Our First Kid Free Trip - New York City!

Well, I'm fully a believer in trips without children now. :) Not all of the time of course, but I have seen the value in having a little free time with the love of your life and guys- it's amazing!

We were able to have an awesome couple in our ward nanny for us and stay at our home with the kids and it gave me great peace of mind knowing that my babies were going to be well cared for and safe while we were gone! It also helped that we have cameras set up in their bedrooms so we could watch them sleep at night and during their naps when we needed a kid-fix to get through our day. :) Also thank goodness for Face Time!

I had been feeling a little nervous about leaving them before this (the longest I'd ever been away from them was like 36 hours) so I just didn't know what to expect, but it felt really nice to just focus on myself and Kyler and just explore! It's such a marriage builder to get that alone time in!

And now, here's a recap of what we did! (With random recommendations/tips should you ever head to NYC yourself!)

Monday:

Headed for the airport around 8:20am, flight left at 11am, landed at 3:30/4pm ish NYC time. The flight was fine but unfortunately at the airport my darn suitcase broke so we couldn't pull the handle out to wheel it. Made for an annoying time but luckily I have a pack mule husband who never complains and he just lugged it all over while I pregnant-waddled next to him. Love him so. ❤️

From the airport we took the subway and grabbed some food at a popular local burger place called the Shake Shack. They had a delicious Christmas Cookie shake that I inhaled! We walked around Times Square a little, found a bus and headed to our Airbnb that was in Jersey City. When we got there we had had the plan to drop off our bags, change and go out to dinner but we were honestly so exhausted we just ended up just ordering pizza from a local place called Gino's (which was DELICIOUS) and watching a movie and heading to bed. (#oldpeople)

Previously mentioned delicious shake pictured here :)

Tuesday:

We woke up and got ready, walked to the bus stop and then used the Subway to head towards Times Square again! We had Carlos Bakery for breakfast and it was super sweet but delicious. Then we headed towards the famous Trinity Church and on our way we ran into the Trump Building and the New York Stock exchange. Kyler was hoping to go into the latter but it was well blocked off from visitors and only employees allowed in. (Also I love that he was excited about something like that. He is business minded through and through!) Then we headed to Little Italy for lunch and ate at the Pepe Rosso Social. It was SO good! So cute and quaint and small but so yummy and reasonably priced. (Each plate around $20. A fun vacation meal.) Kyler says this was one of his favorite parts of the trip. It was that delcious. :)

After our late lunch we tried to go see the 911 memorial (free tickets on Tuesday) but we got there too late and missed out which was a bummer, but it was still beautiful to see that part of the city at night! We also tried to se the Brooklyn bridge at night but got a little turned around and there was a street performance going on at the time that blocked the route a bit so we mainly just walked all over to no avail which was kinda lame, but it was still so pretty to see the city all lit up at night! NYC is one of the best places to be "lost!" We then went to a grocery store to grab some basics for our Airbnb and then because I could barely walk at that point, Kyler got us a Lyft and we headed home. :)

The Pepe Rosso Social- decorated so cute

This picture is awful quality but I loved this part of the restaurant the best!

Wednesday:

We headed off to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island!

You get your tickets for the ferry online beforehand and they make you choose a reservation time but it was kind of pointless because we found out they don't actually enforce it. We started off first with the museum on Ellis Island about the huge surge of immigrants that came to America. My body hurt so bad from walking so much the day before (thank you poor circulation mixed with pregnancy!) that we got me a wheelchair. 🙈 I thought I'd be so embarasssed but it was actually amazing so I could actually enjoy myself and not be in pain with every move. I definitely don't want to people to think we just get one for the heck of it though- I really truly couldn't walk very well or very far without feeling awful leg and back pain so I swear it was warranted! But despite the extra wheels, we had a blast and it made the trip so much better! I so appreciated that there were wheelchairs and elevators at the varying museums for those who needed them!

{Tip- online I read that we'd want to spend hours at the Ellis museum. I think that depends on your preference towards history though. We thought it was cool and interesting but saw everything we wanted to within an hour.}

Next stop- Statue of Liberty! And yes, I got a wheelchair here too. People were so sweet and helpful and I just felt so blessed to have the kind of help I needed in order to enjoy our trip!

The statue was a little smaller in person than I anticipated because I swear the movies make her look like a million times bigger but it was still so fun to see her! We just had a blast there together and had fun laughing and talking while he wheeled me around. It was awesome. ❤️

Next up was the 911 museum. It was AMAZING. We spent probably 2 1/2-3 hours there. It was super emotional, plus I'm a bajillion months pregnant so I was weepy McPhee the whole time, but it was so well put together and laid out. Definitely go there if you are in NYC. It was beautifully done. ❤️ {Buy tickets online beforehand.}

Afterwards we got dinner at Ellen's Stardust diner. It was SUCH a fun atmosphere and such yummy food! Their waitresses and waiters are all music students hoping to make it to Broadway and they all take a turn performing songs and it was just a music lovers dream. The line outside of the restaurant looked massively long and we almost passed on it, but overall the wait was only like 20-30 minutes which I think can be pretty normal when going out to eat! Anyway- it was amazing. Definitely a place to hit for sure! Afterwards we got dessert at the Magnolia Bakery which was total madness because everyone wanted a piece of the action there. :)

Wheelchair lady on Ellis Island- no shame!

It was quite cold at the top of the pedestal!

Buy all the candied street nuts when you are there! They are delicious! These were candied almonds. 😍

Only picture I have of our time here but it was awesome!

My cheeks are so red because the bus ride home was HOT!

Thursday:

Our last full day in NYC before heading home! We hit up Central Park which is just massively huge, went to the Met (and yes, I got another wheelchair here) which is an amazing and huge Museum {ticket prices are a donation, so you get to choose how much you pay,} saw the Manhattan Temple, hit up some delicious Nutella stuffed churros at the Columbus Circle Holiday Market, saw the giant Christmas tree at the Rockefeller center, and then saw Lion King on Broadway. 😍

That was by far my favorite moment! We used an app called Broadway Lottery for tickets and would enter it each day for all of the shows we were interested in. We'd get an email later in the day telling us if we won or not. Every day we kept getting told we didn't win, and then miraculously I won tickets for $30 each for the last night we were there - it was a Christmas miracle!

The show was so well done and I just cried my eyes out (I'm talking sobbing 🙈) during the opening number because I just couldn't believe I was there and it was just so amazing! Plus pregnancy hormones ha! I did sit next to these guys who talked a lot through out the show and one of them smelled super weird (like he'd eaten super smelly food before he came or something- I think it mainly bugged me because of my dang super pregnancy smelling abilities) so that was kind of a bummer- but even that couldn't really get me down because I was at a Broadway show in New York City dang it! By the time it ended, we were completely exhausted and headed straight home. We then packed up our bags and straightened up our Airbnb a bit and then hit the hay!

In Central Park! Kyler kept telling me that this was the only bridge in Central Park (which is a lie. I think he was trying to see how gullible I am?) and when we saw more bridges, he refused to acknowledge that he was wrong 😂

Not the best picture but there's the temple behind us!

We stopped just inside the temple to use their bathroom and the cute temple worker said he would take our picture for us. Kyler loved those blue windows behind us.

Still can't believe we won these cheaper tickets! 🙌🏻

Friday:

We woke up, got all of the last minute things packed and headed to the airport via Lyft. Our flight was good and we made it home to our house by about 4pm! It was so fun seeing Henry and Rose after 5 days away! We got Henry a NYC hat and Rose a little puppy and they were so cute about them. We loved our time away but also loved coming home to our sweet babies! Thanks again Schills for being wonderful nannies!