Once upon a time a girl met a boy and fell in love. A few years later, they got married. In the course of time, they had many adventures together, and seven beautiful children. Time flew by, and before they knew it, their 15th wedding anniversary rolled around.

September 16th, 2010

Rich surprised me by suggesting a trip to New York City. I was surprised because I had mentioned going with him several times in the past, but he never seemed very enthusiastic about it. Spending any amount of time in THE city was not his idea of relaxing. Apparently it just wasn’t the right time yet.

Yesterday was the perfect time for our first visit to the city, a special and memorable way to celebrate the 15 years of marriage that God has blessed us with. We are both so thankful to my friend Kathy, and my sister Amanda, for babysitting the children for us so we could go.



The drive to New Haven, to get on the Amtrak train, was great. We picked up coffees and breakfast sandwiches on the way and talked the entire time. We were both light hearted and laughed constantly.



On the train ride, we continued our non stop talking. We had a very productive conversation about our home life. We brainstormed ideas about how to make my mornings run smoother. Next week I will try to have a better routine in the mornings; breakfast with the children, a clean up/laundry time together, and a 9:00 start time for school each day. I have never liked working with a set schedule, I like to drift along according to my mood(s) and priorities at the time, but I am beginning to realize that having more of a predictable schedule will help our home life become more peaceful, less stressful. We are starting with a new morning routine, and after that is established and the kinks worked out, we will work on the rest of the day, too. It was a relief to tell my husband the areas in my day that were the most complicated, and to have him help me come up with good, POSITIVE solutions.

We’ve been so busy that we haven’t talked like that in a very long time. Having a day to ourselves showed us that we need to take more time to really talk and listen to one another. We are a couple, a team, on the same side….and it was a blessing to reconnect on the train. He wasn’t distracted by driving, we could sit side by side and talk. We also did some reading.


We eventually arrived at the city. Rich carried his backpack with our needed supplies for Sarah, and I carried Sarah in my arms. We brought the Ergo, but never needed it. She is still small enough that I didn’t mind holding her, and when she was too heavy, I just passed her over to Rich and he carried her for a while. Sarah got a lot of comments and attention.

We decided to eat at Rockefeller Center and began our walk along the busy streets of NY City. On the way, we passed a bakery that I really wanted to go in…the Magnolia Bakery. Because we were hungry and on a mission for lunch I didn’t mention it to Rich. But I never forgot about that bakery and knew it would haunt me a little, if I didn’t get a cupcake. LOL

We had a very relaxing lunch at Rockefeller Center, outdoors by the waterfall. The weather was gorgeous, cool with a light breeze.



We shared an appetizer…fried calamari…it was light, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.






I ordered a delicious lobster salad. The chilled lobster was served on top of a cold corn salad. It was seasoned with a dressing made with one of my favorite herbs, cilantro.


I am a meat and potatoes gal so I also enjoyed a bite or two of Rich’s yummy cheeseburger, and some fries.



A nice young lady agreed to take a picture for us.



Rich wanted me to take this picture.



Rich told me he was going to take me to Tiffany’s to get me an anniversary gift. I said, “Well…if you insist….”

Just kidding. I was overwhelmed and VERY HAPPY! We went in and didn’t even leave the first floor. After gushing over baby Sarah, a lady named Karen helped us and together we narrowed the choices down to two beautiful necklaces. I left the final decision to my husband, knowing that if he picked it out it would mean more to me. Also I could not for the life of me make up my mind.

The decision was made. I was gifted with a beautiful, dainty diamond, set in a thin gold necklace.

We sat and watched her put it in a box and wrap it around with a satin ribbon. When she snipped off the extra ribbon from the ends of the bow, I asked her if I could have it. I told her I was going to give the ribbon to the girls for their hair. Some very special ribbon from Tiffany’s. She got right up and got another big handful of it from the roll and put it in the bag for me.



As we got up to leave the wonderful place, I reached for my blue bag and knocked over a champagne glass and smashed it to smithereens. I like to make dramatic exits like that.







We did a lot of walking and window shopping, simply enjoying the exciting atmosphere of the city. At times we weren’t sure where we were going, but there was always a crowd to walk with….we could pretend we belonged and knew exactly what we were doing. *smile* I’ve been to the city before, with girlfriends, and I was so happy to finally be making some memories there with Rich. It was a wonderful day.



Back at the train station, we bought our tickets to go back home. With just minutes to spare, God had a little surprise anniversary gift for us. To my joy, I noticed a Magnolia Bakery stand and we quickly bought a piece of red velvet cheesecake, a coconut cupcake, and a coffee. We shared the treats on the way home. They were very delicious, especially the cheesecake. Rich couldn’t get over how good it was. The perfect ending, a yummy dessert, after our special day.

Today, the girls wore their new pretties~