Pictures from the Good Morning America cast, I wasn't able to post-

Chris Cuomo

The only one we were missing is Robin Roberts- she was out that day!

Good Morning America, Goodbye New York!

Another favorite picture from the trip- Rain or Shine we had a BALL!

Kobi getting interviewed by EXTRA!

Kobi and I inside the Good Morning America Studio with the "cooking" segment in the background

Chef Mario Batali whipping up a meal for under $15 for a family of 4

The oh so gorgeous (prettier in person) Diane Sawyer

Sam Champion (the Weather man)

Monday morning came very quickly due to the fact that we had to be in line at the Good Morning America's studios at 6:15am- Kobi got us FREE tickets INSIDE the studio for the taping of the Monday morning show! When we arrived we met some really sweet (late 50's- early 60's)  women on a "girls trip" from Kentucky. They had neat signs and brightly colored t-shirts and WERE PLACED IN FRONT OF US  in the studio (for the TV to see them over us!)- Again, if you will review my earlier post about the Jimmy Fallon taping, you will remember that I said, "in NY 60 is the new 20" for a live television audience, and apparently it is! LOL! (well, not for American Idol.... but anyway!)  ;)

It was interesting to see how they do things behind the scenes.  After the taping ended we were allowed to get our picture with each of the news casters, but we had flights to prepare for and decided that we got enough pictures of them from afar and left.  We never made it on TV (we recorded it, and I watched), but our little ladies from Kentucky did! LOL! and we left right before they started passing out the food that chef Mario Batali cooked!  (We should have stayed), but after we left, we were approached by a cute girl with a camera crew to do an interview for EXTRA.  We each had a turn asking Padma Lakshmi (the host of Top Chef, on Bravo) a question.  It was just a little blurb for their feature on her that week, but it made up for us not making it on TV!  :)

Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, and Top of the Rock

This is one of my FAVORITE pictures from the whole trip!  This was inside "the rock" with a BIG window with Radio City Music Hall behind!  

Dinner with the lovely ladies at Michael Jordan's restaurant inside Grand Central Station

This is the beginning of the Top of the Rock experience- above us was the most gorgeous Swarovski Crystal hanging down from the ceiling

Above: (the best picture I could get to turn out) at the TOP OF THE ROCK- with the Empire State Building in the background!

Dinner inside Grand Central Station, directly below the Empire State Building!

Our afternoon was FAR from being over when the Greenwich Village Food tour had ended, we still had at 3pm West Side Story show to catch! So, we hopped on the subway and landed right in our seats for the show! It was an excellent performance, this show recently opened on Broadway, so there wasn't an empty seat in the house! The Maria and Tony characters where unbelievable! 

After the show, we had made reservations at one of the little local spots in Greenwich Village at 6pm, but after lounging around the hotel (really the first "lounge" we had all trip)- we decided we wanted to eat somewhere closer to us.  Fortunately our hotel was RIGHT in the middle of Time Square and we were in an arms length of "restaurant row"-  I got on my handy dandy IPhone and started searching for little "hidden" spots, since we didn't want to go to a chain- and I found Michael Jordan's restaurant located inside Grand Central Station! The food was well rated, and of course the location would be cool, so we walked there!  The food was AMAZING!  We all LOVED it!  The atmosphere was awesome, watching the people hustling and bustling to and fro.  Really neat!  I'm glad I picked a winner!  :)

After dinner we realized that we still had one thing left to do, and it was see the Empire State Building- McClain noted that we should do "Top of the Rock" where you go up in a TALL building and have a full view of the city, including the Empire State Building. So, we did got a cab, and went to the "Top of the Rock!"-  Awesome ending to an (almost) final trip in NYC.

Sunday in Greenwich Village-

The girls munching on some of JOE's amazing pizza!

(Our guide swears it IS the best in NY!)

Supermodel; Gisele Bundchen's house

I had to have this picture taken above, b/c it was 17 Cherry Ln (Mary Poppins nannied at 17 Cherry TREE Ln, but it was a weird coincidence that we happened to be at a street so close!)

Kobi found us an adorable little walking, food tour in Greenwich Village.  This is a location in New York that has amazing food and cute little shops, that are locally owned, and not many people know of these restaurants, or at least how yummy they are! Most of them are ZAGAT rated (a guide to restaurant reviews and ratings)- so they are little "hole in the wall" places you'd never notice, but REALLY good!

So, this was a way for us to get a real taste (literally) of several places on this tour! Our tour guide was Maria, and we really liked her! Full of energy and very fun! We ate some amazing pizza (above at JOE's) and several other snacks..... even some candy that tasted like chocolate Merlot (I don't really like wine, but this chocolate was delicious! I bought some to munch on throughout the tour!) My favorite stop, had to be the end, when we ate a HUGE cookie at "Milk and Cookies"- Kobi got a big ole' glass of milk with hers too! It was so yummy!  We learned lots of history along the way too.  We saw the house where FRIENDS (the TV show) took place, and the house of supermodel; Gisele Bundchen (Tom Brady's wife) (pictured above!)

Mangia, Mary, and Margaritas!

