL got the stomach bug. Not just any stomach bug...Some got the 5 day bug, some got the 24hr bug, and some got the 36 hr bug. I bought 2 beach buckets on Monday, and unfortunately, everyone used them this week for throw up buckets;( It's probably the first vacation, where I came back with only 1 load of laundry, because we didn't get to wear any clothes we took. BUT despite the challenges, we did still have a good time even if we did stay at home on the couch most of the time:) I was reminded of this verse all week...

Proverbs 16:9 "We can plan our steps, but the LORD determines our steps."(LTV)

 We attempted the beach...but didn't make it but after the wind storm. These pictures tell you how bad the wind was. 

our trip to NYC...

Our trip to NYC was my favorite trip yet. I absolutely LOVE the city. I know it’s not for everyone, but for me, it’s my favorite place. I dreamed of going to New York growing up, and I had the chance to go for the first time in 2005 on a college mission trip. I fell in love and literally cried when I had to leave. I’ve somehow managed to go back at least once, sometimes twice, every year since 2005. Kaz has already said I have to take off next year:( I may be able to find a loophole in that:)

We had a great time, and so relaxing. I put a lot of thought and time in this trip because I’ve always wanted to go at Christmas. To be honest, I was a little disappointed in the amount of lights that we saw. There were a lot in certain places, but in some places it didn’t even look like Christmas. My favorite place in the city, is looking at the Plaza Hotel and Central Park. It’s absolutely beautiful to me. Kaz and I love Central Park, so I decided to look for hotels around Central Park, and I don’t think I could have found a better hotel location for us. Our hotel was right beside the Plaza and our view from our hotel room was the Plaza and the front of Central Park. It was stunning. We stayed at the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel. We WILL stay there again. 

We landed Friday morning and after checking in, went to eat breakfast at Sarabeth’s[right next door]. I made reservations because I had heard so many great things about it, and let me just say, it was DELICIOUS! We liked it so much we went back another morning. After breakfast, we walked along 5th avenue, by Rockefeller Center, and in Central Park. We watched the sea lions at the Central Park zoo[one of my favorite things to do] and sat in the park for awhile with a hot chocolate. We went to FAO and found WAY TOO many things we wanted to get Annie Rice, so we decided to just leave with some candy instead, and then went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We ate dinner at STK. We always do 1 night of a really nice dinner. This was our night. Our bill was close to $150 but we did enjoy ourselves and all the delicious food! 

Day 2: Saturday

We walked A LOT this day. We went through all the Christmas markets at Bryant Park and walked down to the high-line and ended in the meatpacking district. I had heard a lot of great things about a mexican restaurant in meatpacking called Tortilla Flats, so we ate lunch there. It was good, but not great. I wasn’t impressed but the atmosphere was great. We walked through lots of shops around Soho, Greenwich village, etc. When I travel, I always look at On Vacation Location, and found out Zach Efron was filming a movie around where we were. It wouldn’t be a NYC trip without me celebrity gawking a little right? So we sat for about an hour around where he was filming and then after about freezing to death, decided to keep walking. He was inside a building, so we never saw him. We had dinner that night at Da Andrea with Kaz’s uncle and family and had a great time catching up and spending time with family. The spaghetti was SO GOOD!

Day 3: Sunday

This was my FAVORITE day there. It was so relaxing. We slept in late, and had brunch at Serendipity. For dessert, we had one of there famous frozen hot chocolates. I have decided, I MUST got to Serendipity on every trip from here on out to NYC. The decor and atmosphere is so fun. 

After brunch, we took a LONG nap! We got up and got ready to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. It was a WONDERFUL show! We ended with pizza at John’s Pizzeria. OUR ALL TIME FAVORITE PIZZA place EVER. I’ve gone there[usually more than once] on every trip to NYC except 1. 

Day 4: Monday

We had breakfast at my favorite breakfast nook near Time Square, db Bistro Moderne. There french toast is amazing:) After breakfast, we did a little more celebrity gawking of Blue Bloods. Again, there were filming inside, but it’s still fun to look! We went in Macy’s and Bloomingdales, and then relaxed a little more at the hotel before going BACK to Johns’ pizza:) Monday was a very COLD and rainy day. We picked up dessert on our way home, and ended the night with a movie:)

Day 5: Tuesday

We had half the day before it was time to leave the city. We went back to Sarabeth’s for breakfast. Again, SO GOOD! We grabbed our hot chocolate and spent the remainder of our time in Central Park. 

We had such a fun, fun time. I loved seeing all the lights, and walking through the city. We also ate really really good!  It was a much needed trip for Kaz and I, and I don’t know how it could have been any better.  New York is a magical place to me, and I hope the Lord continues to allow me to make more trips in the future. 

exhausted...

AND THE BEST PART OF OUR TRIP, coming home to see our girls! Maggie Ruth rolled over for the first time while we were gone:( And we told Annie Rice, we had a surprise for her and she kept thinking it was a candy cane or chicken and fries:) Sweet girl. We gave her a marshmallow sucker! She LOVED it!