But it was so good for us to have a vacation by ourselves.  It was nice to reconnect again and have fun being Van and Niki, instead of Mommy and Daddy.  Mom and Dad came up and stayed with Ashley and the boys, so I knew I was leaving them in good hands.  And I think they had just about as much fun as we did!

Our first day started off with a delay.  Go figure.  I guess it just wouldn’t be right had our flight been on time.  I mean, who would want that?!  Anyway, our flight to New York was delayed 2 hours.  So we got to spend an extra 2 hours in the airport.  Yay.  We finally arrived in NYC and man was it COLD!  We stepped outside LaGuardia and were immediately reminded that it was December in NYC.  Then we hear the honking of all the cars and cabs.  It was my first time in NYC and I was so excited to experience the city.  What better “first” to experience than a NYC cab ride!  We took a cab to the hotel and it was quite a ride.  Nasty, too.  The inside of the cab was so disgusting that we didn’t even take our gloves off.  And I don’t know how in the world we didn’t witness a single car accident while we were there.  It was just crazy the way people drive!  And the amount of congestion and traffic in the city.  I certainly could not drive in that everyday.

Then we got to the hotel.  We stayed at The Doubletree in Times Square.  It was awesome!  Right in the middle of Times Square.  Our room was on the 28th floor and had a wonderful view!  It was a nice room.  Comfy bed, great water pressure in the shower, and we got a warm cookie every time we came back to our room.  Yum!

Our first day we spent walking around Times Square and Fifth Avenue.  We went to Rockefeller Center, admired the big Christmas Tree, ice skating rink, and all the decorations.  We went to Top of the Rock where we saw awesome views of the city at night.  And finished the night with some pizza at Lombardi’s Pizzaria in Little Italy.  Not just any pizza.  Pizza with ricotta cheese and homemade meatballs!  I was in such awe that first day.  It was so much fun!

Oh, and did I mention that Van was sick the whole time?  Poor guy.  He had a double ear infection and sinus infection.  Even though he went to the doctor 2 days before we left, the medicine never worked and he was still sick while we were in NYC.  We had to find drug stores so he could get more medicine while we were there.  And we even stopped at the Urgent Care on the way home from the airport so he could see a doctor again.  We are hoping he will be on the mend soon.

To be continued…

I love my family so much and it was nice to spend the week with them.  I’m a very lucky girl!  Until next time…

We left today and I’m planning on blogging every day about our little adventures.  It’s Ashley’s first vacation, so you know there will be lots of pictures to post!  We had a good trip down here, which was nice for a change.  The past few times we’ve made the road trip, Ashley has only slept the first 2 hours and then the last hour we have had to listen to her cry the rest of the way.  This time, she made it 2 hours, we stopped for a late lunch, fed her, changed her diaper, and then made it the last hour – with no crying – yay!  She even fell back asleep after our lunch break.  It really took us 4 hours to get here because of all the traffic getting on the island.  But Ashley did great despite being stuck in the car for an additional hour.

We arrived late afternoon and just relaxed a bit.  Aunt Jenn and Uncle Nathan are here so Ashley hammed it up for them.  We also got to see Uncle Eddie, Aunt Sibyl, and cousins Leslie, Blair and Hunter.  We all enjoyed a yummy steak dinner on the grill and chatted it up.  It was a nice start to our vacation.  Can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store!