Jasper gets a passport

When we took Jasper to the post office to get his passport, we didn't realize it would be such a traumatic event. 

We took him when he was three weeks old because we wanted to make sure he had one as soon as possible. 

What we didn't know when we got there was that the babies need to be awake. They have to have their eyes open for the picture. Well by the time we walked to the post office three blocks away, he was asleep. And by the time we made it to the front if the line he was deep asleep. And as it turns out, waking up a three week old Jaaper is not easy business. 

It took us over an hour to get him awake enough that his eyes would open, we had stripped off all of his clothes, rubbed a cold drink on his feet and still nothing. At one point he had started screaming but still had his eyes open so that was awkward in the very crowded post office. 

Finally he started flickering his eyes, and with some team work with Joseph theady was able to take the worst photo of Jasper ever taken. But she said it was good enough for the application.  

Oh the application Joseph had filled it out in blue and apparently it could only be filled out in black which made the already surly post office employee even more surly. It also meant we got bumped back behind the next people in line, which is never fun. 

After almost two strenuous hours in the post office we finally got everything submitted and were to tired to try and do anything else, so we headed home stopping at a bakery for treats on the way to soothe our souls. 

Then in less than two weeks his passport came in the mail. To be honest after that whole ordeal I was concerned it would be lost in the post office matrix forever. Now Jasper is ready to be an international man of travel. 

Jasper Robin Nance

Jasper was born on October 13th and 12:56 am, weighing in at 6 lbs 8 ounces and 19.5 inches long.  He arrived three weeks early and fast catching us all by surprise.  He arrived in this world before any of us really had a grasp on what was happening.

Here is the story:

On Saturday October 12th we had dinner plans with our friend Jesse and his girlfriend.  After dinner we were all planning in heading to a birthday party.  So we met for dinner in Korea town to get some Korean BBQ, this is on 32nd street.

During the day I hadn't been feeling very good but I pretty much hadn't felt good for several weeks so I didn't really think that much of it.  Joseph and I kind of argued about wether we should even go out that evening, but being the stubborn pregnant lady I am we still went.  Also, I had gone to the doctor on Thursday and she was very confident that I wouldn't go into labor since I was only 37 weeks and hadn't had any contractions during the week.  She didn't even check me at my appointment.  As a little bit of foreshadowing there was a low pressure storm that was passing through that week and Josephs dad had called earlier that week sort of joking to be careful because they have been known to push pregnant women into labor.  When I asked the doctor about it she assured me I would be fine.  So I wasn't even thinking at all about going into labor.  I figured I would have to suffer through 3 more weeks of swollen ankles.

We took the subway downtown and met for dinner at 8.  After we had gotten off of the subway and on the few blocks it took to walk to restaurant I noticed I was having some weird pains in my stomach.  It turns out these were early labor signs but what did I know.  I figured they would go away and I would feel better once we sat down had something to drink and ate some food.  Jesse even commented that I looked a little stressed when we sat down to eat and I mentioned that I wasn't feeling very well.  I also told Joseph shortly after sitting down that we would probably have to abandon the party plans and just go home and relax after dinner.

We proceeded to order a lot of meat for our Korean BBQ feast.  After we had ordered they brought out all of the accompaniments for dinner but hadn't brought out any of the food yet is when it happened.  My water broke in the middle of a very crowded restaurant.  My whole pregnancy the one thing I kept saying was I really didn't want my water to break in public, but no such luck.

Having my water break was the strangest feeling.  All of the sudden a huge gush just came out, if felt like a balloon has popped inside of me.  My pants got soaked as water ran down my legs and there as a puddle underneath the chair.  I was caught so off guard that I looked up and said to everyone, "Either I just peed my pants or my water just broke."  Immediately everyone jumps up and says we need to go to the hospital, I was scared to stand up because I knew more water was going to come out.  Also, I was scared to know that this was really happening.  I wasn't ready.  Joseph pulled me out of my chair and we walked out with my soaking wet pants.  I ran into the bathroom to just check everything out and to see what was going on and at this point I was confident my water had broken.  The fluid didn't smell like pee.  Meanwhile Joseph had gone outside and gotten us a cab and was waiting on the curb.  This happened around 8:30pm.

