Four Year Anniversary: State of our Union

I've had this posts in my drafts for a while now, but I keep forgetting to publish it! So here you go. Victor and I have now been married for four years. Yay!

Since we were visiting Victor's family at the time, we took the opportunity to have a little getaway in the Big Apple--my first evening away from the baby. I really wasn't worried. I knew my mother in law would be great. 

So this year, we kind of went with a theme of, "I'll do something you want to do for our anniversary and you do something I want." Ha. We started the afternoon by hanging out at Chelsea Piers, shooting golf balls at the driving range overlooking the Hudson. That was Victor's choice in case you aren't sure. I enjoy golf, but I don't practice enough to be good at it, so it's not so fun anymore. 

After checking into our hotel, we headed into midtown for my choice of the evening--seeing the broadway musical about Carole King! Victor loves shows too, but he wasn't too excited about this one since he isn't too familiar with Carole King. But he left a fan! It was such a good show. Go see it if you can.

Before the show we did our annual dinner where we talk about our year and our goals for our marriage. We had it at the oh-so-fancy Hard Rock Cafe, because it was close and we were short on time. But it's one of my favorite traditions of ours. It got me excited for this next marriage year. We may have already made plans for our getaway next year since it will be FIVE years!

^^our hotel--The famous Waldorf Astoria, kinda overrated ha^^

We had a slow morning where we went to brunch and then biked around the city a little bit. THis whole time, we were using the new bike share program to get around the city, and while it sounds scary, it actually wasn't too bad at all. And when we were trying to get around places in rush hour traffic it was AWESOME to just skip around all the cars.

Stopping at a bakery I have long been wanting to try. Didn't disappoint. Then we headed back to our delicious baby.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Thanksgiving in New York

A New York first: experiencing the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Very crowded but the balloons were cool. 

 After a Dominican style Thanksgiving dinner, we went and checked out the cityscapes. 
And later that weekend we took a stroll in Central Park. Check out those beautiful fall colors.

It was Sarah's first time ever in New York City, so we loved showing her all the sites.
I love New York City.

Aaand, let's check out some of the other stuff we did, according to Instagram:

So, there you go! Twas a great Thanksgiving. Hope yours was great as well.

Labor Day Weekend!

I'm totally going back in time here, so forgive me.

We spent Labor Day weekend with Victor's family in NYC. We had a great time this year going to Coney Island in Brooklyn and beaching it and then hitting up the rides in the evening. When all is said and done, we probably would have been better off heading to the Jersey Shore as far as beach quality goes, because the beach at Coney Island wasn't the best. But we weren't in the mood to sit in traffic, so Coney Island it was. But as far a people watching is concerned, Coney Island wins. What a trip that was. Human behaviors baffle me sometimes. 

My mother in law is a natural model. 

 

 We also made sure to hit up "Nathan's" Hotdogs on the boardwalk. There are so many Nathan's chains now, but I still had never had a Nathan's hotdog. The hotdogs were pretty tasty, but as far as famous New York hotdogs go, my favorite is still definitely Grey's Papaya. And then, of course, a trip to the beach isn't quite complete without funnel cake.

 And what is a day at the beach in Brooklyn without a Mariachi band?

Later that evening, we felt compelled to ride The Cyclone, mostly because of a Seinfeld episode. Are you surprised? Well, this inspiration came from the second funniest episode of Seinfeld, which you can watch right here. 

The moral of the story is that this roller coaster was PAINFUL. Don't ever ride it. I felt like I got in a car crash from the whiplash, and my father in law was bed ridden the next morning from a painful back. Yeah, not cool. But the other rides were fun. 

 So, I would say it was definitely a successful weekend.

Happy belated Labor Day.

One Last Summer Getaway

This week, Victor started "Comms" school, AKA his training for his job in the Marines. On Monday, I start working. So we thought it would be fun to go on one last mini vacation before the summer ends. And it also worked out nicely that our friend MaryAnn decided to visit us as well. MaryAnn was one of the missionaries who taught Victor right before he got baptized, so it was fun to take her back to her mission, and also have some fun in NYC, since that was a no-no when she was a missionary!

