The McMurray Family

Saturday, December 3, 2011

New York City!!

I know these posts seem a little out of order but here you go. Back in October Justin was invited to a conference in Long Island and told me nonchalantly that I should go with him. Well, I took him up on his offer, got my Mom and Dennis and sister-in-law Andrea to babysit the kids and walaa, we went on a fun trip! We flew out Monday and joined up with his coworker for a fun afternoon of riding bikes and seeing the most beautiful homes. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday I went to NYC all by myself and had a fabulous time being quite the tourist.

Then on Thursday Justin was going to be done with his conference at noon so I borrowed his coworker's SUV and hit the mall for a few hours. Then his coworker drove a few of us into NYC and we saw the 9-11 memorial, amazing! Then we walked around some more and ate dinner in Times Square, it was a fun evening.

On Friday Justin and I hit the city solo. We went on a boat cruise over to Ellis Island and Liberty Island. We tried to look up my great grandpa but couldn't find his information although my Mom said they have found him before and printed off the ship ledger. Since it was raining we skipped Central Park bike riding and went up the Statue of Liberty which was fun but time consuming. Then we flew home Saturday, what a fun unexpected trip!

On our fun bike ride, we had a blast!

Nellie on top of the Empire State Building

Justin on top of the Empire State Building

View from the Empire State Building

Riding the boat away from NYC

On the boat to Liberty Island

Occupy Wall Street

9-11 Memorial Fountain, amazing!

The 1st of 4 building being built at Ground Zero.

With Justin's Coworkers in Times Square

Love these houses, all on the same incredible street!

My mouse mousse dessert ;)

My hot chocolate recommended by my sis-in-law, can't remember where at (a french name)

Me shopping at South Street Seaport

Frozen Hot Chocolate at Seredipity III (doesn't look at all like the movie)

FAO Schwarz, candy store.

Times Square (I saw an off broadway show in a tiny theater, The Fantastiks. I would've rather seen a big show in a huge theater instead like Phantom.)

Swimming Mikey

If you've seen Mikey lately, you know that he likes to swim, it's funny! Here are some pictures. He is getting close to crawling but not quite there yet. He gets up on his hands and knees a little bit but not all the time. Maybe in the next few weeks......

The Happiest Place on Earth!

Well, we finally made it to Disneyland in November after last year's illness fiasco in which we went to California and spent a few days indoor due to rain and then spent the second half of the week with illness and came home without doing a thing, it was such a downer!

Well, this year we made it and it was fun (besides the major coughs we were each experiencing). We left Mikey with my sister-in-law (thanks Andrea!) and just took Tim and Allie, we highly recommend not taking a baby :)

We drove to Vegas on Monday and stayed at the Excalibur for so cheap and the kids loved staying a castle :) We walked around a bit but we got there late and the kiddos were tired. Then we drove to California and went to the beach on Tuesday. Very cold water but we went in up to our calves and still had a grand time, especially at the rocks looking for critters at low tide!

We went to Disneyland on Wednesday and hit California Adventure first. We saw some friends from Utah (Chris Fidler and Richard Sieger and wives etc) and went on a few fun rides. Then we headed to Disneyland and partied. I insisted we stay late the first night and see the parade since I knew we would be worn out at the end of day 2. We loved the parade (Allie loved seeing the princesses and Tinkerbell waved at her, it was great!)

We went to Disneyland again Thursday and met up with a buddy of Justin's from work and we went around Fantasyland with them but then we split up. Timmy was my buddy on Splash Mountain and Allie and Timmy both loved Thunder Mountain and we went 3 times. Allie was barely tall enough with her taller shoes. We went back to CA Adventure and I'm so glad we went on the flight ride, it was awesome and Justin's favorite. I even got to go on the Tower of Terror ride :) Justin was so nice to let me go on my favorite rides by myself. We left around 5:30 and ate dinner at Denny's. On Friday we packed up and stopped at the Calico Ghost town on the way home and I thought it was great! I had mentioned on the way there that I would like to see a recreated ghost town so Justin found one on the way home and took me :) He even let me go shopping for 45 minutes at a factory outlet too. He said this was my trip and indulged my whims :)

On Friday we stayed with Justin's sister Maureen and bro in law Christian for the night. We went hiking with them on Saturday morning and then drove to Wales, UT to pick up Mikey (since Jer and Andrea were there visiting my Mom and Dennis). It was so fun to get the baby back and he even said Mama several times to Andrea during the week (although he does not say it so much to me yet.)

All in all, the trip was a resounding success. The only thing that would've made it more perfect is warmer weather at the beach (but then bigger crowds at Disney, hmmm). Fun times!