a NYC girls weekend

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to meet up with some friends in NYC. I was gone four days. FOUR days! I've never left the kids so long. I cried at the airport a little. I felt guilty and selfish for leaving Michael and the kids. I got over it pretty quickly though! :)

Michael was a rock star for flying solo for so long! The kids had a great time with their Dad.

Being temporarily removed from my normal routine, I was able to reevaluate and ponder my life. I came home with a renewed love for my husband and kids and for my 'daily grind'. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that...

Spending time in Brooklyn was so fun. When I first arrived Mara had some work to finish. Sara was still in NJ until the evening and Monica hadn't flown in yet. I spent my time alone having lunch and wandering around the slope. Then I headed up to Prospect Park and walked and walked. It made me so nostalgic for our years there. While wandering the Park I sent Michael a text, "When will Brooklyn stop feeling like home?". The truth is, it never will. Michael and I moved there when we had been married for only six months. We learned how to be married in Brooklyn. We learned and grew together. We became parents there. It will always be a special place. We'll always miss it.

I have been blessed with some amazing friends! It had been years since I have seen some of these girls but it's like no time has passed. We are just as close and dear to each other as we always have been. That is true friendship, I believe.

We ate at some amazing restaurants, saw Mary Poppins on Broadway, went to the most unique spa I have even been to (and saw more of each other than we had bargained for. haha!!), did some shopping, ate more yummy food, and talked and talked and talked and laughed and cried. I am so thankful for dear friends!

 Sara and Monica at Jane's in SoHo.

 Sara paid $8 for this Bib salad. Whole Bib lettuce layers with a vinegarette. She had to cut it up herself but it was surprisingly good! The rest of the dinner was amazing too. Sara got a gnoochi dish that I am still dreaming of. It was unlike anything I had ever tasted before. My dinner was delicious too!

 Beautiful Sara

 Monica and Sara in Times Square-- headed to Mary Poppins

 Monica and Erin

 Mary Poppins! This show was fantastic. I loved it!

 Sara and Monica at the Amersterdam Theater.

 Monica, Mara, Sara, Erin. We asked a tourist to take our picture. My camera is incredibly easy to work. I can't figure out how she took such a crappy picture.

 This one is worse. Sigh.

 Walking through SoHo. That's the Empire State Building lit up in the background.

 Driving to New Jersey.

 Mara and Lucca

 Sara, on three hours of sleep, made us an AMAZING breakfast feast!

Banana crepes, fresh fruit, bacon and fruit smoothies.

 Rusty and Jonah.

 Rusty, Sara, Jonah. Sara didn't want me to take this picture because she hadn't put her make-up on yet but I love how it came out.

 Back to the city.

 We shopped at the Brooklyn Flea. It is held inside the Williamsburg Bank. I had never been inside before and was blown away buy the detail.

The ceilings are incredibly high and have the most intricate mosaics.

 

Lunch at the Brooklyn Flea with Monica, Sara, Scout and Mara

Prospect Park West

Amazing dessert at Sweet Melissas

Which is located right beneath Monica's first apartment in NYC. It was the tiniest studio ever. All it fit was a kind sized bed. If you laid on either side of the bed you could reach out and touch the wall. There was also a tiny kitchen and an itty bitty bathroom. We used to have dinner sitting on the bed picnic style because there was no where else to sit.

Mara, Sara and a blurry Monica

Sara snapped a couple of pictures of me.

Scout

I'm not used to being in front of the camera. I'm usually the one taking the pictures. :)

Our old home. Gran still owns it but is renting it out. It's hard to tell in this picture but the inside looks really different!

Headed to Chinatown.

I couldn't pass up some roasted nuts. We did some shopping in Chinatown, suveniors for our kids and some new purses for ourselves. We even got some massages from a tiny whole in the wall place. It was... different. :)

The nut guy thought I was a bit of a nut.

In Brooklyn looking towards Manhattan.

The F Train

It was CRAZY cold this day.

One last dinner with Danny and Mara. Danny is a superb cook!

The Verrazano Bridge from the airplane.