New York: Part 2

On Saturday, I scheduled a brunch at the American Girl Doll Place. Andy and Bruce went to tour the city and we walked the few blocks, in the rain, to the store. We bought the dolls the day before because they have a place setting for them!

Happy girls!

Mommy and her girls

Margaret and her girls

Joiner enjoying her surprising good and reasonable brunch with Kit.

Carly with Makena

Just when we thought the food had stopped, they brought out flower pots of chocolate mousse! All before 10:30am!

After a break to get the boys, we headed back to the subway to go to the Museum of Natural History. Joiner was very interested in how the subway worked. She learned which train we would take and how many stops we would have. She especially loved the S train which was a shuttle from Grand Central to Times square. They both loved that they had to duck under the bars as they were free. You could tell they thought they were stealing something. Moria told them the first night to "not look at the crazies and to hold on." They followed her lead. We had the fun surprise of seeing lots of performers. We even were next to one talented guy who was trying to get people to join in on his song. Carly was the only one!

The gang. It was really cold this day, and it would mist rain, so we were all bundled up! Thankfully I had brought gloves and hats for the girls in case we went to the Today show one day.

The museum was so massive. We tried to just hit some hot spots. The North American Mammals was very cool with the dioramas. Here is a Lynx which we thought was cool as that is the name of our soccer team!

Here we are with the Native American exhibit. I thought this picture was better focused.

I gave Carly my camera to capture her own memories. Here are Andy and I by the big boat.

Carly LOVES rocks. She is one of those kids who is always picking up rocks and keeping them in her pocket. Needless to say, she loved the minerals, rocks, and gems exhibits. Here is a big meteor.

Now we are trying to lift the big rock! You can see Joiner is a blur!

I literally have 25-30 of these pictures documenting the amazing array of gems that Carly took. I am letting you off easy with just one!

Letting off some steam in a giant geode.

Onto the dinosaurs. I thought I had posted a picture of the life size blue whale, but it didn't load. It was amazing to see that in scale. To think that there are creatures of that size is so awesome. Such a God moment!

The girls had a hard time understanding the idea of dinosaurs being on earth sometime, but not now. I don't know where they thought they were, but it was interesting to watch them process it. Here's Joiner and Bruce in front of an ancient cow.

Joiner reading the info on this guy or gal.

This display had buttons and told her where in the world they lived.

We stopped to have a snack in this beautiful atrium that looked out on the city.

It appears that I only have pictures of Joiner investigating!

One of our food goals was to have a real New York slice. The girls knew that we were supposed to fold it. Thankfully our guidebook told us there was a good place right by the museum.

Here is Joiner with her giant cheese slice.

Carly with hers. They were so excited to get their own slice. Neither finished it, but it was still a thrill. And Andy and I each enjoyed our slice.

We went back to the hotel to rest for a bit. I was so tired that I actually closed my eyes, which never happens. We got back on the subway to go to Moria's apartment and to meet up with her parents for dinner. Her apartment was great. 300sf with a Murphy bed and everything!

Dinner and the company was great. Here are Joiner and Moria with their dessert.

Carly and Margaret sharing some apple crisp.

Here are the girls before we turned the light off. This is the last picture of Carly for a while. She got very sick after I turned off the light and I realized what a miserable thing it is to have a sick kid in a hotel room. We finally all settled into bed about 1am. I am sure Margaret and Bruce were glad they had their own room!

More to come...