An Amazing 36 Hours

We got back from our medical screening trip two days ago. I cannot believe from when we left our house on Tuesday morning to when we got home on Wednesday evening was a mere 36 hours. We crammed so much into such a short period of time, and we had so many new experiences! I'm so thankful that although the purpose of this trip was for the surrogacy medical screening, we had a little bit of time to visit a city I've always wanted to see. It's a trip I will never forget!

Right after I posted my last post, we took a taxi (a first for us) to the train station (another first) so we could make the trip down to Manhattan. I'm so glad J&S encouraged us to do this! We spent the evening in midtown Manhattan, walking around the city, going to the top of the Empire State Building, and then heading over to Times Square. The city is indescribable, and the view from the top of the Empire State Building seemed too amazing to be real. Although I love living in a small town, the buzz of energy and excitement in Manhattan was pretty awesome. All of the buildings were so gorgeous, and when we first walked out of Grand Central Station on to the street, I will be the first to admit I got choked up. I couldn't believe that we were actually standing there, and it was even more than I imagined it to be. We spent about 6 hours there before heading back to Connecticut. We were absolutely exhausted and even fell asleep on the train (oops!). I'm having a hard time deciding which pictures to post here, and I took too many to post them all. So here are just a couple, or you can click here, and see all of the pictures along with their descriptions. :)

Me and my hubby in front of the New York Public Library,

Look at their gorgeous flower bed of tulips!

Our view of lower Manhattan from the top of the Empire

State Building. In this shot, you can see the new World

Trade Center building and the Statue of Liberty.

Finally, in Times Square, someone offered to take

our picture so we didn't have to do another selfie!

Times Square as the sun's going down. See

the New Year's Eve ball up there?!

Next stop: the IVF clinic for my medical screening!

We're Here!

We are off the plane, and we just checked in to the hotel! We are going to change into something warmer before we start exploring. We stepped out of the airport and my teeth instantly started chattering! I had to dig my jacket out of the suitcase. Ah, Florida girl problems. :)

I think we are going to hop on a train down to Manhattan and check out the city! So far, we already feel like tourists. We were ooh-ing and aah-ing at the hills, the beautiful spring colors on the trees, and the rocks. Yep, the rocks! They are huge and everywhere! I may or may not have flipped out when I saw a patch of tulips (my favorite flower!) growing wild. I've only seen them in the grocery stores in Florida!

Okay, gotta go. No time to waste! Here's are some pics of our view from the airplane window this morning...

Small Town Girl

I've spent most of today trying to prepare for our medical screening trip on Tuesday! We took a quick trip over to my sister's house to borrow some luggage for the traveling we will be doing during this surrogacy. Last summer, we took our first big family trip (a 6 hour drive) to South Carolina, and this was our luggage...

Clearly I can't use reusable grocery bags this time, and I certainly can't walk through a New York airport wearing my NASCAR Sprint Cup backpack...I might as well write "SMALL TOWN GIRL" on my forehead with a Sharpie. We borrowed a suitcase from my sister, and now I am trying to figure out what to wear on the plane and while we're in CT. It will be in the mid-80's when we leave Florida on Tuesday, and apparently about 25 degrees cooler in CT when we land. I'm going to have to dig out my socks from the far back corner of my dresser drawer, because I don't think my usual flip flops will suffice!

While Skyping with the guys this morning, they really encouraged us to try and see a little bit of New York while we are up there (so sweet of them!). They made it sound so easy..."just take the train!" I have never been on a city bus, subway, train, in a train station, or even in a taxi. So while all of this is really exciting for us, it's slightly terrifying and overwhelming too! Plus, how on earth am I supposed to decide what we want to see in New York, when we only have a few hours?! I guess we're just going to do our best to see what we can, have fun, and try not to get lost!