New York

A few years ago, my brother took a position as Worship Leader and Assistant Pastor at Encounter Church in Stamford, CT. And 3 weeks ago, I became Aunt Ally!! So Ryan and the kiddos went down to Chattanooga (thanks for watching the kids while Ryan worked, Julie & Robert!!) while Mom, Dad, and I flew to New York for a few days to meet THE William Walker Wade!!

We flew out of Chattanooga and had a connecting flight in Atlanta. (Does that make sense to you? Fly South to fly North?) We got to eat at a little bar that overlooked the airport that I thought was neat-o!

On the plane headed to NYC!!!

This is the last thing I expected to see in New York--a license plate that says "Sevier Co. Tennessee"!!

We didn't get to Chad and Meg's apartment until close to 9 pm, but Will was awake and ready to greet us!

(99% of these pictures are from my camera phone since I didn't want to pack my Nikon, so please forgive me for the poor quality of these pics!)

Although Will was our #1 reason for flying hundreds of miles, I had not been into New York City since before 9/11, so we convinced Chad to take just me and Dad on a fast-pace tour of the city on Monday! Will dressed appropriately to send us off...

 We caught a 9:00 train in Stamford and were on our way to...

 ...Grand Central Station!

No, Chad is not peeing here. Ha! The way the architecture is in the hallway of Grand Central, you can talk normally into the corner and hear the other person across the room. It really worked!!
(Chad learned this trick on a tour one year.)

 We walked out of our first Subway stop to see this. I took this just for my firetruck lovin' little boy! 

Times Square

(See the New Year's 2012 ball at the top?)

Toys R Us in Times Square has a ferris wheel inside! Really!?!?

These next 2 are completely out of Legos. Amazing!

 The real Empire State Building:

 No time to go in/up, just got off Subway, walked to it, and got back on Subway! We were seriously bookin' it to see all we could see by 3:52 when our train left again!

 My main reason for wanting to go into the city: Ground Zero. Which isn't really Ground Zero anymore. Here's the Freedom Towers they're building in place of the Twin Towers: 

 Both towers: 

 We got to go in the 9/11 Memorial Store, but the visitor passes to visit the site were all out for the day (bummer!). But I did get Gavin my favorite souvenir of the trip--a FDNY shirt! It was really sobering going in there to see the timeline of events from 9/11, and especially standing in the street where so many of the pictures/videos were taken. I truly cannot imagine.

Our next stop was walking down The Brooklyn Bridge:

 

Our next stop was 5th Avenue. I am a huge "Celebrity Apprentice" fan, so I was stoked to go in Trump Tower!!

"Celebrity Apprentice" setup in the lobby with bike that Paul Sr. from OC Choppers made for Mr. Trump:

I always expect to see somebody famous while in NYC. Although I have no clue who this is, this chick (model maybe?) was doing a photo shoot down 5th Ave with lots of photographers. Anybody recognize her?

I have never been in this store, so I was so excited to go in! In High School with our American Studies class, we took a trip to NYC but the girls went in Tiffany's while the boys went into FAO Schwarz. Ryan got me a bear that we still have in one of the kiddos' rooms. :)

The Sorting Hat from Harry Potter:

The famous piano!! I didn't really play a tune, I just slid back and forth:

My very talented brother, on the other hand, played the theme song from Rugrats:

This picture of the 5th Ave Apple Store (where people wait in line for hours to get the new gadgets) was for Ryan:

Last stop: Central Park

We hustled back to Grand Central, hopped on the Stamford Train at 3:50, which left at 3:52!! I mean, we could not have fit anything else in, people!! Whew, we were worn out (especially new dad Chad) but it was so fun!

Tuesday we went to a nearby beach/cove, but it was quite chilly so not even our feet went in the water!

Meg stayed back on a bench with Will, but she's technically in this picture because Chad is on the phone with her. :)

We took lots of pictures Tuesday night. Here's the new family of 3!

Nani and Pop and grandbaby #3:

We held this little guy as much as we could!

We flew back home on Wednesday.

This is not a staged picture--this is really how I found my parents when I came back to our gate at LaGuardia Airport!! How technologically advanced they are. :)

The Chattanooga flight was so empty, I had an entire row to myself! With a book and Starbucks...now that is the life!!

Chad and Meg, thanks for letting us invade for a few days!! I sure love love love your little dude and can't wait to hold him again in August!!