Holiday Fun

This year during Christmas time has been really fun especially because Jaylee is at an age where she can get excited about Santa (she likes to see him but not get too close), Christmas trees, lights, window displays and that kind of fun holiday stuff.

Newport Christmas lights

Our little town square is decorated really cute with christmas lights. They had a special christmas lighting ceremony one night where Santa came and the lights were turned on and were synchronized with music.

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Winter's Eve at the Lincoln Center

They held a Winter's eve at the Lincoln Center which is where Juilliard, the Met opera house and the Manhattan temple are located. They had a Christmas Tree lighting, ice sculptures, concerts, and places you could go see Santa. Blake was busy studying for finals so Jaylee and I went to go check it out. We went to a little kiddie concert that Jaylee absolutely loved. She loves music, dancing and kids so this was perfect! We also went to see Santa and Jaylee loves to say HoHoHo when you ask what Santa says and she loves seeing him but she does NOT like being too close to him. So when when we were in line she got more and more nervous as we got closer and closer. I didn't want to make her scared to death about Santa so I just sat on his lap while I held her. As we left of coarse she warmed right up and said bye, waved and blew kisses to him, haha oh Jaylee!

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Washington Square Park Christmas tree lighting

So one of the cute ladies that I have met while here invited me to go to see them light the tree at Washington Square Park which is right next to NYU. I was excited to go over into the city and spend the day with her even though it was rainy and cold. We walked over to the park in the rain to see them light the tree and when they did we both started laughing. Here we were in the freezing cold getting all wet and the tree looked terrible! It only had lights on it and they looked like they had started and got sick of doing it after 10 mins and just threw on the rest. So needless to say we only stayed for a couple of mins and left. Oh they had a Santa walking around before they lit the tree and he walked up to Jaylee who was dancing in the rain and when she saw him she ran towards me until she saw that he had a candy cane, then she went back and took it and blew kisses to him as he walked away. So stranger danger unless they have candy, haha!





Santaland & Ward Christmas Party

Jaylee and I went to THE Macy's famous Santaland with the ladies from our ward. First off, Macy's is huge! It is the biggest department store ever, Santa is on the 8th floor and someone told us that they leave Santaland up all year round. It was adorable how they have it set up. First you go through a train that sounds like its moving and it takes you to the North Pole. Once inside there were snowmen, a weird christmas tree that talked, trains, lots christmas trees decorated, build-a-bears singing and dancing, and this is all just as you go through the line. Then an Elf took you to a little room where Santa is waiting. Jaylee was all excited seeing all the cute stuff through the line but when I told her that we were going to see Santa she kind of freaked out and said no no no bye bye bye. She had a kung fu grip on me when she saw Santa so I just held her and sat by him. But I want to go back and see if I can get her to sit on his lap so I can get a picture, I know that she will be screaming but I think it would be fun to have.



We also had a ward Christmas party on Saturday and the Primary put on a christmas pageant and they had the nursery kids be the sheep. They had made cute ears out of white felt and had them wear long black socks on their arms (we put Jaylee's on and immediately she took them off, haha). There were about 10 nursery kids and when they brought them out with the shepherds they had them sit down off to the side. Of coarse they only sat for a minute and the rest of the pageant we were just trying to contain them! Haha by the end only 2 kids still had their ears on and the rest were crawling on the floor, piano, and on the manger they had made! It was rather funny!



Funny pics of Jaylee


Yummy and sticky!

Ho Ho Ho!

Thanksgiving and the Macy's Day Parade

I was so grateful to have my parents come for Thanksgiving! It made the holiday really special. I didn't get any pics of the wonderful meal that mom and dad made while Blake and I camped out to watch the Macy's Day Parade. They were extremely nice to watch Jaylee for us and cook while we got to experience the crazy crowds of people at the parade. We ended up leaving our place about 5:50 am and it took over an hour and a half to get to where we wanted to go and by that time there were so many people it was crazy! We eventually found a pretty good spot and camped out for another 2 hours until the parade started. Craziness, but it was worth it!

Washington D.C. & Philadelphia

When my dad flew out we went on a little American History trip down to Philadelphia and Washington D.C. We were glad that Jaylee did so well in the car. It was about a 4 hour trip from Washington D.C and since she hasn't been in a car seat for a while we thought that it might be scary, but she did great. It was freezing but we still went to the museums, monuments, memorials, and had a blast. Thanks mom and dad for taking us.

