James and Kalista

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in New York City. James has a kind friend from college who offered to let us stay at her apartment while she was out of town for the holiday. We arrived in the city Wednesday night and Thursday morning we went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Seeing the parade in person is something I'd wanted to do since I was little because I loved watching the parade on TV every year. However, we actually didn't see too much of the parade besides the big balloons going by. We went to the start of the parade route where it is supposedly less crowded, but still the streets were packed with people. The girls were a little cold and grumpy until they were spoiled with inflatable Dora dolls on a stick. Addy was obsessed with her "Dora baby" for the next few days until we finally deflated it for our drive home.











After the parade we walked through Central Park to the famous FAO Schwarz Toy Store.














James laughing as Akasha and Geoff were stopped by the rapper "Mo-Pain" trying to sell them his CD.
















This toy store really is huge and impressive. Addy and Aspen were quite mesmerized. After a while it became a little overwhelming so we took them upstairs to see the Big Piano. They watched a little show ( similar to the one below) and then we waited in a 20 minute line for a two minute turn. It was worth the wait because the girls loved it. The only problem was that they were so sad when their turn was over and Addy refused to put her shoes back on. If she's a good girl maybe Santa will bring her own big piano mat for Christmas...Just not that big. :)












We ended the day by walking over to the New York Temple.