I have wanted to go to NYC city since we moved here but it's never been the right time. The stars finally aligned to make it possible for it to happen: 1) John-David didn't have to work. I was not going to make this trip without him. 2) It was a holiday so there was no traffic. The amount of people in and out of the city on a daily basis is enough to deter us. 3) The weather was perfect. It was about 70 degrees and partially sunny. A perfect day to go to the city.
After a little research with people in my ward who had gone before, we decided to take the Staten Island ferry across the harbor to the Southern tip of Manhattan. The ferry is free, parking costs $5.50 and it takes you right by the Statue of Liberty. We thought that was a pretty good route.
I guess Jackson didn't get the memo that the uni-bomber look was a little much for this excursion. This wasn't really the place to look suspicious.
Kelsey was excited for the boat ride. I had a book in the car of the Statue of Liberty that I was showing the kids so they would know what we were seeing. Kelsey keep insisting it was Jesus. I thought for sure that she was going to yell that when we really did see it but she held back. Maybe the resemblance wasn't as striking as she thought before.
Typical Jocey - I am so excited I can't give a normal smile face. They really were really enthused for our trek.
I don't know if dad was as enthused:)
This was a boat that was like the one we took. It was about a 25 minute ride across the bay. It was perfect.
The boat we took in the morning had windows at the level of the kids. They stared out them the entire time. Kelsey danced around most of the time doing her typical Kelsey moves.
Jackson was so excited to see the Statue of Liberty. It was his favorite part of the trip.
When we first took off from St. George's port, the city that was in view, I assumed was NYC. I wasn't really thinking that NJ is right across the bay and we would pass by that first. When I looked at the skyline I thought to myself, "This is not nearly as impressive as I remember." Then I figured out I was taking pictures of Jersey City and beyond that was the Big Apple. Novices, what do you expect?
This is right before we docked. The buildings are so huge. After we got off the ferry, we headed to the subway. Luckily, my good friend Marianne had given me a pocket size subway map that we used like a good bible in our travels. I conferred with the subway man about my plan of action when he suggested that we walk to the 911 memorial. He said, "You have young legs(didn't he notice how many pairs of young legs we had?). You should walk so you can see the buall." The What? After a few times and still not understanding we just decided to walk.
Along the way we ran into this little Dutch festival. We tried some dutch cheese and listened to a dutch women tell the history of the Dutch in New York. A side note: We ran into my friends I met on the ferry. Her graying coif in the lower left-hand corner of the photo. She thought we were a family from Scandinavia. Not quite sure why but after some talking it came out that we were Mormons. We had a lovely conversation about how we aren't polygamists and how she is going to find an article about that and print it off to give to all her friends. I am glad she is spreading the good word for us.
As we continued on our way up Broadway, we ran into the "buall" the man at the subway was talking about. It was quite a popular place for a photo opt, especially it's backside for some reason.The site was so busy that we settled for a photo with a random women in it to say that we saw the Merrill Lynch bull. I wouldn't add it to the top 100 things to see in New York but we saw it.
We made it to the 911 site for the memorial. I have to say I was quite disappointed. I thought that there would be more to see at this point but for now it's a large construction zone. I can only imagine what this place was like on 9/11/01. It looked chaotic as a work site it must have been plain crazy that day.
We finally made it to the subway. The kids were enthralled. Jackson loved to get our hearts beating by getting too close to the edge of the platform looking onward for the oncoming train. Jocelyn loved being the enforcer she is and was trying to pull him to safety. I thought this was really going to cause him to propel himself to the tracks below when she let go but we were lucky to have a day free of subway mishaps...actually that is not totally true. I will share a story about this later. It was one of the highlights of our trip for me.
We got off at Time Square which was very busy with people. We went to the Toys-R-Us store which is not like any Toys-R-Us I have ever been to. As you walk into the three story structure, you are greeted by a large Ferris wheel. Unfortunately it wasn't running that day. The kids were so disappointed. They had to settle for just wandering through the store instead.
