WARNING: LOTS OF PICTURES

Sorry guys if you don't want to look at a ton of pictures than leave this blog immediately!!

We just came back from New York and it was pretty great! All of the shopping in NY is amazing. We didn't actually do a ton of it but it was interesting to see all of the famous places you always hear about. We went and saw Tiffanys, FAO Shwartz, the Apple Store, Macy's, Bloomingdales and of course the American Girl Store.

New York...Wow what a place! My friend Karen was working in Boston and was able to meet us in NY and be our tour guide. She was great and so helpful...Thanks Karen!!! We were able to visit Ground Zero (there was this little church across fromGround Zero that housed all of the firemen while they slept in between their shifts, that was really amazing and touching to see all of the missing posters and tributes to those who losed love ones that day), the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, China Town, Little Italy, Central Park, the Manhatten LDS Temple. We also got to see the show Mary Poppins on Broadway...That was incredible!!! The driving in NY is absolutely crazy, it is what you see on TV and more. No lanes, no blinkers, no laws. Luckily we had a driver most of the time. Or else we walked and walked and walked and ate and ate and ate. It was a blast. We had beautiful weather, a little chilly at night and early morning but otherwise, beautiful!!! And of course there was the Rachael Ray show. It was so crazy, what a different life. Valerie Bertinelli and Rachael Ray were so great to us, just as kind, warm and down to earth as they appear on TV. What an experience we had, this was such a great eye opener for our girls.
But I tell you they were sure grateful for the slower pace of where we live.

Tim Mcgraw recently wrote a children's book so that is what the Rachael Ray show gave to my girls, they also got the snack of the day wich were
chocolate covered pretzels.

We had a blast at the Rachael Ray show. They picked us up from the airport in a black Cadillac SUV, with a sign that read "the Kerbys". We had a car and driver most of the time in NY. When we got to the studio, they brought us into this conference room, fed us fruit and sodas and then wisked us off to hair and makeup. Then we went backstage and waited for our turn. Before us was Tim Mcgraw. We met him and yes he is as good looking in person as he is on TV. That was way cool! They had us sit in the front row, showed the taped footage from our home and our kids school (If any of you choose not to watch it that would be very ok with us. It's quite funny but we do look extremely silly and what they say about the camera putting 15 pounds on a person...try 50 pounds I looked terrible...oh well now it's out there for the world to see.) Then Rachael Ray and Valerie Bertinelli asked us some questions and laughed alot. I am really hoping for a positive show, I think it will be. (I hope we don't appear as crazies) They hugged and kissed us and then we had some photos taken by their photographer with Valerie and Rachael and then we were on our way. Oh and by the way the show will be airing on Wednesday Nov. 5th.
Feel free NOT to watch it!!!

We loved seeing the Manhattan Temple, it was amazing the difference between being outside the Temple on the noisy street and walking inside. Raegan and Kalli thought it was pretty neat.

We Absolutely LOVED Central Park.

Lets just say that we ate from one end of NY to the other. We had to try everything and everything was SOOO GOOD!!!!

If you ever have the chance to try a deep fried OREO please do, it just might change your life!

Then there were these cornbread and mozzarella cheese things called something like Mozzarepas, oh my heck they were to die for (and if you eat to many of them you will die)

Then there was Serendipity's, YUM, YUM, YUM the Frozen Hot Chocolates are so yummy. They had amazing sandwiches too!

Oh how we LOVED Patsys, it was delicious! (this is our friend Sara Borg, she was one of our EFY counselors. She lives in Manhatten and met us for dinner and helped us use the subway, thanks Sara!)

All in all it was a fabulous trip. My other kiddos did great with my sister Stacey and my mom...Thanks so much for all of the help! We came home to happy children, I don't even think they missed us!