NYC!

Have you ever had a week where you felt like all the balls you had balanced so nicely up in the air above your head all started to fall on you at once? That's kind of how WeThree felt last week as a bunch of stuff went down that kept us focused on other things and away from here. But hopefully we'll all be back this week with some good things to share. I feel like there are a million things to write about but I'll do my best to reign it in and just tell you about our recent sister weekend in New York City.

 This hilarious photo is brought to you by the threat of 3-5 inches of snow that forced me to leave for PA on Thursday night instead of Friday morning. Since Carrie had to work a half-day on Friday, getting to Carlisle on Thursday night meant that I spent about 12 hours with my parents...alone. We joked that the last time that had happened was the night before Dani was born :) I told them that we should commemorate the rare occasion with a selfie and after complaining about it for a minute, as he looked into the camera my dad reminded us of the standard selfie rule (??): "Keep ya chins down!"

Now that Dani and Matt are just a little over an hour from the city, it's an easy day-trip to head in, see a show, take in some sights, and head back home. So that's just what we did. 

 Since it was just going to be WeThree on our trip, Matt took Sommer to his parent's house for the weekend so we could have some uninterrupted sister time. But we LOVE getting to see our sweet niece and got to spend a little bit of time with her before she left.

 Once we got into the city, found a place to park and got our bearings, we walked around Times Square for a little bit before heading straight to Shake Shack for lunch. I mean, come on...priorities, right?! We had to wait a while in line and then pretty much stalked a couple as they were finishing up their lunch so that we could have their table. We were ready to play the "pregnant sister" card if necessary but the gentleman at the table gave me the eye and let us scoot in as he and his wife scooted out. He laughed with us and said that they had also gotten the table by stalking someone. And so the circle continues. New York is crazy busy. 

After lunch we explored a little more before heading over to the Gershwin Theater for the real reason for our trip...Wicked on Broadway! If you've been reading here for awhile you may remember me mentioning my love for musicals and Wicked is at the top of my list of great ones. The girls had never seen it so I decided that that needed to change ASAP. 

 The show was amazing, as usual, (this was my 4th time seeing the show - I now consider myself a super-fan) and we loved every minute of it. 

 After the show we decided to Uber our way down to the Freedom Tower since Dani and I hadn't seen it in person yet. I didn't expect to feel much of anything when we got there but seeing the pools and the tower and the tree that grew up through the rubble all brought that terrible day back into sharp focus and I remembered. Not that I ever forgot - those images are burned into my memory forever but time has a way of dulling things a bit doesn't it? It was harder to be there than I thought it would be and I wasn't even there when it happened. I looked up at the tower and imagined the entire scene and what it must have been like to be right there, right when the planes crashed. The Freedom Tower is achingly sad and hauntingly beautiful and seeing it made me proud to be an American. One day, I'll take my children there and tell them the awful history behind it. But I'll also point out all the beauty. The heroes. The help. The hope. There is always hope.

 After the Freedom Tower, we walked for a bit and stepped into a few shops to look around (and warm up a little, too!) and then Uber-ed our way back up towards Times Square in search of a restaurant for dinner. We ended up getting the nicest driver who talked our ears off the whole way and endured us peppering him with questions about the Uber process and different things about the city. He answered everything and told us about his dream to become a New York City police officer. I sincerely hope that he gets his chance one day. He dropped us off in front of a restaurant (I can't remember the name!) and we ordered things like pumpkin ravioli and beet salad and roasted cauliflower and flourless chocolate cake and coffee. We ended the night by stopping in a souvenir shop so I could pick up a couple t-shirts for the kids before hitting the road back to PA. It was a great day.

On Sunday we headed to a little diner for brunch before packing up and hitting the road. I always love spending time with my sisters and this trip was no different. Thanks, girlies, for a wonderful weekend! Can't wait to plan our next trip!

P.s.  So much love to our Massachusetts family. Wish we could be there.