i heart ny

I have about 101 things I need to blog about to get caught up on my list.  Here is my to do list of blog posts:

• Blog about our amazing California trip
• Blog about our awesome ride for our California trip
• Blog about how we extended our trip and decided to visit our awesome friends, Donna and Jamie, who live in Hawaii
• Blog about the blip in our departure...how we got stuck in Denver...how Sadira ALWAYS has the ability to see the best in every situation...and how we ended up having a great time
• Blog about the ABSOLUTELY AMAZING MIND BLOWING surprise Donna and Jamie surprised me with upon FINALLY landing
• Blog AGAIN about our California trip, with specific shout outs to all of our awesome friends we got to spend time with along the way
• Blog about our 72 hour trip up north just 48 hours after arriving home for SHANNON AND JOE'S WEDDING!!
• Blog about Shannon and Joe and their wedding :)
• Blog about how to save money while traveling
• Blog about The Great Gatsby, which I read over 5 months ago and have YET to blog about..
• Blog about our latest charitable donations, who we've chosen to support and why
• Blog about the Breast Cancer 3 day walk

I'm obviously pretty behind in my blogging.  I have a lot to write about, stuff I want to write and document before life moves on too quickly and I forget the precious details.  I live for the details.  I LOVE the details.  I don't want to forget them!  Because of that, I'm going to make more of an effort to get updated (I know, I know I've said this before...) but this is THE week.  The week I'm going to get caught up.

And I'm starting today!

In fact I'm starting right now.

With a blog that has nothing to do with any of the items on My 30 Before 30 list.

Because I'm a renegade like that. ;)

I want to write about something we did while en route north to Connecticut/Rhode Island for Shannon's wedding.  We decided to stop in NYC on the way, because we ended up getting a GREAT deal on Megabus tickets (again, to be explained in a future blog post) and because Sadira LOVES NYC.

Like, really, she's obsessed.

I swear that kid will go to college in New York.  I can see it now, and it already gives me anxiety.

So we decided to stop in New York for a very quick day trip, and my friend Sarah who lives in Hartford decided to meet up with us.

Growing up in Connecticut, Sarah was not unfamiliar with New York and had been there many times before.  She had NOT, however, been there recently, and she had NOT ever been there purely as a tourist.  So it was settled.  Day trip in New York, playing tourist, en route to Shannon and Joe's wedding.

We hit all the normal midtown touristy spots, Times Square, Central Park, the Plaza Hotel, 5th Avenue, and Rockfeller Center.  I've been to all of these spots many times, but I still love making the loop around and seeing them all again.  Especially with Sadira, because she's starting to remember her way around the city and it's really sweet to see. 

Sarah wanted to go to the top of one of the tall buildings to see the NY skyline.  Normally folks opt for the Empire State Building, but I talked her into the Top of the Rock at 30 Rockefeller Plaza (yes, THAT 30 Rock).  The building is so much more beautiful on the inside than the Empire State Building, the lines tend to be much shorter, and there's so much more to see inside the building.  Not to mention, you can see the ice skaters skating at the famous ice rink, Radio City Music Hall across the street, the Today Show set, NBC Studios, and the views of the Empire State building, the Chrysler Buidling and Central Park from atop the 70th floor are unparalleled.

I've been there many, many, MANY times before....

Five years ago, Kerri (mom to Sadie's best friend Sean) and I took a Memorial Day trip to NYC and visited the Top of the Rock. Here we are on the 68th floor doing "Rockafella" hands for our boy Jay-Z...

See?

Then four years ago, during a Valentine's Day weekend that will go down in infamy, Brian and I paid a visit to the beautiful observation deck together:

(Nevermind the fact that I look like a 12 year old....)

You can only imagine my excitement when I got to take Sadira to experience this for the first time...

She loved the view from above.

She had just turned two, and was already a big city girl.

My sisters had joined us for that trip, which made it that much more special! Four Mirjafary girls, 70 stories up!  Watch out NYC. ;)

When we came back down to the ground we snapped some photos with the ice skating rink and vowed that one day, ONE DAY, we'd bring Sadira to skate on the ice when she was big enough.

(My sister Neda and I)

(You can tell she really enjoyed watching the skaters. :))

We were SO lucky that trip, that we walked a little further down the street and realized that a live taping of the Today Show was going on AT THAT MOMENT, and we literally walked right into it:

(Neda, Sadie, and the back of Tessa's head.  Outside the studio where Kathie Lee and Hoda were conducting an interview.)

(Can you spy the Sadie Bug?)

(How about now?)

