The Shields: Carpe Diem

Michael's new position has had him traveling about once a month since he started in May. Normally, this would be something that might not be too ideal, but we have realized that we are at a time in our lives that we might not ever be again. Since I'm not teaching this year, we don't have a school/work schedule to work around and Laila is under 2 (she can still fly free) so we can actually tag along on these business trips at a relatively decent price. Now that we are aware of this rare phenomenon, we have definitely seized the day and are enjoying the opportunity we have to travel together!
About a week after Michael's family left, we all took off for New Jersey. I had some flight points that I could use so we decided that Adelaide and I would fly separately. Yep. 5 hour non-stop flight with a toddler by myself. Fortunately we flew Southwest so I was able to get on and sit in an empty row. I sat on the aisle and put Laila in the middle seat (even though she's a lap child) as I stowed all our gear. I had one girl who wanted to sit in the window seat until she saw Laila. Then she said, "Oh No. She's cute, but no." Wow. Alright then. Fortunately for us, we had a darling British girl sit by us and although the flight was almost full, we got to have the empty middle seat too. And true to character, Adelaide was a doll. She gave high fives, giggled, put her pretzels on her drink straw, watched movies and took a nap. Definitely a win for us.

Michael had meetings in Morristown at the start of the week so we decided to enjoy NYC on the weekend. Our good friends, the Hardys, currently live in the city so they graciously agreed to be our tour guides! It was such a blast to see them and finally meet their little man. Getting around the city is definitely a lot more relaxing when you have people who know what they're doing- what trains to get on, when to get off or transfer, etc. They took us to the beautiful High Line Park. Basically it's a high train track turned into a park. We enjoyed lunch at Shake Shack. Due to some cold, wet babies we took a tour of Marcus' office and warmed up a bit.

Afterwards, we were FINALLY able to get Laila to put on her coat and soon after, she was asleep. We walked around a fun thrift/antique sale. I have a tinge of buyer's remorse because we couldn't figure out a way to get a beautiful, Chinese wood carved screen home with us. *sigh* But what a wonderful day with the Hardy's!

The next morning, we went back into the city to see the Sept 11 memorial. It is a powerful way to literally represent the giant holes those twin towers left in the beautiful, Manhattan sky line.

We also enjoyed walking around the city a little more and eating some yummy goodies!

We purchased this treasure:

Best $5 we have ever spent. She calls it her 'roar' and it actually helps keep our poor AZ born child warm. We had fun on our short, little jaunt into NYC.

^Laila LOVED the "choo choos."

The next couple of days were spent in Morristown, NJ as Michael had meetings. It's definitely a beautiful, New England-esque area. Laila and I enjoyed hanging out at the hotel, swimming, playing in the leaves and I got my HGTV fix! Not too shabby! When Michael was done with work we would get some dinner, walk through some fun furniture stores and one night we went bowling.