New York Day 8

This morning we went to one of my favorite places in the whole wide world- Central Park! Ryan LOVED it! He was so giddy being able to run around so freely! Rich and I couldn't stop marveling over something that we'd read about years ago in The Nanny Diaries- that nearly every other woman we saw was a Maclaren or Bug-a-boo stroller pushing (foreign) nanny and her young charge(s)!

We hit up both the Tisch Children's (petting) zoo and the Central Park Zoo in the morning. Here's Ryan staring at all the ducks. I would like to say that he loved looking at the snakes, the monkeys, the leopards, etc...but that would be a lie. Because what Ryan REALLY loved doing was running in and out of the bird sanctuary, since it had these long, clear, plastic strips (the kind you sometimes see in refrigerated sections of the grocery store)hanging in the doorway to keep the birds from flying out.

Not sure what's funnier to me...that an animal is called an 'alpaca,' or how goofy looking an alpaca is. In any case, Ryan did eventually worke up the courage to feed one of them!

Our little turtle growing into his shell...

I've always wished I had the body of a (Playboy) bunny...and now I do!

This polar bear was hysterical! He was TOTALLY people-watching!

After walking around the zoo for a few hours we picked up some lamb gyros for Rich and a Philly cheesesteak for me and then ate lunch in Central Park while Ryan grooved to a saxophonist the whole time.

I had been wanting to go Dylan's Candy Bar for awhile and had no idea it was just one train stop away from our hotel!

Ryan had his first ever piece of candy at Dylan's! They were handing out tiny samples of Twizzlers and somehow he *just knew* they were something delicious and reached out and grabbed one! And of course, he loved it!

Ryan loved the candy stairs at Dylan's Candy Bar! I bought him his own little Ryan-sized candy jar that says "Ryan's Candy" on it with his treat money from Great Grandma!

If this tub were filled with Skittles instead of gumballs I probably would have stripped down and thrown myself into it!

Ryan and I with two of New York City's finest...(they begged for a photo...we couldn't say no). ;-)

Our family cruising up and down Times Square soaking up the energy...one last time!

While daddy went shopping, my parents and I couldn't resist taking Ryan back to Toys R Us for a repeat ride on the ferris wheel, only this time with Grandma! He immediately recognized the ride as soon as we walked into the store and was thrilled to go back on! We scored a much better car this time- a school bus!

Guess who we saw on Broadway?! ELMO!!! And in case you didn't know this- Elmo speaks only Spanish. Though he did learn how to tell me, "Tip one dollar, please!" And so we did! Little did we know that when Ryan leaned in to give Elmo a goodbye hug that Elmo would reach over and grab him! I'm not sure who was more surprised, me or Ryan!!!

We learned pretty quickly that we had to stop for every single street musician...Ryan loves music!!!

My mom really wanted to go to Crumbs, so we forced ourselves to return and got two more cupcakes (raspberry swirl and peanut butter chocolate chip)!

Look how happy cupcakes make me, mama! I want more! More!

While we were waiting for the train (for our final ride back to the hotel), we showed Ryan where all the Crumbs cupcakes went...he thought it was hysterical!

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The weather over the past few days has been perfect...we were able to do EVERYTHING we wanted to do and more. No complaints here! It's funny, the first and second time we came here we stayed only 3-4 days each trip, and there were so many 'big' things we had to do in such a short amount of time- the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Plaza, etc. So I always left feeling like I hadn't gotten to do everything I'd wanted to. But after this trip, I feel totally satiated. I mean, if I could stay a few more days or come back every year, I'd still LOVE to, I just mean that I feel totally content right now. :-) We're off to CA tomorrow, wish me luck! I'm armed with motion sickness drugs this time and am flying United all the way (NYC to Denver, then Denver to Orange County)!