CT Trip - Post 6 - NYC

From Attleboro to NYC was a 3.5 hour drive, we made good time.  We were actually surprised to arrive as quickly as we did.  Funny thing happened, I had input NY, NY into the GPS, so instead of taking us to Andy's apartment, it directed us to City Hall.  Michael was thrilled with me.  After a long phone call with Andy we made it to our destination.  Street parking was another funny story.  Michael and Andy ended up settling on a parking garage spot after over an hour of searching for a good street spot.  Andy was a great host, the apartment was beautiful.  We visited Central Park and Starbucks.  Here are just a few pics of our fast stop in the city.  I do have more, but they are on Michael's iPhone, I think we uploaded most of the good ones to Facebook.

This is Liam's, "I want out of this car seat", look

Nighttime view from Andy's apartment

What Liam felt like doing after he got out of the car seat

Awwww, what a cutie.  While Daddy and Andy where taking FOREVER

to look for a parking space, Liam and I had a photo shoot!

Another cool picture of the city

We ended up getting to be after 2 am, I woke up the next morning to what were apparently "normal" city noises.  Sirens, honks, etc.  We hung out at the apartment for awhile. I got brave and hit the streets of NYC to find a Starbucks.  Luckily, it was like 500 feet from Andy's apartment, so I didn't have to far.  I was very entertained by people watching while I was in very long line (by Springfield standards).  My favorite people watching memory is of a little blond haired French boy who was cleverly seeking out a site.  He charmed his way into snagging a table from a pretty lady who was getting ready to leave.  It was super cute.  After Starbucks, we headed out to Central Park for a stroll around.  We could have stayed there for hours.  The weather was perfect.  Unfortunately, we had to hit the road. We missed the kids, and were anxious to get home.  We had one more stop planned, Lima, Ohio.  Woo Hoo, Lima here we come. 

CT Trip - Post 4

Well it has been a busy couple of days.  We are currently in New York City on the 31st floor of a high rise in Manhattan, overlooking the beautiful city.  We are a few blocks from Central Park and a block away from Julliard.  With several other attractions within walking distance.  I am not at all a big city girl so this has been a little stressful for me. It is such an experience though. I couldn't pass up "living it up" with one of our best friends who has lived in NYC for 10+ years. This is the first opportunity in the past 10 years that we have been able to travel and stay with Andy in New York. He graciously invited us to come on Saturday night at the wedding of two of our other best friends, Justin & Jennifer Bartlett. 

View from Andy's terrace.

I'm going to recap the last few days and then post a few pictures.  I have over 300+ pictures from the past few days. I'm not sure how to pick out my favorite few, but I'll do my best. 

On Friday, we chilled in the morning; slept in a bit. Then, Michael did his best man duties and headed off to run errands with Justin. I stayed at the hotel and napped and cuddled the cutest baby in the world. At lunch time, Andy and I went to a nearby Asian restaurant and had a tasty meal. Next we were off to the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Michael and I got a funny look into the future of what Cora may be like when she is the bride.  Jennifer was in control of the rehearsal, she knew just what she wanted to happen and just how to practice it with everyone. The rehearsal dinner was at an awesome Thai restaurant. We got to have awesome Thai iced tea and Thai beer, appetizers galore and my favorite meal was the Thai curry chicken. Justin and Jennifer gave a great toast; Justin was actually speechless which I have personally never seen. They gave very heartfelt gifts to the wedding party.

The Wedding Site

Saturday was the big day! The preparations started at mid-day. The boys got dressed and ready. I helped out with the shirt ironing! When everyone was dressed and ready, the boys headed off to the site. They setup a few things and then got to enjoy a drink before the ceremony. Everything seem to go off without a hitch. Frank, Justin, and Jennifer wrote the "script" for the wedding and it was truly beautiful. The reception and dinner were remarkable as well. Jennifer arranged for one of her cousins to watch Liam. So, Michael and I got to fully enjoy everything. Michael, Andy, Jennifer's dad and sisters all gave toasts that were wonderful, touching and a little embarrassing. Then, we got to eat a great meal and dance the night away. What a fantastic night with our best friends whom we have shared so many happy and sad moments with. We are truly blessed to have them in our lives.