It was a pretty awesome trip. :)

Back in November, my sister Neda once again joined me on an adventure as we traveled up to meet Shannon and Joe, crossed #2 off my list, and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.  It was the holiday season, and a trip to NYC during the holidays wouldn't be complete without a trip past Rockefeller Center to see the huge Christmas tree that is put up every year.  While we were there, Neda and I got the best idea....LET'S GO ICE SKATING!!!!

Ice skating at Rockefeller Center is the one NYC thing that I've never done before, but have always WANTED to.  It is larger than a 30 Before 30 item, it is a Bucket List item, FOR SURE.

I mean, it's perfect right?  It's the holiday season, it's cold out, it was Black Friday, Thanksgiving was over and preparations for the Christmas season were in full swing...there couldn't be a better time, right??!!

We trekked over to the skating rink.  The sights were beautiful!  You could feel the holiday spirit all around you!

Except for one thing....it was the holiday season, it was cold out, it was Black Friday, Thanksgiving was over and preparations for the Christmas season were in full swing...which meant LOTS AND LOTS OF PEOPLE.

The wait to just get SKATES was over an hour and half.  And this was a day trip..meaning, we weren't staying overnight.  We had a bus home we had to catch.

So we settled for a photo and tried to mask our disappointment:

(Forced smiles. Boo..)

So when Sarah and I met up in NYC last weekend, and I had already talked her into a Rockefeller Center visit, I casually mentioned how fun it would be to SEE if we could MAYBE get tickets to go ice skating...ya know, if the wait wasn't too long...

We had just come down from visiting the observation deck....

(Sarah and a sleeping Sadie on the seventieth floor at sunset.--Try saying that 5 times fast..)

When I ran down the steps to the ticket/skate rental office.  I asked them how long the wait was, and they said....

DRUMROLL PLEASE....

"There is no wait."

HOT DAMN!  THERE IS NO WAIT!!!

I ran back up to tell Sarah the glorious news and asked if she wanted to skate with us.  She said, "sure, if that's what you want to do," which really meant, "alright, if we HAVE TO..." and I promptly said, "Yes! Let's go!" which really meant, "this is a once in a lifetime experience, you're gonna do it, you're gonna like it and [mom voice] it'll be good for ya."

I was absolutely giddy with excitement.  And when I get giddy I get clumsy.  And I start knocking over things and falling...not exactly the best state of mind when you are taking your three year old ice skating for the first time.

But we soldiered on.  I laced up her itty bitty skates:

And we hit the ice!

She was a little bit wobbly at first, which was to be expected...ya know, considering she's THREE and has NEVER ICE SKATED BEFORE...

But soon she started to get the hang of it! 

And after a few laps she said me, "Mommy, let go of my hand, I want to do it by myself."

???????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Umm...say WHAAAAA??

I tried to talk her out of it, "Sadie, Mommy's really nervous to let you do it by yourself, there are a lot of people here, and I don't want you to fall, and the ice is really hard, and you're so little...and....and..."

"Mommy, I'll hold the wall...we can compromise!"  (I taught her this word just a few weeks ago.  I told her it means, "to make a deal where both people get part of what they want."  She uses it at EVERY OPPORTUNITY if I tell her no.)

So hesitantly I agreed.

Sarah was about a quarter of the rink ahead of us.  I put Sadie's little fingers firmly on the side of the wall, and Sarah coaxed her to skate towards her.  Thank God Sarah had the camera and could capture this moment, because I was completely shocked/in awe/nervous/proud/terrified/thrilled all at the same time.  I guess its the same kind of euphoria you feel when your kid learns how to ride his bike by himself for the first time...I don't know...but it was CA-RAZY!  Compounded by her sheer FEARLESSNESS.  She was determined.  She was gonna do it herself.

And she did.

It was such a proud moment for me. 

And it was great that Sarah was there to share it with us. (And YES, she did enjoy herself, and even said afterward that she was so glad we did it) ;)

So many famous people have skated right there on that rink!

Brian Boitano:

Kristi Yamaguchi and HER three year old daughter:

Britney Spears, (shortly after filing for divorce from K-Fed, and just weeks before her famous meltdown..)

Snooki:

Umm....yeah, let's try to forget that last one...

And now Sadira!

Ice Skate at Rockefeller Center - it's not on the list, but SHOULD BE! - DONE!

Four years ago, Brian and I visited NYC on a bitter cold weekend and snapped this photo with the skating rink behind us:

I remember thinking how beautiful everything looked, with all the skaters in motion...

I never would've believed that in four years, we'd have an amazing little girl, who'd take the ice for the first time right here:

and that this rink would look more beautiful to me than it ever had before.