We took the cab straight to the hospital which was on 59th street because we didn't want to go all the way home and then have to come all the way back down.  I called the doctor when we were in the cab and left a message with the answering service but she didn't actually call me back until we had gotten to the hospital.

We sat in the waiting room for 30 very painful minutes waiting for our room.  The nurses and staff did not seem to be in any kind of hurry and I thought I was going to die.  I was so uncomfortable sitting there in soaking wet pants with contractions that seemed to get worse by the second.  By the time they had put me in a room and hooked me up to everything it was about 9:30 and I was already dilated to a 4-5.  It was at this point that everyone started taking me seriously.  They realized I was in fact in labor and that it was happening fast.  I immediately requested an epidural.  I had no desire to "see what my body could handle" or to "connect with the women of the world" by going natural.  Those contractions were some of the worst pain I had ever felt and I was not into it.  After what felt like forever but I am sure was just a few minutes the doctor came in and gave me an epidural.  That is a magical beautiful thing, just like magic my pain went away.  My legs were numb but I could still move them and I felt like I could actually focus on what was happening instead of the mind numbing pain I was in.  After they gave me the epidural they checked me again and I was complete.  Everyone, us included, was shocked.  At this point we were waiting on the doctor who hadn't made it to the hospital yet.

Meanwhile our friends who we had gone to dinner with, ate dinner brought Joseph some McDonalds since he didn't get to eat, picked up our keys and went to our apartment to get some things for us.  Our hospital bag became a paper bag from Trader Joe's.  We didn't have anything with us since we had only planned on going to dinner.  I vaguely remember the nurse lecturing me about why I didn't have my medical records in my purse, because they needed them.   Jesse and Meryl picked up our phone chargers, the medical records, my slippers and toothbrush and toothpaste and brought it to us at the hospital.  They got there just in time, right before we started pushing, which was good because both of our phones were about to die and I would have been heartbroken to not have gotten a bunch of pictures.

When the doctor came in she took a more casual approach to the delivery, she didn't even break down the end of the bed.  I pushed once and it was obvious the baby was very close so the doctor took a break to put on her gown and foot booties and then we pushed 4 more times and he came right out.  It took only about 10 minutes of pushing.  We hadn't even turned the baseball game off in the background.  It was really exciting when he came out and everyone yelled out that it was a boy.  I am glad we waited to find out the gender, it made the delivery more exciting.  I feel very lucky that my delivery went to smoothly.  It only lasted about 4.5 hours from start to finish and went off without any complications.  Jasper came out crying and was healthy as could be.  It was such an amazing feeling when they placed my little baby on my chest and he was mine.

BVI Trip

For our summer vacation this year we decided to join my parents and my little brother on a sailing trip in the British Virgin Islands.

I have done this trip before in my youth as a family vacation but some how as a pregnant adult the two memories didn't quite align. For one being pregnant has brought along with it a penchant for motion sickness so I spent most on the second day puking. I did better than Joseph though who only lasted about 20 minutes before he was up chucking off the side of the boat.

After we got our seasickness under control with the help of heavy doses of dramamine we had a really good time. Not before I had to puke off the side of our water front restaurant in front of all the other patrons though, so that was definitely a highlight.

We would sail to different islands everyday and lounge around on the beach or on the boat and go swimming in the crystal clear water. There is nothing like that clear water, it is hard to even believe.

One of my favorite days was when we went to the Baths and climbed around and swam in the water.  It was so beautiful.  It was also nice to be on land and not on the boat.  That as Joseph seemed a little surprised to find out "never stopped rocking."

Joseph did some scuba diving, we did some snorkeling, some exploring and general relaxation.  I am not allowed to scuba being pregnant which was a little bit of a bummer.  Just already sacrificing for this little nugget.

Our Boston Trip

Over the fourth of July weekend, Joseph's office was closed so we took advantage and planned a quick trip to Boston.

We called it an early anniversary get away/ baby moon trip.

I had never been to Boston before and was really excited to check it out. We took the Greyhound up early on the fourth, checked in to our hotel grabbed some delicious lunch and booked it over to Fenway park for the baseball game.