We took a stroll through Liberty State Park with the fam Sunday evening.

The next day we started out at the World Trade Center Memorial. The construction of the new buildings there is incredible. The new WTC is huge. The memorial was also very nice.

that one broke my heart

Then after some lunch, we strolled through Washington Square Park, and that fountain saved me from the excessive heat. I love that area of NYC.

After a nice wait in the sun for TKTS, and a visit to the Museum of Natural History (not pictured), we stopped and had din din at the Carnegie Deli. This place has been on my list of places to visit, but it was a tad disappointing.

But they did have good pickles

The evening was my favorite part, because we went to the theater. I was really excited to see "Peter and the Starcatcher," and it did not disappoint! This show was fantastic. It's a play about how an orphan boy became Peter Pan and how he came to live on the island called Neverland. And I can't praise it more, except to just say to see it if you have the chance. 

And then on Tuesday, before heading home to Virginia, we visited the temple, and it was a great experience, like it generally tends to be. And what's a temple trip without stopping to get a treat afterward? I feel lucky that Victor is willing to indulge my macaron cravings. This place is seriously the best.

We also spent the next two days seeing stuff in D.C. with MaryAnn before she left, but unfortunately, no photos were taken, and true to D.C. fashion, it involved very high heat and humidity and bad traffic, so we just won't talk about that part.

But other than that, it was a great couple of days. Can't wait for our next round of visitors!

Thanksgiving highlights, a week late

The night before Thanksgiving, we went out to a club in Jersey to see some of Victor's friends. And SERIOUSLY, it was a scene straight out of Jersey Shore. Me and my friend Megan were the whitest girls there: Megan stood out even more because she has blond hair and fair skin. Good times! Unfortunately, there is no photographic evidence.

On Thanksgiving, we took a stroll at Liberty State Park. The weather was incredibly beautiful.

On Friday, we headed into the city to go to the Manhattan temple, and it was nuts (the city, that is. the temple was wonderful). We decided to drive since we were short on time, but consequently had to face the parking nightmare. But other Friday highlights included: the sunshine, the food in Little Italy, hot dogs and papaya juice, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, cheesecake at Juniors, and a late night showing of the Radio City Rockettes. Basically, seeing the Rockettes was the movie "Annie" coming to life for me, so that was pretty sweet. And who would have thought that watching girls kick up their legs and synchronize their walking would be so inspiring?!

 

Radio City Music Hall is legit. That's a live organ player before the show.

And Saturday involved pizza in Hoboken, and a swell time at the Romanian restaurant in Queens. And now I'm just realizing that most of these highlights were food.

Sunday was a massive mess in traffic. It took us twice the amount of time that it usually does to get home. That wasn't fun. Dressing up my husband helped to pass the time.

The fact that he doesn't get annoyed by me is something that I will never understand.

The end!

These streets will make you feel brand new

When I was younger, I ached to be in New York City. I had been a couple of times, but it wasn't enough. After going with friends in high school, I would have dreams of going back. But when you're in high school and college, earning minor ducats in thankless jobs, I began to feel like this:

So imagine my joy when I started to date a boy who grew up just across the river from Manhattan. Now we can go to NYC whenever we want because we are blessed to live a reasonable drive away and we have a place to stay, thus eliminating the two expensive things that kept me from NYC when I was a teenager: airfare and hotels. Now when we go into the city, it's not a rush to try to see and do everything, because we know we'll be back again. Oh the joy!

And just to clear the air, we still can't quite afford to heart NY to the fullest. We splurge on broadway tickets (this time it was "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying"---LOVED it!) so we have to save on dinner---thus the "Gray's Papaya" photo above. A hot dog dinner for two for less than ten dollars, and then free entertainment in Washington Square Park. Sounds like a perfect New York evening to me.

Basically, there are still cities that I need to go to, but I feel like I can make the bold claim that NYC is the greatest in the world. And I am so happy for this time to live on the east coast to go visit when we have a long weekend. Jay-Z and Alicia Keys have it right: "In New York, there's nothing you can't do, the lights will inspire you."

So it was a great weekend. It's really nice to have family close by--and by pretty close, I mean closer than Utah. I love NYC, but I do love my family more!