The doll section was pretty extensive. I think it gave Jocey all sorts of ideas of what to ask for for her birthday. As we were walking to the doll section, an employee was operating a mechanical tarantula. Just as Jocelyn was walking by, she made it start walking. Jocelyn could get a job as a screamer in horror films with that shriek. I was laughing so hard and so was everyone around us.
Lo and behold we lucked out and we ran into Spider man. I didn't hear that you couldn't take pictures with your own camera until after the fact so here is my illegal photo. Something tells me that this photo isn't going to me sold for money. I think they are safe.
John-David was our photographer on Time Square. He took some lovely shots, however when viewing them after we down loaded them, we noticed some advertisements in the background that weren't exactly kosher. To save the good name of the family we give you this photo of the three amigos with Times Square in the background.
Once again we got back on the subway and headed to Lexington and 59Th street to Dylan's Candy bar. Again, I have to say I was disappointed. Dylan's Candy Bar is suppose to be this big candy store with over 5,000 types of candy. I was expecting candy from all over and it to be in a pretty big store. It wasn't a big store and the candy variety wasn't that impressive. The fact that candy was $10.99 a lb was downright ridiculous. Try telling that to our children that we just traipsed across NYC with. We handed them each a bag and they got their little scoop full of candy. We could have gotten way more candy for the price I paid if we had gone to the store around the corner but they were happy so we were happy, right?
Down the stairs again back on the the subway. Another side note: There are very few elevators down to the subways. The subways have multiple flights of stairs. I was worn out more from going up and down the stairs with the stroller than anything. One of the times we were down in the subway, one of them had an escalator. A heaven sent after lifting the stroller up and down 20 flights previously. We all got on the escalator when I looked back and notice Jackson was still at the bottom. This kid loves the escalator and I assumed he was playing on it. I told him to get a move on but notice his feet kept going up but the rest of his body remained stationary on the side. I began walking down the steps and still he remained at the bottom with his feet on the escalator. As I got the bottom I hear "I'm stuck." He has wedged his elbow somehow on the other side of the railing. I really can't describe this to give it justice but it was hilarious. He didn't not get hurt so I am not laughing at the poor misfortune of my child but it still gives me the giggles to even think about it now. It was probably the highlight of the trip or close to and we saw a lot of fun things.
Next we went to Central park to find Belevedre's castle. Central park is huge and finding was a task in itself. Jackson wanted to know if this was an evil castle. Kelsey had finally fell asleep by this time so her and I waited at the bottom while the other three went to check it out.
This is the view from the castle. The green muck in the bottom half of the photo is a pond. Anyone up for a swim? I have seen pictures of this pond before and I think they must have cleaned it for the photos because it didn't quite look like that. All those specks in the background were people. There were a lot of people enjoying the park for the Labor Day holiday.
This was a boat pond for mechanical sail boats. Jackson loved it. I thought people just brought their boats to sail but as we were leaving I discovered that you could rent them. Maybe next time. It did look fun.
Jackson has an obsession with rock climbing. He is always trying to scale any rock that is larger than him. As we wandered through the park we went down various trails, many of them which had large rocks. We discovered this rock wall which Jackson immediately began climbing. Aout 3/4's of the way up he got a little nervous and asked me to help him. I climbed up a little bit and coached him to the top. Many people walked by us and the looks on their faces were definately ones of confusions. In their heads I could tell they were thinking, "I didn't think there was rock climbing in Central Park". We didn't think there was any either but Jackson begged to differ. I had visions of me sliding down the rock wall and getting a trip to the hospital for a broken ankle so I declined Jackson's invitation to follow his lead up over the face of the rock. I was feel that adventerous.
After our Central Park excursion, we headed down 5th Avenue to F.A.O. Schwarz. The was fun to see a lot of high end toys that you don't find in a regular toy store. Of course no visit to F.A.O. Schwarz is complete until you have danced on the large piano they danced on in the movie "Big".
