Surprise!!!! Guest!!!

Tuesday Night: Received phone call from my friend Katie Shafer saying she had a huge, huge favor to ask of me: her friend had purchased a last-minute ticket to come see her and was flying in the next morning. Due to a dentist appointment conflict, Katie asked me to pick up her friend from the airport (at 9:15am= NYC rush hour). Being the wonderful friend that I am, wholeheartedly agreed:)! All Katie knew about the flight was that it was on Spirit airlines and that her friend would be wearing a red shirt. She told me she would call me when she had more details.

Wednesday 7:45am: Freaking out because Katie had not yet told me the friend's flight info. Called Katie to figure out logistics. She said Noah (her husband) had texted the flight info to Josh. When I asked her to just tell it to me, she claimed that she didn't have it next to her, and that she would call me back. Twenty minutes later...Josh called (from his dentist appointment) to tell me that my phone wasn't working and that he and Katie had both been trying to call me with the flight info. Josh said he would be home in a few minutes and had time to ride with me to the airport and that I could just drop him at work afterwards.

Wednesday 8:15am: Driving to the airport in traffic :).

Wednesday 9:15am: Pulling into airport. Aubri: "It's kind of exciting to be at the airport, because we're usually picking up a friend or family for us, but it's kind of sad because the friend's not for us this time."

Josh: "Ya."

Aubri: "OK. We're looking for Spirit airlines, and don't forget, she's wearing a RED shirt."

Josh: Commences flashing lights and honking horn.

Aubri: "Josh, stop! What are you doing? Stop being obnoxious; she doesn't know what kind of car we drive!"

Josh: (in sarcastic voice) "Oh, look, who could that be?"

Aubri: Still looking for girl in red shirt, did a double take and thought the girl on the curb wearing a white coat looked a lot like her sister Siri. Uh, FREAK OUT, FREAK OUT! IT IS SIRI! Jump out of car, tears flowing, arms flailing; HUG HUG. CRY CRY. HUG HUG! "You guys tricked me!"

Siri: "Hey!"

Needless to say, the past week has been lots of fun! Josh and Siri have been planning this surprise for the past 3 weeks. Everyone but me knew that Siri was coming!

Rowing a boat in Central Park

The "Princess" Castle, AKA, Clinton Castle in Central Park--Lexi was so excited all day to see the castle. We were too, until we realized we had to carry the stroller up 3 flights of stairs because we went the wrong direction on the park path! Oh well, still super fun, and also got a cardio workout!

Lexi counted every single step up the castle steps and insisted on walking the stairs herself, even though lots of people were trying to come up and down them. The pace of a two-year-old is not always very speedy, but people seemed to think it was cute that she was counting the steps, and even went back up the stairs when they saw us coming up :).

Bethesda Fountain (From the opening credits of Friends)

Bubble blowers in CP

Lexi posing for pictures: you would think this girl has been in a lot of pictures or something--oh, that's right, she has!

Lombardi's: The oldest pizza place in NYC. Yummy Pizza! Best part of the evening: Lexi throwing a dishcloth out the open window onto the street.

Girls Day Out. We spent the afternoon in Soho trying on ridiculously expensive clothes. The sales ladies were a bit pushy and never left us alone (they stood outside the dressing room waiting to attend to our EVERY need). Sounds cool? It's not. Offering your true opinion is a bit tricky with the lady standing RIGHT there.

We started out lunch with the idea of restaurant hopping, you know, a sandwich here, a burger there, slice--or two-- of pizza at the next joint. First Stop/Last stop: Katz Deli. Menu: Pastrami on Rye with sauerkraut, mustard, and cheese. Considering the size of the sandwich, we're glad we shared. Stomachs: happy! Option of going to another place, um, stomachs too full! Although, there is always room for Junior's cheesecake.

This is the place where "Harry met Sally."

So many choices...

Choice of the evening: Cherry cheesecake!

And really, what is a trip to NYC without a little Times Square action?

Grand Central "on the fly." Best part? Posing for the picture without looking at it!