Xoxo, NYC part 1

For many reasons,  I count my blessings...I am blessed by a wonderful family, a loving husband (who will get plenty of shout-outs throughout this post) and some awesome friends (again, many shout-outs). I am fortunate enough to have a career in which I can take personal time & my boss encourages us to take care of ourselves...so when this offer presented itself, I just couldn't pass it up. So my friend, Kim works in FL but travels to NY and since she was staying for a lengthy trip offered me a weekend tour of NYC. Now, I have visited previously but it has been sometime so I was ecstatic to accept her offer. I have always loved NYC. It only took one visit for that city to capture my heart. I have always wanted to live there, to be a New Yorker (I'll settle for the transplant label), and to be amongst a busy city. Blame it on Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, Charlotte or Blair Waldorf... I love NYC and I have always wanted to live there. So here I sit on the plane somewhere over Tennessee looking at my pictures from this weekend that I purposefully didn't Facebook, Instagram, Tweet, etc so I could do a blog post with them all in one place... You're welcome FB followers cause there were a ton!! I'll try to have some self restraint here, but I make no promises ;)

                             

I do love me some inflight photos. I adore flying, I once tried to get a job as a flight attendant, but quitting college wasn't highly favored with the fam. I digress... 

Let's start with Friday, I fly in and get picked up by a fabulous car service (VERY New York, aka Mr. big style car) and into the city we go. I flew into Newark, NJ so this was my first experience in a tunnel going from NJ to NY. Can't say I was a fan. It's tight quarters  and if something goes down you better hope you can get out 

 Some perspective for ya: it's dark, enclosed, no thanks.  But we come out of the Holland Tunnel and come around the corner to this ....

                             

The new Freedom tower. It took my breath away. I don't know if it was from the beauty of it or for the purpose that stands so tall with this building. It truly was breathtaking. I was staring at it as we sat in traffic just in awe. It symbolizes so much to me; loss, sadness, terror, freedom, rebuilding, renewed life, pride.. I could go on and on. You will note this will probably not be the only pic you see of this building from this trip because I could have taken 100's. I just feel it stands for so much. If you have the chance to go, please take the opportunit. The last time I was in NY the Twin Towers stood so visiting the site was very emotional for me. More on that later...

So night one in New York consisted of eating pizza (DELISH) & shopping - two of my favorite things! We walked all over the place, forgive me I can't even pretend to know road names, and we popped in and out of store after store, We spent a good amount of time in Old Navy, all 4 floors of it. We came out with full intentions of going across the street to take in some Macy's action and we are greeted by sirens, tons and people and even more flashing lights.

                            

I definitely panicked a little inside because for this many ladder trucks, fire engines, and cop cars to be smashed into one area something was definitely going on. No one really knew so I took to twitter to figure it out. Of course someone in the twitter universe had used the Macys hashtag and posted about a fire in the basement. I was definitely glad that we had went into Old Navy first rather than Macys because your girl would have flipped. We decided it was enough excitement for one night (and the streets were packed) so we headed back to our hotel on 34th and Lexington (I do remember that in case I got lost). However, we did make a pit stop at Crumbs, a cute little bakery with Devine cupcakes. And wow are they amazing!! 

                                       

                                                

                                        

This is my pick, the birthday cake cupcake. And shame on you NY for proudly displaying th calorie count of every fresh-baked morsel of goodness. This pretty little thing came in at 870 calories, but that didn't steer me away. No sir, I figured I was walking all over hells creation, so I was getting it. It was awesome, I didn't eat it all in one sitting though, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. If my trainer found out he would make me do burpees til the cows come home.. So shhh, okay? And yes, while I'm on the admitting train I had pizza twice Friday. First place, not so good. Second place, Kings, was awesome. So awesome.. There is a slice in the overhead compartment coming home to my dear hubs. :) So this was my Friday... I'll continue tomorrow :) 

Xoxo,

Weekend recap - late yet satisfying.

Well luckily I am FINALLY feeling almost normal again... I mean its only been over a week now! Ridic.. anyways, so like I rambled about in a previous post I had a great weekend last weekend in which I purposefully took pictures of so I could do a great recap. Yeah, well day late dollar short.. whatever, I am gonna blog about it and damn it, I hope y'all read it :)

So I will stay say we are super lucky to get to see this view ALL the time! We have annual passes so we are able to go whenever we please which can be really nice as a little mini-vacay. This particular weekend we went over on a day trip as lots of our friends were camping in Fort Wilderness. Not like tent and roughing-it camping, but a style much more friendly to this concrete-loving, AC-having city girl. Welcome to the world of air-conditioned travel trailers and pop-up campers. 

As if Disney wasn't already magical, but Fort Wilderness is just awesome and way relaxing anyway. Granted, there is not an over abundance to do at the camp sites, but this turned into the allure of the sites as it is necessary to sit down and DO NOTHING. Just relax. That is a commodity in and of itself. 

Doesn't this just look like relaxation? Trust me.. it was! 

We also stopped in the horse stables to visit the horses.. Nevermind those signs as my friend Terri gives the horses some rubs ;-) 

And HOLY Crap do these people go all out for decorating? I love me some Halloween and here are a few pics of the peeps that must love it as much as me. 

This one below was my favorite. Their whole site was set up as a wrecked pirate ship!! It was amazing.. moving water features, skeletons, some halloween flair as well. I'd say it was the best one overall. However, I could be biased since it was Pirate themed. Whatever, it was the best one.

A nice young lady at a friend of ours camp site brought a cookie decorating kit and like all good adults, she wanted people to help her decorate cookies and we all obliged. Kinda like when a toddler hands you a toy phone... you answer that thing pronto. Here is my creation. yeah, it sucks. Whatevs. 

Some of my krewe as there always have to be some inappropriate pics.

We decided to head over to Magic Kingdom after a few drinks by the campfire and we took the golf cart with our driver, Nick, transporting all 8 of us over. Yeah, pretty sure we were at weight limit and over-capacity.. but we made it. My legs were burning as that was a two minute squat and hold seeing as I am short so I automatically get put on a lap. But hey.. its never too painful for a picture!! 

Took the boat over to MK and as we were pulling up the 9pm Fireworks started and what a sight. I have viewed the fireworks several times, but this time topped almost all of them as we were on the water and could see everything including the castle. They were beautiful! I am a fool for fireworks.. not sure why but I have always enjoyed a great firework show and Disney never disappoints.