This is the entrance to the Apple store in the same plaza with F.A.O. Schwarz. John-David thought it was pretty cool.
We decided it was time to start heading back, so we took the subway to city hall and start meadering back to the ferry.
I expected city hall to be "super-sized" like everything else in New York City but it was pretty average. As we walked dow nto the ferry we decided to get a bite to eat. We found a place that had the most generic pizza and pasta sign outside but we checked it out anyways. After talking to the guy at the front counter, I knew we found a winner. If there is anything that I have learned from my father, I have learned this: When you are at a restaruant, if the cook speaks the same language of the type of food then it will be an authentic meal. Well I couldn't understand a word this Italian guy was saying and the meal was pretty good.
After dinner, we raced back to catch the ferry. Our kids were really sad to go. They had been such good little troopers and complained very little about all the walking that we did and there was a lot. Jocey said while looking out the window of the ferry, "Good bye New York city. I'll miss you". Jackson told me when we got to the car, "that was the funnest city I have never been to". Looks like NYC has some fans.
We have had a few new adventures this week. The long awaited preschool finally started this week. We went on Monday to the "Get Acquainted Day" where he met his teachers. His preschool is run inside a church and we met in the chapel for a few bits of information before we went to the classroom. Jackson had a concerned look on his face and he asked me if this was where school was.
He was relieved to find out that his classroom was downstairs. He liked the looks of this much better.
He was happy to find the Lego table to play at. He met his teachers and sang a few songs, then we left to await the first day on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Jocelyn started her ballet class back up. It's a bit more strict in the fall and she has a different teacher. I couldn't take pictures during the actual class to avoid distraction so we just have the photos prior to the class. She was very particular about her hair as she informed me that ballerinas wear buns and that's what she wanted. My sister sent her this very fluffy tutu and of course Jocelyn loved it. She definitely had the biggest skirt in the class.
My kids love to be in each others photo so Jackson wanted one with the prima ballerina.
A tradition our family has started this year is to make a special dinner on the first day of school. Dad was on call on Wednesday so we did it the night before. Jackson requested salmon but I didn't have any so he went for calazones instead.
The big day finally came and he was beyond excited. He has afternoon preschool and it was a long morning waiting until we could leave. I think he was dressed and ready to go by 7:00 A.M. Another family group shot. No one can be left out:)
My big school kid.
Jackson opening the doors of school.
We had to wait out in the hall until the teachers were ready for him to come in. Once they were allowed to come in, they were to find their name tag and then go and play. My kid walks in, finds his name tag then find the toys. He didn't even look at his old mother as she was yelling, "Have fun, play nice, shut the door when you pee and flush the toilet"(personal issues he has) . He could have at least acted like he was going to miss me for a moment. Well, when I picked him up 2 1/2 hours later he was all smiles and wanted to go back next time. I think he is going to like preschool.
Unfortunately I am not going to be able to tell you about Jackson's next exciting event because it won't be happening. I got a phone call last night from the place where was signed up to take gymnastics to tell me it had been cancelled due to the fact there wasn't enough signed up. I was so sad to tell him but he took the news well. He said he'll just wait until the spring to do something like t-ball. I was also really sad because I wasn't going to be able to show you this fabulous outfit his cousin Josh gave him that he was planning on wearing to class. Luckily I caught a few pictures of him wearing it one night. I think my dad has a picture similar to this when he was 16 in a wrestling outfit. The resemblance is amazing. 
And not to be forgotten we have our little ham who is our family class clown. She is always doing something to entertain and lately wants all the attention on her. Her famous phrases right now are "Mama, watch this" or "Look at this mom". She is usually jumping on something, dancing or sliding down the banister. She loves the spotlight and a little adventure as well. She has also started lifting her shirt up and showing everyone whats underneath. She especially loves doing this in public. We will not be taking her to New Orleans especially during Mardi Gras. She definitely would be earning some beads.
