New York, New York!

No, we aren't in New York City at the present moment. In fact it has been four months since our trip to New York as part of our last-summer-hurrah-12-day-road-trip. I had planned on editing and posting the hundreds of photos I took on our trip and sticking them into the "proper" chronological place within the Avery House blog; however, after going through the photos again, I decided to place them on the blog right here at the end of the year. One thing I have learned this year is to not beat myself up for not getting my photos up at the time I want them to be up. Sometimes, other things in life take way more time and precedence over posting photos and writing blog posts. And sometimes it's OK to take a break. The important thing I learned too is that I really do love my blog world and the friends I have made through this place. I have made connections to others across the country that otherwise I would have never have known if it hadn't been for my blog home. In that sense, it seems like just the right time to post about New York City, a place, that like the blog world, brings people of all walks of life together to learn and grow and appreciate one another.

 Ever since I saw "Ghostbusters" as a kid, I have wanted ot go to the New York City Public Library. It is a magnificent building full of the most beautiful architectural details. Just look at how BIG it is with this photo of Howie and the girls on the steps above. And this is slightly zoomed in to boot!

 Inside the library there are hundreds upon thousands of books and places to read and do research. I took a quick snap of the girls above before we headed downstairs to the Children's Library.

 In the Children's Library they have a display of Christopher Robin's original stuffed Winnie the Pooh and friends. I have always LOVED Winnie the Pooh, so this was a real treat for me to see the originals.

 Outside of the New York Public Library is Bryant Park where the girls enjoyed riding the carousel. The park is beautiful and as we were leaving to go meet up with family, people were setting up to do yoga in the park.

 We met up with Howie's family in Midtown New York to go eat pizza at John's Pizzeria on 43rd Street and 8th Avenue.

 The girls posed with their New York City cousins in the garden at Grandma Beverly's apartment building.

 We visited the Central Park Zoo with Aunt Rhonda and Ellen. Sophie had had her 5th birthday party at the movies and saw the movie Madagascar 3. The animals in the movie are from the Central Park Zoo so it was fun for her to see the actual zoo.

 I love this shot of Howie above in the Central Park Zoo with the Essex House building in the background.

 Part of the zoo has a children's petting zoo that we also visited. There are so many beautiful statues in the zoo as well as Central Park.

 The girls loved the Children's Zoo and playing on all of the different play scapes that are featured there like the rabbits, and turtle eggs.

 On this trip to New York we spent a lot of time in Central Park . I was amazed that even though New York is so big and has so many people living in it, I never once felt like it was crowded, especially in the parks. We went to 8 different playgrounds in Central Park.

 One of the slides the girls loved was this one built in the side of a huge rock. Some of the kids were sliding down on cardboard boxes so the girls found their own pieces of cardboard and fit right in with the local kiddos!

 And of course we went to FAO Schwarz where the girls had a wonderful time on the famous Big Piano.

 On one of our days in NYC we ventured to the American Museum of Natural History where my college sorority sister Holly works. We ate lunch with Holly across the street at Shake Shack before venturing back to the museum to see the dinos!

 Oh how I love my girls' bows in these space suits!

 Holly snapped a family photo of us in Central Park before we all headed over to Diana Ross playground across from the museum.

 Howie had the girls spinning at warp speed on these tire swings!

 We couldn't got to NYC without going to see the Empire State Building. We decided to go to the Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center to view the Empire State Building.

 We then went on over to the American Girl Doll place where the girls had their dolls hair styled and we enjoyed pink "black and white" style cookies.

The girls especially loved visiting with Grandma Beverly and playing in the playground across the street from her apartment. It was a wonderful trip and I look forward to making another trip to NYC in 2013.