The Bride & Groom

Us all dressed up!

The Three Amigos!

Us with the little man!

Our little charmer



CT Trip - Post 3

Well we are in East Windsor, CT.  We are staying at the Holiday Inn Express.  We arrived yesterday at about 5:45 pm eastern time.  In Dwyer style, we arrived just in time to head out the bachelor and bachelorette parties.

We enjoyed our hotel in Bedford, PA and we woke up yesterday refreshed and ready to tackle the remaining 8-9 hour drive.  The drive continued to be beautiful.  Michael expressed that he loves the mountains with English style towns nestled in the hillsides.  We saw many a lot of pretty scenery along the way including, beautiful churches, old houses along the road, and old railroad bridgees.  West Virginia had a lot of rolling hills, and Pennslyvania brought us into the bigger steeper mountains.  We have only taken a few pictures, and they are not very exciting, but I'll attach them at the end of this post.  Because we were both rested, Michael and I got to do a lot of talking about our families future.  It was a lot of fun, being silly and talking about whatever topics came to mind. 

Liam has been, and continues to be a doll baby.  He was so good in the car.  He slept most of the drive, and when he was awake he enjoyed playing with his "new" toys.  Those would be the ones that Mommy dug out of the baby tubs in the closet that used to belong to his other brothers and sister.  He also enjoyed many bottles and bowls of oatmeal & banans.  He really liked that Mommy and Daddy were sitting the back seat with him sometimes.  That doesn't happen very often, and he seemed to really eat up all of the attention.

So, we drove through the rest of Pennsylvania, New York, and Conneticut.  We arrived just in time to change and head out to the parites.  Michael and the boys went out to dinner in Hartford, CT (just about 15 minutes from East Windsor).  They ate at Trumball Kitchen, he got to eat mussels (a new found favorite).  I'm not really sure what all went on after that, but they retired to the hotel and finished up the party in Justin's hotel room.  The girls also went to a restaurant in downtown Hartford called Salute.  We had a bit of car trouble getting out there.  I drove with Justin's mother, Mary Margaret, and her sister, Marilyn.  We made it safely in our vehicle, after we gave up on getting their rental car to cooperate.  We arrived at the restaurant a few minutes late, but still in plenty of time to share a couple of hours with the girls.  We enjoyed a shared meal of salad, appetizers (I tried the calamari, Cora will be proud of her Mommy), pasta, and chicken.  We played a fun game and then I'm sure the party continued, but Liam and I returned to the hotel to put the little sweet baby to bed.

Here are the pictures....I'll try to take more today.

Louisville Lights - at about 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday

Wednesday Sunrise

CT Trip - Post 2

We had hoped to make the whole 24 hour, 1400 mile trip without stopping over at a hotel, but we didn't quite make it.  We made it 16 hours and 1000 miles.  We have had to admit that we are older and bigger wusses than we used to be in our twenties (the old man is already asleep at 8:45 while I'm typing this post :-).  

So far we have driven through Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. We stopped in Bedford, PA at around 4:30.   We checked into the hotel, rested a bit, then after much silliness  about where to eat, we went to an Italian pizza place in downtown Bedford.

Liam has been absolutely amazing.  He sleeps most of the time in the car.  He only cried a tiny bit.  He has been very happy to be free from the car seat the last several hours.

We have also been very pleased with the drive.  I'll try to post more specifics a little later.  I'm feeling quite tired after only getting a few cat naps in the car last night and today.

CT Trip - Nearly 10 Hours in the Car

Michael,  Liam, and I left for CT at approximately 9 pm.  It is almost 7 am, we have been at it for nearly 10 hours.  Liam slept two five hour stretches only waking up once to eat.  right now, we are resting just outside of Louisville, KY.  Liam is playing and stretching his chubby little legs.  I just got finished driving through heavy traffic.  who knew there could be heavy traffic from 4:15 to 6:45, but that apparently that is what happens when they close an interstate near a major city. For someone who doesn't regularly drive a standard, it was hard!  Well we're all done resting.  Back to driving.