Let's hear for New York, New York, New York!

I know this is long overdue its been in the works for over a month! Its hard getting on the computer with 2 babies at home and the pictures weren't on my work computer! ENJOY!

Early this summer, we had decided to take the kids on an airplane trip. The plan was set to go Southern California for a visit with some family, hit up Disneyland and meet up with the Hoang's before their big Maui vacation. Well someone (not naming names), wanted to wait to see if airfares would go down and waited too long that airfares actually went up. So we decided to postpone the trip until the fall when prices might be a little lower and Disney might be slightly less crowded. Fall rolled around and we found out that our friends, John and Christine, would be moving to Houston from New York soon, so on a whim decided we should hit up New York when we would have some people to visit. Dates went back and forth a little because October is a busy month for us, so eventually we settled on for some days in September.

Once the date was set, someone was a little more diligent about getting the other someone to actually purchase tickets this time. And low and behold Jet Blue had a sale and tickets were booked, no fuss no muss! The only issue was that we'd be leaving Houston on a 7 am flight, so there were some concerns about getting to the airport that early, but things turned out great. Next big decision was accommodations, at first we thought a hotel would be best because we didn't want to impose on John and Christine. After searching for some hotels, we found out that NY hotels are EXPENSIVE, so we decided to take John and Christine's offer to let us stay at their place. We saved some $$$ and the kids still thought it was like staying at a hotel so we were golden!

So for trips in general, I do like to do a little research and plan out our days so that no time is wasted, but for this NY trip I figured we'd play a lot by ear seeing how the kids are feeling at any given moment. I didn't want to set any expectations. So needless to say Dennis and I both felt very unprepared on Tuesday night. Tuesday, Dennis laid out what he wanted packed for himself and then went off to work. I even had Emmie pack up a backpack with some toys that she wanted to take, and I packed up one for Drew. Tuesday night after the kids went to bed, I started packing us all up and amazingly finished up in about an hour. Since we had to leave around 5 am for the airport, I waited for Dennis to get home from work and we packed up the car with everything.

The next morning went smoothly! Of course on a morning where I need Drew to be up at 5 am, he sleeps soundly. So I had to wake him to change his diaper and outfit. Emmie went to bed in her in clothes because I figured she'd be sleeping for a while. We were on the road to the airport a little ahead of schedule which made me feel good. I thought for sure the kids would fall right back to sleep, but they were wide awake.

We grabbed some airport breakfast and were set for the plane ride. Drew and I sat at the window seat, Emmie in the aisle seat with Dennis right across the aisle. As we were were heading to the runway, I decided it would be a good time to distract them with the surprise I had gotten them to entertain them on the plane. I had read it would be good to wrap up a little something so that the kids think its extra special and it really worked. Ems loved the coloring book and since it was the color blasters mess-free thing so did I. Drew could have cared less about his Thomas the Train one, but that's ok. Emmie held on to my arm for dear life as the plane took off but then was engrossed in coloring immediately afterwards. Eventually, Jet Blue's DirectTV system started working and we found Go Diego Go and Dora!

Emmie was in heaven...chewing gum, eating cheetos, drinking juice, and watching shows. Drew eventually fell asleep so I was able to lean back and relax. Towards the end of the flight Emmie no longer wanted to watch TV, but continued to color in her book. Drew began getting a little antsy and wanted some milk so I gave him some and everything was all better...until we landed! As the bell rang to signal that you could get out of your seat, I was thinking to myself not too bad for our first flight. Then Drew threw up all his milk. I didn't catch a drop of it in the barf bag, and felt so horrible for him and the people having to clean it up. It didn't phase him because he seemed to feel a lot better right afterwards!

I got Drew all cleaned up while Dennis got the luggage and we grabbed a cab to head over to John's place in China Town. Emmie fell asleep for maybe the last 10 minutes of the ride and that was her nap for the entire day. We got to John's relaxed a bit and enjoyed some yummy Bonchon chicken wings (Korean wings), courtesy of John. We decided to head over to the World Trade Center area and John said taking a cab would be the best way less than 5 miles he said! $20 and about 30 minutes later we finally got there!

