Mommy's NYC Get Away

In Alex’s 18 months of life, I have never been away from him for longer than a few hours at a time. Sure, Larry and I have gone on a few “dates” here and there! But we were never gone for more than a few hours and we always came home to Alex. I have never spent the night away from Alex. This weekend (April 17 – April 19), I finally did it! I, along with Aunt Sheena and my good friend Stephanie, went to NYC for a “Girl’s Weekend”.

We left for New York City on Friday, April 17, after picking Sheena up from the airport. We got into NYC around 5:30 pm and we were lucky enough to get to sit in traffic for over two hours (notice the hint of sarcasm there). In those two hours, we probably moved about 5 miles. Once we got checked into our hotel, we got ready for dinner. We decided to go to Carmines – a nice little Italian restaurant that served their food “homestyle”. The food was yummy! After eating dinner, we walked around Times Square for a little bit and then went to have a drink at a nice little restaurant/bar. Before we went back to our hotel, we decided to get cheesecake at one of the most amazing places – Junior’s. Seriously, if you ever get to NYC, make sure to check out Junior’s. The cheesecake is amazing and you won’t be disappointed! We went back to the hotel room to hang out and decided to call it a night early (afterall, we are wives and mothers and we were pretty sleepy)!

On Saturday, we went on a tour bus around the city. We were able to hop on/hop off the bus at any of the stops, so we took advantage of the great NYC shopping. We walked around one of the really nice shopping districts – mostly just window shopping. Our next stop was Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty. Sheena decided that she didn’t want to ride the ferry over to the Statue (there were a lot of people crammed into a small space – I can’t say that I blame here), so we just decided to take pictures of it from Battery Park. After stopping at Battery Park, we got back on the bus and rode it back to our hotel. We got some great pictures on the bus of the sights, each other and the Naked Cowboy (c’mon…you know you have heard of him)!

Saturday night, we got dinner at a cute little Cuban restaurant. The food was great and the atmosphere was even better. After dinner, we decided to get back on the tour bus to see NYC at night. I really do think that nothing beats NYC at night – the lights are incredible and the sights are amazing. One of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen at night. Again, we got great pictures! After the night tour, we got ice cream at Cold Stone – YUMMY! We went back to our hotel room shortly after that and were able to spend some time in our hotel room before going to bed.

Sunday morning we woke up, had breakfast and got on the road for our long journey home. We got home around 4 pm. I was so excited to see my boys and I think my boys were just as excited to see me…well, at least I hope so. It was nice to walk in and see the excited look on Alex’s face – one that is usually reserved for Larry when he gets home from work! As much as I love my son and wouldn’t trade him for anything in the world, being a stay-at-home mom and being with him 24/7 is exhausting! I was able to re-charge my “mom batteries” – something I have needed to do for awhile.

As for Larry and Alex…they had a great “boys weekend” together! On Saturday afternoon, they went to the park to hang out with Matt (Stephanie’s husband and fellow TPS student) and Bella and Austin (Matt and Stephanie’s children). Alex and Larry spent a bunch of quality time together – something that they both loved!

All in all, it was a great weekend for everyone. I am blessed to have an understand husband that allows me to have some time to myself when I need it and I am blessed to have a great sister-in-law and great friend to have shared the weekend with! It was the perfect girls weekend!

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

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