I was really excited about the game, I don't generally love watching sports on TV but live sports I can get behind. Especially in a place like Fenway where it is packed full of very excited fans. It was a really hot day and a huge lemonade in the 7th inning really saves the day.

After the game we rented some Hubway bikes and rode back to our hotel. We rode the bikes the rest of the weekend, and it was a really fun way to see the city. After relaxing in our overly air conditioned hotel room web headed back out for dinner and to check out the fireworks. The fireworks location was a mad house so we just sort of hung out in the back to avoid the crowds.

Friday we slept in forever and then headed out for the freedom trail. After some indecision we decided to sign up for a guided tour, which turned out to be really interesting. I am glad we did it that way. We tour guided for the first half of the trail and then hopped on bikes for the second. We saw Paul reveres house and biked it over to Bunker hill.

At this point in the day we were hot and touristed out but we had lobster rolls on our mind. So we headed to a well known spot for some Boson cuisine. We got lobster rolls, chowder and crab cakes. They were delicious. We ended the night with some delicious dark chocolate milkshakes, that might have been the most delicious milkshake I've ever had. I also spilled a good portion on my shirt trying to get to the whipped cream, so that was a little embarrassing. I seem to be spilling more these days than ever. I'm going to blame it on the pregnancy and hope it clears up.

Saturday we slept in and got breakfast at this awesome bakery that was close to our hotel where we ate every morning, then biked over to the USS Constitution to meet up with my friend Shelly and her husband Clark and their new baby Connor.  It had been a while since I had seen Shelly and she had only recently moved to the Boston area so I am glad that it worked out to meet up with them.

We toured the old ship then met up with a tour group to head up to Bunker Hill.   The tour was really interesting and I learned a lot about the battle that I hadn't previously known, but our tour guide was very long winded.  That man knew how to stretch out a story.

After Bunker Hill we headed for lunch where we sat and visited for awhile to enjoy the A/C it was really hot this weekend, then worked up the nerve to walk over to the Old North Church and check out the area.  The old historic parts of the city are so charming and awesome.  It's like they took the best of Philadelphia and New York and put them together in one.  Or it is just a very clean and much safer version of Philly.  Probably more the later than the former.

After we said goodbye to Clark and Shelly we wondered around a bit, biked around a bit, found some delicious pastries, went and saw a movie, then went on a late night excursion for pizza because after the movie we realized we were starving.  An awesome thing about Boston is that it is so walkable, everything is pretty close together and very accessible.  I was convinced I wanted to move there by the end of the weekend.

Sunday was our last day and we were sad to leave.  We slept in and relaxed and made the most of our final hours of vacation.  Then we headed back to the Greyhound for a ride back to NYC.  I was worried there would be a lot of traffic but luckily it wasn't too bad and we made it back in a reasonable amount of time.

Boston was such a fun trip, I am glad that we went and were able to spend some time together with just the two of us.  As it turns out after 5 years we still really like each other.

On Hashtags

Not to offend anyone, but this article was funny.  It also expressed my general dislike for the use of hashtags in all form of communication.

http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/07/enough-with-the-hashtag.html

Yesterday at work

Yesterday at work this was the conversation that ensued:

A male coworker (who I generally try to avoid):  "You are having a boy.  I can tell from your face" (peering into my personal space).
He continues:    "You just don't have that pregnancy glow" (still all in my personal space), "yea it's definitely a boy."

My response: "Well I guess we will find out by November 1st."

What I wanted to say: The look on my face is from a combination of the fact that it is 95 degrees outside and this office operates with window unit air conditioners so I am dying of heat stroke and my cheeks get chubby when I gain weight.  But thanks for telling me that I am not a good looking pregnant woman.  Very much not appreciated.

Some people are the worst.

Memorial Day Weekend

Over Memorial Day Joseph and I flew to LA to spend a few days soaking up the sun and taking a break from our daily grind.

