Brandon's Week Off

We were so lucky to have Brandon all to ourselves for a whole week last week, which was both amazing and regrettable, since inevitably I had to let Cornell take him back, which was harder than I anticipated. We made the most of our week though, re-visiting some of mine and the kids favorite sites and taking in some new ones as a fam. We also got our new iPhone 5's, so a couple days were spent down in wonderful, beautiful, fabulous Union Square, which has easily made it up to one of my most favorite areas of the city. However, the highlight for me was the trek across the Brooklyn Bridge, which was top priority on Brandon's bucket list, and absolutely lived up to expectations...have I said otherwise about anything I've seen here though?

Pano from the Brooklyn side of the bridge.

Manhattan side

These kids! And I loved the inscription in the railing, "Sunset! Drench with your splendor, me!"

We ate on the pier featured above. We were told to try the pizza at Grimaldi's and the ice cream from the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. Both were satisfactory. I'm not sure yet if either left a big enough impression that I'll just die if I don't go again, but it made the experience complete.

Back on the Manhattan side of things, we visited Imagination Playground, which was very cute. They have these styrofoam building blocks, and I hear, a killer water feature, which this year we missed out on, but something to look forward to next summer.

Tori and Dad building a castle.

And Brighton helping.

On another day, we rode the tram out to Roosevelt Island and walked to the light house at the far end of the island. It was FREEZING, but gorgeous.

Tori was pretty pleased with her balancing skills.

We got to finish our week of fun with a date night in Greenwich, and before you get as excited as I was to see Greenwich...we didn't really see it. What we did see or attend, was our first opera together. A friend in our ward performed in it...3 hours, all in Italian. It was pretty remarkable on her end! And I always have to brag about how cultured and interesting my husband is because he totally is. I assumed he was bored out of his mind, because let's be honest, I love this stuff but even I was getting a bit anxious toward the end...one can only handle so much super-human singing in a foreign language, but when I asked him after the show he said he loved it. I enjoy that I can engage in conversations with someone that genuinely tries to enjoy every new experience. Sigh, he's a dream boat. 

The king and queen of NYC nightlife. 

He's so hot right?! Or I mean a very handsome man! Keep it family friendly here ; )