Pre-baby getaway

In April, Chris and I were able to go to the Seoul Temple because of some friends from church who so graciously watched Claire and Maddie for the day (along with their 5 children and 3 others from another family!!!) While we were walking on the street from the subway to the temple, enjoying our liberation from parental duties (mostly the craziness Maddie causes), we came up with a fabulous idea. Since we were moving closer to family, maybe we could have a pre-baby getaway to enjoy each other child-free before we have a nursing baby we can't leave for a year. We decided NYC would be the perfect place for such a getaway. And since we were moving right around my birthday, I decided the only birthday present I wanted from Chris was that weekend with him doing fun stuff.

So one weekend in July, we made it happen. Thankfully, Chris's parents agreed to come down and stay with the kids. Claire was so excited to spend the weekend with Grammy and Poppop WITHOUT mommy and daddy around. She had been looking forward to it for months! Maddie was not so excited to see us leave, but she did fine (except for learning how to crawl out of her pack and play which then became a serious issue we had to solve. But that's another story.) Chris and I decided to take the bus up from Baltimore to NYC. It was cheaper than paying gas, tolls, and parking while in NYC. Plus, we could just enjoy the relaxing ride.

We left really early Saturday morning for NYC and came back Sunday afternoon. Chris booked a nice hotel just a few blocks away from times square.

We enjoyed walking around the city hand in hand (slowly, since I was less than a month away from giving birth), eating in cozy restaurants with uninterrupted conversations, being out late (hey, 10PM is late to us old folks), and going to shows that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to see. We chose to see the Blue Man Group in lower Manhattan. I had always heard how awesome it was, but was curious what it actually was. Once I saw it, I realized how any description couldn't do it justice. If I just told you that three guys in blue from head to toe came out on a stage speaking not one word the whole show but instead played drums, squirted paint around the stage, including from their mouth, shoved an insane amount of marshmallows in their mouth and then made sculptures out of it with their mouths, did funny tricks and jokes with giant smart phones on stage, etc., you would not think it sounded cool. But I'm telling you, it was SO COOL. They were funny, innovative, creative, and extremely entertaining. I would highly recommend going to see that show.

One thing I wanted to have done for a long time was to get a caricature done of Chris and I. With kids, it's hard to keep them sitting so long, so I never bothered. I thought this pre-baby getaway was the perfect time to get one. The signs said they were only $10 for 2 people, so I thought it was a great idea! Sadly, I was very disappointed and ended up spending $35 because you basically HAD to buy a frame or the pencil they use would totally smudge. I kind of wish I didn't get suckered into that scam because I was really disappointed in the picture. I had no idea the artist was going to take quite so much artistic license and thought the people in the picture were pretty generic-looking. I didn't think it looked like us at all! What do you think?

Anyway, remember how I said we were soooo enjoying our kid free time? While that is true, we also really missed them. I was actually surprised to see Chris missing them even more than I! So, to share our trip with them, we took a few pictures of the bear Claire sent along with Chris in a few places we went.

The bear about to enjoy some tasty Thai food. Mmm.

The bear on the bench in central park right by the carousel. How could we not think about how Chris rode the carousel here a little over a year ago?

The bear on our hotel bed. Ah, how amazing that bed felt after walking around NYC all day over 8 months pregnant!

 We also spent a good amount of time in Toys R Us finding a replacement Ellie that Maddie loves but we lost on the trip home from Korea, and a special toy for each of the girls. Yeah, we're pathetic.

And what did I wake up to on Sunday morning? I was confused because I kept hearing a child make noises. When I rolled over, I saw Chris watching videos of Claire that he had on his phone from about 3 years ago! That man missed his little girls, and was ready to get back to them. So sweet.

We packed a lot into our 24 hours in NYC - lots of walking, central park, toy stores, a show, yummy food, and a caricature. And when we returned home, we appreciated our children even more.