Bright Lights, Big City



One of the things I remember as a kid is always tuning in to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thanksgiving Day.  It was something that I watched rather intently as a kid, I always loved the anticipation of what balloon was next or what performance would happen right there in the middle of the street?! 

 

We were blessed this year to actually spend the holiday in New York and one of the main events was making sure we got to experience that very parade that I have such vivid memories of watching via my living room!

 

Illness actually struck the Eddins household, not an ideal way to start such a fun trip.  Leading up to our departure both Lila and I visited the doctor, the diagnosis...Mom had a sinus infection and Lila had an inner ear infection.  We were sure to take our doses as instructed so we would hopefully be in tip-top shape for our adventure!





 

 Our trip began on Tuesday, we loaded our suitcases up and headed out in the foggy weather to the airport.  We made it to our terminal only to find out that our flight had been delayed, so the waiting began!  We waited and waited, so long that we knew we were going to miss our connecting flight in Detroit, so we had to find new flights for when we did get there.  But, no big deal...it couldn't dampen our spirits, we had plenty to keep us busy!

 

NYC + ME = LOVE!

Thank goodness for DVD players!

We finally boarded our plane in Cedar Rapids several hours later than we expected, but either way, we were on our way!!!  We arrived in Detroit and had a few hour layover.  Due to the delays we had to rebook the group on 3 different flights, so it was Mike, Lila, myself, Carson and Cade on one flight!  As you all know traveling via air can be quite the experience!  When we got to our counter in Detroit we found out that it was over booked by 10 people and Cade wasn't actually ticketed.  We had documents stating he was, but they didn't have any records.  Uh-oh! 

Leaving Cedar Rapids!

Anxiously waiting in Detroit to get on the plane to NYC!

The winds must have been blowing in our favor after our already hectic travel day and someone gave up their seat for a later flight...we were off! 

We were so happy to see Newark!

Due to the delays we had while traveling it was much later than anticipated once we got to the hotel.  We even had to reschedule our Radio City Rockette performance for the next day.  We all met down in the hotel restaurant, had a quick bite to eat, and then it was up to the rooms for a restful night sleep, we had a lot to do the next day!!!

Lila's big bed!  She was out cold in seconds!

When we pulled into Time Square on Tuesday night the Disney sign was so bright!!!  Lila is a Disney nut, particularly the princesses, so we made a deal with her that we would go to the Disney store first thing Wednesday morning...she held us to it!  It was our first stop of the day!  I must say, it is hard not to feel a little magic whenever you are in the presence of Disney anything...they just know how to put an experience together!  Little did we know that this wasn't the last time we would be in this store!

Patiently waiting for Daddy to checkout!

After our quick stop at Disney we met everyone at Bubba Gump's for lunch!  Not only does Bubba
Gump's have delicious food, it has the BEST view of Times Square! 

Lila & Celia @ Bubba Gump's
(checkout Lila's new friend, Rapunzel, you will see much more of her!)

Once we were through with lunch we headed out to do some walking.  It wasn't long and Grandpa was pulled over on the side of the road with a street vendor letting the little girls pick out new hats!

She has NY attitude!

The girls and their new, warm hats!  Thanks Grandpa!

With their new gear in tow, we made our way towards Radio City Music Hall.  We were able to rebook our show for that afternoon.  Jason knows the lead director and choreographer of the Christmas Spectacular, Linda Haberman's, sister, so we had amazing seats to the show!  We were all really excited to see the show as it was a new experience for the kids as well as the adults.

The city was starting to get ready for the holidays!

Radio City Music Hall

 

Our little elf!

  

Cotton candy for the show!

The Christmas Spectacular show was fantastic!  I am a sucker for holiday music and shows and this one was really fantastic!  The precision of the dancing was absolutely amazing to watch!  If you are ever in the city during the holiday season put this on your list!

A spot-on kick line!  Amazing!

 

Toy soldiers who moved in perfect unison

A fun number with a full size double decker bus on stage!

