NYC | Day 4

I hope y'all have been enjoying my recap of our NYC trip - I'm hoping to have it finished up this week; there have been a lot of posts. If you'd like to catch up, you can read day 1 here, day 2 here and day 3 here. This day was probably what I was most excited for - Stephen was coming back into the city with me, we were staying in a hotel in the city this time and we had scheduled most of the major iconic NY sites to visit.

We woke up early Monday morning and headed into the city - we wanted to avoid traffic but we weren't able to. It definitely wasn't as bad as I thought though! Stephen dropped me off at our hotel while he ran a few blocks over to return the car before meeting me back at our room. This seriously worked out so well because we definitely didn't need a rental car while staying in the city and Avis had a location right near our hotel so it wasn't difficult or time consuming to return it. After getting into the room, we looked up breakfast spots nearby and Stephen found Ellen's Stardust Diner a few blocks away on Broadway. I remember reading about it in Owen's blog and agreed to go. It was so much fun and I'm so glad we kicked off our morning there! All of the wait staff are aspiring Broadway stars and rotate out singing various Broadway songs. It was a wait to get in, but definitely worth it!

I ate every bite of these pancakes and they were delicious!

Our hotel was right next to the Stephen Colbert building which was pretty cool!

After our breakfast and a show, we rolled ourselves out and headed over to Times Square! It was so neat being there and the atmosphere was electric - minus the crazy lady talking to herself lol We even saw an add for my company that highlighted a collaboration with Stephen's company!!

After getting our tourist fill in at Times Square, we headed over to see Radio City Hall and Rockefeller Center. There was a huge line to go on Top of the Rock but we were told if we bought tickets online, we wouldn't have to wait. We hopped online and bought tickets for around 1 pm and then headed over to St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Public Library. We figured the Library wasn't too far away and we always like watching The Day After Tomorrow so we popped in ;)

Despite her mean muggin' look, she was so nice and funny! I think Stephen caught her mid-talk lol She told me it'd cost $5 for that picture ;)

On the way back to The Rock, we passed by Macy's, The Empire State Building, The Chrysler Building and stopped in Grand Central Station. I wish we had a little more time in there but we needed to get to our appointment so we took a few pictures and ran over to The Rock.

We made it to our appointment and it was such a neat experience! I thought I'd be terrified with the heights but it wasn't too bad - don't be fooled, I wouldn't go near the glass and I was having heart palpations when Stephen was sticking the camera lens through those glass slits. It was really cool to see the whole city from the roof and at ~$30/ticket, it was so worth it instead of going on top of The Empire State Building.

A nice security guard took this picture for us - threw his arms with the camera above his head and snapped away. I can't believe it turned out to well! I definitely need to frame this one :)

Right before we left, I told Stephen we needed a picture of Times Square

We grabbed lunch after finishing The Rock - I drug Stephen all over town looking for a salad and ended up back inside the Rockefeller Center lol We were exhausted and my boots were killing my feet so we headed back to the hotel to rest for a little before getting ready to head to Central Park. It was so nice going to the park late afternoon, the weather was perfect, but it was so bizarre for us to see Little League going on in the middle of the park and people sun tanning in swimsuits. We ended at The Plaza and Trump Tower since Stephen hadn't seen it yet.

Ignore my squinty eyes

After Trump Tower, we found a random Chinese restaurant (I don't remember the name) and got dumplings and general tso for dinner. It ended up bring really good! Afterwards, we headed over to 10below for some deliciously amazing rolled ice cream. We picked the closest one and laughed so hard when we popped up out of the subway... nothing but Chinese writing everywhere. Before we knew it, we were in China Town at night not knowing what anything was. We made it to the ice cream shop and had ourselves some delicious rolled ice cream and all was well :)

After ice cream, we headed back to the hotel ready for a good night sleep in The City :) Linking up with Annie.

NYC | Day 3

I'm back to recap our 3rd day in NYC, well, really my 3rd day because Stephen was at his conference all day. If you want to catch up, you can read day 1 here and day 2 here.

Sunday, I rode the train into the city an hour later than the day before and while my sister and her friend were getting ready, I strolled around 34th Street and Harold Square admiring the stores, wishing they were open since everything opened later on Sunday morning. After walking around for a little while, I headed back to Penn Station to grab a fun donut and then headed back to Harold Square. 

Macy's had the coolest window displays, all themed carnival

Finally, my sister and her friend were ready - they met me and we hopped on the subway towards Brooklyn to check out Smorgasburg. I had read about this a while ago over on Krista's Blog so I was excited to check it out. It was really interesting - a bunch of restaurants set up tents in park and you can purchase smaller sized items to try. It really was like a food and win festival. We got there probably around 11 am and there weren't too many people but when we left a few hours later, it was packed. I'd definitely recommend going. We didn't get too many things because we were pretty full but what we had was delicious! 

This was so delicious and 100% worth it!

Once we were done in Brooklyn, we headed back to Manhattan, checked out Times Square and then went inside Macy's to look around - I can't believe how big the store was!

The carnival theme was carried throughout the first floor of the store

Once we were tired of browsing Macy's, I headed back to Penn Station and caught the train back to NJ. Stephen picked me up and we headed over to a local diner that had been packed the past 2 nights but unfortunately, it wasn't very good. We wanted to get dessert so we found a frozen yogurt place but it ended up being closed!! We ended upsettledwith Baskin Robins and headed back to the hotel to pack and get to bed early so we could get into the city early the next morning.

