2013 new york trip: part one

i had the privilege of spending nine days (seven full days) in new york a couple weeks ago.  i am breaking the trip into two posts and this post is about the first part of my trip.

i went to new york with my parents and my sister (brooke) for my sister (eryn) and her husband's (greg) new york wedding reception.  they got married in august, you can see pictures from their gorgeous colorado wedding here.

friday, september 6th
brooke and i left for the airport at 4am to catch our 6am flight to denver where we had a 3 hour layover and waited for our parents to join us on our flight to new york.

we got in late that afternoon and then met eryn at babbo for dinner.

babbo is one of mario battali's restaurants. i didn't understand half the menu.

after dinner we hit up big gay ice cream.

it was definitely big, definitely gay, and definitely delicious.

saturday, september 7th
on saturday we spent some time in brooklyn - we went to the brooklyn flea and smorgasburg. the brooklyn flea is cool, but i felt like there wasn't really anything different from the last time i went two years ago. we saw emily mortimer there with her family so that was neat.

on our way to smorgasburg we saw this sky writing,  it says "time to shine" and some other stuff that i couldn't read.

smorgasburg is a gathering of food vendors in williamsburg and all the food is really great.  while we were standing in line, adam brody walked by us and all i got was a picture of the back of his head. i had just finished re-watching all the seasons of the oc so this was a real special sighting. on separate occasions we also saw katie holmes (she was meeting a friend at our hotel) and two people from project runway (emilio and fabio).

i love you, seth cohen!

later that night we met up with two of my all time favorite people, my cousin mckenzi and her husband matt, for dinner at lantern. it was real good. then all us girls made my dad and matt see the movie, austenland with us, i think they secretly enjoyed it. if you haven't seen austenland yet, i recommend it.  it was funny!

sunday, september 8th
sunday morning we went to church with mckenzi and matt and then went to a few stores on/around 5th ave - free people, joe fresh, and anthropology.  then we made our way over to brooklyn to meet eryn and greg for brunch.

after brunch i helped eryn and greg set up for the reception. it was at the restaurant that greg manages, hunter's. cute place!

the newlyweds.

i just really felt like i needed to hold onto eryn in this picture.

sisters, sisters.

bein' precious with my dad.

monday, september 9th

on monday we shopped pretty much all day until my parents and brooke flew out in the afternoon. before eryn and i headed out to her apartment in astoria we stopped by the farmer's market in union square to pick up some cucumbers for pickling as well as some corn and heirloom tomatoes for the delicious caprese salad that eryn made that night.

these were the cutest little bell peppers i've ever seen!

once we were back in astoria i just relaxed and hung out with my nephew, bear, until part two of the adventure started on wednesday.

isn't bear to so regal?

adventures in babysitting

so i babysat my niece and nephews this weekend while their parents were in mexico and i just did such a super job!  here's just one example of what a great mom i will make one day.

so we went to the grocery store and when we were done i was getting everything put away in the car.  first, i put bond (13 months) in his car seat and then asked afton (7) to buckle him in.  then i went back to the other side of the car to see that grayson (6), who was sitting in the basket of the cart, was rolling away from us down the middle of the parking lot.  he was laughing and screaming "help me! help me!"  it was just so terrifying and hilarious all at the same time.  luckily no one called the cops on me.

oh, and about an hour later i noticed that my fly was down and i'm pretty sure it had been that way for several hours.

so... who wants me to watch their kids??? i'm obviously really good at it. especially that whole keeping the kids safe part.

gramps

i got a taste of what it's like to be a single mom of three over the past 24 hours. church with this 11 month old is HARD. but at least he makes a super cute grandpa.

sometimes i worry that i'm turning into one of those blogger moms that only talks about their children. and these kids aren't even mine. but seriously... they are just too adorable to keep to myself.

face time

well one positive thing about having an iphone 4s is discovering that my father has turned into a mountain man.

and i sure do like it!

lady trip

back in september we thomas ladies took a little trip to new york. it mainly consisted of walking and shopping, with a few meals in between.

yes, that is tom selleck.

view from our hotel in soho.

outside the forever 21 in time square. it has five levels!!!

freedom tower

brooklyn flea

dinner at ditch plains. sorry mama, you're a little washed out in this one.

should i have maybe bought some more?

i may have left with shin splints and my sisters only made me cry once - getting dressed for church is hard!

but it was really great to spend time together and explore the city (by 'city' i mean 'every h&m'). we're pretty lucky to have each other. :)

livin the dream at the milne house

coolest shark ever.

FOG!
(i hope the neighbors don't mind me posting their house all over the internet...)

the best kind of dance party partner.

instead of cleaning my room tonight, bond and i decided to have a dance party. and it was all kinds of precious fun.

who wouldn't want to dance all night with a giant 8 month old?

love notes

so i watched this video at work the other day (don't tell anyone that i surf the internet or blog while i'm at work like i'm doing right now...) and i may have gotten a little teary-eyed. or had tears streaming down my face while sitting in my cubicle hoping that no one would walk by..... ?

but you should watch this precious little video. such a touching story from elder scott.

movin' on up

and by "up" i mean "into my sister's basement."

with this guy.

i know, right?!?

been missin this guy

so my brother nash is serving a mission in mexico for our church.

i miss him.

aren't we just adorable?!?

i missed him before, especially when i was the only child at home for christmas last year. but i really miss him now. he sent these pictures a couple weeks ago and all at once it really hit me, how much i miss him. i was fighting back tears while i was looking at the precious pictures and i thought "well, i guess i miss nash a lot now."

this is one of his favorite members. adorable.

he hit his one year mark last week, so we're half way. i hope it goes by quickly.

love you, nas gas.

doin' it like a thomas

the thomas family gets together every other year at a different location and it is a lot of people and a lot of fun. this year we were in oceanside, california. it was so great to be with everyone but i had to leave the reunion early and sadly didn't get very many pictures of my family, which is the most important part! what was i thinking?! i apparently wasn't.

my reunion shirt. pretty much awesome.

the view from our condo.

the first two days were spent at the beach.

cousins kennedi and kolby

aunt lori, sister shea, niece london

for day 3 we drove up to balboa island. it is just too precious.

quick shot of the san diego temple on my way to the airport.

aren't families just the greatest?

i know mine is.