new york city

for andi's 8th birthday we gave her a trip to new york city with just mom and dad!  it was so fun to spend the entire weekend with just her and i know she loved all the attention.  this is something we want to do with each of our children when they turn 8.  

we headed out last friday morning and arrived in the city that evening.  the first thing andi wanted to do was go to the american girl store.  we went to our hotel and then walked to the store!  we walked through all 3 floors.  i loved it!  andi has really been wanting isabelle (the american girl doll of the year)  so daddy of course let her get it.  she was so excited.  we then headed over to the empire state building.  we went to the top and enjoyed the city lights.  after we went down to chinatown to have the best soup dumplings i have ever had!

saturday morning we headed over to the american natural history museum.  that thing is huge and could easily take several days to go through!  after, we walked across the street to central park.  we watched some streets performers and just wondered around a small part of the park.  we then took the subway down to the brooklyn bridge.  andi loved riding it!  we walked across the bridge, ate at dough (a doughnut place that was fabulous) and explored the streets of brooklyn of the rest of the evening.  i loved brooklyn.

sunday we slept in and then got ready for the us open.  we were so excited to go see some tennis.  we stopped in times square to check it out and ate at the shake shack (which was so good) and then took the subway again to the open.  we didn't have day tickets so we just watched players warm up on the courts outside.  it poured rain around 4 and i was so nervous they were going to cancel the night games (which were the tickets we had).  but, at about 6 it cleared up and we stayed the entire night!  it ended up working out better because we got to watch federer play.  it was so exciting.  i love that my kids know most of the tennis players and they totally understand the game.  

monday morning we got up early and came home.  it was a quick trip but so fun to be with our andi girl.  she is such a sweet girl and loves her animals and nature.  she loves to learn and is always asking questions.  i'm excited to do this with each of our children!  now i want to go back during christmas to see the rockettes, ice skate and rockefellar center and do some christmas shopping.  doesn't that sound fun?!!