Its a Christmas Miracle!

Saturday began really cold and rainy.. and it only continued to get colder and rainier.. 

until.. it stopped raining. 

and started SNOWING!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful!
But the fire is so delightful..

And since we've got no place to go...
Let it snow let it snow let it snowwwww!

Our very first New York City snowfall! It was beautiful! We both enjoyed it very much and we made a day of it- after all.. Danielle's work got canceled on her because of the weather, and there was no WAY I was about to go out in that! Yeah right! I remember complaining about being too cold when it was 68 degrees- so 33 degrees? fahgettaboutit! so we bundled up together to stay warm and watched movies all day.

On Sunday the snow was still there! But instead of being super cold outside- it was only really cold. (Which made it go-outsideable)

These are the tracks on the way to church.. Its pretty how the snow covers up almost all of the trash :]

Although the snow was really amazing and we loved it, the best part of my day was when I saw Spock sleeping right across from me on the train!  

Heres a closer look at Spock for you all. :] My dad says he doubts that its really Leonard Nimoy- in which case my response was "Whose Leonard Nimoy?" In any case- I was starstruck. haha :]

After church and hanging out in the city for a little while, I came home and made a snowball.

And then I smashed it on the stoop. Good times :]

Brooklyn Birthday

Danielle's First New York City Birthday! We decided to start celebrating with Skittle Shots. Danielle loved them :] Even though we made them wrong..

 

It wasn't exactly midnight yet.. but we had a double-skype-date at 11pm, so we decided to do a midnight birthday shot with Kyle early.

It was a good time :]

And then we took the midnight birthday shot again with out dates actually at midnight! Yay happy 23rd birthday Danielle!

We ended up going to bed pretty late and sleeping in a little late the next day... which made Danielle a little late for this job she was supposed to go to. (Which started off her birthday morning pretty rough). Thankfully- the lady still let her come work for her...  it was a birthday miracle!

After work she met up with a friend that lives in Manhattan- and he showed her a really nice night out in the city. He  bought her drinks, he took her window shopping down Madison Avenue, and he even took her ice skating!

Oh and the bar tender surprised her with a plate of cheese puffs with a candle in one of them.. hahahaha she loved it :]

When she came home.. she had candles leading her up the stairs..  (hehe)

Her birthday wasn't over yet! When she went into the kitchen she had birthday cards, candles, a little cake, a questionable dessert that Kyle made for her, presents, and a birthday sign set up as a surprise! (There's a #1 candle on the cake because its her first birthday in NYC... and because two candles wouldn't fit on that little thing haha)

Danielle had mentioned to me how she LOVES 80's Tom Hanks.. so this was my present to her :] She looooved it.

 And Kyle's present to her was a short script he wrote that had all of us in it, even Jammin our landlord! It was hilarious! Although she couldn't be with all her loved ones back at home- her first New York City birthday wasn't half-bad :]

The Parent Trip- Day 6

As I mentioned in my previous blog- I got sick for a whole day somehow. Monday was just a really crummy sick day.. Maybe it was something I ate? I don't know- but I had a terrible headache the entire day and threw up a total of 7 times.

My parents ended up dropping by and bringing me some medicine, which stopped the throwing up.. And then Danielle ran a hot bath for me which helped my body not feel as sore. (Thanks for taking care of my guys :] )


On Tuesday I still had a huge headache and my body was still real sore, but no more throwing up- so I decided to meet up with my parents for their last day in New York City.

I met them at the Conservatory Pond in Central Park. They wanted to see the sail boats :] They even rented one for a half hour- and I kept asking them to try to run into other boats.. it was a lot of fun hahaha (don't worry- they couldn't tip over so no boats got hurt in the process)

Then we went to Godiva for a treat :] yummm. I got a chocolate covered strawberry and they got little fancy chocolates.

I love this cone of chocolate covered strawberry's!  That would be cute to bring a girl on a date :] Or for valentines day... or just because.. :] hehe

After that we decided to go to dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.

Its a restaurant that was created from the Forrest Gump movie.  It was really neat- as it turns out, there is one in Long Beach as well!

They have this sign on each table that says Run Forrest Run. They have another sign that says Stop Forrest Stop- which will flag down a server for you if you need anything, otherwise they won't bother you.

This is our view of Times Square from the restaurant. not too bad :]

 I got fish and chips- and it came on a news paper that has articles all about Forrest on it.. so awesome. Get a closer look to read what I'm talking about-

After dinner we went to our last broadway show- Mary Poppins!

