Joe planned an amazing Aruba (surprise!) trip for us to take in April. Joe's parents came out to take care of Liliana for the week and we jetted off. Joe's second surprise, was upgrading us to business class, which was pretty awesome. He did such a good job planning this vacation on his own that I think he should be in charge of planning all future vacations! 

We went snorkeling twice, ate at some great restaurants and explored some of Aruba. It was so much fun!

The Rangers' cheer after they score a goal, is Hey! Hey! Hey, hey, hey! It's a far cry from what happens at Yost during hockey games. It's also odd because the announcer in-stadium does almost no announcing. There are no announcements of what penalties are and when a team is back to full strength, basically just one minute left in a period and if there is some kind of promo happening. 

It is quite nice going to a sporting event when you don't care at all about the outcome. It's not a stressful event in the least. It was just nice to get out, with Joe, and watch some hockey! 

Tonight, I get to go out for a friend's birthday and this weekend we have our usual schedule of swimming and jazz. 

We did some more decorating this weekend and even went to get a tree on Thanksgiving! Lily and I picked out some ornaments at Macy's on Friday. 

One of our friends came into the city last weekend, so we were able to go check out a few things in the neighborhood. There is a lit-up house in Brooklyn Bridge Park and there was also a Festival of Lights under the Manhattan bridge. 

We headed over to Sarabeth's on Central Park South Friday morning for breakfast and Andrea met Liliana. We sat outside, which was perfect and ate awesome breakfast while Lily colored (thanks also to Andrea for books and crayons to keep Lily occupied). Saturday, we headed out to Momofuku in midtown and over to Pippin the musical. The show was great and the Music Box theatre is beautiful on the inside. I think Joe and I were there years ago for previews of Book of Mormon (I think already 5 years ago!). 

I'm getting spoiled by all of the recent visitors in getting out and enjoying the city! 

This last weekend, we had lots of visitors. Our friends Michelle and Jim came into town for Michelle's birthday and a Michigan football game. Joe's parents came into town to hang out with Liliana and be grandparents so we could have fun for a few days and not worry about being in and out (mostly out). 

A HUGE thanks to the Bueches for coming to hang out with Lily. I definitely appreciated the mental break of being able to leave and know that Lily was in great hands and she got to hang out with her grandparents! It was so nice to get out. 

The logos above are a snapshot of the weekend of fun we had. On Thursday, we walked through Brooklyn Bridge Park before grandparents came. We were able to get out Thursday night to a local bar to watch NFL and baseball. And of course, I took Michelle and Jim to my favorite fish spot down the street. I really think I should start getting a discount for referring so many people to this little fish market. 

On Friday morning, we headed over to Dominique Ansel's bakery to wait in line for a Cronut. We got to the bakery at 8 a.m. when it opened. There was a line around the corner to get in. Around 9 or a bit later, someone from the bakery came out to inform us that they were close to selling out of the cronut (a mix of a croissant and donut). They had a baguette to let someone hold while in line, to mark where it was likely for the cronuts to sell out. We were 5 people behind the baguette holder.

We also got a few other things...some of which were eaten too fast for pictures! 

The rest of the weekend was taken up going out for birthday dinner at Casa Mono in Manhattan and heading over to my favorite bakery in the city, Billy's Bakery for birthday cake.

Saturday, we headed over to Peter Luger's famous steakhouse for some awesome bacon and steak. The place has been in business for over 125 years, as evidenced by the gold chocolate coins they gave us after our meal. 

After Luger's, we headed down to Piscataway for the Rutgers vs. Michigan game. Go Blue! Except, we lost. So...we headed back to NYC a little less happy than how we headed down. But on the plus side, the Rutgers game included fireworks and cannon shots. It was a little odd. 

Joe and I got to go out tonight to see John Oliver film his show. We had a set of extra tickets to we brought our friends Carey and Katie. Carey is Gary's mom (Lily's best friend) - so we hang out every week and Katie is Gary's aunt. We all met in swimming at the Y!

It was awesome to watch John Oliver film and we were pretty impressed that he filmed basically all in one take. He is good enough to do it live, for sure. Great night out!

As I noted on our Facebook page, we have the best babysitter ever. When Lily screamed when we left, Joe and I feared that she would cry the whole time we were gone. We came home a few hours later to a report that after our sitter pulled out balloons from her purse, Liliana wanted to be her best friend. Our babysitter had balloons to blow-up in her purse. AWESOME.