New York Trip

We are all officially home from our trip to New York City. It was a fairly hectic trip--very draining on the kids but very worth it. On our flights there, we were only supposed to have a 35 minute layover in St. Louis. It was a rough ride for the last few minutes of our flight in from LR, but we got on the ground ok (actually 20 minutes early). Within 5 minutes of landing, they closed the airport because of thunderstorms. The plane that was supposed to land in St. Louis for our LaGuardia flight was diverted to Illinois. We were delayed indefinitely. I was very glad that our plane had landed early so we could have the kids off the plane instead of sitting on a runway in Illinois! We finally did get on a plane and had an uneventful flight.

My dad picked us up and dropped us off where we were staying--with some members of the Manhattan church of Christ. They very graciously opened their home to us--and it was beautiful! There was a great view from their top floor apartment.

View from their kitchen (we also had a big picture window in our bedroom with this view)

They had food for us when we got there even though it was very late.

The next morning we had to leave at 8:15 to get across town to my sister's apartment for the graduation. The graduation was wonderful (the ceremony was long for the kids, but worth it)! The kids had had it by the time we got home--cumulative effect of no naps the day before, getting in bed late, and getting up really early.

The next few days we spent with my family, but we had to make one trip to the infamous ferris wheel at Toys R Us in Times Square. Ainsley finally got to ride! We rode on the little people school bus. It was out of our way to go there, but it was worth it!

Jon and Ainsley flew home on Saturday, and my parents went home, as well, for the first time in 5 weeks. It was just me and S for a night, and I thoroughly enjoyed the sister time. I was finally able to help, and that made me feel good. I stayed until Tuesday.

Getting to the airport was an adventure. I got a terrible bloody nose right when the car came to pick us up to take us to the airport. Then Asher (did I mention Asher was teething this entire trip?) was screaming--arch-his-back top-of-his-lungs screaming--pretty much the entire time we waited for the plane. I could see the look in the eyes of the passengers--they were all hoping I was at the wrong gate! I did find one friendly face--a man came up and chatted and said not to worry, that he has kids and knows how it is. Also, the agent at the desk was wonderful. She got me on before everyone and even carried my car seat to the plane for me. Asher fell asleep right away, which was great, but unfortunately we sat on the runway for an hour and he woke up when we took off. There went my plan for 1/2 the flight! We flew to Dallas, so it was almost a 4 hour flight. I missed my connecting flight by about 2 minutes because it took them forever to bring out my stroller. Thankfully, there are lots of flights from LR to Dallas, so I got one an hour and a 1/2 later. Not too bad.

Some thoughts about NYC--things are different in New York than here. You walk to the grocery store, and it is much smaller than the super Wal-Mart! You have to make your list taking into account the weight and volume of items because you have to carry them back. I found it difficult to have kids in the city, but I can understand how people would like it there. I liked that they recycle everything--we are certainly way behind them here in AR in that regard. If people here only took the time to recycle soda cans, it would be an incredible volume of waste saved. (Sorry, one of my personal "soapbox" issues! I actually consider this somewhat of a religious issue--we need to take care of the earth God has made, and recycling is a simple thing that makes a big difference.) There are ways that NY is inefficient, as well. For example, many of the old buildings have extremely inefficient heating systems.

Ok, I guess I have rambled enough. I will leave you with one last picture:

Crashing at Sarah's apartment