Us and Philly!

So we decided to rent a car and drive to Philly since it's only 2 hours away and because we have friends and cousins out there to visit, so why not?

To start off, I will say this was my favorite place, Reading Terminal Market,

everything you could imagine eating is there. It was amazing! These pics don't do it justice...

Other than the Philly Cheesesteak, The Liberty Bell is in the running for the Philadelphia mascot..haha

Here's Independence Hall...

In the movie/musical "1776", there was a dancing scene on these steps in Independence Hall, and Josh just had to dance on them, too.

In that head seat, right at the front is where my Great, great, great, relative sat doing something or another with the Declaration of Independence. Yes, it's pretty cool, I'll let you guess who that would be...

We visited Betsy Ross' home...I think it's "haunted", but don't ask how I know that...because that is a entire other post/story!

Oldest residential street in the country, Elfreths Alley...quite a cute little street, actually...

So we posed for a picture.

This is Christ Church where many founding fathers came to worship. In fact, the bells in the tower are the exact same ones that rang the day independence was declared. Pretty cool, right?

Here we are sitting in Mr. First President of the United States, George Washington's pew. Yes, some of the big wigs had their very own pews in this church.

We had to stop at this old fashioned ice cream shop with a huge chocolate brownie sundae...much to his dismay, it wasn't all Josh's dessert, we shared this with 3 and 1/2 persons, Me, Josh, Landon, and Jesse...and we had plenty of ice cream!

Out to dinner with friends at a downtown restaurant...finished up with a huge chocolate dessert...if you didn't notice that would be our second huge dessert of the day.

A trip to Philly wouldn't be complete without eating a, or I should say, THE Philly Cheesesteak sandwich from the famous Pats King of Steaks...

Cheese Whiz and all...mmmm.

Okay, this was another day, not the same day as the "two huge desserts in one day" Day...It probably was, I think...uhh, the next day, maybe? It's vacation, so we're in good standing with the Diet Fairy, wait, we're not on a diet, are you kidding me?

We visited a cool children's museum called the "Please Touch" Museum with our cousins and their little girl.

Mr. Shoe Salesman...making a funny pose

Working the McDonald's counter...

Filling up the tank...

Painting the roses red for her highness, The Queen of Hearts...

I've always wondered what it would be like to be TALL...but it was all too temporary

- just visiting Wonderland wishing I could be Alice...how fun would that be?

As you can see, we had a wonderful time in the city of Philly! Thanks to our friends and family! Please come visit us!

A little taste of Jesse's Christmas!

Pretty much it was a Thomas the Tank Engine theme! Got his Thomas trains, oh, these are just SOME of the trains he got.

Thomas the Train tent

Playing with his Thomas toys in his Thomas tent...Basically his life is complete...according to Jesse.

So overwhelmed by his feeling of completeness from the fact that he had every Thomas the Train toy imaginable thanks to his Grandmas and Grandpas, I mean Santa, he fell asleep while drawing. He was, in fact, still drawing while he was sleeping. His hand would burst into scribbles. It's so Jesse, still trying to play even when he is completely exhausted. Couldn't help but laugh, and I got it on video!

Our Christmas was great! We had a blast with our wonderful families! And we love them all very much! Thank you for an awesome Christmas Break!

Christmas in NYC 2!

A ride in a carriage through Central Park!

A Family pic by the big tree!

Christmas in NYC!

The windows at Saks Fifth, a little creepy with a touch of cute.

Aww, so pretty.

At first I really thought someone had stolen the baby Jesus, but then I realized, ah, yes, they but him in at Christmas. (this was at St. Patrick's Cathedral)

It was freezing, and I considered maybe going into Tiffany's to warm up...

How perfect was that? It was the first real snow for Christmas time.

During December we tried to do everything Christmas in New York that we possibly could. New York is a great Christmas city!

To be continued...Thanksgiving!

