The Dean’s Visit NY

Mike Dean, a fellow ISU architecture grad, brought his family out to NY. We were so happy to have them! Heather definitely understands the trials attached to being the wife of an architect/student and Ethan is just Miles’ size!  Though it was tough, they left Maggie, Cooper’s Beagle buddy, back in Iowa. We missed her!

They flew in the NYC the same night (Friday) arrived back from Brazil: PERFECT efficiency in planning!!

Miles, chilling in the airport…

We all went to bed early that night exhausted from travel into and out of NYC and with anticipation for the next day.

The next day was not an ideal day for sightseeing. With high winds, cool temps, and lots of rain, we decided to mellow out in our apartment, let the boys play, make a trip to the grocery store and catch up with some quality conversation.

The highlight of Saturday – the boys in the bath…(Miles 16.5 mo and Ethan 14 mo)

Sunday, we hopped a train into the city and met up with Brad Baer and Katie. The 8 of us ventured over to Times Square, found a nice little Irish pub to eat lunch.  Besides the poor service and the less than impressive food, we had a great time! We saw parts of Times Square, the New York Times building, THE Toys R Us (and its indoor ferris wheel), Ground Zero, and went shopping at Century 21.  By then, the weather had gotten to the boys. We left Brad and Katie to their romantic evening in the city as we took the train back to White Plains to eat pizza.  Ironically, we actually ordered in Chicago style pizza (I know, I know – keep your thoughts to yourself) and watched 4 Christmases.  Great movie, by the way!!

The ferris wheel inside Toys R us

Monday was another big site-seeing day in the city.  We went to Times Square again and ate at Dallas BBQ, toured the M&M store, gazed at the lights of the area, toured Columbia University and its bookstore, had some honey roasted nuts from a street vendor, walked through Central Park and passed the Home Alone 2 hotel, the Apple store, the 5th Avenue shopping district, and a bunch of horse drawn carriages.

Tuesday, Miles at I went back to daycare and work. We left the Dean’s enjoy a day in the city on their own. The weather was much better so they made a day out of the Statue of Liberty.  Nate, Miles and I drove their luggage down to them at their hotel near the LGA airport. We ordered in NY pizza (finally) and the boys (big and little) swam in the pool! Heather got a few adorable pictures of this… I’ll try to get them and post them later.

We had a fantastic time with the Dean’s (and Baer’s). Initially, I was planning to apologize for getting so wrapped up in the fun that I barely took any pictures – but then I decided that if I posted everything that we saw, none of you would come out to visit us!  Our place is open – You’re welcome to come visit us and the city anytime :)