New York City!

Chad had some work in New York City on Tuesday. As neither of us had ever been to NYC before we decided to take the opportunity for a get-a-way without the kids. We were gone for 5 nights, which was the longest I had ever been away from Matthew and the first night away from Anna. By the 5th night I was pretty anxious to get back to the kids, but we had a fabulous time and look forward to visiting the city again! We stayed at Hotel Pennsylvania (above), which was a great location, but the rooms could use a renovation. Oh well, it's not like you spend much time in hotel rooms anyways!

We did lots of stuff in a short time: 2 shows, walked Central Park, did an NBC Studio tour, Ripley's Believe It Or Not, bus tour, boat tour, saw Ground Zero, and a little shopping and good eating :-) Highlights are below

On our first night we ran into Elmo - I had to take a pic to show Matthew.

Chad in Times Square

Our first night we saw the Little Mermaid - it was awesome! The singing, costumes, and the set were amazing. A must see for any Disney fans!

Me at the disney store - how I escaped without making a purchase is beyond me!

Times Square Saturday night - very happening place!

After seeing the Little Mermaid we went around to all the theatres to see which show we could see for the least amount of money. This was challenging because many theatres do not have Sunday or Monday night shows. Anyways, we lucked in with Phantom of the Opera and even though we were at the back of the theatre, we really enjoyed the show.

Chad in Central Park eating a pretzel - very New York!

At Ripley's...Chad standing next to the tallest man ever...he looks pretty short :-)

Us at Times Square again

You can't go to NYC and not see the Statue of Liberty. We cruised by it on our boat tour - very impressive!

NYC from the water

On Monday afternoon we went on a tour of the NBC Studios. We saw the news studio, SNL set, and Conan O'Brien set. It was pretty neat.

Thanksgiving at the Tobique

It was so nice to spend this Thanksgiving at the Tobique after missing last year! Mom and Dad even made their first trip to the Tobique. So we had a really packed van with 4 adults, 2 carseats, 3 dogs, and luggage!

We had a really great time - lots of good food, fun times with family, and lots of laughs - especially while playing Family Fued.

Here is Matthew having a quick cat nap on the very long drive to the Tobique...Riley decided to snuggle!

Here is Matthew with his cousins - he had such fun playing hide and seek with them!

Sean and Cathy were specially requested by Matthew one night to read stories and do "tub time". I think a fun time was had by all :_)

Smith family photo - Thanksgiving 2008

Anna with Mom, Nana, and Grammie

Matthew with Dad and his two Grampies.

The Princess and the Goon!

Though Anna has been smiling lately, I can't seem to catch it on camera - she looks rather serious in most pictures. But she was still very beautiful in red yesterday :-)

Matthew thinks it's great to get Riley to lick his neck!

This pic makes his already big head look enormous.

Here is the goon sporting his alligator coat in the new jogger stroller, courtesy of the Blackwater Designs gang! Thanks guys - Matthew had a blast :-)

Lots of Family Time

Matthew and Anna have enjoyed spending lots of time visiting with family. Here they are with Great Nanny Smith.

Anna is very cosy with Great Aunt Sherilan

The boys head out for a morning of looking for bugs with Grampy

Mama with the little munchin and the big spaghetti face!

Matthew just loves holding Anna :-)

They were snuggling this morning - it was so cute!

And we can't forget Riley - he sure loves the pack!

Just a few pics...

We've been so busy lately that I've been neglecting the blog! I hope to take a bunch of pics this weekend to post, but here are a couple in the meantime :-)