11.26.2009: Thanksgiving with The Hearns

For Thanksgiving this year, we spent the day over at Vince's brother's house. Glenn and his wife, Jan, hosted Turkey Day for the Hearns & friends. We had a great dinner...great wine...great company...spent the day hanging out & playing with the kids. They have a gorgeous backyard that is very conducive for taking pics! :) We took lots throughout the day...here are just a few!

11.25.2009: Drake's Thanksgiving Program

Drake had his Thanksgiving Program in his classroom at school. Each class did an individual thing for the parents & guests....so as you can imagine their classroom was packed with parents, grandparents, friends, siblings, etc!! It was fun though! Christina & Justice made it out for the weekend as well so got to come watch too! Drake had a pilgram hat on...but was playing a chicken....and was a foot bigger than his classmates! They sang songs, performed skits, sang more songs...then ate pie! We had a good time...and it was fun seeing him at school with his friends.

11.23.2009: Andrew's Christmas Program

Andrew had his school Christmas program the week before Thanksgiving. Kinda wierd that it was so early but their school music teacher was SUPER prego...ie due anyday....and wasn't going to make it till Christmas. So, hence the early Christmas program! :) It was hard to get in the spirit...seeing as how we barely got to celebrate fall....but after seeing Andrew in his elf costume...we were cheery as could be!! :)

The place was PACKED even though we got there early....so the pics are from pretty far away...however, you can see Andrew's green pointy hat right in the second row!

One of the songs they sang....Andrew in the second row, pointy hat, striped shirt!

Turn up your sound and press play:

11.14.2009: Home Sweet Home...

Whoever said we wanted to come home to an empty quiet house sure doesn't know Vince and I. We got back to AZ late Sat evening. Drake was over, Greg was there, Carol had come over, Brian Greene was there...and Kaizen of course. Brian told us earlier that he had a surprise for me. Wondering all day what it could possibly be...I guessed a new car...but from his reaction, it didn't seem like that was going to be it. Turns out Brian's brother, Robbie, was in town for business. Brian brought him over and surprised us. This was a great surprise for me because I have been hearing crazy Robbie stories for the past few years...and was starting to wonder if he was real! :) He sure was...and re-enacted most of the stories for us...we laughed all night!! Great times!!! Although we were exhausted from all our travels...it was nice to be home and be around our friends & family too.

11.12.2009: Honeymoon....Part 3

DAY 4....
Day 4 we woke up to a rainy morning! We went and had a nice little breakfast at a neighborhood deli...then hoped in a taxi down to Battery Park. We were planning to take the cruise to go see the Statue of Liberty...however it was FREEZING! Well, freezing for us.....we weren't prepared for the much chillier temps than from the days before. So, we just took in the views from the park....including the view of a very strange statue! Very creepy as well....




















After walking around the park, we walked over to the financial district...aka WALL STREET! :) We found the bull...along with a line of tourists trying to take pics with it. Somehow Vince jumped in there while they were trying to figure out who went next. Haha! We found the Tiffany Bldg...NICE! Didn't do any shopping there...but looked good from the outside!! We ended up eating lunch at this GREAT neighborhood diner which looked sketchy from the outside, but was FABULOUS! We beat the crowds because it was standing room only after a few mins.
















Went back to our tiny but nice hotel room to regroup before heading to dinner. We HAD to do some authentic Italian while we were in NYC...so found a GREAT italian place not too far from the theater district. We met the owner, who was from Italy...and who just celerated her wedding anniversary by having a recreation of her entire wedding back in Italy. Sounded cool! Anyways, we chatted for a long time with her...and promised to be back next year for our anniversary! :)
















After dinner, we had tickets to see the Phantom Of The Opera on Broadway. I had seen it 3 times already, but love it! Vince wanted to see it and seeing it on Broadway, I knew would be special!! It was! It was amazing....LOVED it once again! After the show we went to another little Italian place called Tony's (how ironic!). It was kinda of like Bucca de Beppo style...very cool inside though. So, we just sat at the bar, made some friends and drank some great wine!! Great way to end a night!!!!! Oh, on the way back to the hotel, I HAD to take my pic next to the Juan Valdez Cafe...just cuz!

This picture explains it ALL.......after a great 5 days in NYC....it was time to go home! Since we hadn't been home in 3 weeks....it was so nice getting back in the swing of things...however, I didn't want our trip to end!!!!!

11.10.2009: Honeymoon.....Part 2

DAY 3.....WEDNESDAY
Day 3 didn't start out as great as we'd hoped. We had planned on going out early in the am to see the taping of the Today Show...since we watch it from home everyday...Al. Matt, Mer...you know!? So, we decided that we would get up early on Weds and go watch....well, when that alarm clock went off, we just couldn't do it. So we went back to sleep. About an hour later, we woke up and saw BON JOVI on the Today Show....performing live in the street where we were just at the night before....and where we were supposed to be that am!!!! ARGHH!!!! So mad, we jumped up, got dressed, and decided we could RUN there and make it for at least their last set/song. Well, the night before it didn't seem so far away....we ran for 15mins in the super crowded streets of everyone trying to get to work. Needless to say, the picture below is all we saw of Bon Jovi :( They were packed up and gone already...loading the final boxes of equipt in the big trucks. DAMN!!!!!!














So, since we were up and out on the town...and far from the hotel....and starving...we stopped for some great breakfast! After that, we decided to hit up the stores on 5th Ave (which we walked down the night before but everything was closed). So, we saw Rockefeller Center again during the day...which was really cool. And then....since it happened to be Veteran's Day....we got to watch the parade!!! VERY COOL! Interesting because the only 2 times I have been in NYC was on 9/11 (2009)...and on Veteran's Day (2009). So both had tons of patriotic stuff happening. Anyways, we watched a little parade....walked thru a city park....did some touristy stuff. Then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the evening.

Early evening we decided to head over to the Empire State Bldg. I wanted to go up it in the evening because I think sights like that are more dramatic in the evening with all the lights....and not to mention less people! :) It was chilly up there....but empty...and soooooo pretty!! Seemed like we could see forever. I got a new lens for my camera, and it was cool taking pics with it!! Great for night shots, as well as those wide, eye angle views.

After the Empire State Bldg....we got some dinner over in Upper Manhattan. We wanted to go to a trendy little restaurant up there, but the one we decided on didnt look so great when we got there...so stopped at a cute neighborhood diner! Loved it! After dinner we went on a carriage ride thru Central Park. SO FUN! LOVED doing it at night...although i would have LOVED to see Central Park during the day also...esp this time of year with all the leaves changing. We went on an hour long ride....and our tour guide was very informative on the history of the park, as well as all the celebs that lived on the outskirts! Highly recommend for anyone! :) Could not go to NYC and not do a carriage ride!!

After our evening carriage ride, we decided we were a little thirsty! We found the absolute coolest wine bar!!! It was actually in a mall right on the edge of Central Park. The bar was very techy. All the wines are in cases...that have little taps on them (kinda like beer taps). You leave your ccard down, and pay by the glass...basically self serve though. You are given a card that you use to get the wine. The menu is all touchscreen on the table. So, you find your wine by doing any number of searches...pick the one you want....it tells you what "bin" it is in...you go to the bin...swipe your card...and it pours you your wine! Although the touchscreen thing was a little tricky...and it isn't as personal as the whole wine tasting experience we all are used to...it was soooooo cool to try something different! Maybe someday it will catch on...felt very futuristic! Loved it...although I will stick to my old-fashioned wine drinking! :)