WOW! That's the short version!! We had the most amazing weekend in New York City, I'm not even sure I can put it all into words... but here's the long version, pictures included :)
On Friday morning, we woke the boys up at 4:45am to leave for the airport. Our flight left Detroit at 7:00am. Despite being woken up much too early, the boys were champs... they were so excited to go to New York City!!! They loved our first plane ride, but the second one freaked Caleb out just a little. We had a layover in Philadelphia and the plane we took to Newark was a small prop jet. At the end of the jetway, we had to go outside to board the plane. Caleb wasn't expecting this and panicked at the loud sounds of the planes... so we walk onto this 30 passenger plane (of course we are the last to board) with a screaming toddler! You should have seen the looks we got! But he was asleep before we left the ground, so all was well within a few minutes :)
When we got to Newark, there was a car there to pick us up and take us to our hotel. We couldn't check in yet because it was only 11:00am, so we dropped off our bags and hit the city for some exploring! Armed with a map and a sense of adventure, we took off walking north. We walked through Tribeca and into Soho where we stopped for some Starbucks (courtesy of my awesome sister!) and to change the boys into their shorts because it was such a gorgeous day. We walked to Washington Square Park and stopped to let the boys play on the playground. Then we ventured out to find some lunch... we had seen a cool sandwich shop called Peanut Butter & Company that looked fun, so we found that and took some delicious sandwiches back to the park for a picnic. Then we started walking again, straight up 5th Avenue to the Empire State Building! By now it was mid afternoon
and Matty-No-Nap passed out in his stroller, despite all of the hustle and bustle along 5th Avenue on a Friday afternoon! The one thing the boys wanted to do in NYC was have mommy carry them to the top of the Empire State Building... much to their dismay, we took the elevators! It was so cool to look out and see the entire city! After a cab ride back down to Tribeca, we found another cool little park near our hotel where the boys got to burn off some energy and it just so happened that the park was right in front of the theater that is part of the Tribeca Film Festival, where the boys movie, Five Year Engagement premiers next month!!! So cool!!!! We finally checked into our hotel around 4:00pm (our
room had a gorgeous view of the Emipre State Building!), then headed back out for some lunch. This time we walked south into the Financial District. We were able to get passes into the 9/11 Memorial and it was truly amazing. It was tough to explain the meaning of it all in two year old terms, but even tougher to realize that someday we will have to explain the whole thing to them. It was pretty surreal to be standing at Ground Zero, hard to describe really. After a long walk back to our hotel, it was finally bedtime and boy oh boy were we tired!!!
Saturday started bright and early with Starbucks and bagels for breakfast while sitting in a sunny little spot in Chinatown. Then the boys had their photo shoot for Ideeli. We were pretty nervous because we didn't know if the team had much experience working with kids so young, but within
moments of arriving we knew it was going to be a blast :) The four women were FANTASTIC with the boys! They had their own photographer and their own stylist! They modeled six different outfits and they were pros! We all had such a great time and we were so incredibly proud of how well the boys did. The girls were so much fun to work with and they truly seemed to enjoy the boys :) We finished much earlier than expected, so we headed back out into the city by 11:00am, armed with all of the fun gift cards the Ideeli girls gave to the boys!!First, we stopped in Little Italy to let the boys play for awhile and then Jon spotted a pizza place where we grabbed some authentic New York style pizza for lunch... yum! We hopped in a cab that took us up to the American Museum of Natural History because it was quite a hike uptown.