Kenna's Birthday

We were so excited for Kenna, Shannon and my mom to come for Kenna's 8th birthday. We were able to do some really fun things like going to the Rockettes Christmas show, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, and Kenna's favorite the American Girl Store. She was able to buy an American Girl doll that looked just like her with green eyes and red hair. It was way fun to see how excited she was about her new doll and the outfits we bought for her. Thanks Kenna for coming to celebrate with Jaylee and I on your very special 8th birthday! We had a blast!

Halloween

So this year we experienced a New York Halloween and it was definitely quite the experience! We did have a little ward Halloween Party on Saturday during a huge snow storm. It was crazy and it snowed all day and night, and I think we got about 3-5 inches of snow. Luckily we got a ride so we didnt have to trek through the storm to get to the party. Jaylee wasn't so sure about the costumes at first and even had a major melt down at a boy who was dressed up as a scary skeleton and had a mask on. haha that was fun, but once people started giving out candy she did better and even enjoyed herself. She loved smarties and the homemade root beer that she couldn't get enough of. (talk about a sugar high!).

On Halloween day we were invited to go spend the day with a couple of other students and their families. They had a kid parade in the afternoon which was fun because the kids got to join in the parade and show off their cool costumes and then they had a carnival set up with face painting, a carousel, a bounce house, cotton candy, popcorn and a bag of goodies. We didn't stay too long because it was crowded and crazy but it was fun to see. Then we went to the student housing apartments and they had trick-or-treating, and a had a party. A group of us thought it might be fun to go see the adult parade that evening but man was that a mistake! It was definitely interesting but as we tried to make it to the subway entrance to get home we got stuck in a crowd of people. It was so crazy, we had people pushing and yelling at us while others were trying to watch the parade. Haha we almost didn't make it!

Pumpkin Patch

Jaylee and I were able to go to a pumpkin patch with some of the ladies from our ward. It was about an hour away and we drove through some of the prettiest trees and foliage that I have ever seen, I now know why they call New Jersey the Garden State. It was really pretty to see because all the leaves were changing colors. Once we got there, we were able to go on a tractor ride that took us around the little farm. It was a lot of fun and I was able to visit with some of the other moms while Jaylee got to play with other kids. They dropped us off at the pumpkin patch and we each got to pick out a pumpkin. I love the pictures of Jaylee holding the pumpkin that she found! She wouldn't put it down and didn't want any other pumpkin, haha

Tourist

We finally got to play tourist when my mom and her friend Marilyn came to visit. We found a good deal on a NYC pass so we were able to do a lot of fun things...

Top of the Rock
We heard that the top of the Rockefeller Center had better views of the city than the Empire State Building because you could actually see Central Park and after going to both I agree. The park looked amazing from up so high and it was also cool to be able to see the Empire State Building as well. Plus you get this cool elevator ride which seemed right out of the twilight zone. The ceiling of the elevator was see through and they did a light show as you flew up the building. I kept thinking that it was like the Hollywood Tower of Terror and after we reached the top it was going to drop us 70 floors!






9/11 Memorial Site
This was an amazing experience. They just opened up the memorial site on Sept 11th and it was beautiful. The museum was not finished yet so I hope to go back to see that when it's completed.



Bus Tour
We decided that the best way to see the whole city in a short time would be to take a bus tour. We loved it until it started to rain on us! Luckily they had some ponchos that they handed out so that we didn't get soaked.





Harbor Cruise
We took a harbor cruise out that went around manhattan and around the Statue of Liberty.


We did the same tour but at night


Empire State Building







The Metropolitan Museum of Art
WOW! This museum is so big, and the building itself is a work of art. We only got to spend about 2 hours there and so we only got a glimpse of what this museum has to offer.


Bear Mountain State Park
We decided to get out of the city for the day and see the surrounding area. So we rented a car and drove to Bear Mountain State Park. Some of the trees had started to change color but most were still green. They said in another week or two that it would have amazing colors. We were sad to find out that they had an Oktoberfest going on but it was only on the weekends. Dang! Blake really wanted a bratwurst.


So in the end my mom took 821 photos while she was here...Craziness! So just for fun here is a collage of all the photos