the williams {beebes and irbys} take new york.

this year {all} 15 of my hubs extended family decided to take a trip to the big apple for our christmas together. although most of the family had been before, this was the mine and the hubs first time visiting and we had been looking forward to the trip for MONTHS!

we left on thursday, two days after christmas. the day started with waking up at 4 am when our early morning flight no longer sounded like a good idea... but i'm glad we were able to get there in time to enjoy the day in the city. we stayed at the sheraton at 53rd and 7th, which was a great location.

 after we dropped off our luggage, we went to juniors for a yummy burger and some delicious red velvet cheesecake, then we spent the rest of the afternoon walking around taking it all in.

{grand central station}

ronald and lauren were so sweet to stand in the tkts booth line and get everyone tickets to see newsical, an off broadway show staring cheri o'teri {from SNL}. it was really funny and everyone seemed to enjoy it. then we went to john's pizzeria {which is an old converted church with really cool atmosphere} for a late dinner.

{the cousins at rockefeller center}

friday we had burgers for lunch at the shake shack {from the movie something borrowed}

 and then walked around 5th avenue a bit and saw macys...

 which was even bigger than it looks on tv!

then the whole family went to the afternoon radio city music christmas spectacular show {featuring the rockettes}, which i absolutely loved!
and then we walked around a bit, seeing famous sites like the plaza hotel... from bride wars, home alone 2 and many other films...

and the big piano at FAO schwarz... {which was sadly broken... but still cool to see}

ronald had made reservations for us to go to virgils barbq for dinner- and we had such a good time... they were even able to fit us all at one table!

after dinner we went by a couple more stores and rode the ferris wheel at toys r us...

saturday morning a group of us went to the 9/11 memorial, which was beautiful.

{ronald, alex, lauren and alicia on the subway heading to the memorial}

{greg and his cousin, matthew}

it was snowing and absolutely freezing! it was really surreal to see the site of the twin towers and ground zero...

and it was really weird to think that matthew {the youngest cousin, at 18} was only 7 when the attack happened.

 {i also learned about st. pauls church, which was one of the only buildings that did not have any damage- not even a broken window... even though it is RIGHT beside the site and the survivor tree, which are really inspiring stories if you are not familiar with them as well}.

sunday we went to the empire state building first thing with jon so we would be back before he and the beebe's had to go to the airport for their flight that afternoon.

we got there about 8:30, and were able to skip the line {thanks to the VIP passes the concierge at our hotel hooked us up with}

{the tall tower is the freedom tower, where the twin towers used to stand and if you look real hard you can see the statue of liberty to the right}

 it was really windy and cold at the top...

 but it was a clear day and the views were gorgeous!

 by the time we left, the line was around the block and hours long- so we really lucked out by going early.

we had lunch with the irbys before everyone left that afternoon, except my family of four {who accidently booked our trip an extra day longer... but it worked out in our favor!} sunday was one of my favorite days because we were able to see the lion king on broadway!
although i saw the lion king in atlanta with my mom a couple of years ago, it has been on my life list to see a show on broadway, and i knew the hubs would like it. i was practically giddy with excitement!

it definitely did not disappoint... the show {and costumes!} were AMAZING!

for dinner we went to lombardi's pizza, which claims to be america's first pizzeria- we saw it on the amazing race a couple of weeks ago, i am so glad we decided to give it a go- it was delicious!

i may or may not have followed the pizza with a cannoli in bed... ;)

we had an amazing trip and some good quality time with family, but i gotta say after a couple of days in the big city, i was ready to come home! i felt like we timed it perfectly... we were able to see new york decorated for christmas, and left just in time to miss the NYE craziness.