NYC: Family and Central Park

So our last full day in NYC was filled with family and fun, except for one major mishap.  Patrick's family took the train in from Connecticut.  Lydia was so excited to see her cousins, and the feeling was mutual.

Bammy was tickled to have all her grandkids under the same roof.  And of course, we were all so excited to see Bammy, Aunt Chele and Uncle John.  (Caleb could never say Michele when he first came home from China.  So we shortened her name, and it stuck.)

We made our obligatory trip to Rockefeller  Center to look at the tree.

Then we hailed a few cabs and made our way to Central Park.

A $4 bag of nuts (all 10 of them) was purchased and consumed before we stepped too far from the vendor. Gotta love NYC prices.  Oh well.

We wound our way through the park until we reached our destination: Wollman Rink.  We knew how anxious the kids were to ice skate, it being their first time and all.  What we didn't know was whether the outing would be a winner or end in tears.  I'm happy to report it was a winner!

Well, it was a winner for the most part.  Remember the mishap I've alluded to?  Well, we had quite a scary moment when all the skaters had to clear the ice for the zamboni.  Caleb had taken to ice skating so well that he managed to get too far ahead of me and Madeline (and Michele and Lydia.)  So when we I finally made it off the ice, we couldn't find him!  It seems that he got off at one point (the one Patrick was not waiting at for him), and they crossed paths.  Michele immediately went to the PA crew and had them make an announcement.  At the same time, John spotted Caleb walking back inside the skate rental.  So I raced over and grabbed him.  When he came off the ice and didn't see any of us, he headed inside to look for us.  A lady saw him crying (oh that part killed me) and said she would help him find us.  I still don't know how soon after the lady spoke to him that John spotted him outside.  At that point, I was just so thankful he was safe.  

Thankfully Bammy bought the kids some warm chocolate chip cookies to eat, and thankfully, the whole situation didn't keep Caleb from returning to the ice.

After another round of skating, we packed it up and made our way to Grand Central Station to say good-bye to Bammy, who had to leave early.

After I took the photo above, a kind lady offered to take the same photo but with me in it.

Since I had the shot set up, I willingly gave her my camera, thinking she should be able to take the same shot.  I should've known something like the shot above was going to happen when she initially held my camera out in front of her and tried to take the shot without looking through the viewfinder!  I kindly told her she would have to look through the viewfinder to take the shot, but at that point she had already pressed the shutter down part way and locked the focus on the background and not on us.  Oh well.  At least I'm in a shot, right?

The kids loved to climb all over the rocks.  So we let them.

Just look at that love between cousins!

Lots of hugs and kisses were given and received as we said good-bye to Bammy.  Then we walked back to the hotel from there while the boys went to John's Pizza (I think that's what it was called) to grab some pizza for us to eat back in the room.  The kids had a blast eating and playing while the grown ups enjoying chatting with each other.

The next morning, as we were packing up to head home, Caleb was playing on the bed when that wiggling, barely-hanging-on-there tooth of his finally decided to fall out!

After packing up, we made our way to the airport.

The kids had an absolute blast watching the planes take off.  Did you know that planes are kings, queens, princes, and princesses?  Well, they are!!! lol.

Well, while that might sum up our trip to NYC, I still have a TON of photos I want to share. And with Christmas around the corner, I better see to it that I share them because, no doubt, Christmas will mean a boatload of more images to share!  Hope you all enjoy a safe, fun pre-Christmas weekend!

NYC Days 2 & 3: Into the night

Before I share more about our trip to NYC, I would be remiss if I didn't express the pain I feel for all of the families affected by the tragedy in Connecticut.  I can't imagine the enormous loss they must be experiencing right now.  Death is never easy, even when you're prepared for it.  To have your loved one taken from you without the chance to say good bye?  Well, the hurt goes deeper still.  

Tragedies like this, and Gina's death, continue to remind me that my most important goal as a photographer is to capture the every day moments.  As I've said before, most of our lives are made up of these ordinary moments.  Don't let them slip by without documenting them.  Stop what you're doing and grab your camera.  You'll see in the images I'm sharing in this post that, while some of them scream Big Apple, some of them are quite ordinary.  And I couldn't tell the whole story if I didn't include those small, simple ordinary moments too.

