Barnum and Bailey

The circus came to town this summer! I knew Bailey would enjoy it. She talked about it for days afterward. She remembered that she saw the elephants dance, the horses walk around in circles, and the tigers lie down on the ground.

Visions of the Future

Hopefully it will still be this cute in 15 years!

Bailey's Big Time with Bebe and Bobby

While Mommy and Daddy were in New York, Bailey got to spend the week in Pineville with Bebe and Bobby. This was the first time she got to stay with them for that long by herself, and our (really my) first time being away from her for that long. She had a great time. Actually I'm not sure who had more fun, her or them. Here's what Bailey did while Mommy and Daddy were away:

Took two trips to the zoo and....

Tamed an alligator                                                            

Rode the train

Drove the jeep                                                       

Played on the playground

Talked to Uncle Adam on the phone

 Took a nap on Bebe's lap (pretty unsual for her to sleep on anyone's lap these days)

Went to Johnny's Pizza and played a racing game

Had a tea party with Mommy's old toy tea set

Went to Diary Queen and ate ice cream

Played with Auntie Carol and Auntie Linda

Went to Sunday School with Bebe...

and played with her new friend, Anna (notice Anna smiling sweetly for the picture - Bailey, not even looking at the camera)

Went to Cracker Barrel and played checkers with Bobby

 Took pictures of her baby

Had slumber parties in her pack-n-play

Watched plenty of Mickey while snuggling in the big bed

and after all that...she went to sleep!

The Big Apple

Since I hit the big 3-0 this year, my big birthday gift from Phillip was a trip to New York City. Neither one of us had ever been, and we scheduled the trip for the few days between the time he quit his old job and started his new one. We had about 5 days, and we hit the ground running when we got there. We took a shuttle from the airport to our hotel in Manhattan, which was the only time we got to experience a ride in a vehicle (the rest of the time we walked or rode the subway/train).  I decided they might as well not bother painting lanes on the roads. And we thought the driving in Houston was bad! But overall we really enjoyed the trip and saw a lot in those 5 days.

 Probably the highlight for me was getting to go to four Broadway shows, starting with The Book of Mormon on Wednesday night, the first night we were there. It ended up being my favorite. These tickets were the hardest to get because the show is sold out through the end of its run, and it's not available at the TKTS ticket booth. We tried to get tickets through the lottery and didn't win, so I stood in line for a cancellation ticket, which are tickets that are reserved for the producers, directors, or other people that work with the show, for use by their family members or friends. If those tickets end up being available for a show, the box office sell them as cancellation tickets. Luckily, I got one, probably one of the last ones. Not as inexpensive as I would have liked, but it was worth it. It was a great show and a good seat.

After I marked this one off my list, it was hard to decide what other shows I wanted to spend my time and money to see. I had already seen several of them, so it was between seeing something I had already seen and loved enough that I would see again, or taking a chance on one that I had never seen. I ended up going with ones that I had never seen. I saw Chicago on Friday night, which I had never seen on stage, and it was good but probably my least favorite of the ones I saw. It had a Japanese spin on it, which I thought was a little strange.

Saturday night I saw Evita with Ricky Martin. I had never seen it and did not know much about the show but was familiar with some of the music. Normally I probably would have chosen to see something else, but the fact that Ricky Martin was in it ended up being the selling point for me. It was very good, just more on the dramatic, heavier side. But I think it was a good choice. And I got to see Ricky Martin from the 2nd row!

I got to squeeze in one more show on Sunday afternoon before we had to be at the airport, so I chose Nice Work If You Can Get It, starring Matthew Broderick. It's a Gershwin and a lighthearted comedy. It was really good and funny, and I enjoyed seeing Matthew Broderick on stage too.

Here are some shots from Times Square:

Behind us to the top left is the ball that drops on New Year's Eve

I call this one "Where's Waldo?"