We stuffed ourselves on some of our favorite LA foods, walked by the beach, rode the Santa Monica ferris wheel for the first time. That ferris week is kind of freaky, since you are pretty high and at the end of the pier. At one point in the circle you feel a little like you might fall into the ocean. We went to the Griffith Observatory. We fantasizes about what life would be like if we lived in LA. We attempted to fly kites at Will Rogers estate. Which is a pretty impressive place. It was fun to imagine what it would have been like to live there in the 1920s.

We spent time with my oldest brother and his family. Including his newest little baby who is just so perfectly squishy. It made me excited and terrified for our own baby.

It really was the perfect little weekend get away. We love living in New York, but I also love leaving it sometime.

The only downside of the trip was apparently my nausea decided to come back on our red eye flight, so in the taxi home from the airport I started our first day back from vacation with a 7am puke session. Fortunately Joseph had grabbed the puke bag from the plane so I didn't puke all over the seat, but it was still pretty traumatic. The cabby was pretty nice about it though offering me an extra bag and some tissues.

My kind of first official Mother's Day

Joseph surprised me with a Mother's Day breakfast yesterday and a little present.



I guess we are both excited about Baby Nance, who should be making its debut by the first of November.

It was kind of a strange day for me thinking about the fact that I will soon be an actual mother.   I usually don't pay any attention to Mother's Day other than to call my own Mom, but yesterday it had me all excited and a little overwhelmed about what is coming up.  It is mostly crazy because I just don't really know what to expect - you know, since I've never done this before.

Anyways, Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Mothers out there.

Wish us luck - we don't know what we are doing over here!

Tracy came to visit

One of my friends from college who was also my roommate came out to visit for a long weekend a few weeks ago with her boyfriend and it was so fun.  I love when people come to visit.  I always end up doing things that I haven't before, and it is fun to play tourist in your own city. They were great because they let me third wheel it on their touristy adventures.  Unfortunately, this was not a great work week for Joseph so he was working most of the time.

We ate too much food, went to the World Trade Center memorial, the Highline, the Donut Plant, The MoMA, the Met, the Shake Shack (of course), Central Park, brunch at Sarabeths, and some general wondering.  The actual tourists ended up seeing twice as much, but I just couldn't keep up with their enthusiasm and usually ditched them at some point in the day.  You know the feeling when your feet and legs are so tired from a long day of walking, it's a good I've accomplished a lot tired, but it's tired nonetheless.  

It was a fun weekend and I am so glad they came to visit.  

A Quick Trip to Utah

A couple of weekends ago we took a quick weekend trip to Utah to see Joseph's little sister off on her mission.  She is going to the Oslo, Norway mission.  We wanted to be there to go through the temple with her and to see her one last time before she got shipped off to the land of freezing people.

We had a 7am flight out of JFK which had us waking up at 4am which is really much to early to ever be awake for the day.  We had originally planned on just taking the subway out to the airport but in our 4am haze we decided it was worth the extra money to take a taxi.  I am glad we did, because I was able to sleep in the car on the way.  Immediately upon getting into my seat I fell asleep again.  Luckily we had a nonstop flight, although that is a long time to be sitting.  We also had the most annoying flight attendent of all time who would make the longest and most unnecessary announcements every 30 minutes.

It is hard to believe that it had been almost 4 years since I had been back to Utah.  I was so struck by how beautiful the mountains are.  I definitely took them for granted when I was living there.

On Friday after arriving we just relaxed and visited with family.  I took a nap.  Joseph took a trip down to Provo to re live some of the glory days.  That night we went out to dinner for Greek food, and then went to the Hale Center Theater to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  It was pretty cute.

Saturday morning we got up and headed up to Alpine for a quick visit with my grandparents.  I hadn't seen them in a long time and I wanted to see them while I had the chance.  It was a nice visit.  My grandma was of course just getting out of bed at 10am and was still in her robe.  Needless to say she was not very pleased with getting her picture taken.

Then we headed back down to American Fork for some hanging out before heading out to the temple to meet up with Joseph's sister and his mom.  They had a lot of family who were able to make it so it was really a great experience to be there with so much family.  I loved it.

After the temple all 25 people headed to Los Hermanos for dinner.  There were so many people, it was kind of funny.  It really was a great day.

