More Adventures with Family...

So Last weekend (April 15-19th.) Mikes Beautiful sister Rebecca and her "friend" Aaron came to visit us. They flew to Boston on Monday and stayed with Aaron's brothers family until thursday night when they took the train from Boston to Stamford. Thursday night we visited and tried to get to bed at a decent hour.

Friday Mike & I both had to work. Luckily I was able to get back to them by 8:30am so we had the morning to visit and get ready. Before I had to go back to work at 2:00 I dropped them off at the mall in Stamford. Luckily it has enough to do that they were entertained until Mike picked them up at 6pm.

While I was still at work Mike took them to our favorite grocery store... Stew Leanards. Its such a great store with so much for the kids to look at and do. In fact, it is actually the worlds largest dairy store. Well worth the 20 minute drive :) After I got off of work we went to our favorite little Hamburg/shake place, Lucky's. I think the ambiance of the restaurant is my favorite with the jut-boxes, coca cola cups and old fashion malts.

The next day we woke up bright and early to venture on down to "The Concrete Jungle." The weather wasn't the bad either. It was a little chilly at times but for the most part not a bad day to be in the city.

We started out at Gershwin Theater where "Wicked" plays. We all entered the lottery for the matinee show. (If your name is drawn you have the chance to buy 2 front row tickets for only $26.25 a piece. Usually they run around at least $125 a piece.) The odds were better than I've seen them before. They were only 100 people or less and they pick 12 names. Guess what?!? My name was drawn!! The downside- It was the last name and apparently they only has 1 ticket let :( Since I didn't want to miss out on the whole day with the rest of them I didn't take the ticket :( It was really hard, but I think I made the right decision!
After the drawling we walked around Times Square fighting the masses (Have I mentioned how much I hate that place?) At least we hit up the M&M store... Oh how I love that place! Then proved our mastery of the NYC Subway system and traveled downtown to Battery park in the financial district. We looked saw Lady Liberty in all her glory. I'm still amazed at how small she really is, the pictures always make her look so much smaller.
We played a little Frisbee in the park and of course took advantage of the scenery for a small photo shoot!

Then we got to business and hit up some of the major sites in that area. We saw "The Bull", Wall street, the NYC stock exchange, Trinity Church and Ground Zero. We almost went to the Brooklyn Bridge but my feet needed a break.
In stead we rode back uptown to Time Square to get tickets at the TKTS booth for the shows that night. Becca and Aaron decided to see Mary Poppin's ,which we have seen, so tried to agree on something else. Mike and I couldn't decide so at the last minute we decided to see an Off Broadway play since it was a little cheaper. (Not such a good idea.) We then went across the street to Sabaro for dinner and probably paid way more than the pizza/pasta was worth, but at least it filled us up. We headed back downtown to the 34th street area to visit a costume jewelry called Earring Plaza. Becca remembered it from her trip to NYC in high school. It was actually a nice surprise. They had a ton of costume jewelry for awesome prices. Mike got some cool cuff links (the guy is obsessed, anyway to spice up the same dress shirts and pants at work I guess) and I found a few pashminas and some earrings to match my new favorite necklace I picked up at J. Crew the other weekend. As we were walking around we ran into Madison Square garden which I am a little ashamed to say we have yet to visit. Next season we will go to a Knicks game!
At this point we parted ways. Becca and Aaron went to the Empire State building and we went back uptown for dessert. Since the wait was an hour and a half at serendipity we opted for a piece of cake at a local bakery then we went to our show. Supposedly, "The Perfect Crime" is the longest running off-broadway play. But like Mike said if you can get front row seats at the TKTS booth for $30 maybe thats an indicator... The acting was great. The same lady has played the part since the show opened in 1987!! But as you can see in this picture there were a lot of guns. I don't like guns, they scare me. When your sitting in the front row an guns are frequently being joined in your direction it makes one a little uneasy. This combine with the fact that the the used the "F" word more times than I would have liked AND I couldn't keep up with the story line... well lets just say we were glad to see 10:00pm roll around. Had we not been waiting for Becca and Aaron I think we would have left at intermission and headed home.

Sunday after a fantastic lunch, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went to the Beach. I found the 'perfect" stick and spent a 1/2 an hour playing in the sand like a 5 year old.

We had another little mini- Photo shoot.

The four of us.

Mike playing Frisbee in the water.

"Big Daddy" on Mikes back.

Don't Ask

Sisters

&

Brother and Sister

After a while we broke off and took a nice walk. It was so nice to sit on the beach with Mike and just visit. No rush, great weather, just us. It was probably one of my favorite moments to date. Then we headed home to feast on the delicious Angle Food cake I made earlier that day (It was soo pretty to!

Our friends the Stokes came over to meet Becca and Aaron and share the dessert with us. I was able to snag one of my favorite little girly's in the world for a picture! (For the recored, I seriously love this child as if she were my own.)
Of course when you get men together it ends up like this-- both trying to exert their dominance over the other (Obviously Mike got lucky in this picture seeing as Jared is a bit bigger than Mike.)
Then of course what would a Sunday night be with out everyone's favorite game "Toss the Karrigan." The child loves it though so as long as they don't drop her I guess...

I love how happy her face is in this.

Then how terrified it is in this one :)

Overall it was a GREAT visit with Becca and Aaron. Unfortunately we don't have any visitors lines up for quite a while... *Cough, cough* please come visit us!! We love company! I will even brave Time Square for you!