fhe at its finest...

in our church monday nights are reserved specifically as family time. we called it FHE or family home evening. for FHE today we went around NYC on a double decker bus tours... but before that we found our day starting on the subway once again... this time you can see that mom was a little on the happier side than the day before... yay!

we perused times square... went around here and there. jackie and i revisited one of our favorite childhood stores... Sanrio. but this was called sanrio luxe. its the only "hybrid" store of its kind in the world. i bought olivia a hello kitty new york photo album to put her pictures from our trip in... and drum roll.... one of those old school plastic wallets that i used to beg my parents for as a kid. sweet!

later we went to madame tussauds for some smoozing with the celebrity wax figures. Liv loved it. we "met" n sync, bono, jennifer lopez, whoopi, george clooney, michael jordan, etc.

Other happenings that day:

• Ate lunch at Ellen's Star dust diner where olivia was serenaded "i only have eyes for you..."
• took the night bus tour around new york...
• got tickets for the david letterman late show taping
• FAO Schwartz
• Seeing the "Naked Cowboy" in Times Square
  
• Tiffanys
• M & M Store
  

big apple big time!

tuesday was a fun day. to be honest all the days have been really fun. once again we found ourselves riding the subway into lower manhattan. this time it was to times square.

we went and bought student RUSH tickets for the little mermaid that evening and score

...subway...eat fresh

well sorta. today we spent most of our time on the subway! haha. good times.

we started off the morning buying metro passes for the week and figuring out which lines to use to get to our various destinations. my dad and i perfected our "subway" sense on the Underground in London earlier this year. However, the new york subway wasn't as easy with all the closures and such.

so as we were waiting this morning for the right train to come, my mom decided to jump on a train and and check after she got on if it was the correct one. she was yelling at us from the door as we were all preoccupied with our maps and before we knew it the door closed and she was off to wherever all by herself. gosh mom, way to go off and ditch us all there on the platform.

we spent the next hour and a half trying to find her on the subway system! lol. no joke. we told her (through the closed doors) to get off on the next stop and we would follow behind and pick her up. well i guess she interpreted it that as something different. wow. she had gotten off and walked up stairs instead of waiting on the platform. so when we stopped... no mom.

oh and as a side detail she didn't have her metro card because she thought she would lose it and gave it to my dad. nice right? yeah gotta love my family.

we rode the sub down to central park.. still checking at each stop. no mom. no cell service. and no clue where the heck she is. LOVE it! the people who know my mom understand why this is funny and what possible dialogue would follow when we finally all met up again.

so finally we get a hold of her on her cell phone and she is just freaking out about how no one cared about her and how we weren't look for her. you would think we lost her in the amazon or something. she was blaming us all for leaving her out and that we didn't come and look for her. hmmmm. she thought that we were trying to ditch her. when really she was the one that got on the train and left US behind.

anywho... she basically sulked all day even though we told her we loved her and that we were sorry. we did tease her a lot about it. i mean how could you not! it was a great way to start the trip... love you mom.

other than that we hopped on the RIGHT train ALL together and went down to ground zero. i still can't believe it all... its been 7 years. my kids last year were born in 2001 and my kids this year were born the year i graduated from high school 2003. they will learn about this in their history classes.

we cruised the world financial building next door and got gelato. brad had ice cream that tasted like a tree. poor brad. we ate lunch at a little pizza place. yum. then headed up to china town and little italy to explore.

4 trains later.... no i think it was only 2 or 3 we got there. we ate dinner in little italy. then had a nice time trying to get home that night... red line? green line? get off where? no, go this way... are you sure?

made a stop at k mart for diapers and such for little miss olivia who had been such a good baby all day!

second day summary: rode the subway. a lot.

...new york new york...

for my fall break this year i'm out in new york with my family... we all arrived today from our various destinations.

during my first flight i started off my re-lacing my pumas and napped on and off. i stopped in dc for an hour and cleaned out the goldfish that spilled inside my backpack, exciting I KNOW! lol.

When we left DC i witnessed luggage being left behind and in this case a bag fell off the luggage truck and was left in the middle of the tarmac. i watched it just sit there completely unnoticed as we pulled away from the gate. thank goodness it wasn't my bag... but i feel bad for the person whom it belongs to. they had a nice surprise waiting for them at JFK.

my family had already been at JFK for about an hour before I got there. It was good to see them! Baby Olivia and i had fun waiting for our car to arrive and take us into the city.

my dad had mentioned that he had gotten us a limo. and in this case, and for those that know my dad, i'm thinking its one of those bigger bus/van looking things. he said it was a "hummer" and once again i thought he was just being facetious.

well about ten minutes later a white hummer limo pulls up. he really did get us a limo! once again, out of the ordinary for a man like my dad. he's a little on the frugal side, well at least he used to be until about six months ago (mid life crisis maybe; he bought a BMW 750 Li).

i guess here in new york they don't have the same regulations about children restraints in vehicles. olivia sat in my lap the whole ride and at one point stood between my legs and danced up a storm for us.

our apartment for the week is up in Washington heights. we ventured out for dinner and found this yummy bbq place called dallas bbq! oh my gosh the hot wings were so spicy the smell alone cleared your sinuses. the food was delicious and well priced to say the least. we walked around outside columbia's med school which is about two blocks from where we are staying. what a way to get the party started.

...just something that i read...

i just attended a 3 hours training on the 6 traits of writing. here is a piece that we had to score against a rubric for writing... i thought it was pretty fun. i hope you enjoy it.