Big Family of 12 Meets the Big Apple!!!

NYC : you’ve heard the lyrics, BIG and BROAD, “If I can MAKE it THERE, I’ll make it ANYWHERE ! It’s up to YOU, NEW YORK, NEW YORK!!!!” I remember it from middle school when my dear friend and locker partner, Brenda, sang it out everyday as she arrived to drop off and gather books between classes!! It must have been part of the school play that year or something! 😉

The song has all new meaning as of last week when we decided to see if we could MAKE IT THERE in NYC with our nine daughters and dear neice! And I knew if we could, then indeed the song was true, we’d make it ANYWHERE !!!

Well, here’s some snapshots of our day! (watch NEW YouTube video at bottom of post):

-Kids trying to hold their breath, a bridge tradition for them, through the Lincoln tunnel. A lung expanding experience & I’m glad they quit trying rather than passing out!

-Driving into the gut with a FULL to the brim, 12 passenger, super wide Ford excursion!

– Lots of breathtaking New York traffic maneuvers on the road both from others and my suddenly turned New Yorker husband!

-Aaahhhh!!! The glory of Broadway!!! Especially glorious when your husband drops you and 5 teenage girls right at the curb of the theatre and drives away with the 5 children under age 9 all to himself!!! He’s my HERO!!!!

– I wasn’t there to witness it but heard the description of my husband & little girls getting more stares than the animals as sweat is pouring off him and they walk Central Park Zoo together in the HEAT of July!!!

-5 teens and the Mom in complete exhilaration from the music and mysterious storyline unfolded at “Wicked”!!! WOW!!!!!

– Right after New Yorker husband put this one:

– changing 2 baby blowouts across our laps as we were stuck in traffic!! What else to do??

Then after ‘wicked’! Wow!!!’ :

-10 girls, age 17 & under, in the GREAT American Doll store!!! 4 floors of every girls’ dream come true- American Girls Dolls everywhere set in the most darling poses all with their outfits, furniture, pets, and books, etc. to go with them! There is a cafe that seats your doll beside you, an all out, BUSY salon for the dolls, a hospital, a pet shop, a bitty baby floor, a make-a-doll like you and books floor also! ( A perfect way to get my nine year old grumpy as she was glamoured by it all but reminded several times (sing song voice here) “we are not here to buy, only look”! If planning NYC with any 5-10 yr old girl remember to make this stop LAST. And to plan on buying something! Would have been nicer for all of us.)

– piling back into the car in a rush of traffic as Mike kept circling the block rather than paying to park!

– piling back out of the car to walk Time Square!

– LOTS of people, LOTS of noise, LOTS of smells! Lots more than I ever remember there before! Lots more than my just turned nine year old getting grumpy liked!

-Especially as we hit the Disney store and still reminded her we were just looking!!

– walking back and forth through the heart of Times Square with a row of 10 girls several times to make a dinner reservation, then to keep a dinner reservation, ended up canceling the reservation because Mike couldn’t find parking for more than a mile away, then back to Forever 21 because we could NOT miss that store of course!

– But we were all sooo overwhelmed upon entering we could not shop!! Just looked in awe at it all at the floors of one of their favorite stores and quickly got ready to time the pile-in-the-car pick-up effort on Times Square right with Dad so no one would get run over- including Dad in ‘Fat Boy’!

– we did it! We all jumped in, relieved to be in our second home again!!

-But at this point Mike had had it with driving NYC so we headed straight out of town vs seeing our last two planned sights, ground zero and a glimpse at the Statue of Liberty which my 12 year old has waited years to see in person!  Hee hee hee! Maybe just 12 & up next time! Don’t say ‘I could have told you so!’ 😉

– we drove, very hungry, and later than planned, as far out of the city as we could before stopping for food. But the restaurant was as crowded as New York and we waited more than an hour for dinner. At least the kids were mostly cheerful here- except the nine year old of course.

– Food came and we eventually cleared out and drove the hours back home.

So writing this I now realize we can’t really say ‘we made it there’, but I am pretty sure if we will take all our kids there, we will take them anywhere!! What can I say, New York! New York!!!!!

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