We strolled around the construction area. As we walked around and I saw all the little memorials it brought a few tears to my eyes. I just can't even begin to imagine the devastation! We made our way over to the World Financial Center, stopping in for a potty break. It ended up being the place a lot of people went to to see into the World Trade Center construction zone. It was a nice building to spend some time in because 1. it was air conditioned and 2. it had clean potties! Later on, we also learned during the Harbor Tour that the World Financial Center's glass atrium area was the first thing that was rebuilt after 9/11.

We eventually made our way out of the building and into Battery City Park. We strolled along the harbor and stopped at a few parks along the way. This is also around the time that Emmie broke out in hives, so we thought it might be a good idea to start heading back to John's place. As we walked back we came across a really awesome playground, so we stopped to let the kids play. They spent a good 45 minutes playing here and I spent my time being envious of all the fancy strollers everyone had! I guess you need really good strollers because you're walking everywhere! Luckily my kids didn't have the stroller envy and were happy with their cheapy umbrella strollers! That night for dinner John brought home some White Castle, since I figured the kids would be pretty grumpy after such a long day. After dinner it was bath and bedtime. I was a little concerned about how the kids would sleep with the apartment being small and the noise level but the a/c unit in the room made for great white noise. At first I was trying to figure out how our family of 4 would sleep on a queen bed. It went something like this, all laid horizontally on the bed, with Drew between the wall and me, Emmie between me and Dennis and Dennis right on the edge. Drew went down fast and hard. Emmie took a little more convincing and I think the little shot of Benydryl helped! She wanted to talk about what we were doing tomorrow and what we were going to see, but eventually she turned in. I passed out also because I was exhausted after the long day. Dennis was up late chatting it up John so I have no idea when he came to bed!

The next day Drew and I were up early, so John us took us to a yummy donut shop and picked up some gourmet donuts: PB&J, Almonds, and Creme Brulee. By the time we got back Ems and Dennis were up and we started getting ready for our day. Against John's wishes we decided to brave the subway to head over to where we were suppose to take a New York Harbor tour (the only thing we had scheduled). It was a pleasant surprise when we came out of the subway station right in front of the NY Stock Exchange, so we got to see Wall Street without planning on it.

We made our way to the area we thought we were going to catch the ferry for the tour. After walking back and forth from pier to pier trying to find the place, some one finally told us that we needed to go back to the park area that we were at to get our will call tickets. The tour was good once we finally got to where we needed to be. Drew was pretty tired and passed out once the boat got going. Emmie loved being on the boat with the wind blowing in her hair. The whole point of the tour was to really see the Statue of Liberty without the hassle of the Statue of Liberty tour. It was exactly what we expected! We made our way back towards John's place via subway but made a couple of stops. We found a fun park area and the kids played their hearts away.

We decided to hit up the Little Italy street festival for dinner, San Gennaro. Lots of yummy food and the kids got to ride a little merry-go-round. Drew enjoyed the roasted corn. The best part of the night was the canolli I decided I needed to try. There's no pictures since we were too busy devouring the sweet goodness!
After a restful night, we were up and ready to go again! Since it was our last day there, we had a lot to see: Times Square, FAO Swartz, Central Park and the Central Park Zoo. Christine got back to NY from her San Francisco trip that morning so the plan was for them to join us for the day. Christine was on a red eye flight so needed to catch up on sleep and John needed some snuggle time with the wifey, so we headed out on our own. Another quick subway ride and we were in Times Square!

My old friend from high school, Gregory Tran, made the trek out to Times Square to hang with us tourist for a bit. He was a good sport spending time with us at Toys R Us, Hershey's and the M&M store. He also took us to what I thought was going to be a giant Sanrio, which turned out to be pretty average sized. But Ems and Drew enjoyed the ferris wheel ride at TRU, Drew got an awesome little toy called a Sing-a-ma-jig which looks kinda freaky at first but is pretty cute! Ems got a butterfly container full of lovely colored M&Ms. John eventually met us in Times Square and we grabbed lunch at some Italian place. Lunch was longer than expected so we needed to make up for lost time.

