I get by with a little help from my friends...

Somehow even being laid up doesn't equal any down time, so I am just now finding time to get to this little note about my wonderful weekend with my lovely ladies. Miss K and Miss S, you are incredible friends. Thank you so much for being such blessings in my life - and exactly what I needed in this season.

Is this creepy or what?

Okay, so I flew out of the big 'ol Hector International Airport on Friday. Why do they call it that, by the way? You cannot fly international from Fargo unless you are going to Winnipeg. The name is quite a reach, a bit pretentious to say the least. Walking through security was quite a riot. After passing through, the "guard" came around to the two people in front of me. He pointed to their suitcases, told them where their liquids were and said to make sure they remove them next time. Is there any other airport in the world that would let you walk through with anything liquid hiding out? I've been called out for lipgloss before - and that was in a purse which they then took out and personally inspected. They didn't even open these suitcases. SO I'm feeling pretty safe... My mom got me there in the beginnings of a snowstorm - I was so paranoid that this weekend of respite was going to be cancelled by stupid snow. I got to MSP and my connecting flight just in time. My husband was coming home connecting in MSP to fargo and got turned back to Sioux Falls. He ended up on a cot in the airport. I was much more fortunate ;)
I got my first dose of culture from the driver on the way to Miss K's house. We jammed out to Spanish radio with random bursts of "Single Ladies" while he tried to tell me all kinds of things I couldn't understand. He got me to the right place though, and I only briefly held on to the handles in fear ;) And waiting for me was this lovely girl:

Love this girl.

We went to this great Italian place for dinner that night. Lots of catching up and excellent food. We got into pajamas and began a weekend of crime show marathons. I've recently become addicted to crime shows after we came to live with my parents. Now I can't get enough! So this was perfect. Other than making sure Steve got on/off his plane, I turned off all communication. Silence was so great, and just what I needed.

The convertible we dreamed of....

The next day we slept in. My version included waking up multiple times thinking I should be hearing babies wanting to be picked up, but still. It was bliss. I eventually got up and lounged with a book. A BOOK! Loved it. Then we headed in to "town". I kept calling it town which she laughed at every time. We walked. A LOT. I kept thinking about how much Josiah would love all that we were doing. The subway. The Taxi. The bus! He would be overjoyed.

On the Little People bus.

Me with Spiderman's bum in the background.

What does this have to do with cancer??

We saw all of the main attractions, which I'd seen before but it was fun to not be there just to be a tourist. We went to this amazing Mexican restaurant called the Lime Jungle. It reminded me of a Chipotle, only a bigger menu and I must say, the food was much better! We passed the Chipotle on the way there and I was so tempted to get a burrito since I no longer have easy access to those - so glad I walked those ten extra blocks! We went to all of the necessary shops including Anthropologie (YIKES, a new addiction?!?!). We went to FAO and happened to show up at the BIG piano just in time for a show. Did you know that they perform shows on this thing? It was incredible. And these kids get paid to jump around on this piano all day. Nice. Again, I walked around thinking about how Josiah would be drooling through the whole store. And then to ToysRUs - another Josiah paradise. We just had to ride the ferris wheel - it was worth the wait in line surrounded by all the little kids. I must admit I was slightly annoyed that the girl in front of us got the Barbie Convertible though! We were stuck with the Little People school bus. It was worth it though....until the ride never ended. They switched operators in the middle of our ride and I am pretty sure they forgot about us. We were on this thing FOREVER. Every time we would come down we kept saying "this must be us" and then it wasn't. We started to get a little freaked out after ten minutes on this thing! Eventually they let us off and we then went to get some very important pictures for my boys. Bigger than life Chewbacca made of legos, and real-life Spiderman and Ironman. Turns out the real-life guys won't let you take their pictures for free, so we walked away a few feet and K set up a shot with them in the background. Good enough for me.
In Times Square we found all kinds of  'culture'. See the picture of the guy in florescent underwear? There were three of them, one was some kind of leader. They were out in freezing cold weather acting like they were shooting some sort of exercise video? He kept hollering about how "ya'll were feeling that burn" and telling some mysterious audience how to stretch it out. They had two little guys (clothed, luckily) with signs about how cancer affects so many millions every year. I am not making light of cancer, by any means... but what in the world does this scenario have to do with cancer?
We walked not even 100 feet when we were stopped by this lovely gentlemen who gave us this great offer: "Ladies, how about we get drunk and make bad some bad decisions?". So tempting - HA! If only I would have busted out the camera for a pose with this guy. Next time.
We got some cheesecake from Juniors - famous for a reason. It was delicious. And then, THEN we went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. I had never been to a Broadway show, and of course my girl Friday knows where to get great tickets for great prices, so we ended up in the 12th row! I had goosebumps when Mary Poppins flew off over our heads with her umbrella. It was AMAZING! I still get giddy just thinking about it. I can't wait to see another show. Or see that one again. Either way I am hooked. All in all, it was an incredible day.