Dinner at Mangia

Kobi and I with the Mary Poppins poster outside the theatre (minus the "Mary Poppins" title!)

After all the wonderful sightseeing of New York City, we continued onto the hotel so we could get ready in time for dinner and the Mary Poppins show.  We hopped on the subway back to 50th street (as seen in a photo below) (which WAS our stop to our hotel) and we got off and were REALLY tuned around! We could not get our barrings as to where our hotel was. So we IPhoned our hotel and got the address. While standing at 50th street, we found out our hotel was located on 36th street- .......OH NO!   "Start walking everyone-"- it is now, 5pm on a Saturday evening, there is no way we will get a cab- while walking, and trying to hail a cab- we kept walking (reminder, from 50th st to 36th st!) when we get to the hotel on 36th st. it wasn't ours!!!!!  There were several in Time Square and the one we were staying in was located on 46th!!!!!  Only 4 blocks from where we had got off the subway! Oh My Gosh! (is what we're all thinking, but Wilma REALLY wanted to kill us! LOL, sorry Wilma!)- so again, NO CAB anywhere!- and we walk from 36th st. to 46th st.- except to figure out there was no way we'd make our dinner reservation at 6pm (which it was located at 45th st)- So we decide there is not enough time to "freshen up" so we go to the restaurant sweaty and dirty! We made it there with 3 minutes to spare, and we literally locked ourselves in the bathroom, and "bathed" (washed our feet, hands) and brushed our hair- then came out feeling MUCH BETTER! ;)

McClain met us for dinner at Mangia (the Italian restaurant with good looking male waiters that randomly breakout into song!)- We ordered Margarita PIZZA (the BEST pizza I tried in NYC). There were many birthday's and bachelorette parties and they would do some really funny stuff with the girls- I requested a song for "a girls trip" and they played "girls just want to have fun!"  Perfect end to a perfect dinner!!!

Then it was off to "17 Cherry Tree Lane" where Mary Poppins nannied!  This was the best show!  So Magical! Awesome Awesome!

Saturday in NY, NY!!

New York Stock Exchange

Wall Street "BULL"

Statue of Liberty (him)/herself! LOL

(read below!)

Double Click to view the Statue of Liberty from a distance!

Saturday morning we slept in until 9am! (That's late for me, and for the so called, "city that never sleeps")

- We had a little breakfast in our hotel and got ready for another eventful afternoon of traveling (aka, walking) and sightseeing.  We had reservations at Mangia (an Italian restaurant where the waiters sing to you and are all males, and attractive) at 6pm and tickets to see Mary Poppins at 8pm. Even though we intended on coming back to the room to change, freshen up, etc. before hand, we took our tickets JUST IN CASE, there is SO much walking involved, and SO much to do, we weren't sure we would make it back in time!  Our day started out by going to Chinatown to "purse" shop- Adam told me a little bit about the "ropes" of buying "fakes" on the street there, and to be honest, I was really nervous! He told me that you had to FIND someone to take you where the purses were, it is ILLEGAL for them sale them off the street- Well, right off the subway, it didn't take long for someone to "find" us- an Asian man came up with a little piece of paper with pictures of purses and he said, "you want purse?" "come with me, come with me"- (extremely cautious, and a little nervous, we went!)   He took us into a shop with random backpacks, and off-brand purses, and jewelry, and then into a back room......beyond the back room was literally a HOLE in the wall- he pushed through the hole, and there were stairs leading down into a dungeon like atmosphere- I now was literally holding my breathe, hoping we'd make it out alive! LOL- then into the room down stairs, there is TONS of women, shopping for stuff!  And TONS of purses!!!!  Kobi and Wilma loaded up on purses, and jewelry (but I was dumb and had no cash, so I got a necklace) - I had my heart set on a particular bag that wasn't there anyway- but that was my Chinatown purse escapade! :) After that I was ready to head to somewhere more "familiar" so we hopped in a cab and went to SOHO (lots of shopping here!) We then, jumped on a subway to the Financial District and took these pictures in front of the Stock Exchange (double click) and the "Bull" on Wall Street (if someone knows what the bull stands for let me know LOL!)- Then we took another subway over to Battery Park where we took some pictures of the Statue of Liberty from afar! (Double click on those too!)- it was so much fun! And we "met" the Statue of Liberty and paid $5 for this picture with him! LOL

Subway Conquers!

50th street was our stop to get off for the hotel!

Thursday before Kobi and Wilma arrived to NY, McClain and I ran ALL around the city, by bus, foot, and subway- I felt pretty comfortable on how it worked (not so comfortable as to which subway to ride, there's about 50.......seriously!) but, I felt comfortable as to how to get on one! Laugh Out Loud! So, I convinced Wilma and Kobi to jump (if you've been on one, you know, how you literally JUMP, and hang on for DEAR LIFE!!!) on one to our last stop of the night which was a cute little Martini Bar called Vintage. These are a few pictures of us at the Subway that we soon CONQUERED! 

