Surprise Day Trip to NYC

As a surprise to my Mom and Dad, we planned a day trip to take them to NYC. I had asked my Mom what city in the U.S. she someday wanted to visit (hoping she would not say Palmyra, as our trip to NYC was already set in stone). It thrilled me when she initially said NYC; then, it moved me to see her get teary when we told her where we were going on the day of our trip. To my great pleasure, I found out that my Dad had never been there either.

Here's proof that the NYPD doesn't just exist in the movies.

We love this entry way of the Empire State Building! It is perfect for getting good pics!

Here is 'Papa' with the girls, when we went to see the Trinity Church. We ate our hotdogs from a street vendor in the little plaza by the church.

I loved these pics so much of my parents in front of the Trinity Church by the Trinity Cemetary, that I even have to post...

a second closeup pic. Isn't the lighting beautiful?

Even though she looks small, that is Lady Liberty gracing our little family with her presence in the background.

Jared sometimes has quite the eye for good backgrounds where pics should take place, and this has to be one of his best ones yet! 'Good [eye], mate!'

Alexia was the only one who liked Serendipity, though. Ha ha. Okay that's a huge lie. We all loved it! We were lucky enough to only have to wait 15 minutes to get in! Anybody who has been there knows how impressive that is.

I loved how my mom loved every part of the journey. She even got thrilled about traveling on the subway system, since that was another first for her.

The girls were surprisingly good throughout the entire day, which was an amazing blessing! So, we came through with our promise of taking them to the gigantic toy store when we visited Times Square.

We were thrilled when we got the My Little Pony car, to the dismay of the teenagers behind us who wanted it. It was fun going around and around, getting to wave at Grandpa and Grandma multiple times.

Since the day was magical for us, we ended it making it magical for the girls, letting them each pick out a Barbie. In addition, their Grandpa and Grandma got them a Barbie house.

It was an awesome day and I learned that I really love NYC!!! Addie also loves it and talks about it a lot. She even made up a song in the car one day about it, where she sings "I want to go back to New York City; I want to go back to New York City; I want to go back to New York City; I want to go back to New York City!"