Carter and I made a trip to NYC in late May. We were partly celebrating his accomplishment of having earned 300 stars during first grade (stars are earned for doing homework, practicing piano, etc), partly to experience Newsies on Broadway (beloved by me from it's original release, and beloved by Carter since I introduced him to it) and partly just to have some fun the week after school let out. And since we were going to be in NYC, we added a second show for good measure, since Carter also loves Annie.
This is a bunch of photos. I couldn't cut it down any further!
The plane tickets were his 300 star surprise
Checking out the view from our hotel
A favorite activity - climbing the rocks in Central Park
The Beast!
On the Beast - en route to see the Statue of Liberty
On a carousel. In a Toys R Us. After 10:30pm.
Street vendor dinner
At Newsies in his Newsies cap
Pedicab!
Sleeping until 10am after 2 nights of Broadway and late night room service
With Joo on the Brooklyn Bridge
DIY hot chocolate at Joo's dinner pick (and C's favorite)
BFFs. And secret-sharers.
So tired. Ready to go home.
C's list of favorite things in NYC
(Yes, he did wear the same shirt on several different days.)
Thank you to mom and dad who invited us to spend thanksgiving with them at Fort Myers beach where they had rented a condo. Dad flew to Atlanta and drove down with me and the boys on the Saturday before thanksgiving (mom was there a week ahead of us with her sister and mom). Thomas flew down on Wednesday afternoon and we drove home as a family. I was sick, so that wasn't ideal (also not ideal: I gave the sickness to my parents who have been enjoying it ever since), but it was gorgeous and the boys had a good time.
Creating our own taxonomy for shells
Totally awesome hamster ball in water thing
Carter's road food of choice (except for the last hour) was Subway, for which we were all grateful.
John had a deconstructed sandwich.
John didn't love the sand, but it also didn't bother him too much. He kept putting handfuls in his mouth.
Amazing sand sculpture competition down the road from where we were staying
Our sand castle with a monster nest at the entrance. The monster guards the castle.
Girl trip 2012 was attached to a business trip of mine that took us to... wine country! As usual, we had a great time. I'm sure you can imagine: wine, food, shopping, bocce...
I am traveling most weeks in October and November, so Thomas is solo-parenting a lot. This past week, he kept C and J and Anna and Sammy one night while Park and Ashley had evening committments!
They all seemed to fare well (though the house was a bit of a wreck the next day when I got home).
The final piece of Thomas' birthday surprise was a weekend trip to Estes Park where we celebrated Thomas, Marc and Rob's 40ths together. Okay, it was early for Marc and Rob, but they didn't seem to mind. We managed to mostly keep the trip a surprise from all of the guys. Details here.
We chose Colorado because it was vaguely centrally located, when considering couples from Atlanta, Houston and San Diego. We also liked it because of the beautiful views, hiking, breweries, and some of the features of the house we rented, including the hot tub and wood burning fireplace.
The boys
View from one of our four decks (plus, mimosas!)
On our hike to Cub Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park
Cub Lake (did I mention about the beauty?!)
After our hike, we drove to Lyon, CO to the Oskar Blues Brewpub, where they happened to be having Octoberfest, complete with a polka band
Shannon, Rachel and I might have been a little lost in the polka music, had we not had our husbands to share their (apparently vast) knowledge of polka with us. Case in point, before the polka band even started to play, there was a prediction that this particular song would be 4th on the set list. And they were right.
The guy in the band is playing a washboard tie
After Octoberfest polka fun, the serendipitous fun kept coming! Just around the corner we found this amazing place.
It was so great to spend the weekend together. Our children were well cared for by a hugely appreciated group of family, friends and babysitters. They seemed to have a really terrific weekend, too!
