New York Day 5

What does a 1-year old do when the subway gets a little too noisy, crowded and overwhelming? Why he breaks out into tree pose and gets centered of course! ;-) (He's learning yoga in school...gotta love it!)

We were trying to get a picture of Ryan dancing on the pole in the train car but missed our shot...this is a still pretty good shot of him sashaying and laughing at himself though!

This is the official Ryan saying "Cheeeese!" smile! He smiles so big that he crinkles his eyes shut!

What's the only thing better than going to Crumb's Bake Shop in Manhattan yesterday?! Going to Carlo's Bake Shop in Hoboken, NJ today!!! We hopped the PATH train from Manhattan and made the pilgrimmage over to Carlo's, the bakery (featured on TLC's Cake Boss) that got me interested in cake decorating!

I had my heart set on eating two desserts from Carlo's- their legendary crumb cake (which I am pointing to...fans of the show might recognize Joey, Buddy's brother-in-law in the background doing a cake consultation) and their cannolis! And I gotta say- while their crumb cake was every bit as delicious as I'd imagined (their crumbs are more like boulders!), it was their sweet, cream-filled cannolis made me want to weep for joy. If I may make a suggestion- take a cream-filled cannoli, top it with crumb cake crumbs and call it the "Jolene"...then my life will have had meaning!

My mom is eating a cannoli, I'm eating crumb cake, & Ryan and my dad are sharing a piece of coconut custard pie. My brother Joey was taking the picture, but he was busy stuffing two different kinds of chocolate pastries in his face! I must add that these were just a few of the goodies we bought during our first stop at the bakery...we bought even more on our second stop (my dad accidentally bought a small sheet of crumb cake instead of a piece)! Terrible mistake.

My nearly-out-of-breath, groupie mother (also a huge fan of the show) nearly died and went to heaven when she spotted the matriarch of the Valastro clan (Buddy's mother, Grace)! She was kind enough to chat with us for a few minutes and proudly showed us picture of her son and husband on the wall. When she heard we had come all the way from Hawaii to see the shop she made a loud announcement to the rest of the staff!

We got to see most of the Valastro clan that day- in addition to Joey and Mama Valastro, we also got to see cousin Anthony (this is the back of the restaurant, we peeked in and saw him working, but he happily came outside to pose for a pic with us even though his hands were covered in dough!), three of Buddy's four sisters (Grace, Madeline & Mary), Buddy's wife Lisa, Danny, and some of the camera crew for TLC (they were filming that day). It REALLY is a tight knit family business- they were all there working hard! The only people we seem to have missed that day were Mauro, Buddy (filming upstairs with his daughter's class on a field trip) & Buddy's fourth sister Lisa (with good reason though...she had just given birth a little earlier! We know this only because while we were there, Buddy's wife Lisa made the announcement and everyone started squealing with delight). Can't wait to see that episode and know that we were downstairs while it all happened (it would also mark the day they created the "Jolene")!

After stalking Carlo's for awhile, we walked around Hoboken's beautiful grassy waterfront park fronting Manhattan and gawked at it's beauty. Ryan ran free for the first time since we left Kona 4-5 days ago! After leaving Hoboken, we hit up one of my regular stops in Manhattan- FAO Schwarz!

Ryan showing Elmo some love!

Ryan running across the giant piano with daddy (since he was too tiny to get the piano to work using his own little, light-weight footsteps)!

Who says I'm too old be Cinderella next Halloween?! This dress was made for me! I would love to also post the picture I took of Joey with Batman, but I think my mortified parents would disown me, and I would be kicked off Blogger for posting questionable content.

Ryan...our little damsel (or I suppose, dame) in distress! He pointed at the hat and said "I like this!" so we let him wear it for a minute! ;-)

Not sure what else we're going to do today (we're back in the room right now so Ryan can take his cutomary midday nap). Since it's Uncle Joey's last night, I think we'll let him pick what he wants to do (which means we'll probably end up walking around SoHo, wearing berets, touring art galleries, eating seven bites of dinner for $56 per person, and smoking cigars at a tequila bar... Better get Ryan's smoking jacket pressed!