New York

Last week we went up to New England for a Harper Family Reunion. We left a day early so we could spend some time in New York City. Since Suzy had babysat for us this summer, we told her we would take her to New York to see Wicked in return for all her help. Suzy's mom, Carolee (David's sister) flew out to come along.

After getting checked into our hotel, we first stopped at Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange and Trinity Church.

The New York Stock Exchange.
Trinity Church.

Sarah and Rachel with Wall Street and Trinity church behind them.

We continued up Wall Street to Federal Hall. This is Carolee in front of the statue of George Washington in front of Federal Hall. Federal Hall is where George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of our country. It was a neat building inside. Sarah looked around inside and decided that was where she wanted to have her wedding reception someday when she gets married. We'll see if we can swing that, Sarah...yeah, right!

After Federal Hall we jumped on the subway and rode up to Grand Central station and had a look around at that amazing building. We then walked a few blocks over to New York Public Library. I had no idea it was such an amazing building.

Sarah, Kate and Ben in front of one of the famous lions.

This is the ceiling inside the library in the main reading room. The main reading room is amazing--it is the size of a football field and has this incredible ceiling. Also inside the library is an original Guttenburg Bible and the original Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals given to Christopher Robin Milne by his father A.A. Milne. Very cool, but of course, no photography allowed.

We then walked to Times Square

and had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.

After dinner we went to M&M World.

The kids were so excited to pick out M&M's in all these different colors.

After M&M World we split up. David, Caroloee, Suzy, Sarah and Rachel left for Wicked, and I took Ben and Kate to the big ferris wheel in the ToysRUs at Times Square.

We had a fun time riding the ferris wheel and looking around the toy store. Kate was in her element there and ran from toy to toy calling out with excitement. Actually, she was happy as could be for the whole day. This girl is a city kid! Then we went back to the hotel and tucked the little ones in bed.

Meanwhile, everyone else went to Wicked (don't worry, I saw it in December). They had an amazing time. Thanks to Suzy and Carolee for these pictures.

After the show, they waited in line for autographs at the Stage Door. This is Suzy with the guy that played Fiaro.Getting an autograph from Elfaba--you can still see a touch of green make-up in her hair.

My girls have been singing the songs from the show ever since! They had an amazing time. It was a fun first stop on our New England trip.