When mom and sisters come to town

We got home from Utah early Monday morning and by Wednesday afternoon my mom and sisters were in town. Another quick, but fun, turn around time. I was so excited to have them here, I love when they come to visit. That night I had mutual so I took the girls with me. We had a game night with popcorn and brownies. It was a lot of fun to watch my sisters interact with the girls I love so much in the YW program. After mutual I took them to one of my favorite spots in downtown Stamford for dessert. It is this cute little gelato place, with an Italian name I can't remember, but they loved it as much as I did.

Thursday I had to babysit. My mom and the girls came with me. They certainly helped keep the kids entertained for me and man do those kids love them. Since it was a nice day we packed lunched and took the kids over to cherry lawn park for a picnic. After I finished babysitting for the day we went to the mall. The girls love to go to H&M and Forever 21 when they can. So we did a little shopping before dinner. That night I had the girls watch Les Miserable. I bought the taping PBS did of the 25th anniversary concert a few years back. I absolutely love it and could watch it over and over again, but it is 2 1/2 hour so I was nervous the girls would loose interest. I was wrong. Everyone was hooked. In fact, that was the only music they listened to the rest of the trip. I'm so proud.

Friday was a beautiful day so we hit up one of the beaches in Stamford. It was pretty muggy and not a lot of breeze. I think I am broke because I do NOT love the beaches here. I know a lot of people send days there over the summer but I can't do it. I would rather be by a nice, clean pool with a water bottle and a floaty. Of course that may be because I refuse to get in the water, I have a very strict policy that if I can't see through the water, I won't get in. So with that said we were not there to long before we decided to go to the pool. Before we left the girls did collect enough shells  to make a fun design in the sand with.

 Saturday we drove into the city. Our first stop was the new 9/11 memorial. It was amazing and powerful. Although it has been almost 11 years since that day the memory of it all is still very fresh. It felt very sacred to be standing in front of those fountains with the names of the victims all around. They did an amazing job with the memorial and we really enjoyed our visit.

 The girls really wanted to see Phantom of the Opera so we spent quite a while going to the TKTS booth then to the theater ticket office to find the best priced tickets for that days matinee. Mike and I have seen Phantom twice so we decided to skip it and just hang around the area for a few hours. We went to shake shack for lunch, as always the wait was worth it and we left full and happy. Then we walked around time square (which I don't love doing, but it was looking stormy so we wanted to stay close to stores we could take cover in. After a while we sat down at a table and played ticket to ride on our iPhones. After the girls finished there show we took them to Shake Shack and of course they loved it. Then it was time for dessert. We went down to Union Sq. and put our name in at Max Brenner: Chocolate by the Bald Man. I was surprised that at 5pm the wait was already an hour long. To kill time we walked around Union Sq. and watched a street performer jump over 5 people, it was impressive. When we went back to be seated I over heard the hostess tell someone the wait was 3 hours.... crazy! I love the atmosphere at Max Brenner's, they have blocks of chocolate on display, chocolate being piped through the restaurant and fun decor. Mike and I ordered fondue and were not disappointed. My mom was the only one who left felling a little disappointed because she got a milkshake and although delicious was not a good as everyone else's amazing chocolate desserts.

After dessert we were tired and ready to head home, but not before we stopped to take some pictures at the Manhattan temple.This was surprisingly the first time they had seen this temple. Katie wanted to go but of course they were closed for cleaning the whole time she was here. That is the second time that has happened. I love being in the city, but I always love coming home to my little city of Stamford.