"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day. And I believe in miracles."
~ Audrey Hepburn

2.01.2012

NYE in NYC

The McAfee family arrived in New York early in the morning of New Year's Eve. Such perfect timing.
"I'm not even tired!!!" claimed Bailey and Ryan, who didn't sleep on their redeye flight. 20 minutes
later they were all snoring on the beds of our hotel room (it was too early for them to check in to theirs). 

After their catnap, we rushed over to the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where we had tickets
to watch Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker performed by the New York City Ballet company. 

IMG_8865 IMG_8867 IMG_8891 IMG_8864 IMG_8872 IMG_8882 IMG_8885

It was so amazing!!!!!!! It is a tradition in my family to watch The Nutcracker during Christmastime,
so I have seen it many, many times. This was by far the absolute best! The dancers were incredible (and little Clara was actually played by a little girl, unlike the granny that played her at the San Gabriel Civic), the choreography was so beautiful (they actually nailed the Intrada, my sister's and my favorite song), and somehow the whole ballet had a humorous side that I've never before seen. So happy we splurged on those tickets. 

After the show, we decided to make our way towards Time Square. We stopped for some Waffles & Dinges before haha. SO YUMMY. Thanks for the recommendation, Jenny!

IMG_8899 IMG_8900 IMG_8908 IMG_8914 IMG_8912 IMG_8915 IMG_8918 IMG_8919 IMG_8931 IMG_8932 IMG_8936 IMG_8939 IMG_8942 IMG_8946 IMG_8951 IMG_8953 IMG_8965 IMG_8966 IMG_8973 IMG_8976 IMG_8981

We also stopped at the McAfees' hotel for a bit, so they could change and, ya know, a short photoshoot. View from their hotel:

IMG_9015 IMG_9023 IMG_9027 IMG_9028 IMG_9032 IMG_9033 IMG_9037 IMG_9038 IMG_9039 IMG_9044 IMG_9045 IMG_9047 IMG_9048 IMG_9049 IMG_9051 IMG_9053 IMG_9054

Anyway, by this time it was about 5 PM and, unbeknownst to us, the crowds had been amassing since 2 AM the morning before!! Suffice it to say, the streets immediately surrounding the ball dropping were roped off by the police and my family and I had no choice but to linger around the outskirts of the festivities for the rest of the night. At one point we got really close to the ball but the streets were total insanity and the cops started to move everyone out of that area.

IMG_9059 IMG_9061 IMG_9063 IMG_9064 IMG_9065 IMG_9066

Frustrated, we grabbed some pizza, returned to our hotel (which was only two blocks away from Times Square) and ended up going outside just before the ball dropped to do the countdown. It sucked that we didn't get to see the performances and the actual ball drop but it was still pretty amazing to be out there with the crowd and feel the energy of the night. Moral of the story: if you want to see the ball drop, wait there at the crack of dawn and be prepared for a lonnnnng day. There were people who hadn't peed in 20 hours. HAH. I would've peed on myself.  

IMG_9073 IMG_9074 IMG_9075 IMG_9077

P.S. Isn't my cousin Ryan such a stud? Props to him for putting up with eight girls all week. 
Then again, I guess he's done it his whole life hahaha

Click here for NYC Part I, II, III, and IV

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

LOVE IT! ALL YOUR PICS ARE AMAZING!!! MOM