Last weekend we did the drive to NYC to see my younger brother and his wife. It was such a fun day of seeing the sights! The only thing missing was my parents who know the city like the back of their hand and my older brother and his family! In the future we might have to do it again with the whole gang.  New York City at Christmas is so magical.

We didn’t tell the boys where we were going or that we would see Tina and Graham. We got them into the car super early and drove. As we drove in we pointed out the Statue of Liberty. (Jackson has had a fascination with it for yrs) He was so excited when he spotted it. I asked him where we were on our adventure and he squealed excitedly “France!!!) Last he had heard we had seen the one in Paris so he was so confused. He was so excited to find out we were in NYC.

NYC is a crazy city to do with kids in many ways but the people watching alone kept them entertained most of the day. The city was having their Santa bar hop while we were in town from 10 AM on so we saw hundreds of people dressed like Santa and elves, festive costumes, etc…Jackson spotted this gingerbread man as we began the day. A city filled with people in costume was kind of a kids dream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FAO Schwartz was a highlight of the day! FYI if you have a stroller you can skip the line and head in the back door! I remember going as a child so it was fun to take the boys. Owen slept through lots of it but Jackson enjoyed it so much! We were all kind of amazed by the giant candy section.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried to talk the boys into adopting a baby at the pretend baby nursery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a quick lunch we stopped by my cousins new bar in Brooklyn. It’s called Exley if any of you are ever in Brooklyn you should check them out!  They have done a great job with the space that used to be an old garage. The boys enjoyed ginger ale so no worries!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we left Brooklyn and headed to Central Park where the boys ran and played and we watched a street performer doing bubbles and then there was a big bird spotting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we finished the day with a walk through Times Square (rather a push and shove through, it was packed! ). I’ll spare you the naked cowboy pics since this is family friendly. Once we survived Times Square we grabbed dinner and exchanged Christmas gifts. We got dessert at a little bakery called Amy’s Bread. I highly recommend it!   Not one thing didn’t look yummy!

We said our goodbyes and loaded up the kids to head back. We stopped over near Philly for the night and met friends for lunch in Wilmington on our way back. It was a whirlwind trip but so fun.