The theater was huge, we were on the mezzanine. The costumes were great, the special effects were really awesome, and all together it was a really good show. The only thing is that it didn't follow the movie in more than a few parts, but it was still really good and we all really enjoyed it.

And my mom got a snow globe! 

After the show we went out to a little bar right next to our hotel and had a couple drinks and tacos (it was taco tuesday after all). The bar was all decorated for halloween

sure, it was really fun...

but really creepy at the same time...

Last night at the hotel. I pretty much passed out right away, but not before taking this picture of the Empire State Building :]

Overall- I had a REALLY great time with my parents. Thanks for coming here and taking me out every day! See you soon! :] 

The Parent Trip- Day 4

On Sunday we went back to Times Square to check out that TKTS booth to possibly get tickets to an ON Broadway show. The line was suuuuper long, so I waited in it and let the parents wander around for a bit. 

We ended up getting tickets for a matinee showing of Chicago. We had a couple hours before it started- so we decided to check out Central Park...

By horse and carriage!

It was soooo fun and so awesome. We went around the entire park and got to see many neat parts of the park...

Our horse driver was also our tour guide and showed us a ton of areas of the park that were used in films.. Like Elf, Maid in Manhattan, Friends, Home Alone 2, etc. It was really neat :]  

  

After the ride we checked out Midtown a bit before heading to the show, and my parents got a hot dog :] they looove them.

Now this is the absolute WORST part of the day. In fact it pretty much ruined the rest of the day for me. :[  A bunch of guys suddenly got into this huge fight right in front of us, and in the process they knocked over this stroller that had a little baby in it..  

You can see it on the left of the picture.. :[  After the fight we saw the dad pick up the stroller while holding his little baby that was crying :[ It really hurt my heart to see that and I wasn't able to talk about it right away with my parents because it was hurting so much, so instead I got angry (sorry mom and dad =/ )

Anywaayyysss, we headed back to the Theater District to see Chicago.. But we still had a little extra time before going in- so I couldn't help but stop and get something sweet. Strawberry & Nutella Crepe. yummmm

Chicago! You can't really see it from this picture- but its starring Kara DioGaurdi- one of American Idol's judges. She was amazing.. the whole show was amazing. Definitely worth going to- we all loved it so much. 

For dinner I took them to Shake Shack- This place is considered the IN N Out of the East coast! Except.. they sell beer and wine as well, along with a lottt of different shakes.

  

They have bombbb burgers. The buns are potato bread buns. (+1 point for Shake Shack) And they have cheese fries- definitely does not match up to animal fries though (+2 points for IN N Out).

Buttttt, as I mentioned earlier- they sell beer and wine, along with a ton of different kinds of shakes.. (+1 point for Shake Shack). Conclusion- IN N Out would have competition if Shake Shack came to the West coast. And vice versa. 

After that I went home to relax a bit and get a head start on these blogs.. Little did I know- the next day was a 24 hour sick day for me. 

The Parent Trip- Day 3

On Saturday we decided to go to tourist-ville and visit as many hot-spots in the city as possible. First stop- The Statue of Liberty via the Staten Island Ferry. (Its the free way to see it)

there she is! our lady liberty! 

This is a picture I took on the way back from Staten Island. No big deal :]

After hanging out with our lady liberty and checking out our beautiful view of the city from Staten Island, we headed uptown to go to lunch! And took some subway pictures..

I took them to Chop't because I love it so much :] yumm

We then went up to FAO Schwarz  for a minute until we had to meet up with one of my dads coworkers in the upper east side. As it turns out- my dad has been working with this guy from New Jersey for over a year long-distance and finally got to meet him in person. :] So we had a couple drinks until he had to leave..

And then we had a couple more until we had to leave..

We then went to Central Park for a minute on our way back to FAO Schwarz.

FAO Schwarz!

They got to see a lot of the store- but what they wanted to see most was the Big Piano- so I took them there :]

After FAO- our last touristy destination for the day was Rockefeller Center. We soared 70 floors high and got to see the entire city from the observation deck on Top of the Rock! Out of the hundreds of photos I took that night- this seemed to be the best.

There was also this really neat room with lights all around. Not really sure what it was... Maybe my parents know- in which case, I will have to update this part later. It was really pretty and fun though :]

We were pretty tired after such a long day of walking, subwaying, and site-seeing that we pretty much passed out right away once we got to the hotel.

This was our view on our walk back .. Awesome view of the Chrysler building, if I do say so myself. :]