Poor Ronald awaiting his release for the Parade

Energizer Bunny, of course!

The Parade from our seats! (Actually, we had no seats, but a pretty good spot)

Mesmerized by the balloons!

Ah, Shrek, He's awaiting his release, too!

And Jesse's favorite character, if you can't tell, Mickey Mouse

Ughh, It's the end of January and finally I am putting up some Thanksgiving pictures! Thanksgiving pictures! I just am not a good blogger! Here is a taste of it!

The day before thanksgiving we went to the Pre-parade Balloon festivities where all the balloons to be used in the parade were being inflated and netted down. It was actually really cool to see how big they are in relation to the buildings and the streets, and hello, they were giving away free Tollhouse Cookies!

The next day we went to the Macey's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Thanks to our good friends who had been saving a spot since the wee hours of the morning, we had an awesome spot to watch the parade from!

We later had Thanksgiving Dinner at a diner with our friends, not exactly the awesomest Thanksgiving dinner we've had (it was good, but I've had better), but most definitely wonderful company!

Our Holiday in a Nutshell!

Not the tree at the Rockerfeller Plaza but still pretty big.

Playing with friends at the Lincoln Center during the Winter's Eve Celebration

Jesse and his friend Lily rocking out to the music, you should have seen them dancing! (I will try to post the video)

Our first encounter with Santa this season!

Jesse wanted my shoulders instead of the stroller!

About time I post! Here is a wrap up of our Thanksgiving here in New York and what we've done since then!

The day before Thanksgiving we went to see the Macey's Parade balloons come to life (they filled up the huge floats for the parade). On our way there, Jesse had fallen asleep in the stroller. After pushing the stroller through the crowds, he wakes up to all these huge, colorful balloons surrounding him and with us giving him Tollhouse cookies that the event was handing out for free to everyone. Talk about the way to wake up from a nap! He seemed really dazed and deliriously happy.

The next morning, we made our way to the Macey's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Yes, we knew the crowds would be crazy, but we had to experience it at least once since we are in New York.

We had great spots to watch the parade thanks to our friends who went EARLY to save spots. What would you do without friends! Jesse was definitely captivated by the festivities! It made it extra exciting to have a 2 1/2-year-old who was so happy to see all the floats!

(I am posting these pictures in the following post)

As for our Christmas activities, take a look at the pictures above. New York City takes the holidays to an extra level. It's pretty awesome being here during the holidays! We visited Santa at Macey's, and can I just say, wow! I was just expecting a long and painful line winding up to the throne where Santa sits, but not that we would actually walk through the North Pole to be greeted by Santa in his little, cozy cabin for some one on one time. I'm serious, that's practically what it was like. Josh and I were very impressed and as for Jesse, you can only imagine how excited he was! Especially since there were about a dozen trains riding around the "North Pole", not to mention the big train we had to "ride" in to get the the North Pole. It was like going to a Santa at Disneyland - over the top decorations and sets, and don't forget the long lines. But the lines weren't as painful since we were entertained by everything around us. Ahh yes, we had a good time, and it made me wish I was a little girl again! Hehe!

*Sadly, the only pictures of our experience here were cell phone pics and the pricey "Santa with us" picture we bought, so I will try to post those. I had misplaced my camera for a few days...that is a story for another post.

Oh, and tonight we are going to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular with The Rockettes. I'll let you all know how it goes.

I love Christmas time!

Potty Training, here we come!

So I have been trying to prepare myself the last few weeks to potty train Jesse! But just keep putting it off , due to my own laziness! But we got Jesse his cute little underwear, Mickey Mouse and Lightning McQueen, and a Lightning Mcqueen potty cover! What 2-year-old boy would not want to potty train with these things, right? I am borrowing my friend, Errin's, training book since she just potty trained her little guy. So I can do it... Here I go. I purposely posted this as a way to make it official so I don't back out! I'll keep you posted...wish me luck!

I had to put a picture with this post...hehe