Now on to the photos, which are a mix of big girl camera and iPhone shots.  Last time we went to NYC, we kept things low key at night because Madeline was only 2 1/2 years old.  Being that she's 4 1/2 now, we thought we would attempt some night time entertainment.  That meant keeping things low key during the day.  So the dumplings played with their stuffed animals and watched movies on the iPad.  

I had every intention of doing a wee bit of school like we did last time we visited the Big Apple, but the excitement in the air kept this teacher from focusing! lol

Since we missed seeing the tree at Rockefeller Center the night before, we decided to head over there on the second night.  It was a pretty short walk from our hotel.

I snapped this quick shot of Patrick with the kids on my iPhone.

And then Baba insisted  I pull my big girl camera back out of my bag so he could play photographer and snap a shot of me with the dumplings. Looks like I'll be turning him into a photographer sooner rather than later.

We love eating at Wu Liang Ye for dinner when we visit the tree at dinner time because it's simply delicious Chinese food.  After we finished up dinner, we headed back to our hotel room to freshen up.

And then we walked right back out the door and across the street to the Minskoff Theatre to see The Lion King!

We absolutely loved it!  And I was impressed with how well behaved Madeline was during the show!  She really listened carefully and kept quiet throughout the performance.  I was shocked. lol.  She's always so loud.  The costumes were incredible.  The only downer for me was that the character's lines were too similar to the movie.  It was a little bit different than the movie but not by much.  Oh well.  It was still a winner.

So, as I mentioned earlier, we really thought Caleb was going to lose his top left tooth.  So I snapped this shot of his "old smile" one last time, or so I thought.

Day 3 went on like Day 2....very low key during the day.  Then when Patrick finished up his meeting (oh, I think I failed to mention this part yet; Patrick was in meetings all day), he wanted to head back over to the tree because his iPhone had died the day before, and he wasn't able to capture a photo of the kids in front of the tree.  So we headed back there again....this time in the rain.

We passed by the Fox News Studio as we headed back over to Rockefeller Center.  That's Bob Beckel in the suspenders, and Dana Perino is the blonde to his left.

And since it was still raining, I snapped the dumplings in front of the tree with my iPhone too.

It continued to rain as we tried to catch a cab on our way to the Upper WestSide, but we had no luck, with the cab or the rain.

We stopped to get Caleb a pretzel to hold him over until dinner.  Unfortunately, it was like a hockey puck.

Well, we weren't just going to stand there in the rain and hope to eventually catch a cab during rush hour.  So we walked all. the. way from Midtown up to Lincoln Center in the Upper West Side.  Well, three of us walked..in the rain.  Patrick carried Madeline, and Caleb was a trooper.  We planned on grabbing dinner around there and were thankful that Bar Boulud had a table for us!  I was thankful that the food was delicious...and the atmosphere was loud!  Great.  Madeline fit right in.  I'm beginning to think she was made for the city. lol.  Anyway, after dinner we headed over to Lincoln Center to catch George Balanchine's The Nutcracker! 

By intermission the kids were exhausted, and I wasn't sure if they were going to make it through Act II.  But they perked right up.  Every time Madeline saw a costume she adored, she whispered in my ear that she wanted it.  It was so precious.  Caleb remarked that he liked baseball more than ballet.  lol. He was a good sport.  He did enjoy the storyline; it was just too much dancing for him.  Again, Madeline really surprised me with how well she behaved.  Madeline does not know volume control very well at all.  She's on or off.  So I was so impressed that she actually whispered!!! lol.  Anyway, we truly had a lovely time at the ballet.

And to top off the night, I got to meet up with an old friend from childhood, Alex, and his beautiful and sweet wife, Ileana.  Alex and I went to summer camp together as teens.  We all used to sit around the piano at night as he played song after song, mostly Billy Joel.  We called him our own Piano Man.

We knew back then that Alex was a pretty talented musician, and we had no doubt that he would make it big in the industry.  Well, twenty years later finds him quite accomplished on Broadway. He's won Tony's and Grammy's for his work on In The Heights, and other recent works include Bring It On and Wicked.  Oh, and he's also played for the President, as in President Obama.  Not bad, eh?  We knew he would make it someday, and boy, has he made it.  We're so proud of ya, Alex!

And our trip didn't end there.  We had one more big day in the city!  Stay tuned for lots more photos.  I told ya I took a bunch!