Sunday after church we headed down to Provo to get the Nance family traditional picture in front of the MTC, since Joseph and I wouldn't be there on Wednesday when the deed was happening.  We were not happy to find that they had removed the traditional MTC sign from the entrance, but we took it where it would have been anyways.  Of course flagging down some random MTC dining employees, since no one else is out and about on a Sunday it Provo.  It's kind of strange.

Then we headed back to American Fork for lunch and packing because we had a 5pm flight back to "The City."  We arrived around 11:30pm officially worn out from all the running around.

I am glad we were able to go and see everyone, and wish Meredith good luck.

So.....

Two Saturdays we went to Philadelphia to visit some of our friends and eat some good food.  It was a really great day.  It made us miss Philly so bad.

While we were in Philadelphia our friend mentioned that I had been rubbish at blogging lately (it's okay, she'e British so she's allowed to say rubbish).   And I know it is true.  The sad thing is I don't really even have a good reason for it.  I think I have just been hibernating this winter.  We also officially got a Netflix account which has not been helping my productivity.  But, lets blame it on the winter. This winter has been cold and it seems to have lasted forever.  I can't wait for it to be spring.

Anyways, we went to Philly and it was a cold and snowy day, but it was also one of the more fun days we have had in a long time.  We also managed to last the whole day without taking any pictures.

We took the Bolt Bus down at a very early hour where our friends picked us up and had us over for a delicious brunch feast and general hanging around.  It helps that they have two adorable little boys.  Then we ran by Federal Donuts for some donuts, which were amazing.

Then we met up with some more friends for dinner at Han Dynasty, our favorite restaurant in the city.  We had a big table with people, it was so fun to catch up with everyone.  Since there were so many of us at dinner we were able to order so much food and everything was amazing.

After dinner we went to Capogiro for some gelato, mostly to prolong being with our friends.  We didn't want to leave.  After being so full that I felt a strong desire to unbutton my pants we headed back to the bus station to catch the bus back to New York.  We made it back home by midnight, and the long day definitely showed.  I was looking totally rough by the time we made it home, but it was worth it.

I wish I had taken some pictures to remember the day by, but oh well.  It was an amazing day.

1 million posts

Sorry for the radio silence as of late.  I think that with the massive overshare that was blogging for the trip combined the the adjusting to the move and to real life again, I felt the need to be very private and careful.

I think I am over that now.

So enjoy.

Christmas 2012

This year for Christmas we went to Kansas City with Joseph's family.  Joseph didn't get very much time off of work, so we only went for the weekend.  It was a lot of fun. We managed to cram a lot of things in to just 5 days.

I flew out on Wednesday because the tickets were cheaper and Joseph flew out Thursday night after work, so he only had to be gone from the office for one day.

Friday - We headed in to Kansas City to check out the Archives Museum, as well as the train station there, Union Station, that used to be a major train station of the frontier.  It was pretty impressive on the inside, and they had it decorated beautifully, they also had a really cool train exhibit set up inside.  After the archives we went to a pizza place that had been featured on diners, drive-ins and dives where I ate way to much pizza because it was delicious and by the time we got there I was starving.  After dinner we went to a Christmas concert, that involved 4 people singing a bunch of different christmas songs.  I liked it and thought it was fun, Joseph thought it was cheesy.

Saturday - We hung around the house mostly in the morning, then went to see the Hobbit.  I thought it was way to long, and was very disappointed to learn it was only part of the story.  I didn't realize going into it that they were also turing the hobbit into a series, it seems very unnecessary   Sorry to those who liked it, I thought it was lame.  After the movie we headed to the Independence visitor center, where Joseph's little sister was doing a Christmas concert.  Going to Independence is always very interesting to me, because so much in church history happened there, and even more will happen in the future.  All the while it is just a little tiny slightly trashy town with several different version of the LDS church operating.  It is very interesting.  Sometimes I wish I could see in to the future to see what is going to happen.

Monday - Christmas Eve we woke up and all went to the gym to get in a good workout before our Christmas feast.  The afternoon we just sort of hung around and cooked and got ready for the big night.  We had a Christmas eve dinner, dancing and present opening.  Joseph had printed off a bunch of picture of us from our trip and got them framed, it was such a sweet present.  I am so glad we were able to take that trip together.

