Nathan Storms NYC Part Deux

So here goes nothing.

Nathan has been gone for 5 days now and we miss him terribly!

I am still trying to recover from the non-stop energy of a 10 yr old and now have a new appreciation for how easy a 18 mos old is who takes naps and goes to bed at 7pm!

I am so grateful that Nathan's parents decided they trusted us enough to let us take their eldest son to NYC and give him a whirlwind tour.

I'm pretty sure I'm the all time coolest Auntie, though I may have lost my all time coolest grown-up status to Cody who took Nathan to a Yankees game and showed him his knife collection and let Nathan take his old i-pod on the plane home.

It's hard to compete with that kind of cool.

Here is documentation of our last 4 days together.

Saturday we took Nathan to Battery Park to ride the ferry to Ellis Island. I think Nathan enjoyed hanging out with us but gave the whole outing a not-so-cool rating.

*Note to anyone with a small person coming to visit...Ellis Island is not as cool as you think for them and they may be extremely bored by the whole thing.

Nathan, Morgan misses his big buddy.
He really looked up to you.
And is glad you guys have the same ears!
Lady Liberty from afar.


Can you not feel his excitement at being here?!
He actually said these models of how Ellis Island developed were pretty cool.

After spending most of the day in Battery Park, Cody, Morgan and I were spent. However, Nathan decided he had a bit more energy to burn so he and I headed to the American Museum of Natural History. We zipped through the museum on warp speed since it was near closing time but did manage to see most everything and watched the "Cosmic Clashes" show in the planetarium. The museum received a "pretty cool" rating.

Everyone was slowing down by the end.

On Sunday afternoon we all headed to the North Woods in Central Park. We hiked around for a bit and went to explore the Blockhouse. Nathan enjoyed climbing rocks and running about with Cody. Morgan pretty much chased them around and tried to keep up like the big boys.

A little sad we couldn't go inside.

Ummm...Daddy why is our little guy that close to the water?Oh, yeah I'm sure that water isn't infected with all sorts of nastiness and that his hand won't go straight to his mouth after this dip in the Harlem Meer. I guess this is one of those moments when you have to step back and let boys be boys. Yuck. Morgan trying to follow his cousin, who is king of the rock.
Getting some help from Daddy.
On Monday, Minde and Chase joined us for a trip to Roosevelt Island to see the lighthouse there. Unfortunately, not another stellar trip on the "coolness" factor but the tram ride was pretty cool.

Nice view of Manhattan and NY Presbyterian Hospital.

The not so exciting lighthouse.

On Tuesday morning we went to Madison Square Park with Kiasa and Bella to attend the children's music in the park concert they have there twice a week. This time the band was awesome, Opus Ditty and the Hoedown Gang. They were fantastic in my opinion and I bought the cd because Morgan enjoyed them so much as well. I highly recommend this free outing to all in the area.


*pictures to come




After the concert we headed home to leave Morgan with my good friend Anna and head to the airport via taxi. Here is Nathan inside the taxi on the way to the airport. Not the greatest picture of the taxi but a good one of Nathan and at least kind of proves he was in one.

Thanks again Nathan for coming to play with us and you are welcome to come back anytime!

We love and miss you tons, especially Morgan!

Nathan takes the Big Apple by Storm!

For all of you who care, I swear I will go back and finish blogging about my trip to Florida since I have some great pictures of some really fun events. However, since I am totally exhausted and will continue to be so for a few more days I thought I'd catch up on the present.

*Disclaimer: this post is long and has many pictures of Nathan and was intended for family members who care. If you have time to kill and like to see some fun NYC places of interest feel free to read along.

After a wonderful month in Florida, Morgan and I came home on Wednesday and brought with us my awesome nephew Nathan. I decided since he just turned 10 and who knows how long people stay in NYC, he better come with us now and experience the city with us.

Before we came I asked Nathan what the number one thing he wanted to do in NYC was, his response...ride the subway. Here I documented his first trip on the 6 train. On our first full day, Thursday, we went to the Central Park Zoo with our great friends Kiasa and Bella, whom we missed terribly and were glad to find out the feeling was mutual. (* since this post is about Nathan and I took way too many adorable pictures of Bella and Morgan, I will save those for the next post and stay focused on Nathan.) Here he is in front of the Polar Bears.
Being bunnies at the Tisch Children's Zoo.
Taking a break in his shell.
Nathan helping a goat get some munchies.
After the zoo and Morgan's nap, I decided we needed to cool off at the Lasker Pool in Central Park. Nathan was very helpful in keeping Morgan entertained in the wading pools and he also had fun exploring the big pool on his own with some goggles.
We took the scenic walk home and Nathan took a time out high on a rock. Great climbing in flip-flops!
The dawn of Friday began our Times Square Extravaganza! We dropped Morgan off at Kiasa's (thanks again) and headed downtown for some touristy fun. First stop of course was the Toys'r'Us. After some vigorous shopping we took a very long and fun ride on the Ferris wheel. We went around 7 times, I was quite amazed it actually felt like we got our $4 worth.

We worked up quite an appetite shopping so we headed over to the Hark Rock Cafe for an early lunch. Luckily we missed the crowds and didn't have to wait at all for a table or very long for our yummy food.

After lunch we saw the new Mummy movie. As we were coming out of the show, kidpicksonline.com interviewed Nathan for their website and he did a fabulous job and recommended the movie for 11 yrs old and older. I guess he thought it was a bit on the scary, violent side in a few parts...oops, sorry Kim and Mike. I guess I'm still not a perfect judge on what a 10 yr old should see.

Next stop Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum. The Rock led the way for us.
While the Hulk welcomed us in.
Finally a picture of me and Morgan Freeman!
Nathan and Han Solo.

Nathan was excited to see Albert Einstein, which I found to be a good sign of his intelligence!
This one was for Gramma since she plays the trumpet and loves Louis Armstrong.
A moment to reflect.
Nathan and his idol Captain Jack. It's hard to look sexy with Leonardo when you look like a pack mule but I tried.

Nathan ducks while the Great Bambino swings.
Nathan then takes a swing at Muhammad Ali.
Almost there!
We were both sad to see they had new Micheal.
Nathan was also excited to see the "rich man" and I took that as another good sign.

Two enthusiastic thumbs up for our 4D movie experience, "fine holiday fun"(movie title anyone?)...just beware you get sprayed with a lot of water and your seat fights back.
Working up excitement for his real Yankees experience later that night.
Helping Derek Jeter out at the plate.
Now all he needs is a cape and he's made it.
This is just a sampling of our few short days here in our hometown. We're so glad Nathan is with us, even if, my feet are killing me and I'm too tired for words. He is a great kid and tons of fun to hang out with. He is also great to have around when Morgan needs entertaining or watching while I take a quick shower. We're so glad Kim and Mike decided they could spare him for a few days and look forward to sharing our beautiful city with more of their family as they grow up.

Don't worry there will be plenty more Big Apple excitement in the next few days, so stay tuned.