DREAMS AND SPAGHETTI-O'S: The Family Visit in Pictures

It's funny to me that people pay me to take pictures for them, but when it comes to my own life I feel like I'm getting lazy at capturing life moments.

All that to say I mised a lot of photo opportunities when my family came for a visit!

I shared the highlights of the visit a few weeks ago.

And now I am finally getting around to posting a few of the pics I did snap!

Thursday night we invited about 15 of my friends over for dinner!

It was so fun for the people who prayed for Mary Blake for so long to finally get to meet her in person.

She was passed around all evening and was her typical charming self!

Face to Face chat with Misty

With my Co-Worker Kathryn

9A roommate picture!

We took a couple different morning walks through Central park

We went to the World Trade Center Memorial.

This is one of the two fountain pools where one of the towers stood.

Surrounding the pools are the engraved names of all those who were killed.

The longer I live in NYC the more 911 feels personal to me. I know so many people whose lives were directly affected by this attack. It wasn't just an attack on our country. It was an attack on my city and my friends.

It was neat to finally get to see this memorial in person.

The Freedom Tower. I have watched this building go up. It is one of my favorite views now whenever I fly into the city.

One of the non degotionable things my bro-in-law wanted to do while in the city was make a visit to his favorite cookie shop. I introduced him to these cookies when he came 2 years ago and he has been hooked ever since (like I bought him a box for Christmas and flew them home as my carry-on item) For real, if you visit the city you need to stop by Leavin Bakery. It is literally a hole in the wall (only a few people can fit inside at once) but the cookies are totally worth it. Once you try one there is no turning back from this chocolaty goodness.

The other big request from the fam was to go to a Yankees Game!

We watched the Yankees play the Baltimore Orioles. Unforuntatly the Yankees played terrible, but it was still a fun game to watch!

Warming up before the game

My friend, Amy, baby-sat Mary Blake so that we could enjoy the game!

On Saturday we celebrated G's birthday at Dinosaur BBQ in Harlem. After lunch we walked down to the water

Dad, G, and I walked down to the closest Harlem Fire Department to meet some of the firemen and see the firehouse (you know, since G's a fireman he has an interest in things like this)

I was the nieve moron who saw this sign on the truck and was like "wow that's a cheap price for a fire truck." Instead of the fireman laughing hysterically at me like he probably should have he just kindly mentioned that it was a joke. Right Right. I knew that. Whoops!

Mary Blake rocked the Subway. See she really is a city girl at heart

While the girls did some street shopping in Soho, Dad and G visited the Fire Musuem.

After our adventures in Soho we walked west towards Greenwich village to hit up Magnolia's cupcakes and see a different neighborhood. We stopped at a local playground and let MB enjoy one of her favorite pastimes, swinging!

I told MB later that at 10 months she had moved up the cool ladder, b/c her little bum had sat in the same swing as many celebrity babies (you know, since we were in a trendy neighborhood where lots of celebrity families live)

Cat, G, and MB had to leave on Sunday afternoon, but my mom and dad stayed a couple more days.

On Monday night we went to the US OPEN!

I really love watching tennis! It was a fun surprise to get to see Venus and Serena play doubles. I have loved them sine I was in high school and have always dreamed of seeing them play in person. They played terrible and lost but it was still fun!