New York! New York!

 Last weekend the girls and I got to cash in on the girls' Christmas gift, which was a long weekend in New York City! It was a much anticipated trip, and the city did not disappoint. We had a blast with our "beach friends." The trip was originally planned to celebrate all of the oldest girls turning 13 this year. The little sisters tagged along. Although we were missing a few people, we had a great time touring, shopping, eating, watching a broadway production, and eating some more. Katie Wigton (Caroline's mom) planned the whole trip from start to finish and as a first time travel agent we think she did an amazing job! 

It's been really hard to narrow these pictures down, but I did my best. Still, it's a big picture dump, so I gave it it's own post. I'll post my other March highlights next week.  (There are plenty!) 

In Jacksonville waiting to board our quick 2.5 hour flight to NYC!

We made it! We met the Simril girls in the airport and got Ubers successfully to our hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Edison which was in the heart of Times Square. 

The Disney Store was the first stop on our Times Square exploration when we got there. Ellie promptly found a stuffed animal that I talked her out of buying. 

The rest of the girls finally made it to the hotel and the gang was all together (minus the Steurmann girls who were in Arkansas on Spring Break) 

Our first morning we headed out early for breakfast at Ellen's Stardust Cafe.  I wrongly though this was owned by Ellen Degeneres until we got there. It is actually owned by another Ellen that was an advocate for people working their way to Broadway. All of the wait staff, cooks, etc. are actors, singers, and dancers trying to make their way. They all perform various songs while you sit and eat, then they come take your order or bus your table. It was so crazy, but they were all AMAZING performers. 

After breakfast we stopped by the M&M store to shop and have some photo ops. 

Once again, I had to talk Ellie out of a soft plush toy. 

Katie, Caroline, the girls, and I headed to "The Friends Experience" after the M &M store. Ellie and Caroline have watched all the episodes and fell in love with the show like their mamas did in the 90s. They remembered more about the show that Katie and I did as we toured through the scenes. 

The couch on the opening of the show. 

Monica and Rachel's apartment. 

The last episode script 

Caroline and Ellie hanging out in Joey and Chandler's chairs

This dog always cracked me up on the show, so I had to get a picture with it. 

Ellie and I geeking out

"All of Chandler's clothes" episode

For some reason, blogger wouldn't let me enlarge this picture, but it was too funny not to post. Little Emma in Chandler's clothes. She honestly didn't have a clue about most of this stuff, because she hasn't really watched any of the episodes except in passing when Ellie was watching. She enjoyed every minute of this tour though. 

These girls were living their best life with all of these photo ops

Phoebe's taxi - this was the actual one used in the show

Standing inside Monica's apartment

on the couch in the coffee shop

Another picture blogger won't let me caption or enlarge - The above pic is Ellie wiping bird poop off of her jacket. We went to Madison Park and had lunch at the Shake Shack. The birds were insane EVERYWHERE. Ellie was not happy about one marking it's territory on her jacket. 

The girls spotted the Empire State Building! 

Emma and Reese really bonded on this trip. I think it may have been because Emma let Reese ride piggy back everywhere. 

This is the only picture I got in the Harry Potter store - Hagrid's shoes. The store was amazing, and we were so intent shopping, I forgot to take more pictures. 

The next stop was Central Park!

I think the girls had more fun climbing the rocks in Central Park than doing anything else in NYC. 

The second night there (Saturday) we got all dolled up and headed to dinner then a Broadway show. 

Dinner at Carmine's was delicious and we ordered WAY too much food. Ellie actually ate at this restaurant, which was reassuring since she had not eaten the entire trip until this point. 

Video is of our food at Carmine's

Walking to Broadway!

We made it to the show and (almost) everyone kept their mask on. 

The Lion King was FANTASTIC! I have never seen a broadway production  and I was beyond impressed! 

The next morning we had another busy agenda, so we felt it necessary to start our day at Krispy Kreme. 

Our first stop after doughnuts was the World Trade Center memorial and museum. This was a steel portion of the first tower. The bent portion is where the nose of the plane went in. 

Ladder 3 - one of the first fire companies to respond. Most of their crew were lost that day. 

The remaining portion of the antennae on one of the towers. 

The only remaining staircase. It led many people to safety before the building collapsed. 

The wall on the left is the retaining wall for the Hudson River that was all that remained after the towers fell. The pole on the left was a beam in which people started writing those responders that were lost in the collapse. 

This was one of the outdoor memorials. We spent over an hour inside and still didn't get to everything because we had to leave for our next tour. I want to go back one day and spend time in this museum. It was sobering and all of the memories I had from that day came flooding back. 

We ran out of the WTC memorial to make our boat tour up and down the Hudson River. 

Ellis Island was on the tour. It was really cool for Emma, since she's been studying a lot about Ellis Island in one of her classes. 

Ellie and Lily taking in the Statue of Liberty. 

Seeing this in person, was so cool. You learn about it your entire life, and when you see it, it's like seeing a celebrity. 

Doing this with friends was even better! 

We strolled by Radio City Music Hall. If I ever come back, I want to see a show here.  

We had to have Rockefeller Plaza on our stop list. 

Although we were bundled up, it really wasn't that cold. It was pretty perfect for all of the walking we did. The girls were excited to be at Rockefeller. 

Emma found a unicorn at the FAO Swartz store. 

And Ellie found an Elephant (another stuffed animal) 

We had to play the foot piano while we were there. 

Hard to tell in this picture, but the state of GA flag was in the background. 

We made a quick run through St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was beautiful. 

One of our final "to dos" was Serendipity for desserts. 

They had snacks for dessert and we weren't seated until 1 hour after our reservation time, so it was sundaes, cake, and hot chocolate for dinner. 

This was worth the wait. 

We ran around and did some souvenir shopping around our hotel after Serendipity. The girls wanted to stop in at the Hershey store. No, I did not let Emma buy this and bring it home. I will say we grabbed pizza slices on the way back to the hotel to balance out our sweets. Emma wolfed hers down, and after dancing and playing in Lily's room, she returned to our room and threw up the entire hot chocolate with whipped cream and any other sweets she had at Serendipity. She learned a life lesson in over eating that night. She did say she felt much better once she threw up.