Santa's workshop!

 

My favorite part of the show -- A live nativity scene!

With Jason's connection we were invited to head backstage after the show!  What a treat for the kids!  Not only were they able to go onto the big stage, but they were able to see the camels from the live nativity and meet a real Radio City Rockette!

 

Doing the famous Rockette pose w/ a real Rockette!

Meeting the camels who stole the show!

 

 

Wednesday night found us heading towards Central Park.  We had heard that it was quite the event to see the balloons for the parade being blown up in the park, so we wanted to see what it was all about.  Mike, Lila and I got a cab to take us as close as we could get, most cabs wouldn't take you up that far north because of the mass of people, it is too hard for them to get around.  We got dropped off at 72nd Street and we needed to get to 79th and Columbus to get in to the park to see the balloons.  Little did we know what kind of a task that would be?!  It was insane!  There were so many people that it was tough to walk and maneuver with a stroller!  The rest of the group met us coming from the other direction and experienced the same kind of crowds!  Once we were finally able to meet up we decided that the mobs were too huge and opted to cut out and go in search of food!

 

A glimpse of the crowds waiting to see the balloons in Central Park!

We decided to take the subway back towards our hotel since a cab was hard to come by!  This was a fun experience to share with Lila since we don't have that kind of transportation available at home.  Not to mention she loves trains, so this was right up her alley!

Waiting for the train with Grandpa!

First subway ride!

Dinner & a shoulder ride @ Connolly's!

Thanksgiving Day was finally here and we were headed to watch the parade!  Our hotel was perfectly situated so we could walk right out our door and less than 20 steps to the corner of 6th Ave. which was the direct parade route!  The weather in the city was actually really nice for this time of year, we had average temps in the 50's, but this morning was a bit chilly, so we watched the parade with a bit of Starbucks and we were all happy campers!

 

All snug in our spot!

Much like the night before in the park, there were tons of people out to watch the parade.  The route was spread out over 40 city blocks and people lined the streets several feet deep.  We had heard that 3 million people were in attendance, viewing the parade that day...to put that into perspective, that is the population of the state of Iowa!!!

Serious parade watchers had ladders!

And so it begins...

A sea of spectators!

We are having SO much fun!

Intricate floats accompanied the balloons

Check the parade off of all of our bucket lists!

We had reservations at a restaurant called The Boathouse in Central Park for Thanksgiving dinner.  We got cleaned up and headed out on foot towards the park.  It was a beautiful day and as we got closer to the park it was fun to see so many people out enjoying the great weather! 

 

Entering Central Park

The "kids!"

Almost to the restaurant

The Boathouse

 

Yum!

After lunch it was back outside to enjoy the beautiful day!  The kids had a fun game of tag going to help work off all of our delicious Thanksgiving meal!

On our walk back to the hotel Lila finally gave in and fell asleep around Rockefeller Center.  I am sure it was the perfect combination of the fresh, crisp air, her full belly and all the fun that she had, had up to that point!  Mom and Dad were glad to see her take a bit of a break, so we wheeled her around for awhile popping in to a few stores that were open, all preparing for Black Friday the next day.

 

 Mike, Lila and I took that evening to walk around the city a little more.  A very important stop was at 123 W 44th St. -- my old apartment building!  It was kind of crazy bringing my family to this very doorstep!  Mike had obviously been there, but to bring Lila there and tell her about the time that Mommy lived in New York and did her internship was almost surreal!  My how life has changed!!!  While I wouldn't change where I am today, I do often look back at the memories of living there and smile as it was a fantastic experience, one that I am so happy I was able to have.

 

 



Friday was our final, full day in the city.  We all met up late that morning to cheer on the Hawkeyes as they played Nebraska.  There was a fantastic bar/restaurant down the street that had the game on, so we pulled up some tables and hung out for awhile.

The girls were itching to do some more shopping, so off we went -- to the Disney store (for the third time)!  And then Jen, Celia, Ruby, Lila and I took off on another walk, this time to FAO Schwartz!

