Day 5 in NYC

The kids woke up early every morning and Hannah made them a smoothie. Jovie would change out of PJs into "painting clothes" and paint with Hannah.

 

 When we finally talked the kids into venturing out into the world, we rode the subway downtown.

 We looked at the holiday windows in the Empire State Building.

 

 

 Jovie ate a big apple in the big apple.

 The kids had hot dogs from street vendors almost every day. Mustard for Jovie and ketchup for Ikey. 

 We walked in the American Girls Store on 5th Avenue and she yelled, "American Girls! Seriously?!" Her dad got her a little yorkie dog named Sugar.

We went to FAO Schwartz and Ikey picked up a pack of NYC cars: taxi, FDNY truck, NYPD car, FAO delivery truck.

 We rode the glass elevator at the apple store.

 Ikey and Jovie snatched a camera and took selfies with their new toys.

We ate Thanksgiving leftovers and spent more fun time with the Laydens.

Black Friday in NYC

We started out driving with Mitch, Ron and Hannah across the Brooklyn bridge to her studio. They dropped us at DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass) to check out the sights.



See the little tiny Statue of Liberty?

Zoom in!

 Jovie rode the 1920 Jane's Carousel.

The kids played at a little playground while we waited for the East River Ferry.

We walked around the financial district and tracked down the One World Trade Center, which was just certified as the tallest building in US.

That evening, we the guys and I walked down to Bloomingdales in Midtown and I found that the streets and the stores were full of black puffy coats. Also, high-heel ice skates.

We split up when the guys went to Home Depot and I went to Dylan's Candy Bar where the stairs are paved with gummy candy.

Emma got us tickets to a comedy show and I was a little star-struck when we arrived at Upright Citizens Brigade because I've certainly heard of it. It's like a farm team for SNL.

 We saw "The Stepfathers" and they were a pretty impressive improv team.

 Marsha watched the kids while we went to the show, and we found them tucked sweetly into bed when we came home.

Thanksgiving

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Are we ever thankful? We are. Everything for us is great and don't we know it!

 Marsha made a wonderfully delicious traditional meal and Scott carved the turkey.

Jovie wanted to say the prayer, and it was short and very sweet: We're thankful for our food and our friends and we miss our family that isn't here. Everybody teared up a little at that one. There were thirteen people at dinner: Scott, Marsha, Sarah, Hannah, Mary, Emma, Mitch, Ron and the Burrows from Utah, and Andy from Chelsea via University of Wisconsin.
After dinner, lots of people cuddled up to watch Christmas movies...

 and lots of other people sat at the table getting silly.

Struby is a kindred spirit when it comes to our views on gun control and capital punishment, and yeah, we did go there at the Thanksgiving table. =)

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

My family watched the "Macy's Day Parade" every single Thanksgiving morning and my dad would steam bagels on the stove and my mom would tell us that she once ate bagels "straight from New York City". It's one of my very favorite family memories from my childhood, and we've kept it up, with (usually) everyone getting together for parade and bagels in the morning. So when Todd said that we were going to NYC for Thanksgiving it was one of the happiest days of my life. (It's a long list  - I have a pretty happy life =)

The weather was really threatening to rain so hard that we'd be flooded out, some of the girls' NYU classes were cancelled, and there was a lot of talk of grounding the balloons for the parade. I was hopeful that it all would work out, but I did send Todd to Duane Reade to get some plastic ponchos in case we had to stand in a downpour for hours. Because I would have stood in a downpour for hours.
On Wednesday evening, we rode in a cab with Ron across Central Park to the American Museum of Natural History where they were inflating the balloons.

We inadvertently skipped over a crowd-control barrier right onto the street covered with the balloons in various states of inflation. It was raining, chilly, and crowded, so the guys carried the kids on their shoulders. This was a dangerous precedent to set, and the kids expected to be carried everywhere they went for the next week. We saw the brand new Wizard of Oz balloon, Spiderman, Dough Boy, and lots more.

It is amazing how many people can move around the City at events like this. Next time I experience gridlock walking out of a high school play with 200 other people in SLC, I'll wonder what New Yorkers know that we don't know.

When it was time to head back to Layden's house, we found that the crowd-control barriers were intended to lead us to a balloon-viewing line that snaked around several blocks and weaved up and down a neighboring street. We stayed in the queue this time and walked the 2.5 miles it took to go 1.6 miles back to the Layden's. Ron and Todd said later that they were a little nervous walking through a pretty empty kind of spooky Central Park in the dark. Jovie must have felt weird too, because she shared this jewel with Ron: "If I see someone I don't want to be friends with, I'll just stab them." I wasn't nervous, that's the luxury of being the woman with two big guys. If they weren't there, I would have been nervous enough that I wouldn't have been there.

On Thanksgiving morning, Isaac popped up in bed before 7 am and exclaimed "Oh man! I forgot to wake up early!" He ran into the kitchen to find Marsha and told her, "I'm so sorry I'm late. I just forgot to wake up." Marsha made him some toast and set him up with a Christmas movie, and assured him he hadn't missed anything. 

I walked across the park at about 7 am and passed the "Imagine" mosaic, passed Tavern on the Green, and found a spot very near the barriers at 67th Street and Central Park West. The crowd started to fill in about a half hour before the parade and packs of roving clowns came by throwing confetti. The family in front of me said they woke up at 4 am to come in from Long Island and asked if I'd come far for the parade. I said I came from Utah. The mom said, "We've never met anyone from Utah. Have we, guys? That's strange. Huh."   
The parade started and the windows of the apartments along the park started filling up with children in pajamas and warm adults with coffee cups.

I sent Todd my coordinates and he said he was bundling up the kids and heading out with Ron.

When Todd arrived, the crowd was about ten deep and Todd didn't want to face the wrath of parade-goers who stood out in the cold, so he stayed back and passed the kids up to me.

 

The balloons were very cool, the Cirque du Soleil float was the most interesting, I always love a marching band, and most of the other floats had performers who weren't performing at the time: The Roots, Kellie Pickler, Kristin Chenoweth, Ariana Grande, Fall Out Boy. It was funny to see the Ocean Spray Cranberry guys because I wouldn't have considered them celebrities until I saw them and let out a cheer, then I knew. The loudest cheers were for the Duck Dynasty float. Funny.

Here's a movie with all our photos from the Balloon Preview and the Parade: http://youtu.be/fKlPJXw0RzQ      

        Todd and the kids watched for about an hour, then headed back through the park to the apartment.

I saw Santa come through on a very tall float, and I stayed until the very last entry was long gone.  The parade was pretty much exactly what I expected and I LOVED IT. I'd definitely go again. I'd try to make friends with someone in a high-rise apartment next time too.