Dustin and Kristen

So Dustin's sister Jamie lives in New York City! What a fun experience to have. Since we can't live there, we're just going to have to do the next best thing and visit...often! She lives in a real nice apartment complex right by Battery Park. Lucky girl to have such a nice place! It was fun to see her, Mike and Kieralyn. We even got to be there for Kieralyn's first birthday! Fun Fun Stuff.

So....I LOVE NEW YORK CITY! It's my favorite place ever. Dustin's only been there a couple times for short one day visits so this was his first real trip to NYC. It was so much fun. When we got there Saturday, it was freakin' cold!! Sunday was cold, but not too bad. In fact that night I took my hat, scarf and gloves off while in Times Square. Monday while we were by Columbus Circle there was a sign with the temperature on it and it said 65 degrees! (but down by battery park where Jamie lives it was so windy) Crazy. It was colder in Thatcher! Then Tuesday, it snowed most the day. Funny weather!

The Statue of Liberty

So I've been to Libery Island a few times and even up the Lady herself once, so it was Dustin's choice as to if we took the ferry across or not. He opted for not. So we just admired her from a distance one evening. The Sunset was beautiful and the lighting on the buildings around us was so pretty. Really a lovely night to admired Lady Liberty.

Times Square/Rockefeller Center area

Times Square. Holy People. The place was packed with people. I've never seen it so busy (aside from when I went to the Thanksgiving day parade or what you see on New Years even on TV!)
Rockefeller center was a worse mad house because everyone is trying to get into this one small area. It was a mess just like times square. People EVERYWHERE. We went Sunday night and it was so busy. We probably would've been better off going Monday or Tuesday, but oh well.

Radio City...Someday I'll see Dave there...someday.

St. Pat's Cathedral. We didn't go in...just looked as we walked by.

Central Park!

We only have this one picture in Central Park...I just didn't take more I guess. Well a few more, but not many. I LOVE Central Park. We ate a hot dog there. I love a hot dog in Central Park.

FAO Schwartz

FAO Schwartz Toy Store is the one in "BIG" where Tom Hanks plays the piano. I've actually never been here, so it was kinda fun. Just a huge toy store. They had these guys made from Legos which was kind cool. I defintly don't have the patience for something like that.

Dustin & his good pal Darth.

Me & the Harry Potter gang.

The Empire State Building

The top of the Empire State Building. I've been up day and night in the past, but I prefer night because I love the lights! It's so neat. It wasn't too cold, but when you go to the south side (i think it's the south side) the wind blows like a mother! It's crazy wind. You'll see in pictures below.

See? Holy Windy.

Washington Square

I've never been here before so this was something new! We just stopped by real quick. It was night so we took pictures and rolled on.

Other Random things....

The Museum of Natural History. It was fun and we got in for free! (Mike gets 5 guests in from his company he works for)

SNOW! We were walking around and Jamie called asking if it was snowing. We said no and she said it was down by battery park. Well it eventually reached us and they were big flakes! So much fun. The building behind Dustin is the Temple. Kinda fun and cool to have a Temple just right in the middle/connected to all of these other buildings.

My snow picture outside the museum...it had let up quite a bit by time we got out.

Strawberry Fields forever...

Ice Skating! My goodness was Dustin a train wreck out there. It was fun. He only fell 5 times or so, but he looked like he was going to fall a lot! He tried some tricks here and there (mainly just jumping straight up and down and trying to scrape the ice when he stopped). It was hilarious. In the end he was able to pull of the triple axle he told everyone he would do. What a talented husband I have.

We had to wait for them to clean the ice so we snapped a couple shots.

Kieralyn's Birthday Bash!

We go to be there to celebrate Kieralyn's first birthday. For lunch Dustin insisted we take her to McDonalds for lunch. He wanted to corrupt her eating habits. We got her nuggets and fries and she didn't like either! What a crazy girl!! Who doesn't like french fries!? Oh well, she'll learn. But what she really DID like was sprite. She never had soda before and she insisted it get fed to her after her first taste. It was fun to be there for her party and all. Isn't she a cutie!?

We did a lot more then we have pictures of, but it also was really a laid back trip where we didn't bust our butts constantly going from place to place.

We went to China Town & Little Italy. I think Dustin's favorite thing was China Town. The people are all trying to sell Coach, Prada, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Luis Vuitton knock offs. So you walk down the streets and these little chinese ladys whisper "Hand bag. Coach. Prada. Luis Vuitton" For some reason he got a kick out of that.

My favorite thing is just being in the city. I LOVE the feeling there. Also at Bowling Green and Columbus Circle they have a Holiday Booth thing where companies set up booths with their products to sell. It's real small, but they have some fun little items and cute jewelry. I enjoyed looking at things there. Also I finally got to go to Centruy 21. It's a discount department store and has everything from Gucci to basic brand you find at Macy's all on discount. Clothes, shoes, watches, purses, etc. It's HUGE and so much fun! I didn't buy anything but maybe next time I'm there. I didn't get to go to show like I wanted, but next time for sure! Dustin got off easy this time, next time he won't be so lucky!!

We can't wait to go back again!! Hopefully a spring/summer trip (Or both!) We'll see...

I'm always thankful for the things I have. I am an extremely lucky person who has been blessed with good things in my life. Even in my worst times I don't think I can say I've had it as bad as some do on their best days.

Anyway, so Thanksgiving also reminds me of one thing I'm most thankful for and that is I have to take a photo like the one below, once a year!!

That is all my parents grandkids (and grand-dogs :) hehe) for their Christmas card. Anytime you try to get 13 kids under the age of 11 and 2 pampered dogs together, in one photo, it's a challenge. Then, to do it of MY family is a harder challenge.

My mom picked the location: Candy's Ice Cream Shop - Across the street from the studio. Super cute location. I wasn't sure how it was going to go but in the end it worked out pretty good. When we do something like this I set up the group as quickly as I can, shoot super fast and hope for the best. This is what we came up with and I didn't even have to switch a head! That's really a miracle. Even my kids....eh dogs...are looking at the camera. It went pretty smooth...so in the end, I'm even thankful for all those freakin' kids in my life. They crack me up.