We headed to FAO Schwartz and Central Park via Fifth Avenue. We swung by a store called Little Miss Match, which sells mismatched socks, 3 different coordinating socks to a pack. I picked up a pack for Ems and Maddy, and at the last minute found these cute little arm warmers for the Vinh girls. Dennis questioned my pick but when we gave it to the girls they jumped around talking about how they've seen these and thought they were the coolest! Ems was getting pretty grumpy with the shopping, but we walked by H&M and I couldn't pass it up. We strolled in, and I was thinking I could pick up some cute clothes for the kids. As we waited to use the elevator to go to the "kid's" section (with Ems whining since we walked through the store). I turned to a guy stacking some shirts and asked if they even had a kid's section, and good thing I asked because they didn't have one! So off to FAO we went!

Drew loved all the animals.

Ems fawned over the Barbie display!

They both loved the BIG piano!

They jumped and ran all over that thing. There was a lady doing glitter tattoos, so Ems choose to do a fairy...I went off to change Drew's diaper and left Dennis in charge of the tattoo purchase and application. Luckily, I came back just in time to stop the lady from applying the bright purple glitter tattoo that lasts up to 2 weeks on her FACE ("because that is where she wanted it"). I convinced her to get it on her arm...it didn't end up lasting 2 weeks just a week, but still I preferred it not on her face.

We made it over to Central Park and headed to the zoo. That was at 5:05 pm and the zoo closes at 5:00, so we missed the zoo! I was so disappointed but not as much as Ems. She was looking forward to seeing the polar bears, we were able to see the polar bear tank but not very well so there was no chance of seeing the polar bears themselves. After the zoo disappointment, Dennis saw this rock to climb and Ems decided she was going to conquer it too. We took a walk around the park and found Bethesda Fountain (the fountain in Enchanted). It was really pretty and the kids had a good time just hanging around there and near the little lake. That's how we wrapped up our time in Central Park.

We headed back to China Town to meet two of my friends for some soup dumplings. The place was a super hole in the wall place, but the food was obviously good because there was a line to get a table. The dumplings were super tasty, once you bit into it some yummy hot soup oozes out. It was a great last meal in New York and we were able to share it with my friends and John and Christine. Drew passed out before dinner ended, so we had to call it a night...even though we were right next to the Italian street festival again, and I wanted one last canolli. John and Dennis offered to pick up a canolli for me while Christine and I took the babies back to the apartment! Apparently, it was John's evil plan all along to make Christine help with lugging up 2 babies and their strollers up the stairs to their second story apartment...to prove his point that having babies in NY is hard. I rushed putting Drew down, so that I could come back and help Christine with all the stuff, but she had carried everything up already. She came in saying I think John planned this all along...and she was right! So she came up with her own plan, saying that it was easier than she thought since the strollers were so light! When the guys got back, John didn't buy Christine's story and he admitted to his evil plan. It must have worked because they'll be moving to Houston some time soon!

The next morning we didn't have time to do much, since our flight was around noon, Dennis went out and got some steamed buns for a quick breakfast and then we were on our way to the airport. On the ride there, we talked to Ems about the trip and what were her favorite things and she whispered "we didn't get to see the polar bears" with this bitter air. I felt so guilty and promised we'd have to come back to see them! We'll make it a priority next time!

The plane ride went just a smooth as on our way there. We even hit some turbulence at one point and I was trying to play it cool so Ems and Drew wouldn't freak out...then Ems yells out "Wee, wee, wee, wee" and started laughing out loud, which caused Drew to laugh which caused everyone around us to start laughing. It was a good time for everyone! Like I said everything went just as when we went to NY, including Drew's little throwup mishap after the landing! I have a feeling it had to do with the milk we gave him since when we asked the flight attendant for a box of milk, she gave Dennis a look (like are you sure you want this) and then said yes we do and reluntantly gave it to him. I thought it was weird at the time but maybe she knew something we didn't! I was able to catch most of it in the bag but not all over it, so there was clean up for the crew. I felt bad but I guess for the next plane ride we'll try to avoid milk!

It was an awesome trip and we were happy to get in a visit the "Wynn's" before they leave NY. We definitely didn't get to see everything so we'll for sure make another trip. So happy that we took on this little mini trip! There will so many more trips, can't wait for the next adventure!