taking one bite at a time out of the BIG APPLE

Today, we decided to use our own muscle to power around the streets of New York.

But before heading off, here's another view from our sleeping place. Pretty awesome, huh?

First stop: Apple Store. Lea decided that she needed a new case for her phone and so Kirk obliged her by making this our first stop. And yes, she picked out a sweet zebra case for her phone.

Conveniently next door to Apple was F A O Schwarz...now this store would have been fun for my kids like 10 years ago...

but, HELLO...who could resist the newborn nursery..there was actually a gal dressed in a nurses uniform tending to them as well! I had selected the baby in the bottom right hand corner: Ty and Sloane pretty much told me that their baby would probably NOT look like that!

Can't resist all the cool window displays of 5th Avenue...here's Louis Vuitton

Made our way to Rockefeller Center and my favorite, The TODAY show. And no, we did not get up at the crack of dawn to go and see it live.

This happened a lot while we were in New York.

Can you guess where we are now? Interesting people EVERYWHERE.

Yep, Times Square...full of all sorts of excitement--we actually came to try and score some tickets last minute....we were successful in getting some for Evita tonight!

like this guy that Kirk stopped to talk to...check out Lea's face and what she is looking at...she looks rather grossed out. OK, those are rats on the guys shoulders that have been dyed!

WHERE IS SAGE? This jumbotron in Times Square actually has a camera set in place and at certain intervals it takes live pictures so everyone jumps up and gets into it so they can see themselves on the jumbotron.

We grabbed a limo to take us home after seeing Evita with the yes, incredibly handsome Ricky Martin!! Yes, we did all this in ONE LONG DAY!

NEW YORK...

HELLO New York! This was the girls FIRST time in the city. It was fun sharing this experience with them. Most of them thought they could NEVER live this city lifestyle. But it was for sure a fun fun visit! The view from our digs...pretty spectacular, huh?

We hired a driver and car for our first day in the city. We wanted to see as much as we could the first day and with Lea, well, she's quite the trooper, but we knew it would be too much for her. First stop, Museum of Natural History.

Sage asked me to take a photo of this awesome necklace...I'm sure she would have loved to pinterest it!

Manhattan New York Temple

We walked around Wall Street and came across this guy....yep..straight from the 60's!

New York Stock Exchange

The famous bull statue was busy being part of a tv show being made in New York.

Statue of Liberty from Battery Park. Nope, couldn't take the boat over this time...I was paying a driver by the hour!

I loved this elevated car park...so organized and efficient.

Some of us went up the roof of the Empire State building--here's Mari and Star.

Here's the million dollar view from the top of the Empire State Building. Lea and I chose to go to New York's LARGEST department store....Macy's. (yeah, I'm not real fond of heights and well, Lea is pretty blind, so why spend the $-we're much better at shopping!)

The girls caught up with us and we splurged on some Ben and Jerry's which was conveniently across the aisle from the junior department! We had a pretty busy first day in New York. We drove all around the different areas such as Little Italy (where we had lunch), Chinatown (kind of a let down, except this cool store called Pearl River Mart), Greenwich Village, and so much more.

Let's go DIVING !!!!!!!

When you go to Cayman...you go diving!! We rented a boat the later half of our time in Cayman. This was the boat that showed up on the Ritz Carlton beach! No, we did not rent THIS boat, but the other boat had engine problems and we ended up using this boat the entire time. Typically this boat is used on their sunset sails...you pay 30 CI and you get FREE beer as they cruise around during the sunset. There was PLENTY of room for everyone...and their dog and their cat and their...

Here's Mari and Maya showing off as the boat gets ready to depart.

The girls get "ready" in the condo before getting on the boat. Now, there's a reason for this: this is a PARTY boat and it has SAND....yes, several inches of sand all over the boat. There is nothing worse than sand in your wetsuit rubbing you all the wrong way!

After getting ready in the condo, they all stand on the wall IN THE SHADE of the Ritz as they wait for the boat to get to the beach.

The last day diving on the party boat, Lea and I were invited to come along and PARTY with the family. Here's everyone checking out the bar.

The boat guy attaches Lea's music so it goes through the speakers on the boat. She's in heaven singing along out on the open ocean.

My girls told me that this is the photo to get when they all come up from diving...so here's Kirk...

and Star...

and Sky...

and Sage (she totally refused to look up!)

and Mari...

and Maya!!!

Lea rocking out on the PARTY boat. Next up.....NEW YORK!!!!

Parasailing and Pappagallo's

Not everyone was able to go parasailing earlier in our trip. So, we made sure to get these three up in the sky.

Here's Maya, Kirk and Mari heading up.

And here's the threesome making their way back into the boat.

The group after parasailing traveling back to the Ritz Carlton. (they pick you up right at the beach)

We took the girls to this really nice restaurant called Pappagallo's. It's sort of hard to find, because you weave in and out of neighborhoods and just when you think you're totally lost...there it is. They have an assortment of parrots here and this gray parrot is quite the character.(look on Kirk's shoulder)

There are about a dozen beautiful parrots here...and no, it's not like at Disneyland where they sing, etc... They are just beautiful to look at and not to touch!

Six beautiful girls after dinner.

Turtle farm, cousins & Birthdays

It had been a while since our last visit to the Turtle Farm. We sent the girls one morning and they had a blast. Here's Maya and Sage.

Star and her boyfriend Bo making "turtle faces"?

We got together quite a bit with Derek and Becky and their kids. The cousins had a great time playing games.

Even got a photo of cute Auntie Becky!

For the twins 18th birthday, Sage contrived some fun stuff. Sky went to the movies with Kirk and Star and her friend Bo, stayed at the Ritz and went swimming. Sage wanted to do something fun and so she put together a shell path. She also put some signs in the elevator having random people sign cards for the girls birthday. It was a really cute idea and the girls got some fun greetings.

One path led to the condo from the elevators going down to the pool and the other path led from the elevators coming in to the north tower. Both paths led into the condo where the party would begin.

Our favorite concierge, Romellia helped to surprise the girls with an ice cream cake.

Not knowing that Romellia was getting a cake for the girls, Kirk and I got this yummy truffle cake from a local bakery.

The Ritz also made the girls some chocolate truffles and a cute card made out of chocolate.

Here's the party girl, Romellia.