The "Oh so famous" Tavern On The Green Restaurant

Tavern on the Green is a very famously, well-known tourist restaurant in New York City right in Central Park.  It is beautiful.  We jumped in a cab from the Jimmy Fallon Show and turned onto this beautiful spring flowered, park area. The restaurant was just covered in gorgeous flowers! Definitely go to New York in the Springtime, it is just dazzled with flowers!! :)

We had to pose all "cutesy" next to them- (it made for a really cute picture since we chose to dress like twins, accidently!) 

The majority of the tables had this cool balloons on them, and Kobi thought we could only have them if it were a special event, but I asked for some anyway- I'm mad I didn't get a picture of them, or that I didn't take them with us for a cute picture out in Central Park!- they were really different looking balloons! 

Anyway, the food was unbelievable! I had the Lamb Chops and it was just perfect! Everything about the meal was perfect! I strongly suggest this is a MUST stop if you plan a trip there! But, be sure to make a reservation!!  :) 

Kobi and I in front of the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Plaza

Friday afternoon was fun filled, and busy! After our delicious scones, and brunch at Alice's Tea Cup, we went to the NBC Studios where we took this cute picture in front of Rockefeller Plaza! People were ice skating too! We had a tour of the NBC Studios and Kobi and I got picked to be the news casters- (I was the weather girl, HARDest thing ever! And Kobi sat behind the desk)- She did really really good, and I on the other hand was so turned around by the weird, backwards ways of the weather "board"! 

Everyone had a good laugh (all the people on our tour) We had the option to by the video for $30- but it was so bad, I opted not too!

Kobi entered us in the raffle for FREE tickets to see Jimmy Fallon's taping of his show (he was on Saturday Night Live, VERY funny!)- and we got them! So we had the taping not long after the NBC tour- this was really neat b/c we got to see how things worked behind the scenes, and during commercials, etc. - The special guests were Matthew Perry (from FRIENDS, and he talked about his new movie, 17 Again with Zac Efron), Adam Goldberg (google him) :) and the musical guests where The Plain White T's (again, google)- Matthew Perry was cute, but akward with Jimmy, Adam and Jimmy got along so much better and they were really funny together- Plain White T's messed up 1/2 through the taping of their song, and started over! It was eventful!

Jimmy Fallon though, was a fun, entertaining host, very cute and hilarious! I think it's funniest, when they try NOT to laugh! (like on Saturday Night Live!)- As far as us getting on TV, we sat next to a section that was set up for an in audience "skit" for the show,  and we were on TV for a split second. They put a 60 yr old Heather Lockelar look-a-like, directly behind the "skit"- bummer! We then found out that 60's is the new 20 in NYC evidently for television (more older women took stage on the Today's show in front of us!...... more on that later!) ;)

If you don't succeed TRY, TRY, AGAIN!

I'm having a "BLOGGER" malfunction lately, and it won't let me upload pictures from my New York trip!!  I will continue to work throughout nap time to get this resolved! 

Meanwhile enjoy this funny video of my crazy daughter! ;)

Momma's GIRLS trip (baby free) in NYC!!!

THIS IS HOW MY TRIP STARTED:

I visited my old Orlando roomie (McClain), she took me all around the city, this is an awesome floral arrangement shaped as FLAMINGOS- we thought it was only fitting we got a picture since we met in FLORIDA~!

I took my picture in front of this Mary Poppins sign in Time Square since I went to see it!!  It was amazing!!!  The best!!!!  So magical!!!
I also had to get my picture in front of this sign for WICKED, b/c I saw that also!!  I never got my picture in front of the West Side Story sign, but I saw that as well!  I was very busy on "Broadway ROW"
The group!  (Except, Wilma (Kobi's Mom) who is taking the photograph)

When we ALL met up we had brunch at Alice's Tea Cup- the cutest place with scones, tea, and yummy breakfast!!  A cute place for a little girls tea party birthday!  Loved it!!

Playing catch up!

While I catch up my blog from the days I've been "absent" and playing in NYC- I want to update a few random pictures for your enjoyment while I edit, crop, etc. !!! Thanks for waiting patiently and I hope you like the pictures to come!  My sister will have to sent me the pictures of what Reagan did while I was away!  They had a lot of fun too!!

(this is the cutest little belly in the whole world!!!!!!)   :)

Smores!

I can't remember for the life of me if I blogged this pictures already or not, and I'm too lazy to go back and check- but this is one of my favorites!  I made Reagan a Smores one evening as her dessert, and she loved it!  Doesn't everyone!?  I swear it took FOREVER to get this off her face, it was like plastered on! But worth this shot!  :)

The many beautiful (milk) faces of Reagan

WELCOME ASHTON GARLINGTON GILLISPIE!!!!!!

I AM SO EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THE ARRIVAL OF A NEW BABY BOY TO OUR FRIENDS (SAM AND JAMIE): 

ASHTON GARLINGTON GILLISPIE 4/17/2009 AT 2:41PM

Sam and Jamie are our friends from Lamaze (when we were pregnant with Reagan and them with Trinity (pictured below))- I found this picture of Reagan and I, and Trinity and Jamie from our Lamaze reunion on April 5, 2008!  Wow! Things sure can change quickly in just one year!

CONGRATULATIONS Y'ALL!    We can't wait to meet him!!!

Easter Sunday April 12, 2009