Must See's!

So while we have been here Kevin and I have been trying to visit places that are the typical "tourist" places in NYC. We've tried lots of yummy treats and yummy food and have been trying to find some cool places to go! With that being said, I'm going to make a list of places that we have found so far!

If you are ever in NYC go to....

-Sprinkles Cupcakes-best pumpkin cupcake EVER!

-Baked by Melissa-This place makes tiny little bite sized cupcakes and they make all sorts of yummy flavors.

-Mama Gyro-if you like gyros you will LOVE this place!

-Insomnia Cookies-so so good! They give the cookies to you still warm and melted chocolate gets all over your face!

-The Metropolitan Museum of Art-this is a typical tourist spot, but it's my favorite place to go in NYC! Even if you're not a fan of art you will like this place. They have every sort of ancient art artifact and painting that you can imagine. And if you do go remember that the ticket prices are "suggested" prices so you can pay a $1 or a quarter if you want! It takes a whole day to see everything you want. I've already been 4 times cause we only go a couple hours at a time. And it's right on Central Park which is even more fun! And if you have little kids they have a really cool playground right outside the Met so that's lots of fun.

-Carl Shurz Park-This park is on the East River and it's super pretty! They have lots of pretty trees and a long sidewalk along the river to see the boats. You can also see all the pretty NYC dogs walking here, there are lots!

-Turtle Pond in Central Park-This is one of my favorite places to go and just relax in the grass and let Finley play. They have really nice grassy spots here and a big pond that has a cool castle next to it. Also, there is a waffle truck on the corner of one of the grassy spots here and you HAVE to get one when you go...yummiest waffle ever!!

-Jaque Torres Chocolate-Kevin has been on the search for his favorite chocolate chip cookie while we've been here, and the cookie from here was SOOO GOOD!

So this is just the start of my list. I'm going to do a few more posts when we find some more fun places to go! You get to eat so many yummy treats and food in NYC, but since you walk to much (bring nice walking shoes!) here it doesn't count...right? I've actually lost weight while we have been here and we don't have a scale so it's killing me that I don't know how much I've lost!!!

Stop fighting it!!

  So since I've been in NYC I feel like I've been living a constant battle with this city and really how difficult it is to live here until the past couple of days. Battling with how difficult it is to get things done, pack Finley everywhere and to just "live".  The past few days though I think I really have started to not just get the hang of things, but to STOP FIGHTING IT!! With that said, that is going to be my motto the rest of the time we are here and to just enjoy my short time here and soak in all that this amazing city has to offer!!

Stop fighting.....

....that you have to hike up 3 flights of stairs while holding a stroller in one hand, Finley in the other and 2 grocery bags---your buns are gonna look good after!!!

....that it's hard to go grocery shopping---they get delivered after!! Awesome!

....that you are tired of walking so much---you're gonna be in shape!!

....that it's so hot and humid here---Central Park is 4 blocks away, so go play!

....that Kevin has to work 50 hrs a week while not getting paid---this internship is sooo gonna be worth it!!!

So from now on I'm going to try my very hardest, hoping I will be successful, at being positive about the situation that we are in right now! Because there are so many fun things, good food and cool places to go that we won't be able to when we are back home!

I'm so glad that I am here with my sweet Kevin and our sweet Finley Fin! We have had lots of fun adventures so far and I'm super excited for many more!!

Random Acts of Kindness

Thank you....

-To our friend Bonnie who we met here and read books to Finley and bought us frozen yogurt.

-To the old lady who helped me carry the stroller down all of the subway steps.

-To the man at the bakery who gave us our cup of freshly squeezed orange juice for free because we didn't have cash on hand to buy it. (fyi...if you are ever coming to NYC always have cash on you! Tons of places only take cash!)

-To the man in the pharmacy who let us use his personal computer to print something off that we needed because we couldn't find a printer anywhere.

