Day 1
The boys were sooooo excited about the trip. Here they are on the bus from the parking lot to go to the airport.
At the Albuquerque airport
They're getting to be pro flyers!
Talking to cousins on the phone at our layover in Chicago.
I ate a falafel sandwich and Lamoni got a Chicago dog.
We arrived in NY about midnight then had to take a train to a different terminal where we were to get a shuttle to our hotel.
We waited for the shuttle til 2 a.m. in the cold and rain (luckily there was a waiting room inside that we took turns in). We ended up getting to bed about 3:30 a.m.
Day 2
The next morning we woke up at 8 a.m. to get breakfast. The plan was to swim before going to our Airbnb in Brooklyn but we were all too tired (and cold) to bother. So we just ate breakfast and loaded up.
We took a 45 minute Uber to Brooklyn. Luckily Peter got a little nap in. We were this tired about the whole trip!
We stayed at an Airbnb in Brooklyn on the 2nd floor of a house.
Our Uber from the hotel we stayed at the first night to our Airbnb in Brooklyn.
After unloading in our Airbnb and eating lunch we took the train into Manhattan.
We spent a few hours at the Natural History Museum. Benjamin and Lamoni LOVED it. Peter and I thought it was ok.
It was the only rainy cold day we had.
That night we went to see Aladdin on Broadway. It was an experience we will all remember forever! Peter was especially impacted even though the poor guy was so exhausted and nearly fell asleep in the 2nd half and then fell over from exhaustion onto the lady in front of us during the applause at the end!
Lamoni questioned buying tickets when we were planning the trip but he was laughing the whole time and said he was glad we went.
Day 3
We did lots of traveling on trains. Hours and hours. The boys were good at keeping themselves occupied.
Busses were especially exciting since they were different than all the trains we rode.
We spent all of Friday at the Bronx Zoo. It was a really neat experience. Perfect weather and great fun. There weren't any crowds or lines.
Hedgehogs in the Children's Farm
Such a neat neat place. We bought the full experience tickets which were definitely worth it!
Brown bear
Here we are on the 4-D Dinosaur Safari
Digging up dinosaur fossils
Benjamin was our navigator
One of our favorite places there was the Congo. It really felt like we were in a rainforest.
Some of the Congo was indoors but a lot of it was outdoors.
Here is the line to get on the Asia monorail....nobody.
There was a fun playground that we spent awhile at right before we left.
Lamoni had as much fun building in the wilderness area as the boys. I was so happy to sit down!
That night we walked through the Bronx to little Italy. Probably not the best idea.
The boys both fell asleep.
So we got a quasi-date night at a fancy Italian restaurant...
Until Benjamin woke up and joined us. They had homemade pasta, sauces, and bread. Sooo good!
After dinner we walked to the train, which we thought was only 15 minutes away. When we got there, though, we realized it was the wrong train (luckily before getting on it) so then we had another 30 minute walk uphill, pushing the stroller, tired after walking around the zoo all day and freezing cold. Poor Peter was like ice when we finally got to the right train. We would have taken an Uber if we knew how far it really was when we started out. Definitely one of the more stressful parts of our trip but we all had a good attitude.
Then we went to Times Square. Yes, we packed it all in!
We had fun at the Disney store despite the crowds and broken escalator which we had to walk up to get to the bathrooms. That's another story, though.
Day 4
We were all understandably very tired by Saturday. We took a train to Brooklyn and I found a nice cafe where I said bye to the boys and went inside to get a nice warm hot chocolate and have some alone time. I ended up meeting some people from Germany and having a great conversation.
Lamoni meanwhile took the boys to a quaint neighborhood park on the river with a bunch of locals that he got recommendations from.
Dumbo was Lamoni's favorite part about our trip.
We walked along the river on the Brooklyn side.
Got some of the most famous Brooklyn pizza.
And walked across the Brooklyn Bridge!
It was packed with some demonstration, but we managed to get to a quiet spot at the top.
We parked where we had a good view and ate our pizza.
The boys took lots of naps on the stroller.
Next we headed over to the Empire State Building.
That night we took a ferry to Staten Island. Lamoni wanted to see the Statue of Liberty at sunset.
The Statue of Liberty was really pretty coming back when it was all lit up, but we were more interested in the Manhattan skyline at that point.
Day 5
Sunday was a day of rest and boy did we need it! It was General Conference for our church, but it didn't start til noon, so we went to Prospect Park to play awhile in the morning.
This is the street that we stayed on.
Lamoni and I occupied ourselves by playing with the boys and commenting on the New Yorkers' odd fashion choices.
It was so nice to put our feet up and recharge ourselves spiritually.
That evening we walked along the river on the Brooklyn side. It was gorgeous.
We found another park.
This is the a picture of the boys fighting over the stroller seats. We took a rest on some stairs and enjoyed not being able to hear them quarrel.
We got ice cream at some famous place on the pier that was as good as we were told.
Peter randomly decided to take his shirt of. Notice it on the ground behind him. Even though it looks cold in all the pictures it really was nice. Just overcast.
We took the train to our temple in Manhattan. That was really neat. There is a full size church building (including a gym) on the 2nd floor and the temple is on the 3rd floor. We sat there and listened to some of conference.
The full size gym on the 2nd floor of the church/temple.
The boys slept on a futon in the living room. They enjoyed sleeping together since they have separate beds at home.
Benjamin helping Peter to do his hair.
Our little kitchen.
Day 6
We had just a few things left on our list to do on our last day.
One was to hit Central Park.
We (they) climbed some rocks
and found an amazing playground! Wow. We could've spent the entire day there.
Then we haggled for a bike tour and felt like we got a good enough deal to ride through and see all the sites in Central park.
Here's a statue of Balto.
The pond in Stuart Little
And lots of other famous sites.
We ate lots of pizza.
Someone recommended the High Line to us. We didn't walk very much of it because we got distracted by the Chelsea Market. Wow!!! It ended up being one of our favorite places that we will definitely go back to. We got a few delicious treats there.
Then Lamoni found a super cool park that was on its own peninsula on the river.
Again, Peter stripped right down.
Peter really really wanted to go back to Times Square, and so did we so we headed there and spent the rest of the evening there until about 10 p.m.!
The boys got to pick out some M&Ms at the M&M store
Visited the lego store,
And got dinner at an American restaurant close to the Lego store. The boys wouldn't eat since they had eaten so many M&Ms.
Day 7
We had to get up at 4 a.m. to catch an Uber to the airport. That was really hard after going to bed so late! The Uber driver charged us a waiting fee because it took us so long to get everything downstairs and loaded up (but we didn't want to be out there too early...outside at 4 a.m. in Brooklyn).
Luckily the airport had a play place for tired boys.
We had a layover in Chicago again.
Home again! On the bus back to our car.
My ankles the day after we got home. It was such a fun family trip that we all loved. I'm writing this at the end of February and Peter still asks to go to New York every single day and talks about Aladdin, the Empire State building, Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge all the time.
