NYC

Claire made her first appearance in the big apple on Saturday.  Patrick and I go every year at Christmastime so we thought it would be fun to take our little Claire bear for her first Christmas.


Once sleeping beauty woke up on Saturday morning and we were all packed and ready, we loaded her into her car seat for the 2 hour drive.

She loves going for rides in the car.

Patrick's aunt recently moved to a suburb of NYC, called Bronxville.  It's the cutest little town only a few minutes outside of Manhattan and only a 20 minute train ride into the city.  

We met Patrick's family there so we could all go into the city together.  Not sure what we were thinking going to NYC in December with 9 adults and 4 kids but we somehow made it work.

We got to the train station just in time to snap a couple of pics before the 12:55pm train pulled up.  Claire had fun hanging with Grace and Maddie on the train ride into NYC.

Once we got to our destination, Grand Central Station, Daddy snapped Claire into the baby necklace and we were off.

She looked so comfy.

Luke did too.  Wish I had someone to carry me around.  

First stop in NYC, Starbucks for some coffee and hot chocolate.  Someone's not very impressed with the big city yet...snooze.

After waiting 20 minutes for our hot beverages, we walked over to the American Girl store where the rest of the fam was.  There were so many people there, they had about a 20 minute wait just to get INTO the store.  Since Claire isn't old enough to even understand what a doll is yet, we grabbed some dirty water dogs and soft pretzels and had some lunch on a bench outside while waiting.  Claire really thought the giant pretzel was fun...

After lunch, we headed over to Rockefeller Center.  Claire was a little too hungry to cooperate for a smiley pic in front of the tree :(

Then we walked around a bit more.  This picture just doesn't do the masses of people we were in the middle of justice.

Taking a little hot dog break with Maddie.

While Claire talked her ear off.

Once we saw the tree, had some lunch, and walked a few blocks with an insane amount of people, we were ready to head back to Aunt Mary's house.  Claire had a little sleepover with Grace, Maddie, Luke, Aunt Mary, Nana, and Poppa while Mommy and Daddy went out to dinner with Aunt Colleen and Uncle Chad.  I don't have any pics of their night together but someone had so much fun with Claire they couldn't wait to hang out with her again in the morning...

Sunday morning we headed back home.  Claire had her first play date with some of the neighborhood kids.  I didn't get to take any pics b/c my phone was dead :(  But she seemed to have a great time with Cooper, Hudson, Sienna, and Porter.  She was the youngest one (they were all 6-7 months old) but she was the most talkative.  The girl did not stop talking the entire time.  A rare moment of her NOT talking on Sunday.

After her play date, daddy put together her exersaucer.  Here she is trying it out for the first time.

Didn't take her long to start playing.

"Look mom!  I found another mirror!"

I think she likes her new toy :)