NYC: Let the Sun Shine!

I apologize for the barrage of blog posts today, but life has been CRazY and I'm trying to get caught up.  (My posts of the last few weeks are going to be horribly out of order.)

Did anyone catch the Tony's last night?  I did.  And in Kolby's words, we're bursting with happiness for Will today.

Last weekend Kolby and I left the girls with my parents, who were in Seattle after their Alaskan cruise, and we headed to NYC.

I'll skip the part about the altercation on a crowded plane with a 350lb. extra from Sopranos who thought his chair wouldn't recline properly because of us.  (It couldn't have possibly been, I dunno, his size?)

Forget Disney World.  NYC is the happiest place on Earth for me.  And we spent the weekend celebrating some of my favorite people, so what could be better?

We arrived early Saturday morning on the red-eye (NYC actually does sleep.  It was a ghost town at 6am), took a nap (bless you, W Hotel, for letting us check in early!), and then Kolby and I headed out for sushi before meeting up with the wedding party for Milo and Robin's wedding.  Kolby was best man, so he rode to the Brooklyn Bridge in the limo with the wedding party.  The rest of us hopped on the subway---my first time riding the subway to a wedding.  

The wedding was beautiful.  We walked out to the middle of the bridge, under the first arch.  Our friend Cameron married them.  Robin's daughter Lily was the maid of honor.  Plenty of tourists stopped to take photos.  It was sweet and beautiful and fun.

After that Kolby and I wandered around Canal St. (fake designer bags, woohoo!), and Soho.  This was the first time Kolby hasn't had to work when we've been in New York together, and we had SO MUCH FUN hanging out together.  I've said it before, I absolutely adore New York.  And I loved it even more when I there with Kolby.

The wedding dinner was at a fantastic Indian restaurant.  Lots of fun hanging out with friends and celebrating Milo and Robin (and Stephen Jack and Lily).  

Sunday morning I checked off one of the items on my "before I die" list.  I got up and ran through Central Park.  

(swiped this photo from here)

It's the first time I've ever taken the subway to go for a run.  Central Park is amazing.  There are many trails through the park, and it's fun to run past all the activities--baseball games, lacrosse,  remote controlled sailboats, rowboats on the lake, and so many families and bicyclists and runners and tourists.    Even a Salute to Israel Jewish parade.

I headed back to our hotel (Yikes!  Didn't think about how sweaty and stinky I'd be on the subway ride back).  And then Kolby and I went out wandering.  We had to pry ourselves out of this store in Grand Central Station.

Then we took the subway down to the village and walked up and down streets there.  We had lunch at a fabulous little sidewalk cafe.  

We did a little shopping, a lot of people watching, and just had a really fun day together.  Our friend Jeff met up with us while Sarah was watching one of her students in West Side Story.

And then we went to see our friend Will in the musical Hair.  This was the second reason we were in NYC this weekend.      Kolby and Will have been friends for almost 20 years when they performed in plays together in high school.    Will is such a fantastic guy, and we are soooo happy for his success.

Will arranged for us to have seats on the second row, on the aisle.  The actors interact with the audience a bit, so that meant Will positioned us so he could harrass Kolby.  I don't think Kolby or I ever stopped grinning through the whole show.  At the end, when they are singing "Let the Sun Shine!" they pulled us up on stage to dance and sing with the cast and other members of the audience.  What an incredible experience.  Just to look out at the audience and see the love and happiness, and realize that this is what Will experiences every night.  We were just so happy for him.  Such an incredible thing to realize your dream.  We both had tears streaming down our faces.

Waiting for Will on stage after the show.

And last night we watched him on TV and cried all over again:

Bump this one forward to the 3:22 mark. 

Will is the one in the loin cloth.  

After the show, we went out for a late dinner with Jeff, Sarah, and Cam.  

I'm not sure how many times I told Kolby that I could move to NYC.  And I meant it.

Final Day: Can we please go home?

So the girls weren't quite done.  We didn't fly out until 3:00, and they wanted to squeeze out every ounce of fun they could.  We let them choose which park to go to for the final morning, and they chose Hollywood Studios since we hadn't been there yet.

It was okay.

Amelia wasn't tall enough for the Aerosmith Rock n' Rollercoaster, so she and I headed straight for the Toy Story ride to get fast passes.  They weren't until 3:00, so we decided to wait in the 45 minute line.  It was worth it.  Very cool "4-D" ride where you shoot balls, darts, etc. at 3-D screens.  

