NYC 2011. and way more pictures than you care to see.

I took like a million pictures in New York (might be a slight exaggeration....but still over 200), so here are some of my favorite memories from the trip. I really loved it there. It is such a different lifestyle which is fun and interesting to see. I honestly could not raise a family like that but I think it would have been a fun adventure to live there for a year or two when I was single or just newly married! Honestly, the biggest turn off for me happened when we were on the air train to the JFK airport and I looked back on the city and it looked like a pile of mud was sitting over it. I could not believe I had been breathing that air for a week! It made me appreciate where I live and the beauty of Utah.

FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANTLY: THE MARATHON
47,000 runners and over 2 million spectators. This was pretty amazing to watch. My dad said this was the coolest thing he has ever done and he can't wait to do it again. I'm not going to complain about a yearly vaca to New York! My dad placed 8,079 out of 47,000 so he was in the top 17%.

My dad is in there somewhere:

The finishers! My dad and Uncle Randy:

The Expo:


WHERE WE STAYED:
We rented an apartment right in the city. It was a perfect location; about 0.6 miles from Times Square. It was small for Utah standards but was pretty big for New York. It was fun and worked perfectly. And my mom, sisters, and I may or may not have stayed up laughing until 2am every night. Slumber parties are still fun.


Just so you think I'm not exaggerating on the size, the door in this room hit the bed when you tried to open it all the way:

The whole crew! My parents, my 2 sisters and I, my Uncle Randy and his 2 daughters:


WHAT WE ATE:
A lot. Seriously. We ate all authentic New York food except we went to Hard Rock the first day because we were starving and didn't know where to go. Best pizza in our opinion? Mariella's. But really, all of the food was good and I don't think we were ever disappointed in where we chose to eat.

Mariella's Pizza:

Crumbs Bakery:
We got PB Cup and Raspberry Swirl. Both great but I think the raspberry won.

Vendor Hot Dogs:

Great Desserts (don't remember the name):

Pick A Bagel:

Aoa Bar and Grill:
Best ribs I have ever had, yum!

Roxy's:
Cheesecake! Plain with Strawberries and Toffee

Shake Shack:

and Sheas own ketup stash at Shake Shack:


OUT AND ABOUT:









OCCUPY WALLSTREET:
I won't bother to give my feelings on this one. Sort of cool to witness a piece of history though!




WE REMEMBER: 9/11 MEMORIAL:





HILARIOUS MOMENTS:

Shea deciding to take a breather and sit down on this "wood block" which ended up to be cardboard and falling right through:

My mom having a guy come up to her and say, "hey there diva lady. You want my CD? Yeah that's right, I know you get down." I didn't have a picture of the exact moment but it was this same day:

A cartoon artist on the street coming up to McKell and saying, "Let me do you. Let me do you. Only take 10 minutes. Only 20 dollar." HAHAHA. Get your mind out of the gutter, he wanted to draw her picture....I made her pretend to take a picture of scenery so we could get a picture of him standing there:

Me making my dad pet his least favorite animal (besides snakes) just to get a picture. He took off running about 2 seconds after the flash from my camera went off:


FOOD TOUR THROUGH GREENWICH VILLAGE:
The food tour was really fun! We tried different pizza's, cheesecake, really good bread with olive oil, cheeses, etc. And Greenwich village is a really awesome neighborhood that we got to explore!



WICKED:
My favorite thing we did. I loved this show! It was absolutely amazing!




All these pictures don't even touch the surface of our trip. It was so much fun! I am so glad we could stay for so long and do so many great things! Until next year :).