New York City

across from the Statue of Liberty
in Battery Park

the subway

We went into China Town which was very interesting! Everywhere you looked there were Chinese women trying to get you to buy fake 'black market' purses. Prada, Gucci, Louie, Coach, you name it! Kelly wanted some purses so we followed the ladies into hidden doorways so they wouldn't be caught by the police. At the first place we went, we had stay behind the door for a while because the police DID show up! They didn't get caught, but boy it was an experience to remember...very funny:)! We went to a couple other ones where we were led into hidden attics or basements. I had a great time talking to the people and asking them all about their 'business'.

Next we went to ground zero. It was amazing to see how tall the World Trade Center was compared to the buildings left standing...crazy to think the skyline is forever changed. We went inside a musuem dedicated to 9-11 victims and boy was it sad. We saw a video of when they first built the World Trade Center (the largest construction project since the pyramids) all the way up to when they came crashing down. There were pictures, quotes, and items from the horrible day as well. The bronze plaque is outside firestation 10, across from ground zero and the wall of pictures was in the museum. Another sad thing they had in the museum was a wall of 'missing person' posters. None of the people in the posters were ever found...truly heart wrenching to see the people who died.

The next stop was the Statue of Liberty. We took the Staten Island ferry over to see it and saw the awesome New York City skyline too. How amazing to think that this was the first thing immigrants saw when they arrived in America! I remember hearing my mom tell me that my grandparents thought the streets were going to be made of gold when they saw it.

Awww...how cute! The boys didn't actually get the matching sweatshirts but I still had to get a picture of them:). Kelly and I did buy ourselves the green ones though...and matched the last day!

dinner

After dinner we walked around Times Square for a while, shopped, and got dessert. They had a Hershey's store AND an M&M store right down the street from each other!

A couple doors down from our hotel was a HUGE Toys R Us with a ferris wheel inside! They had the coolest cars, (My Little Pony, Mr. Potato Head, Lego, etc.) and we ended up getting the one with E.T. and Geoffrey on it. Notice how NICE the picture I took of Kelly and Brandon was...hmmm...what went wrong with the picture of us? (just kidding Brandon:)

right before we drove home

We had a great time in New York City with Kelly and Brandon and are SO thankful for everyone who helped watch our kids so we could go. Thank you Janet for carting Cailey around to her many activities and watching out for them on Saturday morning! Thank you mom and Anne for taking care of them, cooking for them, cleaning up, reading to them, and everything else you did!! Thank you Laura and Geof for watching them on Sunday, feeding them, and taking them to the park!