It has been frakking cold these past few weeks, so we've been almost on lockdown inside to stay warm. Finally it hasn't been single digits with a negative wind chill, so we've headed to the park a few times. Chase is such a park stud. Watching him figure out how to use the big kid slide made me realize how big he really is getting. It is super cute.
Marcus put together a few of my clips into this video:
My friend Nick is the bassist in a string trio called Simply Three. They're based in Arizona, but they were out in New York for a conference and to film a music video. Marcus and I were able to go see them play a few songs at the 3 West Club Lounge. Their set started around 10:00 PM, and it took us probably three times longer to get there than watch them play-- but we really had a fun time. It was great to see Nick and support their trio.
If you look closely, you can see them play.
I didn't want to use a flash or anything during their set.
Outside the club
It was a lot of fun to get out and see them play. They arrange covers of pop music for strings. They're very good-- it's a fun show. I really suggest seeing them live.
One of the things I really wanted to do in New York was go to a taping of the Rachael Ray show, so I was just a little excited when one of my friends invited me to go with her. :) It was a crazy cold morning, so taking Chase to a babysitter was definitely an adventure by itself. Luckily that wasn't the end of the excitement, although Chase had a fun day with some friends and took a ridiculously long nap.
Whitney, Melissa, and I all met up at the studio and got to spend some time chatting and eating snacks. When it was time to go into the studio, we got prime seating. Seriously. Like center, middle, next to an aisle. It was great to be able to watch all the cameras zoom around and the different jobs people had to make the show come together.
With Whitney and Melissa in the waiting area
The comedian Joey Kola was the audience warm up guy, and he was really entertaining. He made sure we made our oooo's and awwww's at the right time. But honestly, with all the good smells in that kitchen, he didn't really need to do that :) Seriously, the soup, the desserts, the chicken, everything smelled divine.
The episode will air this Friday, the 17th, with a short segment on Mardi Gras. (It will have the same guest chef, John Besh.) So if you want to see a great interview with Orlando Jones from Sleepy Hollow or learn how to choose the best underwear for yourself (seriously), check it out. The Rachael Ray show is known for showing the audience a lot, so be on the look out :)
We were even lucky enough to be there on a giveaway day! Wahoo! We were given John Besh's new cookbook, which looks incredible. The pictures and stories look really fun. Can't wait to try something out. And we also got a "Besh Box" themed "The Big Game Box," which is basically a helper kit to make some of his recipes.
Grabbing burgers for lunch and showing off our Besh stuff :)
I'm so glad Melissa invited me to go. We had a lot of fun! Glad I could cross that one off my NYC Bucket List.
Saturday we had a fun afternoon exploring Grand Central. It's been crazy cold around here, so an inside activity that was outside of our apartment was definitely appealing. We've been on a severe weather alert again, but luckily it wasn't like our hurricane last year. Anyway, this has been the centennial year for Grand Central, so I snagged a Groupon for the audio tour. After Chase had a nap and lunch, we headed into the city.
Chase was definitely warm and ready to go. And yes, his hat has a mustache on it. Pretty sweet. (Thanks Bri.)
And of course, he was very vocal about the whole experience :)
Our first stop when we arrived at Grand Central was the Transit Museum to check out the Holiday Train Show. We had hoped Chase would enjoy the model of the city with actual trains circling around to the North Pole. He loved it. We have lots of pictures of the day because Marcus brought our camera, so enjoy ;)
Haha. Loved it.
Looking at the city.
Looking toward the city model.
A movie clip Marcus put together:
Next we headed downstairs to the dining concourse to grab some lunch. We were planning on just a banana pudding from Magnolia Bakery but ended up with burgers from Shake Shack. Yum. (Don't worry, we did grab a banana pudding before we headed home.)
And then we were ready for our tour of Grand Central Terminal. I learned that Grand Central Station is just the lingo for the subway section of it, so I'll have to work on using the correct names :) The audio tour was actually pretty interesting, and after the inauguration of our new mayor, I was actually pleased to hear Bloomberg's voice again. Haha. I couldn't believe the tiny details in the architecture, history, and Vanderbilt family. Marcus took a few pictures around the terminal, so here are just a few of those.
The clock on the information booth that's always exactly correct.
The ceiling that is actually painted backwards. The Vanderbilts claim it was correct because it's showing God's perspective of the stars...
The amazing chandeliers. These don't have covers over the lightbulbs because when they were hung electricity and lightbulbs were new. They wanted to show off :)
The tour was really fun, but I guess Marcus and I are just big nerds because we always enjoy a good audio tour. Chase also seemed to have a good afternoon. Obviously the highlight for him was the trains, but he was really well behaved and happy the entire time. Love that little boy. And we love getting to know our city.
We decided to have a coloring party today. Okay, so I decided, and Chase just tried out his new crayons from Christmas. He was super excited about it and actually got a lot of color on the paper, despite how he obviously saw the crayons as drumsticks...
The finished products:
Chase said this was for "Dada." He helped color my doodles. It was a team effort. :)
Any my picture, which I love. We ran out of scrap paper, so he used one of my copies for cello teaching.
I think we'll have a lot of fun coloring. He seemed to enjoy sitting at the table, choosing colors (although he definitely preferred green), scribbling, and of course drumming with the crayons.
Here's a run down of how we celebrated the New Year!
First, a picture just for my dad :) No pants (!) in our elevator.
He wanted to go help get the mail.
CooperKatz gave everyone a half day on New Years Eve, so Chase and I rode in and met him.
We even got to ride on one of the new 7 trains!
We spent some time saying hi to the people in the office before walking to lunch.
We had a gift card, so we splurged a bit.
Chase did a good job eating his lunch. He was actually full of smiles.
Then we did a lot of walking. We had to start working off the calories. We walked from probably the most southern part of Midtown all the way up 5th to the Rockefeller Center and the corner of Central Park. I was determined to see some of the Christmas lights and decorations before the holidays ended.
New York Public Library
We walked by a lot of police officers setting up for the crazy Times Square New Years celebration. Crowds were starting to gather. They are all pretty nuts because it was already really cold! I can't imagine how cold it was once it was dark outside!
Blocking off streets
The great tree! Yay! Made it.
It's so amazing! I love going to see it every year.
It had sparkling lights too, which were so pretty.
I can't imagine how pretty it is at night.
Nice and toasty, with no idea where we were :)
Our fancy cameraman :)
And then we continued the our walk up 5th Avenue. It was so pretty. It was really the perfect time to be out, minus the cold, because the lights were really bright. It did start snowing a little, but only enough to be pretty-- not enough to stop our walk.
Some fancy Christmas decorations
When we got home, we made some soup and watched some of our movie clips from the past year.
He liked seeing the baby on TV :)
The boys watched very attentively :)
And check out his super cute freckle on his hand!
For dessert, Marcus made some really good blackberry shakes. Sadly, Chase didn't get to participate because he was in bed, but we enjoyed them while we waited for midnight.
By midnight, I was so tired. I bet I was asleep by 12:30. But we had a fun day together and definitely a great year.
We decided to start off 2014 with a yummy breakfast.
Bread Pudding from The Pioneer Woman's holiday cookbook.
It turned out really good. I wish it was easy to get more of it, but it's obviously quite heavy.
We also had some music time.
And a quick park excursion.
All bundled up.
It wasn't anything too crazy, but we had a fun time celebrating the New Year together.
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