New York, New York

With Kenzie in New York for a summer internship, my mom and I decided we needed to get out there for a girls' weekend. This was my first weekend away from Avery, and Ryan was kind enough to take Friday off from work to stay with the kids for three full days. I think he was a little nervous, not with Westin but with Avery for the first time. Despite whatever nerves he may have had, he did a great job and I'm so lucky my kids get to call him dad! 

So my mom and I arranged our flights to land at about the same time at JFK - which was about 1am. By the time we arrived in the city at our hotel, The Ritz Carlton at Central Park (hello! Thank you, mom!), it was close to 2 and we were starving. Luckily, room service was available 24/7. We ordered a few things and were completely underwhelmed. So disappointing for The Ritz. At the very least we enjoyed a few bites and were able to get some sleep. 

The next morning we got a workout in before heading downtown to meet Kenzie at her office. 

It was a gorgeous day. Here's the view from our window. 

Kenzie has been an intern for The Knot, a bridal magazine, and has been having a tremendous experience. (So much so, that I wish I could go back in time and intern with her!). It was fun to see where she works.

My mom was also able to say hello to several people she works with through Maggie Sottero.

After our tour of the office, we walked over to The East Village to meet Mandy for a late lunch, followed by a walk through SoHo, Greenwich Village, the West Village, and dessert stops for a cronut and Magnolia Bakery's banana cream pudding.

On Saturday, Chris joined us for the day (he had decided to crash the girls weekend, and we're glad he did. Always fun time with him). We started our day with a walk through Central Park up to the gardens at the north east end. 

After touring the gardens, we hopped on the subway down to 34th street, where we rode the East River Ferry to Williamsburg. We had heard of a food crawl-type event called Smorgasburg and had to see what it was all about. 

It totally did not disappoint. The food was fabulous, especially that roasted turkey, pesto, mozzarella sandwich and those donuts. I'm still dreaming about them. 

With full stomachs, we decided to walk to the Brooklyn Bridge. On our way, we had to stop and take cover during a little rain storm. It lasted about 20 minutes and we got on our way again. We reached the bridge... Let me rephrase... We reached A bridge, thinking it was the Brooklyn Bridge but quickly realized it was only the Williamsburg Bridge and the actual Brooklyn Bridge was much further down the river. We then decided to get in a cab for the remainder of the distance. 

We walked the Brooklyn Bridge back into Manhattan and over to the Financial District to walk by the Freedom Building and the up the Hudson River to the High Line in Chelsea where we met Beth and her family for dinner at Artichoke. Absolutely delish! 

On our final day, we met Mandy and Scott for breakfast at Sarabeth's. I love this place and never leave disappointed... or hungry. 

We then joined Kenzie at her singles ward, which meets at the same building the Temple is in at Lincoln Center. Afterwards, we walked over to the New York Public Library for a quick visit before my mom and I had to head off to the airport. 

It was such a fun weekend, and definitely went by too fast. Thanks mom, Kenzie, Chris, Mandy and Scott for making it such a memorable and fabulous experience!!!