New York, New York!

 A couple months ago we invited some friends over to our house for a BBQ.  Before they came over I was honestly sitting in our backyard, watching my adorable girls but also wondering if Jason and I would ever be able to have a night away from them.  We don't live close to family and I'm overly particular about who watches my girls.  I thought it might be rejuvenating but also felt like it probably wouldn't be in the cards for us for a long, long time.  Well, a few hours later Mark and Rachel and their two adorable children came strolling in our backyard to eat and as we are enjoying our meal, Mark says he's racked up a lot of points with his work for free motel stays in NYC and wanted to know if we'd like to do a babysitting swap.  I could not believe what I was hearing, especially since I had been thinking about it earlier.  Mark and Rachel have become really good friends and our kids get a long swimmingly.  We agreed and I started planning.  I love the theatre so I knew we needed to take in a Broadway show.  I talked with a girl who knew the ins and outs of getting good ticket deals so on Friday, we left early so that we could be in line by 6 pm so we could get in the lottery to get incredible tickets for $27.  The catch was that you had to be there right at 6:30 pm when they draw your name.  Even if your spouse's name is drawn, they have to be there.  Of course we put our names in the lottery for Matilda  (I had to go see it in honor of my 5th grade teacher Mrs. Martinez, who I adored and it was one of the books she read to us...actually, the only one I remember since I liked it so much).  Anyway, of course Jason asked to take our luggage to the motel room.  I tried talking him into staying for 25 more minutes so we wouldn't miss our chance and of course he just felt like he needed to go put our luggage away.  I told him to please, please, please be back by 6:30.  He has a problem with time.  And of course he wasn't back and they drew his name out of the bag 2nd, and never drew my name out (we luckily still got some discounted seats) but when we were up in our seats I looked down at the orchestra section to see two of the people who won lottery tickets.  Orchestra section for $27.  It was a rough few hours, I'm not gonna lie.  Luckily I got over it so we could enjoy the rest of our vacation.  That's why my smile in the Matilda picture is not a super happy smile;)  Except for a few annoying, garbage parts they always feel like they have to put in, Matilda was awesome.

 The view from our motel.  We only live an hour and a half from New York City and as we were driving there I just wanted to pinch myself.  It felt good that I was so grateful for this opportunity since I had been in such a slump for a year.  I luckily finally snapped out of it after we got back from our summer trip.  I just need to be busy.  Busy, busy, busy, which is sometimes hard work planning activities, etc. for the kids, but it's made a huge difference if I have something going on almost everyday.

 Radio City Music Hall!  America's Got Talent was going on at the time.

 I told Jason we may never get this chance again so we needed to take it all in.  So we took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty.  I always thought the Statue of Liberty was on Ellis Island, but it's not.  Ellis Island is a separate stop but we didn't have time for that.  Sometimes I wish I was smarter:)

 Manhattan in the background.

 Lady Liberty is beautiful!

And I'd never seen the September 11th Memorial.  There are two of these fountains.  I should have known that, too since their were two buildings that went down, but I didn't.  Now I know.  And I feel rejuvenated!