While we were on that, Kolby and Madeline rode the Rock n' Rollercoaster.  Kolby said they take a picture just as it takes off--it goes from 0 to 60 mph in 3 seconds.  Madeline's face in the photo was pure terror.  But she loved it.  

Then all three of them rode the Tower of Terror.  The free falling is a recipe for disaster for me, but they all loved it.

They also did the Star Tours ride.  Meh.

And then we were all ready to go home.  Too hot.  Very tired.  Our own beds sounded wonderful.  

Are you my mother?

We welcomed two new additions to the family today:  Mango and Willow.  Five bucks if you can guess which one is which.  

Mango is the snuggler.  She will burrow down into our laps and go to sleep.  But from the first second she laid eyes on Gabby, she decided Gabby was hers.  And Gabby, the needy thing she is, was more than willing to oblige.  

And our little boy Willow was far too busy exploring to pose for a photo.  He made himself big and hissed at Gabby once or twice, then got back to his adventures.  

The human girls are over the moon.

Lazy Day (Day 6)

On our last full day in Orlando, we decided to play at the resort pool during the day, and then go to Magic Kingdom in the evening to revisit our favorite rides and watch the fireworks.  

It was a good plan.  

First we had a LOVELY day at the pool.  The kids swam.  I swam, sunbathed, read a book, and chatted with Sarah.  (All ingredients for a perfect day for me.)

Miss Lily Juniper

Madeline and Emma....Emma learned to swim this day!

The adorable Charlotte

All the crazy girls

Amelia Bedelia

And then we went back to the park for one last night of fun.

First stop was Adventure Land for one more pineapple float.  Soooo good.  Dole Pineapple icecream over pineapple juice.  I've dreamed about these more than once since returning.  Unfortunately, not all dreams do come true.  Target does not serve these when you walk in the door.  Yet.

Kolby and Bizarro Kolby (aka Milo)

Stephen Jack sharing his glow bracelets

Four very tired and sun-kissed girls.

Sea World (Day 5)

We loved Sea World.  

I could post hours of video of Sea World, because I filmed quite a bit of it.  But I'll spare you all but my favorite moments.

We started out petting and feeding the sea rays, then moved on to feeding the dolphins.  I have adored dolphins for as long as I can remember, so this was just heaven for me.  What amazing creatures.  

Madeline named every moving thing we saw on this trip.  We eventually told her that the workers at Sea World get REALLY mad at little kids who name their animals.  (She only bought it for a second.)

(I had more than a few pangs of sadness about them living in captivity for our entertainment--something Madeline experienced when she first saw Shamu in his non-ocean-like habitat.  Good thing we haven't shown her "Free Willy" yet.)

We watched a few different shows--the dolphin, bird, and whale show,  the sea lion show, and Shamu, of course.  

One important lesson we learned:  when they say "soak zone," 

... they mean SOAK zone.

We did not have one single dry spot on us when Shamu was done with us.  Luckily we put all of our cameras and phones in a Ziploc before he got us.

We ate lunch in the Shark Grill, next to a huge floor-to-ceiling aquarium with sharks swimming by.  Not sure if the sharks or the air conditioning were my favorite part of the meal.  

None of the girls met the 54" height requirement for the two fantastic roller coasters that had been calling to us all week when we drove by, but Kolby and Jeff did ride one of them right before they shut it down due to a thunderstorm rolling in at the end of the day.   The puny Shamu roller coaster was  a bit of let-down after the girls had been eyeing those big coasters.  (That's one thing Disney has done right--fewer height restrictions.)  But the dolphins and whales made up for it, and Sea World was definitely one of our favorite days.

Stilettos

Today was Granny Goose's funeral. I loved hearing all the fun memories of her. One that was mentioned several times was the big key ring she wore over her wrist that alerted all to her arrival, and the stilettos she wore until just a few years ago.  

Madeline, walkin' in Goose's shoes. 

Kolby needed a little help pinning on his flower, so Maddie took care of him.

Granny Goose

We're back from New York, but not unpacking yet.  Granny Goose passed away on Friday, so we are now heading to Utah.  I'm so glad we got to spend time with her when we were there last month.  Love you Goosey!   We miss you already.