our New York City trip

{Warning: there are a lot of pictures! I am impressed if you make it all the way through this post.}

We had such a fun time in NYC! Derick was going out there for an athletic conference, and so Lincoln and I decided to join him for a couple of days. If you have not been to New York at Christmastime, you have to go! I have gone before in the summer, and this time was so much better! Everything in the city is decorated and it's so pretty. Derick and I have both been able to see most of the sites, so we just chose a few things that we really wanted to do/see together.

Here we are on the bus at the airport. I love how Lincoln is holding onto the pole. The little guy knew something was going on when we got him out of bed that night to go somewhere, and he stayed awake the entire way to the airport, the entire time at the airport, and about the first 30 minutes of our flight. OH! Speaking of our flight....we had the grouchiest couple sitting right in front of us. Lincoln was fussy for the first 15 minutes or so, and they kept looking back at us and whispering things to each other. Derick finally said something and we kind of all got into a fight about it. They were such jerks. Oh, well.  Bless their hearts.

On the plane.

Lincoln eating some snacks. Ha ha....so cute. Thankfully we had the whole row so he could have a seat. This was such a lifesaver. Can't say the same for the flight back, however.

This is in our taxi going from the JFK airport to our hotel. Lincoln looks hilarious in this pic. He looks about how we all felt. Sorry it's blurry. The taxis are a pretty bumpy ride.

We stayed at the W Hotel on Lexington Avenue. Never stay there! It was terrible. We have never had such poor service. It's funny...it's right across the street from the Waldorf Astoria and the Four Seasons, so it's in a nice area, but it was bad. Anyway, we can't complain too much because we didn't have to pay for it, so I was thankful for that. Plus, it was a good location.

Since we took a red-eye flight, we were tired, so we got a couple hours of sleep and then headed out for some fun!

Times Square

We went into Toys R Us (so fun) and they have this giant ferris wheel with all sorts of themed cars to ride in. 

We ate here. So good.

My secret weapon lately for keeping Lincoln happy has been lollipops. We got him one inside Toys R Us and after a few minutes of enjoying it, he fell asleep...with the sucker stuck to his lip and bib. HA!

Oh, and if you are wondering what the plastic thing is, it's a rain cover that came with our stroller. It's amazing and it seriously saved us. It was so cold and windy, and it kept Lincoln out of the wind and warm and toasty.

In Central Park

Derick has this cool app on his iPhone that lets you take 360 degree photos and then it puts them all into one panoramic shot. Isn't that cool?

We went to see the Rockettes/Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. It was such a good show! We were glad to have a show that we could go see and be able to take Lincoln to. While waiting to go to our seats, he wanted to look over the balcony into the lobby below. He was fascinated and was so disappointed when I made him leave it.

 The stage. It's such a pretty place.

These little organ-playing guys come out before the show begins. It was pretty funny.

Ok, so you can't really see what's going on, but it was cool. Trust me.

You can kind of see this one. They did a huge nativity scene at the end. It was awesome. We weren't expecting that, and it was cool that they brought the true meaning of Christmas into this show.

Remember how I said the whole city is decorated? It's seriously true. Cool things everywhere.

Here we are in front of the Rockefeller Christmas tree! {Don't mind the cop car}

It was really pretty. And huge.

The next day, Derick had to work all day, so I decided to hang out at the hotel for a lot of it to let Lincoln catch up on some sleep. Here he is playing in the shower while I was getting ready. He thought it was so cool.

Ok, so one of the coolest things that we did the whole trip was going to see Santa in Macy's! It was awesome. They have this whole Santa land that you walk through.

Lincoln watching the toy trains. He is fascinated with them.

They have little elves that ask you where you are from, and they write it on this huge map.

 The jolly man himself. Lincoln was somewhat underwhelmed. he he.

Times Square at night.

The next day, Derick had to work in the morning. When he was done, we headed out for some shopping and delicious food. We went to Dylan's Candy Bar and got some treats to take home, and then we went to Serendipity for some dessert! Ok, so the frozen hot chocolates are amazing, and this time we also tried the chocolate blackout cake. OH MY. It's devine. It's the best cake I have ever tasted.

I love Lincoln's face in this pic. 

Enjoying my frozen hot chocolate. Apparently they just changed the recipe and gave it a little bit of a minty twist. It was good.

The flight home was a bit rough. Lincoln only slept for about 30-45 minutes of the 5.5 hour flight. We were exhausted. I am thankful for this super sweet lady on the plane that took him for about 20 minutes so we could have a break. She could see it in our faces that we were drained. Part of what was so tiring was that we had to wrestle him in the cab on the way to the airport, and then had to keep him entertained at the airport (for 2 hours) and then our flight was also delayed. Yikes. We made it through though. That's what matters, right?

When we were getting off the plane, one of the flight attendants gave Lincoln a little prize. Do you see what he's holding?

Here's a closer look. They gave him wings! He held them the whole way home. It was too cute.

And there you have it. Our eventful, tiring, somewhat stressful and WONDERFUL trip to NYC!