Mountz Memoirs: NYC, Ellie Hangs with the Fentons, & the Girls Go Home

When my friends told me they were coming to visit me I asked what they would want to do while they were in town. One mentioned that she would love to see New York City. Another had never been there so I really wanted to make this happen.
Instead of waking up early and rushing to make it into the city we decided to take it slow and enjoy our morning. Originally deciding to leave at 9:00 we finally left shortly after 10:00. Kelly offered to keep Ellie and with the forecast calling for snow and cold rain I took advantage of a warm, safe place for Ellie to stay. I left her with some bottles and a fresh change of clothes and thanked Kelly profusely. Although I wanted to bring Ellie with us I knew I made the right decision.
Our late departure put us in the city after lunch time. It was snowing and had accumulated to about four inches in New York. Due to some complications with my GPS I accidentally drove right into downtown Manhattan. Oops. Since parking is expensive in the city and I did not want to get caught in traffic leaving the city on a Friday night I dropped the girls off near the 9/11 Memorial and I found my way to the appropriate Ferry station on Staten Island in St. George, NJ. My detour took me over the Brooklyn Bridge and through some shady areas of town so I was thankful for my GPS and the daylight!
While we were in NYC we stopped by the 9/11 Memorial, St. Paul's Chapel, St. Patrick's Cathedral, The American Girl Place, Tiffany's, Central Park, Times Square, and a few other places. We rode the subway and the ferry so I feel as though all in all we had a well-rounded NYC experience.
Jon picked up Ellie from Kelly's house after work. He then took her over to his parent's house and brought pizza. Doug and Donna had gone to Florida to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary (which is this June) and had arrived home just the night before at 2:00AM (Jon picked them up from the airport). Jon and Ellie did not stay long since she was tired and needed to go to bed. They were both in bed when the four of us arrived back in town from our trip.
Saturday morning we slept in. Well, the girls slept in. Apparently Ellie missed the memo about the long day and late night since she woke up around 7:00. Jon left shortly after she woke up to get a load of wood from his Dad's with Omar then the two of them fixed our stone wall, pick up some items from Lowe's, and set up our new mail box. While Ellie and I waited for the girls we hung out and then I gave her a bath.
When all the girls were awake we took showers and had breakfast. I made eggs, sausage, and toast. Lauren Shaffer called from Austria and we Skyped while we ate. It was so nice to talk to her! We missed having her around. Since we slept in and spent so long on breakfast it was almost lunch by the time we were ready for the day. Elizabeth Dyer and Rachel had to fly out around 4:00 so we left for the airport around 1:00 and stopped at Panera for lunch.
Emaye and I took advantage of being out and about and stopped by the Philadelphia Premium Outlets on our way home. Although neither of us bought anything we took a loop around the stores and stopped in several places. Jon, Omar, and Peter were playing FIFA when we came home. The two of us heated up leftovers from Thursday evening and watched "Raising Helen" before heading to bed. Ellie went to sleep after dinner and slept through the night.
Sunday morning it was hard to wake up due to daylight savings. Emaye had stuck around through Sunday since she wanted to attend church with us. I was disappointed when we arrived (almost fifteen minutes late...oops) and Uncle Steve was not preaching. The guest pastor was very good but it's not the same. Dad will be our Sunday School teacher but he was also absent so she heard Mike Culbert. What a bummer.
Ellie did not sleep at all during church but fell asleep on our drive home. Jon put her to bed while I prepared the chicken for grilling. While he grilled I put together a salad and we ate grilled chicken salads for lunch. Jon left to play soccer with some people from church while Ellie and I took Emaye to the airport. I cannot believe that my friends came up to visit! I really enjoyed the time spent with them and hope they had fun, too.
On our way home Ellie started crying about halfway home. I stopped in a school parking lot and changed her diaper (boo) and fed her. We then drove straight to church and were only three minutes late for choir. Ellie once again didn't sleep at all during church and Mom-mom said it was because it was too exciting: there were five young boys ages 18 months through 3 with her.
Following prayer meeting we went over to Doug and Donna's and watched the second episode of The Bible. They provided Arby's sandwiches for dinner and we were also joined by Peter and Brittany. Ellie fell right to sleep in the crib and had no trouble going back to sleep once we came home. She definitely does not mind sleeping at night.

Ellieisms:
I finally saw Ellie roll over! When I laid her in the pack'n'play at church she rolled over. She was not ready for sleep.
Ellie does not enjoy driving. I think she must get bored.
After seeing Emily's stats I weighed Ellie and she came in at 15 lbs 2 oz (with her diaper on). Emily is a chunk beating Ellie by a few ounces!