New York City...

We took the best vacation to New York City last week. The trip was a present from my parents to Mark and I for Christmas and our graduations (Mark's graduation present is just three years early). My parents, my two younger sisters and Mark and I all went. It was soooo much fun, and there is so much to do. It is a whole different world out there (especially for someone from Wyoming!) I couldn't believe all of the people, everywhere, ALL of the time. It is definitely the city that never sleeps.

I have lots of pics, so I hope you enjoy. I would recommend going to anyone!

Oh, and you'll see my 27 week belly in the pics...

Central Park- Central Park was beautiful and it went on forever! We walked around it for about an hour and only saw a very, very small portion. It was really neat because there was fountains and lakes and old buildings all over. It was neat because it was really quiet and pretty in the park but you could look out and see the busy city surrounding the park.



My parents in Strawberry Field at Central Park. Strawberry Field is where John Lennon from the Beetles died (I think...)



Here is a street that runs through central park, and there were taxi's EVERYWHERE!



My mom and I in front of a huge lake in Central Park.



Jonna, Mark, me, and Dad standing at the top of the stairs of an old bridge in the park.



Turtle Pond (Central Park). We looked down and saw a bunch of turtles just chillin' on the rocks and swimming in the muddy water.



The Museum of Natural History- This is the museum from "The Night at the Museum". It looks a little different than on the movie of course, but it was such an amazing museum. I think we spent two hours in there and we still did not see everything. Here is just one wall in one of the numerous rooms and halls.



This is the "Dumb, dumb" statue from the movie. It was huge!



This is the Subway. I was a little nervous to ride the subway, but it was actually really fun and it only got a little eery after midnight. It was a great way to get around and even though we got lost on the different tracks the first night, we had it down by the end of the week (thanks to Mark and Mom)!



This is from St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was a beautiful building, with very intricate detail and interesting statues. This is the staircase up to where the priest preaches (I think... I'm not quite sure how it all works.) Everything was very elaborate.



Dinner at Carmine's. Carmine's is an Italian restaurant with AMAZING food. I have never eaten better Italian food. Everything was real Italian, not what I thought Italian was before eating at this restaurant. YUM!! Thanks for dinner Mom and Dad!!



At the Hershey's store in Times Square. Yes, that is a real candy bar. No, the syrup container is not real, it is a piggy bank. But the whole store smelled like chocolate. We bought some dark chocolate Reeses and some Reeses Selects with really creamy peanut butter. MMM!!!



Wicked on Broadway. It was such an amazing Broadway show, and I would definitely watch it again if I got the chance. Wicked is about the how the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz became the Wicked Witch and it gives you a whole new perspective on the story of the Wizard of Oz. Thanks Mom and Dad for the shows!! (We also saw Mary Poppins and Phantom of the Opera).



Times Square after the show at around 11:00 pm. It was always packed with people- all day and all night.



This is a picture of Wall St./ The Financial District. We saw the New York Stock Exchange building and this huge American Flag.



This is the skyline of Manhatten from the Statten Island Ferry. Instead of going to the Statue of Liberty and waiting in a really long line, we just took this Ferry and it went right by the Statue of Liberty to Statten Island.



The Statue of Liberty from the ferry.



Mark and I on the ferry as we passed the Statue of Liberty.



M&M World. This store was three floors high and they had every color of M&M's imaginable.



China Town- China Town was dirtier than I expected and it smelled kind of funny, but it was still cool to see. Little Italy is right next to it and we ate Italian Ice there. Mmm....so good. It's like a mixture of shaved ice and ice cream, but way good.



The Brooklyn Bridge on our way to Grimaldi's Pizza. The bridge is huge and we actually walked across it on our way back to Manhatten. Grimaldi's Pizza is a tiny hole in the wall restaurant with the best pizza ever! Frank Sonatra would order pizza from this place, have it frozen and then have it shipped to Vegas when he would perform there. We waited an hour and a half to get in and then it only took us 30 minutes from the time we sat down until the time we got up to leave. The pizza is not like any pizza I have every tasted, and it was worth the wait!



The Intrepid- The Intrepid is a retired aircraft carrier and had some really neat aircrafts on it. We also got to walk through the inside of the Intrepid and see where the crew worked and slept. We are standing on the Intrepid in front of a stealth fighter jet.



It was a really fun trip and we would go back again! Thanks Mom and Dad for such an amazing gift and vacation.

Oh, one last really funny story. So I HATE airplane rides and I was not looking forward to the many hours we spent on planes at all. On our first airplane ride, we were sitting on the runway and I had my eyes squeezed shut and I was squeezing Mark's hand. The pilot was reving the engine and this is what was said, (remember, I had my eyes closed)

Me: "Hunny, are we going really fast?"

Mark: "Um, no, we haven't moved yet."

Yeah, so that was the quote of the week.....