We Won the Lottery!!

Ok so we won the "Wicked Lottery"
We did a couple lotteries for Broadway shows when my family was here but since that was the busiest week of the year in NYC we didn't win a thing. Tyler left to sell in Texas today so we wanted to do something fun this weekend before he left. So we thought we'd try the lottery again. Even though it was a Saturday night we thought that there would be less people than during the holidays, wrong! There were just as many people, like 100-150. I was bummed but of course had to go for it. We put our names in and waited in the cold (single digits, below 0 with windchill!) They started announcing the winners and my name was called fifth! I flipped out (inside) and took my place in line...

Me in line with other winners while they finished the raffle,
trying to suppress my ecstaticness

What does it mean to win the Wicked Lottery? Oh just front row tickets to that nights show for $25!!! It was crazy being that close to the show. This picture is taken from our seats, where we could touch the stage without even leaning forward.

I have seen the show 3 times and each time has been a completely different experience; different companions, different seats. It is such an amazing story and I love finding more and more parallels every time I see it. We feel very lucky to be living here with such great opportunities like this and so many fun things we can do together!

Happy Birthday Hubby!!

Today is Tyler's 26th birthday! I had to post this picture of my smokin husband sporting some of his birthday gear and let everyone (and Ty) know how much I love my hubby. I couldn't ask for a better man in my life. He is so amazing. I am so grateful for his example and love.
Happy birthday Ty!
I love you!!!

Holidays with the Family

NOTE: the pics are small, you can click on them to see them larger.

DAY 1
12-26-08

We started the week off with some shopping, like mad shopping! It was awesome. Thank you Santa for the $!

We experienced "street food" for the first time. I have been here 8 months and have never had street food! Crazy

That night we went to the Broadway show, Gypsy with Patti LuPone.
It was so fun!

DAY 2
12-27-08

We started off the day in Central Park. It is my favorite place in the city. My sister kept pointing out all of the scenes from the movie Enchanted.

Then we moved on to the American Museum of Natural History. I loved this Christmas tree they had displayed decorated in origami animals.

That night we ventured to Greenwich Village for some Two Boots Pizza and La Arte de Gelato. Unfortunately we don't have a pic of us with our gelato because everyone was so focused on the creamy goodness and we forgot :(

DAY 3

12-28-08

After church on Sunday we went on the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. It was my Dad's idea to explore Staten Island for a while so that we had perfect timing on our way back and were able to see this beautiful sunset.

We then walked to the South Street Seaport to check out the Brooklyn Bridge and all the fun that goes on at the Pier. (Notice the lack of coats in this pic, the high that day was 63!)

We came home and made some sweet gingerbread trains!
Girls vs. Boys!

DAY 4
12-29-08

We spent the majority of this day exploring through lower Manhattan. We visited Ground Zero and then walked along the water and through the streets. It was fun exploring an area that I was not familiar with. I love how extremely different all the areas of Manhattan are. Its like a new city every 20 blocks!

That night we went to see the tree at Rockefeller Center and all of the 5th avenue stores and their Christmas windows. The Bergdorf Goodman windows were my favorite by far! They were so intricate and beautiful.

DAY 5

12-30-08

Since my work was closed for the week it was a perfect time to play show and tell and show my family where I work. (in the pic on the right i am holding a Jamie Drake Muppet that a vendor gave him for Christmas, it was so funny)

The picture on the bottom left is from our apartment and you can see the island that is in the middle of the East River between us and Manhattan. This is Roosevelt Island and my dad was so intrigued in the history of this island so we took the tram across to check it out. It turned out to be way cool!

We couldn't stay on the island long because we had a tour scheduled of the NBC studios. This was one of my favorite things we did. It was so cool to see "behind the scenes" of some of their studios. Wouldn't my family make a great news team!? :)

We went to do the lottery for a couple of shows. Seeing how this was the busiest week of the year in NYC we didn't win a thing. But it brought us to Times Square often and this night was New Years Eve - Eve. We debated off and on and decided that we weren't going to do the Times Square New Years Eve party for a number of reasons 1-it was supposed to snow and be 15 degrees (it ended up being 1 degree) 2-you have to get in your "grid" at like 1:00 and just stay there until midnight. So it was fun to see them getting ready for the party. They had stages set up and were doing practice interviews and practice countdowns and stuff. I say it was good enough :)

DAY 6
12-31-08

As forecasted, it was snowing this day so we decided it was a good day for another museum. We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A friend at work had told me about this amazing tree they set up in the Medieval section. There was an amazing nativity scene all around the base and then the tree was decorated with beautiful angels.

I must include the Subway entertainment portion of our adventure. This lady/man (we weren't sure) was posing as a human statue. She was actually really good! This homeless man kept bugging her, it was pretty crazy. When people gave her money she gave them something. My brother wanted to see what it was so he took her a dollar she gave him a little red heart that said "Peace in your Heart". How sweet (and weird)

DAY 7
1-1-08

We had a short day with packing and plane to catch so we decided we had to squeeze in a visit to Serendipity. We put our name in and were seated an hour and a half later. It was worth the wait as it always is.
That frozen hot chocolate is the best!

Thank you family for an amazing week in New York.
It was so fun to have you here!
We love you!