Tuesday - Christmas day we woke up early to open our stockings and eat breakfast.  I made my moms eggs brunch recipe for breakfast for everyone.   I think it was a little undercooked but it was delicious and it reminded me of home.  After breakfast we headed into Kansas City to see Les Mis, it was one of the main things that Joseph wanted to do for Christmas.

After the movie we went some of the Nance's long time friends house to spend the afternoon with them.  I had never met them before, but had heard a lot of good things about the family.  It was a fun afternoon to relax and spend time with some really nice people.

Then we went back to the house to hang out.  We had to pack and organize our stuff since we had a 6:30am flight the next day.  We ended up having to check a cardboard box like a bunch of rednecks because we had too much stuff to fit in our carryon bags.

Then on the way home due to that silly box we almost missed our flight.  Apparently they only had one person checking in the luggage so we stood in line for almost an hour just to drop off our box (we were already checked in) when 5 minutes before our flight we followed the lady in front of us in line to security where she had sweet talked the lady into letting us take our big bags through security.  Then we dropped our bags off at the counter and requested that our box be gate checked.  They obliged, with absolutely no complaint.  So luckily we made our flight despite the incompetence of Delta.

 Also, apparently I didn't take any pictures while we were on Christmas break.  Oh well, we were busy relaxing.

Christmas Tree Tour

During the few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and with being out of town, we really only had one Saturday here where we could do Christmas things.  Since New York is the best for Christmas we tried to make the most of it.

On our only Saturday, I decided that we should mix it up a little bit and we went on a Christmas tree tour of the City.  We only made it to 3 Christmas trees, but it was fun none the less.  I also learned that the D train does not stop at the natural history museum, but it is the major express and doesn't stop until you are in Harlem, so yea at least we learned something along the way.

We went first to the Washington Square Park tree.  Since it was the middle of the day it wasn't lit up but it was still pretty cool.  Plus being in Washington Square Park makes me feel hip and cool.  We also got some warm sugary pecans, they smell so good in the winter and they are delicious.  

We walked up through Union Square, and through the Christmas village.  It was so crowded I instantly felt claustrophobic and regretted my desire to look at the booths.

Sometime along the way we grabbed some soup and sandwiches.  We were hoping for some German brats at the Christmas market but were let down on that one.

Next we walked up to Madison Square Park, one of my personal favorite places since it is near to the flatiron building, although that tree was my least favorite.  It was small, and oddly decorated.  

Then we continued on to Bryant park.  This was my favorite tree, it was really big and really pretty.

After Bryant Park we were starting to feel tired and started crossing off trees from our list of trees to see, and this is when we made the fatal subway error that ended us up in Harlem.  We figured we would make the most of it and go see the tree at St. John the Divine, this amazing cathedral up near Morningside Park, but it was closed for a private concert.  

So since we were pretty close to home we patted ourselves on the back, and said job well done for doing Christmas things and headed home to relax and put our feet up.

So we missed the tree at the Met and the Natural History museum, which according to the internets are amazing, but oh well.  There is always next year.

 This last tree is our tree for this year.  It was our first real tree, that we picked up from the tree lot that set up just down the block.  I made Joseph carry it home.  I loved it, it smelled so good.  Don't be judgmental about the lack of lights, I didn't feel like going back to the scary hardware store on our street to get more.  It didn't seem worth having to put my self through another awkward encounter.

My 27th Birthday

I turned 27 on December 1st.  It made me feel a little bit old, but also I like this mature Megan that is going on these days.  I feel more confident in myself and I feel like I am finally catching up to the person that I want to be, if that makes any sense at all.

This year Joseph was out of town on my birthday for a work trip.  He had to go to San Francisco for orientation.  Since we just moved here, and I didn't really have any friends, I was looking at hanging out by myself so Joseph, the best husband ever, flew me down to Alabama for a few days to hang out with my sister and her kids.

 We had a donut feast for breakfast.  They were delicious.

 Vulcan Park.

 Birthday BBQ.

 Cupcakes.

