Our Last Family of 3 Vacation - NYC!

No cooking, just lots of eating at some delicious eateries!

We wanted to get away, since Joseph has this month off, and I'm not so incredibly pregnant that it's difficult to get around.  Plus, we wanted to have one last little vacation as a family of three.  We thought about places to go that weren't too far away, but had plenty of things for Alexander to see and do.  Thus, we decided to take a quick trip to visit my aunts and uncles in New Jersey for the weekend, and then go to New York City from Monday to Thursday afternoon.

Joseph had some work to do and wanted to see his parents off to Connecticut, so my sister, Alexander, and I went to New Jersey on a Saturday morning.  Then, Joseph took the bus to New York the following day, we picked him up, and hung out in Jersey for one more day.

This is our little lady killer, wearing my sister's sunglasses
and playing with brachiasaurus (one of his favorite dinosaurs
right now).

What normally should take about 4 hours to get there, took about six, because I was driving the new car and didn't realize that I had to re-set the settings on the built-in GPS.  The settings had us taking completely local roads and no toll roads whatsoever....which resulted in a much longer trip than I had anticipated.  Thankfully, Alexander remained pretty cool until he got hungry.
We finally got to my aunt's home in New Jersey, got facials, and relaxed.

Unfortunately, this is the only photo I was able to take
when we were in New Jersey.  My aunts spoiled Alexander
by taking him to the toy store where he got to pick out 4 toys.
He got two sharks, 1 dinosaur, and 1 sting ray.  Apparently
Alexander is in a shark phase now.  Who knew?
In this picture, Mr. Shark (as I call him) was cheering Alexander
on as he was eating his dinner.  Alex totally bought it. :)

That Monday morning, we showered and made our way to New York where we stopped by our hotel in Soho to drop off our car.  We purposely chose Soho because it was just a few blocks away from our favorite pizzeria that my friend Vanessa introduced us to a few years ago.  Ever since then, we've compared every pizza we've ever eaten to this pizzeria - Lombardi's - the best freaking pizza you'll ever eat in your entire life.

However, we got there about a half hour too early, so we walked around the neighborhood and found a cute little bakery that we just couldn't resist stopping by.  The smell from the bakery was intoxicating - full of vanilla, chocolate, and delectable cake scents - just stopping by was no longer in the picture.  We needed pre-lunch cupcakes.  :)

Alex, sitting at the table with his snack trap, gleefully awaiting
the arrival of the cupcakes.  

Alex and daddy posing with red velvet (our favorite) and a chocolate
marshmallow cupcake.  As you can tell, Alex was growing impatient
and wanted to dig in right away.

Best pizza in the world!!  Lombardi's large pizza with extra cheese,
extra sauce, pepperoni, and mushroom.  *sigh*  I'm salivating just
thinking about it.  Thanks for introducing us, Vanessa!!

Alex and Joseph in Times Square - it was incredibly
hot that day.

We were cooling off in the Disney store and
Alex was fascinated by the huge display of stuffed animals.

We didn't make it much further until we had to
cool off once more.  We found ourselves gravitating
towards M&M world.  

Mmmmmm!  Deliciously overpriced bulk M&Ms...yep, we were sucked right in.

Alex was getting pretty fussy because it was incredibly hot, humid,
and was starting to drizzle.  So, we made our way to the Central
Park Zoo where we got to see lots of animals and watch a penguin 4D movie.
Here's Alex and Joseph checking out the seals.

Alex and Joseph watching the seals frolic.

Joseph and Alex checking out the penguins.

Polar bear 'tocks :)

Watching the polar bear do laps.

Looking at the snow leopard - and by the looks of it
the snow leopard was QUITE irritated and was ready to
pounce on one of the zoo visitors.

Yikes!  He was seriously ready to pounce!

Alexander Rabbit! :)

Alexander Turtle :)

He's getting better at actually posing for pictures - slowly but surely.

Looking at the fish in the Children's Garden.

Alexander, delicately crossing some lily pads.

The cutest little fly caught in a web.

Alexander was very excited to check out the goats.

He was totally on board with feeding the goats with Joseph, until
he experienced just how aggressive the goats were while eating.
Then, he was all done, and Joseph had to feed the goats the remaining food. 

Yikes!  Look at those horns!

At least the goats got fed and Joseph had fun. :)

I thought this was hilarious - it actually looks like the pig is smiling.

We had no actual set "plans" for this trip, but had an idea of what we wanted to do and where we wanted to take Alexander.  One place that I thought would be fun was to take him to the Statue of Liberty because I felt like he would enjoy riding on the ferry and we could get a few cute pictures.  However, Alexander was being pretty difficult during this trip (I guess he's a real homebody and didn't care to be taken out of his home base).  So Joseph's friend suggested that we take a boat tour of the Statue of Liberty instead.  That evening, Joseph did some research (thank goodness for smart phones, huh?) and found an hour-long boat tour of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Just the perfect amount of time for Alexander to ride in a boat and be able to see these great landmarks.

A very dark picture of me and Alexander on Pier 16 by the tall ships
waiting to board our boat.

This tall ship was pretty magnificent.

This was just one of a few big transitions that we made
for Alexander.  The transition from toddler sippy cup
to a big boy water bottle.  He enjoyed this because we
spiked his water with a little bit of apple juice (a rare treat in this household).
Although there were quite a few spills, he was very proud that
he was drinking out of a "big boy cup."

This was the boat that we went on the tour.

Joseph and Alexander smiling on the boat. 

Ready to start our tour!

Views from the boat

Ellis Island

The Statue of Liberty!  Fun Fact:  My sister and I were
the Statue of Liberty for Halloween a couple of
years in a row after visiting the statue with my mom and aunt. 

