New York!!!...Part 1

My cousin Katie is having twins, so all the ladies in the family flew out to NYC to hang and throw her a baby shower.  Half the family were there for a week but I was only able to fly up late on Thursday and leave on Sunday...but MAN!  What a trip!  So much fun!!  We packed so many activities in the short time I was there.  Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures..so I borrowed most of these from my mom's iphone.

  I got in super late on Thursday night but was up and at 'em early on Friday.  We all got ready to hit Central Park.  While the others were finishing getting ready, we explored Katie's rooftop.  The views were amazing.

 Baby Bennett just wanted to climb up and down these stairs...which I was happy to do for the first time.  Then I became a nervous Nelly...didn't want to break someone else's kid on the first day

 Onward to Central Park!  Hitchin' a ride on the subway with 8 adults, one baby, one stroller, and one wheelchair was quite the production...but so worth it!

It happened to be John Lennon's birthday, so there was a huge crowd gather in Strawberry Fields in Central Park.  

We sat for awhile and joined in with the crowd and sang "Imagine".  Sara utilized her selfie stick quite nicely.

Bennett could care less.  He just wanted to not be strapped to the Mama!

The song ended and immediately, the crowd broke into "Imagine"....again.  We were thinking they would switch it up a bit and give us a mock Beatles concert but no go.  So, the natives got restless and started walking.  Of course, Ma wandered off trying to scope out any celebrities in the mix...so she missed the most epic selfie. And yes, my hand does look like a duck is behind me.  Thanks for pointing that out Aunt Chris.  I laugh every time I see this pic now.

We decided it was time for a cousin picture...with a cute Bennett photo bomb

Can we all just take a minute to appreciate this cute belly on Katie!?

Storm clouds started rolling in and everyone panicked because we didn't have umbrellas or jackets or anything.  Complete chaos when the "rain" came.  It ended up sprinkling for a few seconds and that was it.  New York pulled a California.. 

 

Cody was the best at getting group shots of all of us.  So I jacked this awesome picture by the fountain from her.   Notice how sunny and perfect the weather is...  

But let's be real...Sara's selfie stick was the MVP of the trip.

Bennett was quite social and picked up a new friend.  They had a few baby conversations for awhile.  We all just sat back and enjoyed the show.

Time for another quick break and a snack.  Hot NUTS anyone??

We had a dinner reservation at 3pm...yes 3pm...so we headed back to the subway to go to the restaurant eat some massive amounts of Italian food.

Nothing screams tourists like taking pics on the subway..

 This little man is such a trooper.  Just goes with the flow...I gave him my cup and straw and he was happy for the longest time!

Cody comin' through again and asking some important looking business guy to take our pic.  He was so nice about it and even leaned far back to get us all in.  Please don't fall on the subway tracks sir!

Only one picture taken at our awesome dinner and it was me holding a martini..of course.  Party on dudes.

Sara wanted to check out the Toys R Us in Times Square to see what all the hype was about so we headed there.  We shopped til we dropped and by the time we were done, it was pouring rain outside!  I tried to take a few selfies but they turned out pretty lame.  I was just excited to see rain!

 Cody was pushing Grandma through the crazy busy streets while braving the rain.  She said some vendor must've felt sorry for her and GG and handed her an umbrella for free.  New Yorkers are bomb.

Day one was a success!!

Catalina Island Family Fun Time

Some times, we will have a weekend with nothing major to do.  And some times, that just doesn't sit well with Jason...so one non-activity filled weekend...we planned a Catalina Island adventure.  I am not a huge fan for one reason only...the boat ride out there.  I tend to get a little seasick and I guess I passed that on to Trevin.  I managed to not hurl, but he was not so lucky.  But he felt much better once we docked and rented our own little speed boat.

 Jason revved up the engine and we were off!  The boys were lovin' it!  

Everybody got a chance to drive the boat

I think Trevin was just happy to not be sea sick anymore

We pulled the boat over to this small beach area and went in groups of two and swam to the 'island'.

 A few seconds later....Jason jumped off of this rock, of course.

Trevin and I went next.  I even snorkeled also.  Saw some pretty cool fish even though they swam right next to me and freaked me out.  Reminded me of a Curious George episode when one of the guys didn't want to go on a scuba diving adventure and when asked he said "I don't like when fish look at me".  I feel ya buddy.

 After our boat/swimming/fish looking adventure...it was time for some grub....or beer?

 And after lunch and a huge beer it seemed like a good idea to go rent a golf cart.

 We cruised all over that little town and I think it was the boy's favorite part.  There is just something about not having to ride in a car seat that is amazing to them.

When we returned the golf cart I made Trevin stand by the bison statue and told the boys a Mama story.  Back in the day when I was student of the month we went on a trip to Catalina (when I lived in AZ).  While on this trip, I was so pleasantly chased by one of those bison.  The boys didn't believe me but ask my friend Cathy..she'll vouch for me!

We headed to the beach to do a little more swimming before we had to head to head home.  At first, no one wanted to go in the water.  I was fully dressed so I was out...the boys were enjoying the view.

 Finally, Jason talked Trevin into taking a swim with him

 ...while Ry and I took some selfies with our cool sunglasses...

Trev swam all the way to the dock and then jumped off.  He even put his face under the water again to look at the fishes.

We headed to the other side that had more of a 'beach' area and Ryden was happy to go in the water over there.

 There was a pretty sweet ledge that the boys enjoyed jumping off of....

 And they both spent a lot of time collecting rocks...they were pretty proud of their collection

 Time to go wait for the boat to bring us home and pray no one got sick again..

We sat on the deck outside this time and with the wind on our faces, it helped.  No one got sick and we were all happy and had such a great day!