My Alabama trip was really fun.  I loved spending a couple of days with my sister and her little girls.  They are the sweetest little girls.  My sisters younger daughter Reese, called me 'Egan all week, it was adorable.  Her older daughter Avery kept drawing and coloring me pictures all week for special presents.  It was adorable.

We hit up the zoo, Birminghams Vulcan Park, got some delicious BBQ on my birthday, shopping at cute boutiques, a real southern breakfast, a hike through some rock fields.  My sister had some special Megan cupcakes made for the occasion and they were delicious.

Plus it was so warm there.  I loved it.

The Friday after Thanksgiving

The Friday after Thanksgiving everyone was still here, and we wanted to do something fun.

So we decided it would be a great day for a Brooklyn excursion.

We started the day with a stop at the Donut Plant on our way to Brooklyn, where we sampled way to many delicious donuts.

Then we hopped back on the subway and headed to Brooklyn.  We weren't 100 percent sure where we were going but it worked out to our advantage we ended up wandering through some cute Brooklyn neighborhoods, and then we were able to walk up the Brooklyn Bridge Park path.  It was a beautiful sunny day.

We went over to the Dumbo portion of the park to ride on Jane's Carousel.  Izzie rode and we just watched but it was a really cool carousel right on the water.  It was crazy thinking about how all of that was flooded just a few week before because of the Hurricane.  This is the picture of what it looked like during the hurricane. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/10/janes-carousel-survives-sandy.html

We had wanted to go to Grimaldi's pizza for dinner, but the line was pretty long and everyone protested so we carried on with the plan and walked over the bridge to eat at the Grimaldi's in Manhattan.

I love walking over the Brooklyn Bridge it is awesome.  It is one of my favorite things in Manhattan.

After we walked across we finally got lunch.  We were starving.  The pizza was delicious, although it started a debate on the best pizza around so we of course had to get a different pizza for dinner.  I liked the Grimaldi's the best, Joseph liked the second place.

On the way home we made a detour through Madison Square park to see the flatiron building and the park.

It was a really fun day, it involved a lot of walking and a lot of subway riding.

Thanksgiving the Day

The day of Thanksgiving was pretty great.  We opted out of getting up at 5AM to stand in the freezing cold and wait for the Macy's Day Parade to start, but we did get to sleep in, have breakfast and go for a run in Central Park which is always a great way to start the day in my opinion.

We stopped by the bakery on the way home from the run to grab a fresh loaf of bread for our appetizers.

Then we went home to get dressed and changed for our "Turkey Bowl."  Since the ward here didn't do an actual Turkey Bowl, we decided it would be more appropriate to go bowling.  New Nance Family tradition for sure.  This was everyone can participate.  We went to a swanky bowling alley in Times Square called Bowlmor, and it was awesome.  We were on the "China Town" lanes, they played dance music, and we had the whole place to ourselves.  It was a lot of fun.

Then we headed back to the apartment and had some appetizers and watched some football for a little bit waiting for our dinner to arrive.

This year we decided that cooking a Thanksgiving dinner in our tiny NYC kitchen was not worth the hassle and the stress so we had out dinner delivered from a restaurant instead.  We went with Virgils BBQ, and it was pretty good.  The food was not amazing out of this world, but it was pretty tasty and the smoked turkey was really good, and we didn't have to spend anytime in the kitchen cooking, and only a little bit of time cleaning up.  This is the way to go people, seriously.  Ordering Thanksgiving dinner was the best idea, for the shear ease of the day.

After the dinner, we hung around and watched more football and just relaxed.  I remember feeling overcome with the need to take a nap.

 The Chinatown lanes.

Note our little tiny kitchen.

Thanksgiving 2012 - The first half of the week

Oh, Thanksgiving happened weeks ago and I never blogged about it.  My bad.  I think my massive over sharing from our trip has prompted an inner need to not share any details for a while to reach some sort of equilibrium, but I know I will regret that in a few months when I haven't recorded any of the things we have done, so here it goes.

Thanksgiving this year was really fun.  We hosted some family here, since we had just moved in and Joseph had just started working so I knew we wouldn't be able to go out of town anywhere.