Linking up with Jessi

Weekending

Happy May!! I cannot believe we're already into the first of May which means summer is right around the corner! I'm so looking forward to May but I know I'm not ready for the summer FL heat... Anyways, this weekend was b.u.s.y. I know people hate that word but man, it was a long weekend - but extremely productive which is always good!

Friday, I stopped by Aldi on the way home from work to pick up something for dinner and some fruit to get us through the weekend. I love how cheap that place is! Once I got home, I went right to work testing out a design for one of my co-workers. This ended up taking longer than expected because the small font wasn't working right and I had to test out a few different designs. After some research, I realized I needed to buy a smaller needle to get the text looking sharper. We made dinner then I moved onto my first of two floppy hats. I had a large spool of black thread (brand new) but when I unraveled it, it was a different weight - thanks to the person who put it in the wrong spot. I tried to finish the hat with what I had but it couldn't make it. I called it a night and we watched Shawshank Redemption. Super random, but Stephen said it was #1 on IMDB and neither of us had seen it. We were only supposed to watch half but ended up finishing the whole thing - it was fairly good!

Saturday, I couldn't sleep in #annoying, so I got up, did my workout for the day, made breakfast and headed down to the closest Jo-Anns which was 30 minutes away so I could get the exact black thread to finish my hat. I got home, finished my hat, did the 2nd one and then got to work on my co-worker's order. I'm so thankful I only needed a smaller needle and was able to do her shirts for her - I think they turned out pretty good! Afterwards, we went for a quick bike ride and then Stephen got dinner ready while I finished up some stuff on my checklist. Later that night, I blogged about NYC while we kind of watched some awful 1776 musical... I don't know what it was, I kept asking Stephen if he really wanted to watch it which meant, pick something else but he didn't catch my drift lol!

I managed to make a fun acai bowl for one of my meals so I had to share :)

Jo-Ann's had this adorable water bottle on sale for $10 and I had to get it. My question is, how do you get these things to dry on the inside!?

Sunday, we headed to church and then Publix to then come home and get right to work on laundry and Disney shirts for my mom and sister. I think they turned out great and I can't wait to see them wearing them at Disney next week! I love my sister's tank so much that I'm thinking I'll have to make one for myself ;) Once I finished taking pictures of everything I made, I started meal planning for the week - I made some overnight oats and some protein muffins.

I was getting lunch together, looked outside and saw a giant Bald Eagle hanging out! So cool!

I was actually able to convince Stephen to run to the beach to get photos of the floppy hat - it was a mess because it was so windy but I think we got a few cute shots :) After we got home, I got to work on dinner and more meal planning for my lunches. For dinner, I made zoodles as spaghetti for the first time and they turned out amazing! Even Stephen really liked them! Once dinner was over, we ironed on my sister's Disney graduation sticker to her shirt. I'm so excited with how it turned out and I have to give a big shout out to Madison for making the vinyls for me :)

Stephen helped iron the vinyls on - he did a great job!

It was a great weekend but I'm pooped and still have a long to-do list before heading to my sister's graduation on Friday. I'll catch up on sleep when I get back from Disney ;) I hope everyone had a great weekend! Linking up with Biana

Five on Friday

I can't believe another week has come and gone... and this is the last weekend in April - WHAT!? I will say, I've been so busy with my full time job, trying to keep up with the Tone It Up Bikini Series and filling orders for my business, I'm pooped. I'm ready for some family time next week and then a few weeks with nothing in the books.

One
Speaking of family time, my little sister is graduating college next weekend!!! I can't believe it's finally here and I can't wait to celebrate her. She seriously balled out in college - she majored in industrial and manufacturing engineering with a physics minor, is the president of multiple engineering clubs/groups, did 4 years in her sorority, designed an amazing product for senior design, has a fantastic job lined up... seriously I could go on and on. She worked so hard! Anyways, she got her graduation pictures taken the other day and they turned out so pretty, I couldn't not share.

Two
I've mentioned it before but I've been into following the Tone It Up program and this past Monday I started the 8 week Bikini Series. I feel so much stronger and healthier since starting TIU in general and I can't wait to see where these 8 weeks take me in regards of my physical shape! Even though it's only 5 days in, I've been doing a good job keeping up with it! If you'd like to follow along on my journey, I've got another instagram account dedicated to my TIU fitness.

I stayed in a hotel for work on Monday night and I loved getting to use their gym Monday and Tuesday before heading back into the office

Three
I'm so excited because I can now offer monogrammed floppy hats through Premium Pineapple!! I knew at some point I needed to see if I could even do floppy hats and when my sorority sister asked if I would do some for her and her mom, it was time to try. I practiced on a hat I've had since high school and it was successful :) I ordered a few plain floppy hats and can't wait to do theirs tonight!

Four
I finally got around to blogging about our NYC trip this week! I shared days 1 and 2 and can't wait to share the rest next week!

Five
I'm not going to lie, I've run out of things to talk about and we're desperately wanting to get to bed early tonight (for once) so I'm going to go ahead and sign off. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!! I'm planning on finishing my orders, blogging the rest of our NYC trip and possibly convincing Stephen to go take floppy hat pictures at the beach - I haven't shared that one with him yet lol!