Hello cupcakes. Love at first bite.

The next day we went to SoHo. Random place for lunch which we made fun of the rest of the day. Then we started our cupcake tour. Those little pieces of heaven are everywhere these days and it was just necessary that we would taste test them all and compare. Our favorites were this little cart on some random street "Cafe Angelique's" where this fairy godmother handed us scrumptious bites of the moistest cupcakes ever - Red Velvet and Chocolate Cannoli. Second place was this incredible french toast cupcake - not nearly as moist but such a good idea for a cupcake! I'm pretty sure my little town needs a cupcake cart. It would make the world smile. We tried 4 places in all. (Because you have to make sure your sample size is large enough or your test results aren't really valid).

Peanut Butter Cup(cake). Not our overall winner, but delicious.

We then went to Old Navy. I know, I felt a little lame asking about Old Navy being surrounded by such great stores. But I knew they were having this amazing sale, so she humored me. AND we ended up getting these great pea coats for $10!! We found a few fabulous CHEAP things there, so it was worth it. And then we went back into the city to hit up all of the stores from the day before. Well, not really, but for some reason I am the kind of person that loves something in a store and talks myself out of it... only to be haunted by it all night and then drag everyone back the next day because I should have just bought it in the first place. Oh man. This pitcher at Anthropologie was just beautiful and I had birthday money so it wasn't even like I was paying for it ;) And then we hit up the Lego store for a treat for Josiah and Steve and then another cupcake store (HA!) and got treats there for the girls. We left fairly early and got pizza and pajamas (we had our box of dessert samplings from the cupcake store!). Miss S arrived shortly after and we spent the evening catching up in between bad jokes on the Golden Globes. It was so great. These are ladies I can just be lazy with and go months without seeing (unfortunately) but feel like it was just yesterday. And these are ladies that can make me LAUGH. This weekend was just such a God-thing. He knew exactly what I needed in this moment and provided for me. Yum.

Lunch. Mmmm.

The next day we got a great lunch and went to get mani/pedi's at this little mini-spa. It was great - even though by this point by foot was in so much pain I was fighting tears with every step. Boo. We got our hands and toes all pretty and it was great. I can't remember the last time I painted my nails. I haven't painted my toes since before Delia was born. It just feels so nice to be 'pampered' and also just to have these perfect purple nails for a day (managed to get my first chip that night racing for the plane! boo). We then found our final cupcake shop on our way back to K's house to get our stuff. ;)

Self portraits on the subway.

We were WAY late leaving for the airport...and then we got lost... We are two very smart individuals. We were looking at all of the signs and following a GPS. I swear there wasn't a sign! I got to LaGuardia after the plane had already started loading. Oh crap. I had initially asked for assistance (ie wheelchair), but she looked at my ticket and said we wouldn't make it unless we ran. So run we did. She pushed me to the front of the line for security, and luckily I wasn't checking any bags. And then we ran to the gate (her running, me hopping and cursing every time my toe hit down). I was the last person to board and off we went. Phew! (Although I don't think I would have minded missing that flight - staying a little longer would have been fine)...
Planes were delayed on the way home, and then there was yet another snow event, so I didn't get home until about 2am. I was so very happy to see those 3 smiley faces the next morning, but I couldn't help but think about how loud it was! And so chaotic! Clearly, I need these getaways more often. You come home to your family - and I'm not cold-hearted, of course I missed them - and life just hits you in the face instantly. Wouldn't it be great if there was a recovery room? Like after surgery you get to warm up to facing reality with heated blankets and ice chips? Sometimes I wish I had a room like that in my house.
I can't wait to go back ;)