My brother, his wife and their 4 year old stayed with us for the week, so we were able to get in lot's of sight-seeing and NYC things.

My parents came up on Wednesday to join in on the fun, and stayed for the big feast.

Sunday - My brother and his family flew in on Sunday morning, so after getting everything settled we headed out for a walk around Central Park.  Every time we go into the park I find something new that I had never seen before which is one of the best things.  I am so glad we ended up living close to Central Park.  My niece was confused and kept asking where the swings were, I think because we kept calling it a park she was just expecting a huge field with millions of swing sets.  Soon enough we came across a play area, so she could run around and wasn't too disappointed because "we are just walking"

Monday - We had fresh bagels and cream cheese from the best bagel place in the whole wide world, that is on the corner.  Love everything about a fresh warm bagel with cream cheese.  It is good for the soul.

My brother hadn't really been to New York before so his one request for the trip was to see the Statue of Liberty, unfortunately for him the ferry boats to the statute were closed as a result of the Hurricane Sandy.  But, the Staten Island ferry was running and it is free, and it goes really close to the statute so you still get an up close view of everything, so that was pretty good.

After the ferry, we were all hungry so we headed over towards the Chelsea Market for some lunch and an afternoon stroll on the Highline.  The Highline is one of my favorite places in the city. plus it is in the meatpacking district, so I am always looking for reasons to go down there.

At this point in the day it was starting to get dark and cold, and the four year old in our party was just about done with the sightseeing so we headed back up the apartment for dinner and hanging out.

Tuesday - After this day was over my brother was not to thrilled with the amount of walking I put everyone through.

First things first, was a stop at the corner bakery for some breakfast treats.  They were delicious.

We started the day with a trek to the east side to Dylans Candy Shop.  To be honest I wasn't that excited about it before we went, but when I got there I was very impressed.  The shop is really cool, and colorful with candy decorations everywhere, and there was seriously So Much Candy.  After walking around for a little bit and checking it out, we headed down to Joseph's office to meet his for lunch and get some chicken and rice from the famouse Halal guys.  They are seriously the best chicken and rice in the city, they always have a long line and they even have a Wikipedia page, so I mean come on.

After street food, we walked back up to Central Park for some ice skating.  I just watched as my brother carried his four year old around the rink.  After wards she was so thrilled about all the tricks she was able to do when her full body wieght was supported by my brother.  It was pretty funny.

Then we walked through the park a little bit more, where we came across a lady doing fancy face painting.  If you are in need of 20 minutes where your children sit perfectly still, this is the thing for you.  She was in heaven.

Then we walked some more back towards the apartment past the Temple, since they had never seen it, and a stop at Trader Joes for some dinner supplies, and a hilarious trek home with the bags and the stroller on a crowded subway.

Got to love the city living.

Wednesday - We woke up and took our time getting out of the house.  We headed down to Bryant Park to find a carousel.  We thought the one in Central Park was open but when we got there and it was closed yesterday we were all sorely disappointed....that was when the face painting from yesterday came in to play.  Nothing like bribing kids.

By the early afternoon my parents had made it in to town so we went back up to the apartment to meet up with them.  Then we went to Carnegie Deli as per my moms request.  That place is such a tourist attraction, but the food is pretty good, and I sort of like gimmicks when food is involved.

I split an egg salad sandwich and matzah ball soup followed up with some strawberry cheesecake heaven and coconut cream pie bliss.  We left stuffed and totally happy.

Then we headed up to the Natural History Museum where they have a large portion of the street blocked off, as the sight of the blowing up of the Macy's Day Parade balloons.  I hadn't ever thought about it before this year, but since the balloons are so big they just blow them up under giant nets right on the street to be ready for the big day.  It was cool to see the balloons up close but it was a crazy claustrophobic crowded mad house.  Worth it yes, but crazy none the less.

Since we couldn't squeeze everyone into our apartment my parents sublet an apartment for the weekend, so my dad and I headed out to find the apartment to pick up the keys and the rest of the group headed back for the house.

The first half of the week was fun, with lot's of sightseeing and lot's of play time for the four year old, who was less impressed with the sightseeing.