Lazy Friday

Dave's been super busy lately and has a lot of evening classes this semester, so we haven't had much couple OR family time.  But he ended up with some free time this weekend and we made the most of it.

We went on a date Friday night, which consisted of sneaking pizza into the AMC at Lincoln Square, and then dessert at Magnolia's Bakery afterward--yum!!  Somewhere between the movie and Magnolia's, we realized that aside from the title of the harmless fantasy adventure flick we saw (Percy Jackson and the Olympians), and less dropping of the f-bomb on our way to the theater, we'd pretty much reenacted Lazy Sunday.  Nice.

Saturday, we took Rhys to Union Square to have lunch and get an umbrella stroller (Um, hello Mr. Stroller.  Where have you been all my life?).  As we were leaving the subway on 14th street, I realized that Richard Kind was holding the door open for David.  If you're like the 3 people we immediately texted about this and you just said, "Uh, who is that?" then,
A) That is why you will never beat us at Scene It, and B) He's this guy:

 Except he was with his 3 little girls and looked more like this:

Now, you may be thinking "What's the big deal?"  But we've lived in NYC for almost 2 years and the only celeb sighting we've had until now was when I got fooled by the wax figure of Morgan Freeman in front of Madame Tussauds.  Yes, if you must know, I gasped and got my camera ready and everything before I realized.

Anyhoo...after that, we saw a city bus pulling away from the curb, with it's LED display (usually where it's route/destination is posted)  flashing "EMERGENCY - CALL POLICE."  So, I did.  I'm guessing I either helped thwart a hijacking, or I got some poor bus driver fired for unwittingly flipping the switch.  I'm going to go with the former explanation so I can feel like an extra in Speed.

At this point, we realized it was WAY past Rhys's nap time (getting anything done in NYC usually takes about 5 times longer than you anticipate) so we decided to just let him skip it (yes, you heard me right- I can relax and be flexible, occasionally) and headed to Times Square to ride the Toys'R'Us ferris wheel.  The line ended up being really long, so we saved it for another day but still had a blast exploring the store.  Rhys enjoyed the magic demonstrations, visited Lightning McQueen heaven, had his face stroked by Geoffrey the Giraffe (yah...we thought it was a little weird too), had a roaring contest with the T-Rex from Jurrassic Park,

 The T-Rex, and our friend...um...Bill.  That's right, Bill.

*have you figured out yet that I forgot to bring our camera along on this trip?

and met your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. He was in absolute awe of Spidey.  It was so cute, and the guy was really good at getting down on his level and talking to him.  It was all Rhys could talk about for the rest of the day.  He kept pointing to this picture we got, shouting "Man! Man!"

 All he wanted to do was look at Spider-Man and talk to him; hence the "Why won't everyone stop asking me to look at the camera and just give us a minute?" expression on his face here...

After all that excitement, Rhys conked out in his new stroller on the way home.  This kid hasn't fallen asleep in anything but his own bed since he was about 6 months old. 

*This was also the moment I realized I had a cell phone camera.  C'est la vie.

Snowed In

The infamous "blizzard" of aught 10 swept in today with a gusto, dropping an unbelievable several inches of snow within hours!  Everything in NYC shut down last night until further notice, in mere anticipation of this unlivable amount of white stuff.  Being the seasoned Utahns that we are, first, we laughed.  Then, we laughed more heartily.  Then, we put on our boots and went out to play...

Miracle on 34th Street...sort of

On Thursday, David decided to take the morning off so we could take Rhys to see the Macy's Santa together.  We went fully expecting the following experience:

I'm not saying we wouldn't have gotten a big kick out of it going that way...but since it was Rhys's first experience with all things Santa, it was probably fortunate that it went something more like this (I liked the 70's feel of this filter- for some reason 70's photos always remind me of my family's old photo albums and my first Christmases):

Very cool window displays telling the story of Miracle on 34th Street

8 flights up an actual wooden escalator

A "train ride" to the North Pole...the ground rumbles underneath as you walk through ...very cool

A walk through the village- the path was lined with awesome displays and friendly elves, animals, toys, train sets, lighted trees and Giant Nutcrackers.

