Manhattan and More

Last Friday morning we left Jen & Gabes & drove to take the (free) Staten Island ferry over 

to Manhattan. 

It took us to the financial district where we indulged in goodies from Au Bon Pain, visited the site of the World Trade Center & watched the girls fawn over costume jewelry. The nice guy on the left gave them each a ring (which Kate dropped in the water on our ferry ride back).

Tourist central, aka Times Square. 

Walking to Rockefeller Center. 

We walked a bit around the city & surprised the kids by taking them to FAO Schwartz. Of course they had to play on the giant piano from "Big." I loved that movie when I was a kid! 

After the kids played on it Ray showed them the clip from the movie on his phone. 

Clay didn't seem to impressed by his subway ride back to the ferry.

Before getting back on the ferry we grabbed a quick dinner at Chipotle-cheap & easy to eat gluten free!

After leaving the city we drove to Cranford, NJ  

to stay with our friends, Matt & Heather for the night. We hadn't seen them in over five years & we stayed up talking until 3am!

Matt & Heather have 3 girls & our kids had a blast playing with 

each other! 

Their little town is so cute & I love that you can walk to so many places. They also had a scarecrow contest going on & there were all different kinds of scarecrows around the town. It reminded me of being in Stars Hollow on Gilmore Girls!

We walked to a great coffee shop, Rock'n Joes, 

before walking to the train station & going into the city. 

We took the subway over to Central Park. We were all hungry & conveniently enough Sabra hummus was at the park & giving away little tubs of hummus & pretzels.

After spending some time in the park we decided we wanted burgers. Two of the girls are gluten free so we walked over to five guys where we knew it would be safe for them to eat. 

After five guys we walked to Dylan's candy shop. I had promised the kids a few weeks ago that we would go & they didn't forget! 

The bottom floor was uncomfortably packed so we went upstairs to the sweet shop. We even scored one of the cupcake booths to sit at! 

Ready to indulge in some goodies! 

We had fun trying yummy beverages & chocolate fondue! 

Time to leave NYC

Our girls were naturals on the subway. 

We made it back to Cranford a little after 8 & stopped at Rock'n Joes - another 4 shots of espresso for me!

Isn't my drink pretty?

We hung out at their house a little longer & the kids ate dinner.

We also enjoyed another viewing of, "What does the fox say?"

We left Matt & Heather & drove back to Jen & Gabe. We got to their house around midnight & went to church with them the next morning. After church we ate lunch together & then left for the next leg of our trip!