Photo opportunity on the way to FAO! -- These girls really do love each other!

After our visit at FAO we decided that we weren't really interested in walking all the way back to the hotel, yet it didn't seem quite far enough to justify a cab, so we flagged down a rickshaw (bike cab) to take us back!  Lila wasn't sure at first, but after she realized that it was a fun way to get around, she perked up!

For our final night in the city we had tickets to see Mary Poppins!!!  We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then off to 42nd Street it was to catch the show! 

I have to admit, this was up there on my list of exciting things for this trip.  I remember watching Mary Poppins as a kid with my Grandma Harvey.  The movie, the songs, the whole thing is surrounded by happy memories for me, so I was excited to see if the musical was even half as good?!  We weren't disappointed!  The theatrics and the effects were amazing!  They really did a fantastic job of wowing the audience with all sorts of neat tricks.  I think it made us all feel like a bit of a kid again!

 

Mary Poppins on Broadway

We were asking an awful lot of a 3 year old to sit through a Broadway show that was 2.5 hours long, that didn't start until 8:00 PM, but she was a trooper!   She fell asleep with about 20 minutes left and snuggled in to her Dad for the walk home!  She has even asked me several times since we have been home if we can watch the movie!

 

Saturday came so quickly, it was time to head home.  We were hoping for a much smoother trip home since we had some delays getting there...low and behold things went as planned and we were home late Saturday afternoon!

 

 

We had such a wonderful time!  We enjoy traveling so much and we are so thankful that we are able to share these amazing experiences together as a family!  We hope all of you had a blessed Thanksgiving that included making memories with the people you love & cherish the most!

Six Years

On Friday, November 2nd we packed the car up and headed to a very special place...Galena, IL.  Six years ago that very day it was the eve of our wedding!  We were married at Eagle Ridge in Galena in 2006!  It was an amazing weekend, one that I often go back to in my mind and wish we could replay it! 

Our friends, Brandon & Monica Hahn, who were married in the Galena area 5 years ago on November 10th, are our companion couple on these anniversary trips we take!  Little did we know that this trip back to Galena would be one for the memory books! 

Eagle Ridge Resort

 

There is always a fair amount of planning that goes into our anniversary weekend!  Whether we come back to Galena or when we went to the Dells and Kansas City we want to be sure we have a good amount of fun packed in, stuff that we can look forward to during the weeks leading up to our departure, including our accomodations.  As silly as this may sound, we have had a few doozies when it comes to condos when we have stayed at Eagle Ridge, so I credit Monica for getting online and handpicking our condo this year.  It looked pretty nice from the pictures online, but it was very nice when we actually got there!  We all agreed that we had to "kiss a few toads" before we landed on this and said we would actually request the same unit when we return. 

 



The (first) Hahn-Eddins Condo - H117!

Friday evening found us eating dinner at a sushi restaurant called Little Tokyo, it was good food!  The ambiance wasn't quite what any of us were expecting as it was kind of a hole in the wall, but we were willing to roll with it!  After dinner we headed out for a night on the town, we quickly learned that Friday night isn't a very busy night in Galena.  It was dead.  That was okay, we still had a few spots to choose from, including the brewery which had live music, so we made the evening fun!

Saturday morning found Monica and I headed to the Stonedrift Spa up at the main resort building for massages!  This is a treat I don't often allow myself, so I was a bit disappointed when my masseuse talked through the entire massage!  However, I still spent some time running through the events of our wedding day in my head, that very day, at that same time, I was sitting in the kitchen of the house we rented with my dearest girlfriends and Mom getting bridal ready!  After our treatments we got cleaned up and accompanied the guys to Gobbie's pizza, this is a pizza place that Mike and Brandon frequent each year we are in Galena to watch the Hawks play, so why mess with the tradition?!  After a delicious lunch the girls left the guys bellied up at the bar to walk the downtown area and do some shopping. 

