• personal,  travel

    NYC- carriage ride and Central Park

    More from Saturday’s trip in. So after the Gazillion Bubble Show (see post below) and lunch at the Cosmic Diner, and a walk over to FAO Schwarz (see other post below), we walked over to Central Park to have a carriage ride. Yes, I know it’s a rip off. But it’s fun and is very New York City and you have to do it at least once in your life. Even if you live here.  And, most importantly, the boys really liked it!

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    You see all kinds of interesting sights in the city.

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    And some handsome ones too.

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    Tommorrow, my favorite part of the day…Patrick and the street dancers. Admit it, you want to see those pictures too!!

  • personal,  travel

    NYC day (fao schwarz)

    Second stop on the city tour was a visit to FAO. The big boys had been there once before when they were little, but I don’t think they remembered. I told them all that it was a “looking only” trip, no buying involved. And they actually went along with it.

    Good thing too, cause I couldn’t have afforded anything in there anyway. Like the $27,000.00 Lego Batman.

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    Love the Lego Harry Potter characters.

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    And the Big Piano- always fun!

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    Tommorrow…more of the NYC trip. Stay tuned.

  • personal,  travel

    the gazillion bubble show

    On Saturday I decided to take all the boys into the city for a fun day of playing tourist. After seeing the commercial for the bubble show on TV a gazillion times, I bought some tickets for us to go see it. We combined it all into one day.

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    I was so brave…not only did I drive into NYC (with no accidental side trips to NJ), I took all 3 boys in by MYSELF. John wasn’t feeling up to it (and I don’t think he was into a gazillion bubbles, nor any other number of bubbles to be honest) and had to work. Well, I did it and it was all good. I can definitely do that again.

    The show was really cute and the boys (and I) really enjoyed it. The bubble guy had some crazy background like Vietnamese, Yugoslavian married an Italian girl and lives in Switzerland. Guess you would have to live in neutral territory with that many cultures involved. The things he did with the bubbles were all so cool. And yes, there really were a gazillion of them.  At least.

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    Pictures from the rest of the day’s adventures coming up this week.

    After the whole day in the city (we left at 9:30am and didn’t get home til after 5pm) I shot the Dancing with the Teachers /RVC Education Foundation Gala til 11:30 that night. And somehow I even made it out of my pj’s today. Eventually.

  • personal

    done with this

    From our most recent snow storm. The view from my front door. Something I would be happy not seeing again until December.

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    So completely OVER winter.

    Heading into Manhattan today with the boys to see The Gazillion Bubble Show and do something else fun (still undecided what at this point- maybe a carriage ride or a trip to FAO Schwarz or a run into Central Park).  Should be fun and exhausting. I’m just hoping it all runs smoothly since there are no other adults coming along. And I’m also hoping there are no further accidental detours to New Jersey.

    Then tonight I’m shooting at the Education Foundation Gala where the “Dancing with the Teachers” will be showing their stuff.

    A nice, quiet day planned for Sunday. Gonna need it, I think. Have a nice weekend!

  • disney,  personal,  travel

    florida trip- part 6. (disney studios & a visit)

    Our last day at Disney (and the last day I took any pictures during the trip).

    Camie (my college roommate who lives in Orlando) and I were FINALLY able to get it together so we could visit this trip. She dosen’t travel, so the ony way I get to see her is if we go to Disney. She was able to get us (all 9 of us!) reservations at the Grand Floridian Cafe for breakfast. I haven’t seen her husband Chris in we don’t even know how long…but a long time! The kids got reaquainted very quickly and were soon running around like old friends. After breakfast and quite a bit of chatting we took a loop around on the monorail (my last view of the Castle) and said our goodbyes. It was a very nice (although very brief) visit! I’m still working on convincing her to start flying and coming to ny for a visit next time.

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    Please overlook my lovely roots. I did get my hair highlighted after getting back home. Couldn’t get an appointment before we left no matter how much I needed it!!

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    After leaving our friends, we went over to Disney Hollywood Studios for an abbreviated day. We tried to get Fast Passes to Toy Story Mania (which is pretty much the sole reason for visiting the park.) but they were sold out and I was told they were gone by around 10:15 that morning! The wait was 110 minutes, but we knew we would have to suck it up and wait. In hopes that the lines would get a bit shorter, we went over to see the Indiana Jones show (which the boys loved again- Timmy was so excited he was literally shaking!) and then I took the big boys on Star Tours. Timmy was a little too short still.

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    By the time we got back over to Toy Story Mania, the line was down to 90 minutes. Yes, we waited. And waited.  And waited a little more. But the cue area was really decorated well and Toy Storyish, so at least that was something. And the Mr. Potato Head barker was cool once you got close enough to see him. The ride (we all thought except maybe John) was worth the wait. It was so much fun. Next time, we’ll get there earlier and get those FP’s right away so we don’t have to wait 90 minutes for a 4 minute ride.

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    Instead of taking us a little over 3hrs to get back to Hallandale like it was supposed to, it took almost 4.5 because someone had to go to the bathroom. every. five. minutes.  Seriously, we stopped at every single reststop on the Turnpike between Orlando and Ft.Lauderdale. We ended up eating dinner at Padrinos at 9pm. Whatever, it’s vacation.

    Regardless, can’t wait to go back!! Hopefully next year. I can’t stay away from Disney for too long.