Hamilton!

I got two tickets to see Hamilton on its tour in Dallas, but wasn't really sure who to take. My good friends who love musicals had already seen it, Jenna couldn't make it, and Daniel wasn't that interested. While at dinner with my cousin Jeff and his family in San Antonio during Spring Break, I mentioned that I was going and Clara's face lit up. Turns out she was the biggest Hamilton fan but had never seen it, so I asked her to go with me! Jeff drove her up the day of the show and the two of us drove to Dallas, during which Clara had me listen to the first act songs. The show was AMAZING and we loved every second of it! After the show we waited for the cast to come out the stage door so we could get some pictures and autographs on our playbill (unfortunately I lost mine somewhere on the way to my car...no idea what happened to it!). It was a night that neither one of us will ever forget! Clara was so sweet and appreciative, and even gave me some sweet gifts to thank me for taking her, but I was so happy to go with someone who was as excited to see it as I was! Even more thrilling, I tweeted about our night and tagged Lin-Manuel Miranda in it, and HE LIKED IT!!!!

Happy 13th Aidan!!

We officially have a TEENAGER! We celebrated Aidan's birthday with dinner at Kobe Steaks the night before with Grammy, a Sign Gypsies yard sign, and lunch at Chick Fil-A (his choice) before heading to his championship track meet. That night we had Grandpa, Nanna, Grammy, and Cookie over for a lasagna dinner, and a cake that Avery had made with Grammy and then decorated herself! We are so proud of the young man Aidan is becoming and so glad he had a great first day of his teenage years!

NYC Part 3

On our last full day in the Big Apple, we took a water taxi from midtown down to the 9/11 memorial and museum. Always a very moving experience, and interesting to see it through the eyes of someone younger who didn't live through it! We took a cab to Chinatown and walked around there and into Little Italy, where we had a nice lunch. After I dragged Aidan to SoHo to see the Puck building for Will & Grace, he and I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and then took the water taxi from Brooklyn all the way to midtown, and got a great view of the Statue of Liberty on the way! That night after a sushi dinner, we went with our friends to an off-Broadway production of The Office: A Musical Parody that we got last-minute tickets for! It was very low-budget but funny and the kids loved it (even Jen and Leslie loved it, and they had never even seen an episode of The Office!). After the show we all went for milkshakes at Black Tap afterwards, and they were insane! We laughed a ton and it was a great way to spend our final night in the city! The next morning we woke up and headed back to Rockefeller Plaza (unfortunately we overslept and missed seeing the Today Show hosts come out on the Plaza!), saw the Plaza Hotel, had another walk through Central Park, and got a great view from the Mandarin Oriental Hotel! We flew home after lunch and went straight for some Tex-Mex with Daniel and Avery, since that's the one type of food you can't find in NY :) Also over the course of the trip, Aidan read notes that I had asked all the men in our family to write to him. He loved hearing encouraging advice and funny stories from his dad, grandfathers, uncles, and great uncles! He has a great support system as he enters his teenage years. It was such a fantastic trip and I can't wait to take Avery!

NYC Part 2

Day 2 started with some rain, so we decided to do something indoors first while we waited for it to pass. Grand Central Park was just a couple blocks from our hotel so we went there first and did the whispering wall, then walked outside and saw the Chrysler building. We then took the subway to Central Park to see John Lennon's Strawberry Fields memorial, and then had lunch at Loeb Boathouse. After lunch and a walk through the park, we went to Serendipity for a frozen hot chocolate, Dylan's Candy Bar, saw the Met (but didn't feel like waiting in line to go in), the New York Public Library, Bryant Park, and an FDNY fire station that lost several firefighters in 9/11. After a quick rest at our hotel and dinner at Sardi's, we met our friends to see Chicago! We were excited to see Christie Brinkley in the role of Roxie, but were a little disappointed in her lack of talent. Other than that, the show was good and we had fun! Aidan and I left to catch our Uber before the cast came out after the show so we missed meeting Christie with the rest of our group!