We took the NBC studio tour at Rockefeller Center and went to the Top of the Rock. We tried to get standby tickets to see a taping of Jimmy Fallon but we didn't make it. We weren't in line early enough. The studio tour was neat though. I even got to be an "anchorwoman" and be on camera for our tour group. We also saw Matt Lauer walking through the lobby of the building.

In the NBC Experience store

The Empire State Building from the Top of Rockefeller Center

Here are some other things we did/saw:

The Big Cheese

Carnegie Hall

We went to the Eloise gift shop at the Plaza Hotel and got the book Eloise at the Plaza for Bailey

The Plaza Hotel

Walking through Central Park

This Apple store was actually underground. This is just the entrance. You can take the elevator or the stairs that go down into the store. Pretty cool.

FAO Schwartz

Tiffany's

My Audrey pose

Fish at a street market in Chinatown

View of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Manhattan Bridge. We walked all the way across the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn. All I've got to say is....that is one long bridge.

This made that long walk worth it though!

In front of the Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge

View of Lower Manhattan from Brooklyn. The Twin Towers used to be part of this view.

New York Stock Exchange

The 9/11 Memorial

The Freedom Tower, which will replace the World Trade Center - still under construction

Juniors, the best cheesecake in New York!

The Empire State Building

We rode this old wooden escalator coming up from the bottom floor of Macy's

The New York City Public Library

Grand Central Station. From here we rode the train to Yankee Stadium. The only way to go! Cheap and fast.

At the Yankees game:

Every night after Evita was over, this was the crowd waiting outside the theater for Ricky Martin to come out of the stage door. There was no way I would have been able to get a picture of Ricky, so I took a picture of the mob instead, cell phones in the air. The theater was across the street.

 On our last day, we took a boat over to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty. The inside was closed for renovation so we couldn't go in. 

Lower Manhattan from the boat

The boat also stopped at Ellis Island. However, we didn't get off to explore since we needed to get back to town pretty soon.

Ellis Island

Our flight home was scheduled to leave on Sunday night, but we got delayed a couple of hours due to bad storms in the New York area and the plane coming in from Houston being late arriving. Once we were finally on board the plane and ready to go, the captain came on and told us that we had been cancelled. So everyone had to get off the plane and figure out what to do to get to Houston! Flights were being cancelled everywhere, which made for some loooong lines in the airport. We found a flight with another airline that left the next day, Monday, at noon, with a short layover in Charlotte, NC. We had no hotel to go to, so we just had to wait in the airport all night until we could check in for our flight the next day. After a full day in New York, we were just ready to get on that plane to go home and sleep in our own bed. Sitting in the airport all night was not fun at all. You definitely see some things in an airport. Luckily we were able to get our bags from baggage claim before they locked them up or put them on another plane going God knows where. The thing we were most worried about was the Bitty Baby doll we had gotten for Bailey from the American Girl store that was in our luggage. We had to have that doll when we got home to our girl! She ended up coming through with us in our carry on luggage. It also helped to have a toothbrush and change of clothes. And, since we had 8 or so hours to kill before we could check in for our flight, this gave us ample time to repack ALL of our luggage into one checked bag and carry-ons so that we wouldn't have to pay the $25 fee to check another bag, now that we were flying on an airline that charged for luggage check. The whole thing got a little ridiculous. The best/worst part of it all was that Phillip ended up missing his first day at his new job on Monday! Great way to start a new job, huh? Fortunately everyone there was very understanding and he made it in on Tuesday, a little tired but in one piece.

I only got two photos from our time in the airport:

Waiting in the airport. I was still excited about my shows. But the night was young at this point.

 and

This about sums it up.

Oh, and I'm 99% sure we saw Ashlee Simpson in the airport as we were finally checking in and going to our gate. I didn't get photo documentation of this since I wasn't prepared and it may or may not have been her (I'm pretty sure it was though). Nothing like a possible B-list celebrity sighting to wrap up our trip!