First off, this is a picture of how I found Abi one day. I had put on a show for her but she had found James's Book of Mormon action figures from his childhood and she had them all lined up on the table. I was happy to see her learning to like them. However, I think she's a little confused because she sings Yankee Doodle while dancing around the Captain Moroni on his horse. It's an understandable error I suppose. Ha!
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| Book of Mormon heroes |
Our first visitor was Dylan, a friend from New Mexico who had just returned this spring from serving his church mission in England. Abi and I took Dylan to NYC one day to see some sites. We had planned to see Central Park, Times Square, eat authentic New York pizza, and really get a feel for midtown Manhattan. Well, turns out visiting NYC with a toddler and a pregnant woman equals doing about half of whatever you plan so it probably wasn't the most eventful part of his trip but he was gracious about it.
Note to tourists: the Manhattan temple building also houses a church with restrooms that probably aren't really for public use, but we use them. We always start and end our NYC adventures here because we know we'll have a restroom at least twice during the day - restrooms are hard to come by in NYC without being a paying customer. Well, Abi decided she didn't want to go in the stall with me and since we were the only ones in the restroom, I didn't make her. However, this picture shows how my potty break ended - with an adorable audience! If this were any other bathroom in NYC, I would have freaked out but since it was the church bathroom and it usually is pretty well-kept, I accepted this as a part of toddler parenting and moved on. :) And this folks is why I don't get too upset when my child eats off the floor, lays on the doctor office floor or licks the chair at the airport, because seriously, it's a losing battle.
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| Peek! |
We took Dylan to John's Pizzeria just off of Times Square which is by far the best pizza I've EVER had! We couldn't agree on what to get because it all looked so good so we got several things and, wow! was that the best decision ever! We got a pizza that was half Margherita (the traditional NYC pizza) and half Hawaiian and we also got a pepperoni calzone. My mouth is watering just typing this. It was so delicious!!! Abi loved the calzone but who wouldn't? Bread filled with cheese and dipped in delicious sauce?? Heaven!
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| Delicious NYC pizza! |
After James finished his work day, we dropped Dylan off with him and they finished the NYC tour by going to downtown Manhattan to see the World Trade Center memorial, the financial district and of course the Samsung building. This is a picture of them at the top of the new One World Trade Center. Call me superstitious but I have no plans to go to the top of this building ever! But it does look cool! That is a pretty amazing view!
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| One World Trade Center |
A couple days later, James and Dylan went to the Statue of Liberty which was so good for them because although James has been before, he hasn't ever had time to stop at Ellis Island which is actually really cool! Often times, James ends up working while I play tour guide to friends, so I'm glad he got a chance to be the tourist for once.
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| Statue of Liberty |
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| Ferrying to the Statue of Liberty |
And what did Abi and I do while they were gone? We decided to be crazy and clean the van! We were planning to go to upstate NY with Dylan the next day and truthfully, our van was filthy and needed the cleaning. But this probably was not the best choice of activity for pregnant me. I was thoroughly exhausted (and satisfied) afterwards. The best part of the whole cleaning was how excited Abi was to help! She hardly let me vacuum after she saw how fun it was. Haha!
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| Chores |
Funny story: I moved the seats around so I could really get in and vacuum well and when I split the middle row, I found a whole stash of old cereal, crackers, and other food items that I'm sure could have been there for a year or more. It was not too gross but not appetizing either. Well, I proceeded to vacuum the front seats and then moved to the back to do that middle area full of food and found that all the big food items were gone! They had all completely vanished! I have a three-letter guess as to who took care of those for me... Gross! Haha! Again, this is why I don't get too concerned about germs - losing battle.
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| So happy to help! |
James, Dylan, Abi and I drove to upstate NY to visit Niagara Falls and church history sites in Palmyra. It was such a fun trip! We started out in Niagara where Abi and I went to the aquarium while James and Dylan rode the ferry to see the falls. When you have a toddler with an enormous love of water and no fear whatsoever and a lack of obedience skills when it comes to understanding danger, you have to make some decisions a little differently. We decided this was not the time for Abi to ride a ferry to see the falls. :) Maybe next time. She loves aquariums though and we had a blast there! She so badly wanted to touch the fish in the touch tank but apparently it's still under construction because the sign said No Touching... weird. So to keep her from touching the little crabs, I taught her that crabs say, "Pinch!" said while pinching your arm. :) It's pretty adorable to see her do it!
This picture is of a random slide that we passed while walking to the aquarium. Abi was thoroughly intrigued!
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| Abi's dream slide! |
After the falls, we went to Buffalo, NY to a restaurant called Anchor Bar. It is apparently the birthplace of Buffalo chicken wings. We'll believe them. They have a good story to back up the claim. The restaurant is so fun and fairly family friendly. It's one of those places with memorabilia all over every solid space. Abi really liked sitting in this phone booth. Sad that this is becoming a thing of the past!
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| Organizing her mob |
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| I'm not sure she's seen a phone booth before... |
Here's our spread! Again, we couldn't decide what to get and ended up getting more than we needed but seriously, this food is amazing! Look how big my fish was!!! This is all making me really quite hungry!
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| Birthplace of buffalo wings |
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| Pizza rolls! |
The food was so good, I stuffed myself despite the lack of room in my tummy. And look at what it did to my profile! :)
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| Post lunch baby-bump (27 weeks) |
Last time we were in Palmyra, James got to go to the temple with his brother Bradley and I stayed at the hotel with Abi. So this time, we swapped. I went to the temple with Dylan and James went swimming with Abi at the hotel. I think both were pretty great options! I loved getting to visit this temple! How amazing to be so close to where God and Jesus Christ both appeared to Joseph Smith when he was only 14-years-old to answer his prayer!!! What a sacred experience!
James is a great dad and made sure to have a really fun time with Abi! She, of course, loved it!
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| Dinner at the hotel with daddy |
Random aside, this hotel was amazing! I love Marriott hotels! They have the best rooms and best breakfasts! I wanted to be a fun mom and let Abi eat a powdered donut for breakfast which made James super frustrated because he ends up having to be the responsible adult and clean up after her these days since I can't move around as easily. Her mess definitely did not disappoint. Haha! I figured James would get over his frustration eventually and didn't worry too much about it. Well, Abi and I hurried upstairs to our room to shower while Dylan and James finished eating (and cleaning the donut mess). When I got out of the shower, I heard James saying to Abi, "Go get Mommy! Get Mommy, Abi! Where's Mommy?" So I hurried to see what was going on and found that I had unfortunately put the chain on the hotel room door (so that Abi wouldn't get out while I was in the shower) but then Dylan and James were stuck outside waiting for me to finish. That's when I worried about his frustration level. Haha! It made us laugh though and dissipated the frustration. We have a good, strong marriage that can withstand powdered donuts fortunately. :)
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| The best mattress ever! |
The last day of our trip was an EPIC day! We visited the Grandin Printing Press, the Smith Family Farm, Alvin Smith's grave site, the Hill Cumorah, the Peter Whitmer Farm, and the newest church history site - the Priesthood Restoration site - and ended up at home right around midnight. Wow! It was a long day and the tour guides couldn't believe we did it all in one day but we zoomed. Ha! And Abi and I skipped a lot of it that we had already seen so that James and Dylan could go fast. What a great trip and what amazing events took place at each of these places! I am so grateful to know of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What a great blessing it is to have a prophet on the earth again today to lead God's children just as was done in Bible times. If anyone is interested in learning more about my beliefs, please click here!
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| Visiting the Smith family farm in Palmyra, NY |
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