After a few hours of shopping and several delays in the Hawkeye game we decided to head back to the condo to relax and watch the game.  As we were all relaxing on the large couch in the living room we hear a beep.  Not just any beep...the beep of a smoke detector that is on the verge of having dead batteries.  So, as you know, every 90 seconds this loud beep continues to alert you that the batteries are dying.  Mike goes on a search to find that the beeping is coming from the smoke detector in our room.  So, naturally I picked up the phone and called the maintenance line to request someone to come and switch out our batteries, there was NO way we were going to be able to sleep through the loud beeping (this was 3:30 pm) - you will want to remember this!

We had early dinner reservations at Fried Green Tomatoes because we had signed up for a Haunted Pub Crawl at 8:00 PM!!!  We were all excited about the pub crawl, but a bit curious about what to expect?!  We walked into Amelia's a little before 8:00 and were greeted by a married couple, Amelia and Andy, Amelia was dressed in all black with a tulle cloak, this looked like it was going to be fun!  Her business has only been open since July and she has had sold out tours almost every weekend.

We walked around downtown Galena, stopping every so often to look at a building, Ameila and Andy telling us the history of the building and the hauntings in between our pub stops!  On the tour we stopped at Vinny Vanucchi's, One Eleven Main and the Desoto House.  Each of the pubs had stories about ghosts, some even had video footage, but One Eleven Main was actually on an episode of Chicago Ghost Hunters...where it can be heard on the tapes from the night they were there, a voice, telling them to "GO AWAY!!!" 

 

Whether you believe in ghosts or not, it was a very fun night!  We had a fun group of people who were on the tour with us and we had a great tour guide!  We had so much fun with Amelia and Andy that we ended up going out with them the rest of the evening and shutting down the local bar, Embe.

So, it is 2:30 AM, we are back at our condo, thinking it was about time to get ready for bed and...BEEP!  There was that damn smoke alarm!  No one had come to change out the batteries!!!  So, Mike decided that it was way too late to make any calls at this point, he was going to just take the battery out and we would deal with it when we got up and checked out in the morning.  Harmless, right?! 

He pulled the battery out of the smoke detector and another set of beeps went of, the alarm system!  At the same time he pulled the battery out, I was calling the front desk to see if someone could bring us a new battery and they already knew we had taken the battery out as it was alerting them and also the fire department!  A very long story short, but because they didn't come and replace the battery during the day, they sent over a little old man to try and fix it, but they didn't have the right battery.  At this point it is 3 AM and the front desk calls us only to tell us that we aren't able to stay in our room another night, they need to move us.  YES, move us at 3 AM!  You can about imagine how well that went over?!  Like a lead balloon!  We had to pack up all of our stuff and move!  In the middle of the night, we had no idea what the heck our condo even looked like, in the morning we were able to get a better look.  Needless to say, Eagle Ridge made it right and didn't charge us for our second night, which we were thankful for, moving at 3 AM after a night out isn't really a good deal for anyone involved!  Maybe we shouldn't have spoken too soon about liking the condo so much, the place they sent us to was another doozy!  Despite the snafu on the condo, it was a fantastic trip, and even that is part of what made it so memorable, it is definitely one of the things we will look back on and laugh someday!

The (second) Hahn-Eddins condo - W106

Here is a quick look back at The Smith-Eddins wedding weekend! 

Rehearsal on the Pointe Patio - 11.02.06

 

 

Rehearsal Dinner @ Spikes on the Eagle Ridge golf course

 

Our wedding party - surrounded by family & friends!  11.03.06

Reception in the Eagle Ridge ballroom

 

There are many moments where I can't believe that Mike and I have already been married for six years, yet I feel like we have been together forever.  I guess when you are married to your soul mate, it is like you knew each other long before you were even together!  I am an unbelievably lucky woman to have such a good husband by my side as we go through this crazy thing called life!  Six years ago I could have never predicted how blessed we are today. I love you, I love us!

