NYC

This year, we planned a trip to NYC with just the big boys.  There's lots of reasons we wanted to do this.  Mary loves NYC at Christmas, Mike loves musicals.  It's a special place for us with lots of fond memories from our teen years and also together.  Lukas is certainly old enough to appreciate much of what New York has to offer.  And Nicholas is just such a showman.  He's wiry, hyper and loves to sing, dance and jump.  So we thought that musicals might really connect with him.  While he actually loves being the center of attention, he does suffer from quite a bit of real performance anxiety, however, and has rejected participating in anything like choir (or sports up until recently with ninja) for this reasons.  So we thought this might be a neat way to introduce him to a terrific part of the world that he's had pretty limited exposure to up until this point.  That being said, four boys is a lot to take anywhere, let alone the biggest city in the country, and we weren't sure J&J had the attention span for dinner waits, walking city streets, or the musical.  So, Grandma and Pop came to Creekside to watch the little guys while the rest of us jetted off via Amtrak to the big city.  It was so refreshing to be able to fully focus on one or two boys at a time!  We ate "the best pizza in Times Square," watched some street performers, skated at Rockefeller center (while it rained and Nick got soaked when falling in a puddle), were amazed by the Harry Potter store, drank at the butter beer bar, saw The Lion King on Broadway, ate at a fancy dinner which Nick called "mindblowing," and then ate some more delicious breakfast before heading home.  Other than the dreary weather, and my hip, keeping us from wanting to explore on foot too much, it all went well.  The boys really enjoyed themselves at each event (except for Nick in the puddle), seemed to appreciate the specialness of the city, but were also a little overwhelmed by it.  They didn't like the crowds and weren't interested in shopping (who's ready for a girls trip???), but loved the experience overall and definitely want to go back.  

Here are the picture highlights!