There is a Curious George book where George digs for dinosaur bones and in one of the cartoon episodes Curious George actually goes to the AMNH to see the dinosaur bones, so the boys were thrilled to be doing what their favorite monkey had done :) We checked out the space exhibit and the dinosaur bones before heading out into Central Park. I'm having an incredibly difficult time pinpointing my one favorite part of our entire trip, but if you forced me... I think I would have to pick our afternoon in Central Park. We stopped to watch a guy playing some African drums, just like the boys play with their friend Mr. Efe at Eastern Market in Detroit. The guy let the boys 
drum with him, so we sat there for about 15-20 minute while the boys drummed on a park bench in Central Park :) Mr. Brian was so amazingly nice... he wanted to keep the boys so they could drum with him every Saturday! Then we walked a bit farther to a pavilion where there was an even bigger African drum show. Matty danced his little heart out with the schizophrenic man who was spinning so wildly that we were sure he was going to fall over and split his head open! Then we sat there for over an hour while the boys watched some kids skateboard... they were in HEAVEN! They thought one of the older guys was Nyjah Huston, their favorite professional skateboarder... can't even tell you how excited they were when the kid came over to talk to them!!!! The boys fell asleep for the rest of our walk through Central Park so we let them sleep for a bit, but had to wake them up to take them into FAO Schwarz :) The Ideeli girls had given them a gift card so they got to do something they have never done before (and will probably never get to do again!)... go into a giant toy store and buy whatever they wanted!!! I was so proud of them... they picked out two great little souvenirs- a NYC Firefighter Elmo and a set of NYC city vehicles to drive around :) After dinner they got to splurge one more time, again thanks to the Ideeli girls, when we went to Dylan's Candy Shop to share a giant ice cream sundae. They were so excited to have such a special treat, but Jon and I had to gobble it up as fast as we possibly could so the boys didn't get too much!
Sunday morning we had one more special treat courtesy of Ideeli... a delicious breakfast at Max Brenner's Chocolates!!! It was truly unbelievable! Although it was a little tough getting the boys to eat all of their vegetable omelet when everything came with chocolate dipping sauce!! But we did let them eat a few of the melty marshmallow's off of my hot chocolate (the best hot chocolate I've ever had in my entire life by the way!) and we mixed just a tiny bit of it into their milk for one last special treat. We used the rest of our gift card there to buy a giant box of delicious chocolates to take to our friends who we were going to visit on Long Island. Then it was time to catch a cab
to Penn Station and a train out to Long Island! The boys loved the train ride... nearly two hours, though they didn't sleep like we had hoped they would. My friend Aileen picked us up at the train station in Sayville and took us to their house for the evening. Now mind you I've never met this woman in my life... Jon was a little nervous that we were going to stay with complete strangers, but it didn't feel like that- not even for a single second. Turns out, Aileen and her husband Pete are the most amazingly wonderful people in the world, and their boys welcomed our boys right into their giant playroom and it was like they had been friends forever! All four boys played their hearts out (while Matthew and Sean ate their weight in watermelon and cantelope!) and we had such a great time. Aileen made a wonderful dinner (which Matthew fell asleep in the middle of) and then we played some 
more. The boys all did bedtime routine together and then Jon stayed upstairs to put our boys to bed so I could stay down and visit with Aileen a bit more. It was sooooo wonderful to just sit and talk about all of the things we usually have to type about... big boy beds, potty training, preschool, the whole nine yards! In the morning, the boys all got a little more play time but then it was back to the train station so we could head into the city and catch our plane home. It was really hard to leave, not knowing if or when we will see our new friends again.Monday was our travel day. I still can't believe how well the boys did!!! We left Long Island at 9:40am, took four trains, and got to the airport at 12:45pm. Then we had to wait for our flight that was scheduled to leave at 2:45. Once on the plane, the boys were excited to get their suckers again (they have never had suckers before and still believe that little kids are only allowed to have them on airplanes!)... but they both totally passed out before we even got to our cruising altitude!!! Make sure you check out Caleb Licks a Lollipop for a good laugh!!!
When we landed back in Detroit a few minutes before 5:00 in the evening, I reached across the aisle in the plane to touch Jon's arm and give him a smile, happy to be safely on the ground at home after such an amazing weekend. The man sitting behind us gave us a grin and said "Sometimes its the small things in life, huh?" I know this trip was just one small blip in the boys lives, one that they likely won't even remember aside from the pictures and videos we took. But that moment felt so incredibly huge... What a giant accomplishment to earn an all expenses paid trip to model in New York City at 2 years old, for the boys to see so much of the city at such a young age and to watch their eyes light up at each and every single turn. But mostly I was so incredibly proud of how they handled it all... despite being so far detached from their daily routines and thrown into the wild craziness that is the city that never sleeps... they had the biggest, sweetest smiles on their faces every step of the way. I can't even describe how proud we are. Thank you IDEELI for a trip of a lifetime!
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