New York Day 2...planes, trains & automobiles

Day 2 in New York brought rain rain rain. On the recommendation of doorman at the hotel we grabbed a bite to eat at Longwood, a cafe/market/convenience store around the corner. Apparently this cafe/market/convenience store is a common thing in New York. Brieanne described it as a liquor store salad bar phenomenon.

Saturday was the trip to Briarcliff Manor, about an hour outside the city where Aunt Josie lives. Claire was helping Auntie B figure out that map.

Claire has decided to be our NY tour guide.

Claire LOVED Aunt Josie and was enamored with the sound of her voice. It was so darling.

Thanks to Brieanne for some of the photos in this post.

Aunt Josie is my grandpa's cousin's wife. At 94 she is something else. Hilarious as ever, she motored around the kitchen making delicious lasagna and meatballs. She is amazing.

The Hudson river on a cloudy day.Grand Central Station. I felt like I was inside the movie the Untouchables until Josh reminded me that Untouchables was about Al Capone and took place in Chicago...whooops.

New York Day 1

3:45 a.m. and the alarm went off for my shower before we got on the road to the airport. I didn't really need an alarm, I'd been awake on and off since 1:15 a.m. with anxiety about the trip ahead. Five plus hours is a long time to be on a plane with a squirmy baby and I had no idea how Claire would fare during the trip.

Josh got Claire up and spent a few minutes of precious daddy/daugther time before loading her into the car. Poor baby, she looked so confused and dazed about why we had her up when it was still way dark outside. She sang to us the whole car ride to the airport, surprising us both that she didn't go back to sleep.

Our flight was on time. Preboarding is really overrrated. We got to get on the plane first but it wasn't but two minutes or so before they called everybody else to board.

Claire enjoyed playing with her toys.
She enjoyed playing with the cord to my headset even more. We met up with Auntie B at the hotel.

Essentials for Traveling with a baby

Claire and I just returned from a girls trip (mom, grandma & sister) to New York City. Traveling takes on a whole new side when you are taking an infant along. For the last couple weeks I've been doing my online homework about what to take/have when traveling with a baby. Aside from the essentials that one needs to have when staying somewhere other than home, the following is a list of necessities I found useful when on plane with a baby for five plus hours.

* ziploc bags (for dirty clothes, diapers, etc)
* antibacterial wipes (to wipe down anything the baby might touch)
* toys
* baby medicine (we had tylenol, mylicon drops & teething tablets)
* baby wipes (plenty of them)
* diapers (way more than you think you'd need)
* three or so changes of clothes (you might not think you need that many but after Claire blew out two of her outfits in one plane trip I was grateful to have the third set of clothes)
**a note about the clothes, I clothes that are super comfy for baby and easy for diaper changes
* changing pad - I'm sure the people in our row were thrilled (note sarcasm) that I was changing Claire's diaper on my lap but the bathroom was not big enough to accomodate a rolling baby.
* Carseat (even though we didn't purchase a seat for Claire, we were fortunate that our flight was not completely full and we were able to use her carseat on board the plane. She didn't spend a ton of time in it but it was nice to have)
* birth certificate (they never asked to see it but I had it just in case)
* food
* something for baby to suck on for takeoff and landing (landing seemed to be more of an issue than takeoff).
* blankets to keep baby warm if temperature is cool onboard the plane.

Claire

Goooooooooo GIANTS!

***DISCLAIMER*** this post in no way reflects the opinions or preferences of the Smith household as a whole.

Claire on opening day of Giant's baseball season!

Claire is much more interested in the fringe on the blanket than the camera.

Long Overdue Family hike

One of my new year's resolutions was to take a family hike once a month. We were successful in January by scheduling the hike for new year's day. Unfortunately February and March flew by and all of a sudden it was April and we hadn't been hiking in two months.

Our hike today took us to Clayton and Black Diamond Mines. We didn't go all the way to the mines or the ghosttown but we did get a nice little hike in.

Claire smiling in between serenading us on our hike.

Lola on high alert after seeing a ground squirrel.Claire enjoying the scenery and fresh air.

Lola is clearly tired and not wanting to go any farther.

Claire in the beco, she got so comfortable she ended up falling asleep.

All for a good day on the slopes

Friday Josh and Brandon went skiing. Thanks to a very generous man I know through my work, the guys were able to ski Northstar for free. It was a beautiful, sunny and chilly day.

Oh what one will do for a day on the slopes.