-To the old italian man who let me and Fin walk with him in the dumping rain under his umbrella.

-To the stranger who saw me and Finley running down the street and trying to get out of the rain and gave us her umbrella.

-To the lady who followed me to the grocery store right after I had bought something at her store and left my wallet there...whoops!!!!

-To the dozens of people telling us we have the cutest baby they have ever seen!!

There are so many people here that have done so many nice things here for us in NYC. We blame it all on Finley and her cuteness! 

We've been here for 2 weeks now

      We got here in NYC on the 23rd of April and it's been a whirlwind since we got here! Getting here with 4 suitcases, 4 carry on bags, 1 carseat and 1 baby was lets say, not the most fun experience of my life, but we made it! Right when you step off the plane in NYC it's people, people, people, horns honking, tons of people speaking languages you've never heard and tons of people smoking. One of my parents good friends from their mission drives taxi's so he picked us up at the airport and took us to our apartment. 

Our apartment is in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It's a really nice area and everything is super close to us. Our apartment is great, except for the fact that we have to walk up 3 flights of stairs to get to it (we were heaving the 1st time we got up them!) !! I can already tell though I've gotten much better at hiking up them. It's a one bedroom so we get to share a room with Finley so that's been super fun haha! My kitchen is tiny tiny so I'm still getting used to cooking in it, but it's fun. 

Our grocery store is only 3 blocks away so thats nice. It's a nice store, but not like any normal grocery store you're used to. The produce is all the same and nice, but everything else is weird brands you've never heard of and all these gourmet things you've never seen or don't know how to make. There isn't even just a regular bag of frozen chicken that I can buy. And everything is sooooo expensive. So we're still figuring that out. But hey, they deliver your groceries to your apt for free so that's awesome! There is a Costco up north from us so that's nice. We have to take a taxi on the way home from it because we can't carry all the stuff home from it. Lets just say....it's very hard to get any sort of errand done here in NYC!!! You have to go to multiple stores to get everything you need and it takes ALL day to do it. Nobody cooks at home in NYC so they mostly just pick up what they're going to eat that day and lots of food is pre-made for them to take home.

It's definitely been a big change from the quiet Rexburg that we know but it's been an adventure so far! We've never walked to much in our lives and our feet are always tired! Not sure why I brought all my cute shoes...haha I only wear my tennis shoes! We've figured out that NYC is not a "baby" friendly city, but Finley sure does love watching all of the people here. Babies are also such a rarity here in the city that tons of people comment on how cute they think Finley is and we've had multiple people stop us for like 20min talking to us about Finley and offering to babysit for us (weirdees! I'm not gonna let you babysit my child that you just met 30 seconds ago!) We've ran into this lady Bonnie multiple times here by us and the last time I ran into her she insisted that Finley and I go to Barnes & Noble with her so she could read books to her...haha she is a funny lady. And usually whenever you do see people pushing babies around it's a nanny that is pushing them....it's funny.

(Finley & Bonnie at Barnes & Noble)

Our favorite place to go to so far in NYC is the Metropolitan Museum of Art and it's only like 5 blocks from us. If you ever go to NYC you MUST go here...I love it!! They have every sort of ancient artifact and painting that you could imagine. It's my favorite place. And you can pay whatever you want to go to it, so we paid 50 cents! 

We already been twice and we haven't even seen half of the museum...it's huge! Finley and I are going to go tomorrow as well. It's right on Central Park so it's lots of fun to go to the park and then go to the museum.

Kevin is enjoying his internship so far. He's so so busy and gets to run all over the city. He also gets to bring home stuff that they are getting rid of so that's a score! We've gotten down pillows, a comforter blanket and some cool decorations. He is going to make a blog about his experience so you will be able to read that too.

Sorry this post is such a long read! I just had to catch up on the craziness of living in the city. Finley and I get to explore wherever we want during the day so I will post those adventures here and post about what it's like to really live in NYC.