 

 

 *Happy Anniversary to the Hahn's!  You are an amazing couple, we wish you a lifetime of love and happiness!
And more anniversary wishes for Jason and Jen who shared their special day with us 6 years ago, they celebrated 12 years of marriage this year!  We love you both very much and respect you so much as a couple!  We love you all!*

Halloween!

This Halloween was one in which I thought I would still have some control over what Lila's costume would be, boy was I wrong!!  I originally had her convinced that she would be Audrey Hepburn circa Breakfast at Tiffany's, it was the most darling costume with a big tulle skirt, pearls, a little tiara, and don't forget the oversized black sunglasses!  I was getting ready to order the costume on Etsy and Lila was in the living room with me and I said, "okay, Mom is going to order your costume!"  That statement was met with a pouty lip and what could have turned into tears.  I of course asked her what was wrong and she said, "Mom, I want to be Belle for Halloween."  I was officially disappointed!  I am not sure what disappointed me more, the fact that she didn't want to wear this darling costume or the fact that she had an opinion and she is growing up?!  After she claimed she wanted to be Belle, she then said, "I will be Audrey Hepburn next year!"  Once that statement came out of her mouth, I almost felt guilty...she had no idea who Audrey Hepburn is, I needed to concede!  So, the quest for a new costume began.  We spent some time looking into Belle costumes, but we weren't finding much of anything, she then changed it up on me again and asked to be a ballerina.  DONE!  It couldn't get much easier than that!

 

So, that is just what we had!  A beautiful ballerina who couldn't have been happier in her costume!  In fact, she loved it so much she wore it for basically a week straight!  Thank goodness we had so many opportunities to show off our costume!  Our festivities started the Friday before Halloween at TrueNorth.  We picked up Celia after school and took her with us to trick or treat in the building and experience each of the areas and their themes.  There was a Wizard of Oz theme, Vintage Halloween, Candyland, Super hero, it was quite the party!

 

 

At the entrance of the Emerald City!

 

Kindermusik is Monday nights, so the class was encouraged to wear their costumes that evening to class!  All of the kids looked so cute!  What is normally a rowdy group was a bit shy with all their costumes on, it was kind of cute!



 

 

Tuesday had us packing her costume up to go to preschool with her!  She couldn't wait to show her teachers and classmates her dance moves!  And finally, it was the BIG day!  She had been so patient waiting for Halloween to roll around.  She kept telling her Daddy that he was the one going with her because he would hold her hand and accompany her as she goes to each door, of course Mike eats that up!

 

We got our little ballerina all ready and after a few pictures on the porch it was time to head out.  I was planning on staying back to hand out candy, but Mike and Lila convinced me to put the candy out on the porch, honor system style, and tag along.  So, off we went!

 



 

 

 

We made a quick stop at the Pfeiler house to trick-or-treat, but to also get a quick peek of Sloan in her darling outfit and get a picture of the two girls together!

 

Tu-tu Cute!

We were about 10 houses into our trick or treating when our neighbor told us that the power was completely out on our street.  What?!  Yes, out!  Which meant we were locked out of our house!!!  When we left the doors were all locked and we put the garage door down, we weren't getting in!  So, we spent some time hanging out on the front porch handing out candy to the kids who were willing to wander down the dark street! 

We're not afraid of the dark!

 

Our little girl was starting to get cold, so back to the Pfeiler's we went!  They welcomed us in so we could get warmed up, but it wasn't long before the kids were ready to go door to door again!  Quel had Sloan all bundled up in a wagon and Lila was thrilled she was willing to share her wheels! 

 



 

Racquel's cousins, Lexi & Tori, were along, too.  They are both such sweet girls and do so well with the little ones!  We all stopped by the Eddins house (the power was back on) to snap a picture on the front porch of all the girls together!

 

 

Even though our night didn't go quite as planned, we had a great time spending it with good friends!  Sometimes the impromptu get togethers are the ones that bring along the best memories!