We headed up to New York City to spend Thanksgiving with my husband’s sister and her family. We took the train up on Thursday morning. We usually take the Bolt Bus up and back because the train costs at least twice as much sometimes more. We learned our lesson last year though. If you are going up on Thanksgiving morning it is a bad idea to take the bus because of the parade. Thus we kept our eye out for train tickets and got some for the way up that weren’t too horrible. Much better than last year even though people on the train kind of suck and leave their stuff sprawled out all over the empty seats even when the conductors are announcing that the train is completely sold out and that every seat will be taken. We wound up sitting at a table in the cafe car because we couldn’t find any other seats remotely close together.

We came bearing some simple gifts for our nephew and niece. Ryan is very into his guitar and wanted some guitar picks to go along with it. Paul picked some up at one of the music stores in our neighborhood, and Ryan wasted no time putting them to use.

Lily got some colored pencils, which you can’t actually see in this picture. She is very into writing and pretty much all things related to paper including napkins. She also loves her bunny. She pulled up the chair so that bunny could watch her play.

We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with my brother-in-law’s family and one of my sister-in-law’s friends who was visiting.

Friday we went to the City Museum of New York. I didn’t know anything about the museum, but it definitely wasn’t the best choice for two toddlers. The idea of going to the Children’s Museum was thrown around, but as I was not keen on the mayhem and germs that museum would be full of the day after Thanksgiving I didn’t protest when we moved on to other options. I do feel a little bad that we didn’t do something more enjoyable for the kids though.

Friday night Paul and I headed out on our own for dinner and a Broadway show. We usually take in a show when we’re up there. I’ve been wanting to see Pippin for awhile now, so that was our choice this time. The show is very acrobatic with a lot of aerial work as well so assuming it tours I imagine some of that will be toned down, which is one of the reasons I wanted to see the Broadway production. We missed Andrea Martin in her Tony-award winning role as Berthe, but I was impressed with Tovah Feldshuh. She’s 60 years old and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do some of the acrobatic stuff she was doing even at my age. I enjoyed the show, and if you’re looking for something to see while you’re in New York in the near future I would recommend it.

Saturday we had brunch and shortly after that caught our bus back to Baltimore. Unfortunately we hit traffic on the way home, so it took about an hour and fifteen minutes longer than it was supposed to. Not too horrible all things considered I guess.

Here’s a few more pictures from the trip.

Uncle Paul and Uncle Tom give Lily and Ryan a “tune-up” with their tools.

We also all got a good laugh out of Lily’s hair and some static electricity.

Blanket monsters! Ignore the blurriness of this photo. I obviously don’t know how to properly use the camera on my new iPad. Paul said it’s a sign that I shouldn’t be one of those people taking pictures with my iPad.

Notice the wad of cash Lily has in her hand. That girl is a little pickpocket. Make sure to watch your purse when she’s around. She opened the bag she took with her to brunch and pulled out a bunch of money. She had swiped over $40 from her mom. Don’t think she doesn’t know the difference between real and fake money either. When we took the real money away and left her with just the fake money she had mixed in she was not fooled. She asked for her money back and you should have seen her face when we told her we used the money to pay for brunch.