Walking and walking...

We were off to explore the city today! We had spurts of rain throughout the morning, but nothing too bad. Cooper and I dropped Zoe off and met Mimi and Jax in Rockefeller Center.

 We walked by the Today show studio and saw Hoda and Kathie Lee filming...

 Across the street in the NBC studio store, the boys took pictures in The Voice chair...

 Then we began our trek up 5th Avenue. Cooper was a happy guy in the NBA Store...

 

 The Cartier store looked so nice...

 and I loved the inside of the St. Thomas church...

 We went inside Trump Tower, and the boys got Trump gold bars made of chocolate...

 and we made it to FAO Schwarz...

 and the boys got silly...

 Jax has a big collection of Kid Robot figures, so we headed to one of the stores.

 Both boys ended up with a large figurine...

 We took the subway up to Grand Central Station.

 The rain started to fall...

 We picked up some lunch in the very crowded dining concourse.

We had quite an experience with lunch. There were some interesting characters next to my mom at the table. After one woke up the other, we watched as they filled up empty water bottles with vodka before preceding to consume it...after their soda.

We quickly left our table, and picked up some treats on our way out. Mimi got some banana pudding from Magnolia Bakery, Jax got a smoothie, Cooper a chocolate shake, and I got a mocha chip gelato.

We headed to the New York Public Library. This is one of my favorite buildings in the city.

 The architecture and ceilings are incredible.

 Cooper thought it was neat to see one of the original Honus Wagner baseball cards on display.

 We stumbled upon a Children's Literature Exhibit, which showed and documented children's books from the 1600's to current. It was a highlight of our day, and such a fantastic exhibit.

I couldn't resist the Mary Poppins book and movie display.

 We left the library and walked through Bryant Park.

We headed down to Macy's so Mimi could do a little souvenir shopping, and we stopped for a drink break and to rest our feet. We were feeling a bit weary.

 

 We headed back towards Zoe's studio and walked around for a bit. Jax is on the hunt for an art shop where he can find a New York painting, so we spent some time searching, with no luck. The boys were quite tired and getting a bit grumpy by this point.
Finally, we picked up Zoe and Mimi gave her money to buy the ABT summer intensive jacket. She was excited!

 Everyone was excited to go to Shake Shack for dinner in the lovely Madison Square Park.

 

Everyone's mood lightened up and we had a great dinner. The boys headed back to the hotel, planning on swimming in the hotel pool. Unfortunately, the pool closed at 6:00. Seriously? What kind of pool closes at 6 p.m. in the summer??!! The boys were bummed, but decided that it would feel good just to lay in bed and play their games...

Zoe came home and hit  the couch. Her legs were ready for a break.

We're all ready for some rest and are looking forward to more exploring tomorrow!