 

As chance would have it, Lemondrop the elf turned out to be a girl from my high school

There was so much to see it actually felt a little like Disneyland.  By the time we got to Santa's house, Rhys was dealing with a wee bit of sensory overload, hence the slack-jawed stare.  But he loved Santa's jingle bells and wants to show us this picture several times a day so I think the overall impression was a good one.

I could have handled Santa being a bit more jolly, but they did make up for it by making sure everyone had a couple minutes of one on one time with him- literally.  You are the only people in the room with him (they lead you through a windy "forest" before you get to his house...in reality they're taking each group down separate paths to different Santas...pure genius!)  and they take a professional shot, but are super cool about taking a shot for you with your own camera too.

This was seriously one of THE best New York experiences we've had to date.  Which if you know anything about the way our experiences here usually end up, you'll realize this truly was a Christmas miracle.  Macy's is also decorated beautifully which really got us in the mood for the season.  AND I was able to get this cool shot outside to put on our Christmas card this year. 

Merry Christmas, every one!

Back in the City

We've been back in NYC for almost 2 months and I need to catch up on all the fun we've been having.

David turned 30 at the beginning of September and I surprised him with tickets to Phantom since he'd never seen it live before. It was really good- and the cast was actually operatically trained! I couldn't have been happier. I grew up listening to the original cast and saw live performances in S.F. and London when it was still in its heyday- but it always bothered me that a singer with a girlish, lilting, high-pitched voice could out-sing an actual Diva. Sorry Sarah Brightman fans-- the chick can hit a mean high E and has gotten a lot better over the years, but let's face it...she more often than not sounds like a caterwauling tabby.

Anyhoo- the new guy playing the Phantom (just replaced the previous long-running one) was AMAZING! The chandelier crash was disappointing- it kind of halted and jerked slowly down instead of a dramatic plunge, and for some reason both David and I remember glass crashing sound effects- but not in this performance. All in all though- it was a great evening.

It's on the most adorable little theater district street, and Hamlet was playing next door starring Jude Law...it made us giggle.

The next day, we celebrated David's birthday as a family with a trip to Central Park Zoo.  It's small, but has some great exhibits including penguins, sea lions, a snow leopard, 2 polar bears in a gigantic habitat, and a great little children's petting zoo.  Rhys got "attacked" by the snow leopard who leaped at the glass while Rhys's nose was pressed up against it.  It made the crowd scream, but do you think our little daredevil was shaken?  He just kept right on pointing and babbling about the "kitty."  I got some great shots, but unfortunately they are all from my new Nikon and have to be converted first, which I don't have time for.  But we went back a couple weeks ago with some friends, so these will give you the idea:

Our apartment is also way better this year.  We had to give up our previous one for the summer because they don't allow subletting, but it ended up working out great.  We got the exact same layout, two floors higher, which puts us just above the top of the building behind us.  This means MORE LIGHT and a bit of a view!  Hooray!  It also has better floors and a linen closet in the bathroom.  I literally had tears spring to my eyes when I realized I didn't have to keep our towels in the bedroom drawers anymore.  Oh- simple joys!

Here's a great shot of our "view"

Dinos and Daffodils

Last Saturday, we joined David's family for a day at Thanksgiving Point to celebrate Helen's 50th birthday! We had cake, toured the Dino Museum, and finished off the day by walking through the amazing gardens. We made it to waterfalls right as the sun was setting! It was beautiful! Rhys loved getting toted around in his carrier on Dad's tummy all day and was very glad to see Grandma and Grandpa and all his Aunts and Uncles again.

Family time at the world's largest man-made waterfall


Who you calling 4-eyes?

Rhys-zilla vs. the Mighty Megalodon
Cuddle time with Uncle Paul (who nicknamed Rhys "Stinko-Man")
Being carried, fed, fanned, and entertained sure wears a guy out!
Yes, that is actually one big blob of drool...