Our Trip to New York Last Friday in Photos

The kids didn't have school last Friday, so we went to visit Emily in New York City. By we I mean me and the kids. I don't know if I have mentioned this earlier, but Nikolay is not very adventurous and really doesn't like NYC. So, I took advantage of his not being with us and ventured a ferry ride from Staten Island. It only costs $5.50 to park at the ferry station for the whole day, and the ferry goes right by the Statue of Liberty. Unfortunately the windows of the ferry are so dirty that it is impossible to photograph the Statue of Liberty through them. Next time maybe I'll try to get one from the part that is not enclosed. Anyway, the first adventure on our trip was trying to pay for our parking spot. They have these little machines that can take either quarters or credit cards supposedly. I was having troubles with the credit card function and I only had 16 quarters with me not the needed 22. A friendly looking man walked up to use the machine next to mine and I asked him if he had ever used them before. He also had troubles, but on his 4th attempt he got it to work. He went to meet up with his wife but said he would come back and check on me. When he returned I was still at it, trying to get the silly machine to take any of my cards. He was so nice, commenting on how he remembers having 4 young children and asking us about what are plans were in the city. I was about to give up and he offered to just use his card and pay for it. I was so relieved and embarrassed at the same time, till it dawned on me that I could pay him back with a five dollar bill and two quarters, which he accepted after a little insistence on my part. I am so thankful for his kindness.

This was our second encounter with a friendly stranger. This time it was an older guy decked out in a military uniform, he offered to take our picture at the ferry station while we were waiting for the ferry.



The ferry ride was great. Dallin liked to stand by the window and watch the little tug boats and barges. He would point to the little tug boats and exclaim "Boat!" If only he could comprehend that he was on a much larger boat himself.
Emily was kind enough to meet us on the other side at the ferry station and help us navigate the subway. I don't think I could have done it without her with four kids having never done it before. Maybe I could now. Our destination was the huge FOA Schwartz toy store (remember the giant piano in the movie BIG?). When we came out of the subway we were right at the edge of Central Park looking down, over the concrete wall and the view was glorious, the huge trees and trails and bridges. As we walked down the sidewalk there was a row of about 15 horse drawn carriages, each of the drivers trying to entice us to take a ride, disregarding the fact that we had already turned down the previous 5 drivers. They reminded me of the persistent "taxi" drivers in Kiev, I put taxi in quotations because any car can be a taxi in Ukraine. The horses were right there in-your-face and the kids were like, "Horses! Mom why are there horses here? Why does that horse have only one eye? What are those thingies they are wearing?" Emily pointed out the Plaza Hotel from Eloise. The carriage drivers informed us that the Jonas brothers were here. I didn't think much of it because we aren't exactly fans but we had to pass right by them doing a live spot for CBS on our way to FOA Schwartz. We lifted Ariel up so she could see the tops of their heads and she was excited to be able to tell all of her friends that she saw them.
I took this sneaky picture of Emily and Ariel listening to a story. We caught the tail end of story time at the toy store with a really cool storyteller and her guitar, singing cool kids songs that I had never heard of. (could I have said "cool" or "story" any more times in the last few sentences?) There was this crazy lady there with her 6 month old who kept interrupting to try to make small talk with the kids. She was wearing black leggings and heels with tons of jewelry and runway ready hair. She looked very much like someone who had a baby just because her biological clock was ticking, but now doesn't know what to do with herself. Oh, am I being judgmental? Sorry. I really do wish her the best in the adventure called motherhood, but just let the storyteller get on with the story lady! But seriously, I remember when we first moved to Salt Lake and Ariel was still too little to get anything out of story time, I would faithfully go, just to be around other moms even if I was too shy or had too many complexes to actually talk to anyone and try to make friends, and I was so desperately lonely that tears would actually come to my eyes as I watched everyone interact with so much joy. If you have ever been to the fabulous story time at the downtown library in Salt Lake, you know the "Shake shake, shake your wiggles out!" song? It still brings tears to my eyes. Anyway, back to New York....

This is the best shot I got of all three girls on the giant piano. Maybe Emily got a better one. It was just as much fun as it is cracked up to be. Today while we were looking at the pictures Ariel asked me how much it cost to play that piano. When she found out it was free she was surprised. Free was one of the reasons that we chose to go to FOA Schwartz, so much to do, for free! We did buy some cool toys though. They are animals that you can take apart and then put the appendages on other animals. We got the African set: a lion, a giraffe, and a gorilla. They are so much fun that I want to get another set. Maybe dinosaurs or insects.
Here is Adriana standing with a giant lego sculpture of Chubaka the Wookie from Star Wars. I was a little disappointed that amongst all the legos they had, there were no pink ones. I should have bought a set when we went to Legoland in California last year.
Jacob met up with us on our way back to the ferry at McDonald's (that was just due to poor planning on my part that we didn't meet at any place more significant.) We made it home exhausted and safe. It was great to be with Emily. She is so much fun to talk to and is so great with the kids. It would actually be easier to go on a trip or something with her than with my dear husband, just because so many things are just intuitive with her, plus the kids adore her, well they love their dad too, but you don't have to explain everything to her like you do my eternal satellite. (that is what we used to call spouses as a joke on my mission because in some church literature we read vechni sputink which translates literally to eternal satellite, but probably is supposed to mean eternal companion. It is no wonder that at my wedding dance I wanted the Dave Matthew's Band's song "Satellite" played.)

Here is one last picture, but not from the New York trip. It is from when I went to the kindergarten Valentine's dance with Adriana last week. Isn't she a cute date?