Alexander checking out the statue.  He was
getting pretty antsy by this point in time.

Me, trying to get Alexander to look at the camera to take a picture.
FAIL!

"Hi Mommy!"

"Cheeeeeeeeeese!"

"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!"  Alexander

still remembers and likes to talk about the Pirates of the 

Caribbean ride that we rode when we went to Disney. :)

After that, we went back, took a family nap, and thankfully Alexander took a nice long nap.  So long that by the time we got up, got a taxi and got to the Museum of Natural History, it was about an hour until closing.  We waited about 15 minutes, and got to get in for free!  Score!  That was definitely the only good deal that we got the entire trip.  Taxi cabs cost an arm and a leg to get around town.

Alexander, twiddling his thumbs, and waiting
patiently (surprisingly) to get into the museum
to see the dinosaur exhibit (which was basically
the only reason we went to the museum anyways).
Alexander is REALLY into dinosaurs right now.

He decided to be cooperative and smiled
beautifully.  What a big boy! :)

The dinosaurs in the entrance are pretty magnificent.
I find it absolutely fascinating that these creatures
roamed the earth.  

Daddy and Alexander posing by the dinosaurs

Tyrannosaurus Rex!!  One of Alexander's favorites.  He was
quite amazed at how big they were.

"Di-soar egg, YES, that's right!"  (Alexander's observation and
then affirmation that he was right.  He's a pretty funny kid.)

I thought it was pretty cool that all of the pterosaurs were hanging
from the ceiling - Alexander enjoyed it as well.  A few weeks prior
to this visit, we went to the Museum of Science and watched a 3D
film on pterosaurs, so Alexander kept talking about the dinosaur
film while pointing at the ceiling.  

Joseph and I both agreed that this one was kind of creepy because
they put an eye on this dinosaur.

Alexander touching a fish fossil.  He really liked this hands-on
part of the exhibit.

Amazing wooly mammoths, huh?

Me and Alexander, collectively "Oohing,"
and "aahing" at these massive creatures.

Alexander LOVED touching this dinosaur bone as well.

Me and Alexander posing by another one of
his favorites - Triceratops!  He stared at this
one for a while, too.

Stegosaurus!  (I put exclamation points after the dinosaur
names because that's exactly how Alexander said their names
when we saw them.)

Joseph and Alexander by the massive elephants in the museum as well.

Joseph's friend had another awesome suggestion that we visit the High Line park.  It was built on a former elevated railroad line in New York.  It was absolutely picturesque, Alexander LOVED running along it, and it ended in Chelsea Market!

Alexander was happy to be free of the stroller.

Amazing view, huh?

You couldn't wipe the smile off of his face, he was having so much fun!

Along the high line are a few art exhibits which were pretty cool.

What a vibrant rendition of a very classic moment.  I loved the colors.

It was an absolutely perfect morning and the temperature was
juuuuust right.  We had a wonderful stroll along the high line. 

Another interesting art piece.  Alexander thought they were letters
and was saying the letters that he thought they were.  Why not? :)

There were beautiful wildflower gardens all along the way.

Taking a break while Alexander enjoyed a little snack.

Joseph and I enjoyed some overpriced iced coffee along the high line.
When in Rome, right?

What a precious big boy. :) 

Little man, laughing his head off. :)

This is his "blue steel" look. :)

This was kind of a weird looking art piece along the path.

Alexander enjoyed sitting on the benches.

Inside Chelsea Market - a foodie's dream come true!
Joseph and I were salivating at the sight of all of the
little shops and their yummy and unique foods.

Indoor well at Chelsea Market

That afternoon, we went back to Central Park to play around the park itself and visit the carousel.

Joseph and Alexander smiling on their carousel ride.

Alexander climbing some of the boulders in Central Park - he loved this!

Alexander running around the park.

Awww!  What a happy and smiley guy!

Joseph and Alexander playing in the sand box area of the playground
in Central Park.

Little man, playing in the park.

So here's a "not so" funny story that happened after we left this park and made our way to dinner.  We put Alexander in the stroller and hustled over to a Chinese restaurant for dinner because our reservations were in 20 minutes.  When we got to the table, Alexander said, "Mommy, feet hurt."  I told him that everything was okay and that I would look at his feet after dinner when we got back to the hotel.  I saw Alexander fiddling with his feet and then all of a sudden, he plopped his shoe on top of the table and said, "Feet.hurt," while pouring out an entire toddler's shoe worth of sand on the table and onto his dinner plate.  Both Joseph's and my jaws dropped and I gasped aloud, as I could not even imagine what had just happened.  I quickly brushed as much of the sand off of the table as possible, while Joseph rescued whatever food that didn't have sand on it onto another plate.  I then grabbed Alexander's other shoe from under the table and just emptied the sand from that shoe under the table.  We then gobbled our food as fast as we could and quickly exited the restaurant.  At the time, this was incredibly not funny, but looking back at it, it was pretty hilarious.

That next morning, Alexander woke up at 5:20 a.m.  Joseph and I looked at each other and decided that we had had enough of this family vacation and decided to cut our trip short, shower, and make our way back home.  Although it was nice to get a change of scenery, Alexander definitely didn't like being out of his element and proved to be not so easy to handle while we were there.

Sure enough, as soon as we crossed the Connecticut state line into Massachusetts, Alexander turned back into his normal self and was pleasant the entire rest of the way home.  It's weird how kids can sense this kind of thing, huh?  Regardless, we were happy to be home, and happy to pick up Oscar from the dog trainer's facility.  Let's hope that our next family trip, as a family of four, moves seamlessly.  Until next time...

Love and kisses,
Nikki