Anniversary Trip to NYC

This coming Wednesday - July 21, 2010 - Andrew and I will celebrate our 9 year wedding anniversary. NINE YEARS! We seriously cannot believe it. I feel like we were just meeting in college, just dating for 3 months before getting engaged, just almost making our mothers faint when we announced our quick engagement the day before college graduation and just walking down that l-o-n-g 250 foot aisle in Packer Chapel at Lehigh University. And now, 9 years, 2 houses, 1 (late) dog, a few -eh - pounds for both of us, and 3 children later we are still the same in-love people we were nearly a decade ago.

So, this past weekend we went to see my parents on Friday night and left early Saturday morning for a weekend in New York City alone while they watched the kids for us. I grew up right outside of NYC so I've been there hundreds of times before and also used to work there. But, living so closeby, I have only stayed overnight a handful of times for work or to visit friends. So, we decided it would be a fun getaway for us together and also one that would be convenient for us to leave the kids with my parents.

Friday was my mom's birthday so as a little birthday gift and thank-you for watching the kids, the boys and I made her this cookie bouquet. Benjamin decorated the pot and helped make the cookie dough, Nate decorated the cookies with me and they both had fun making a mess out of the floral grass as we assembled it.

Andrew and I left early on Saturday morning for New York after saying goodbye to everyone. It was the first time we have ever left Nate or Abigail and we have not left Ben since he was 11 months old. What the heck is wrong with us - lol?!?! :)

We decided to go to the Museum of Natural History for the afternoon since we both have not been here in over 20 years, we enjoy doing things like this together and a large, air-conditioned building that would take several hours to get through sounded PERFECT on this 100 degree day.

The Rose Center for Earth and Space and the Hayden Planetarium were two of our favorite areas. The boys would have loved seeing the planets and space shuttles but it was nice to be there without having to refill sippy cups and answer seemingly endless questions :)

Of course the dinosaurs were another favorite. This was the only thing I even remember about this museum since I was less than 10 years old when I was last here. I distinctly remember being amazed by this dinosaur, even before Night at the Museum made 'ole T-Rexy famous.

"The Big Rhino" as Ben refers to the Tricerotops....

...and "Spiky Guy" as he calls the Stegosaurus :)

We next spent some time meandering through Central Park. We love it here; it always makes you feel like you're not really in the hubbub that is Manhattan. Such a perfect day!

Andrew in Central Park.

The famous NYC boathouse.

Me, having a quick soak of my feet in the fountain after a full day of walking (in bad shoes, as Andrew always says, when I don't go sensible) :)

Andrew at his favorite store! We always think mega stores that seem like they should be stand-alones are so funny in the middle of a city. Of course we had to go inside and take a peek.

We stayed at the beautiful New York Helmsley Hotel on 42nd between 2nd and 3rd. It was lovely and, even better, we got a great deal on it at an online discount site!

Having a late dinner in the City at a little French restaurant we discovered.