NYC...Take 1

What a trip and we did a TON our first day...on very little sleep!

We left out Wednesday night out of San Francisco on a Virgin America flight to JFK in NYC and I think that was our first and last red eye flight...at least with a child! Riley fought sleep for the first half hour and we were beginning to wonder if she'd ever fall asleep. After all each seat had a TV and a remote control so there were buttons galore to push and play with...fun stuff!

However, it was not almost midnight and we knew that we all needed some sort of sleep because we would land in NYC Thursday morning and hit Manhattan...so we took her to the back of the plane and rocked her to sleep and she slept the entire way which was great...but her parents didn't sleep which was not so great! We laid her on our laps but she was rather jumpy and we would wake up each time she moved to make sure she didn't wake up and she was a little radiator so we were quite hot with her sleeping on us. Not to mention the fact that my seat wouldn't properly recline and they didn't recline that much to begin with so with all of those factors we slept in no longer than 30 minute increments...we felt horrible once we landed.
However, the adrenaline kicked in once we arrived, moved our legs around, and brushed our teeth in the airport bathroom...and the adrenaline really kicked in when Jason's iPhone was stolen in the airport bathroom...but we had a full day planned and were picked up in a beautiful stretch white limo with our whole crew waiting for us...Nani, Jason's entire family, and my mom!

It was so great to see everyone and we all piled in and headed to Manhattan. With some snacks on the ride along with some Extra Strength Tylenol I was starting to feel like a human being and once we got into the city we fueled up with some Starbucks and all was good...we were ready to go!
We did a double decker tour of Upper Manhattan which was just so cool...this was my first time in the city and I was loving it and taking it all in!

Riley's already pointing out the sites!

Sidenote: Doing a day trip to NYC with luggage and all was a challenge since we were coming straight from the airport. I found a place to store our luggage (one bag for all 3 of us...go me) and Riley's carseat and we decided not to bring a stroller! She is within 1 pound of the weight limit for Jeep carrier so that's what we opted for and it was a great decision. She thought it was fun to be in it and she took two great naps without a fuss at all! I loved getting to cuddle with her so if she wasn't walking this was how Riley maneuvered the city!!

Nani and CJ

My mom and Gaby

Frank and Des

We saw some great big buildings...I just LOVE being in a big city!

And fascinating architecture! I can't tell you what these buildings are because we toured for over 2 hours and saw so many places but we were in Upper Manhattan the whole time so they range between 5th Avenue Celebrity Condos to churches and schools!

The gardens at Central Park...

Central Park

Gotta love NYC traffic...our limo driver actually "bumped" a car when dropping us off and it was like no big deal to him...ha!

Times Square

After our tour we opted for some vendor hot dogs and pretzels for lunch since we didn't have much time before our next tour...a ferry around Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty!

Riley liked licking the salt off the pretzel!

The LoRusso Gang

Gaby and Jason being goofy before our ferry left...apparently Lady Liberty has some B.O.!

Riley decided to put on her own show as well while waiting for the ferry...this girl is a trip!

A pretty cool boat we saw...

Where the twin towers once stood...I wish we could have gone to Ground Zero but there was just no time...just means we'll be back!

Buildings everywhere...I love it!

The Brooklyn Bridge

The Manhattan Bridge

Empire State Building

Ellis Island

Family shot before Riley passed out!

Here she is...Lady Liberty herself...so awesome to see in person!

After our ferry tour we headed back to Times Square to have dinner! Uncle Annie and Uncle Joe (Frank's aunt and uncle) were coming in from Brooklyn to join us for dinner at a family style Italian restaurant.

We had a little time before dinner and we did some people watching as it as 5:00 and the city was bustling with people getting off work...I so could have lived in New York for a few years!

We thought it would be fun to check out the Toys 'R Us so my mom, Riley, Gaby, and myself headed over there!

They have this gigantic ferris wheel right when you walk in with each "seat" having a theme from a kids movie!

We decided that Gaby and Riley had to get some toys...as you can see Riley had no trouble picking out things she wanted...her arms were full!

Gaby, on the other hand, took forever to find something she wanted...oh the pressure!

In the end we let Riley pick out two things and Gaby got some fun stuff too!

We had a great dinner...oh the food...it was wonderful!

Here's the whole gang!

After dinner we got back in the limo and headed to Long Island to have more fun!

Riley was pretty wired but by the time we arrived in Long Island everyone was passed out!

Don't worry...Jason was just pretending to be asleep and this was before we picked up Riley's carseat from where we stored it all day...we didn't let her run all over the limo!

So that was a lot for one day and no sleep, but there was much more fun to be had in the days to come.

When we got to our hotel room they had brought in a crib for Riley to sleep in, but she did not want to sleep in it since she could see us...we caved...we put her in bed with us...she did a little talking and sleeping but eventually fell asleep!