The Estes Family: NYC Day 1!!

I'm so excited to share our pics from NYC with you! It was my first trip ever to NYC and it was so wonderful and to get to enjoy with the best friends a girl could ask for: Priceless!

Last year, Melody and her husband, Justin went to NYC at Christmas and they came back saying we should take a girl's trip - so we planned it! The four of us had everything booked and the week before we were leaving, we were so excited to find out our friend Brettni (who now lives in Oregon), would be able to go with us too! Our husbands were excited for us to be able to go on this trip and I'm thankful we were able to use some airline miles from their many business trips :)

We all had early Saturday morning flights so we decided to get a hotel by the airport Friday night so it wouldn't be so early to get to the airport. Lyndsey and Joy had the earliest flight at around 5:15 am so they were up early to catch a car to the airport. Melody and I had a little later morning flight but we were all up way early to catch our flights.We were ready to get to NYC and looking forward to sleeping on the plane.

Melody and I ready to take off! I love flying and hadn't flown in 4 years so I was really looking forward to it.

We landed, found each other and Brettni and we were ready to head into the city!

Our driver was very nice and wanted to take a picture with us. He liked us so much, he told us he would take us back to the airport on Monday so we got to see him on our way back.

NYC skyline as we drove in

We got to our hotel and got ready to head out into the city. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt and it was great! Here is the beautiful view from our room :) It was fine because we weren't in our room much at all anyway!

Our hotel was gorgeously decorated for Christmas - actually everything in NYC was!

One quick picture before hitting the town!

Our first stop was for food. We were all hungry and wanted some NY Pizza so the hotel recommended Uncle Paul's Pizza

The cook asked where we were from and when we said from Texas, he told us he was a Dallas Cowboy fan! He was very nice and the food was delicious!

We decided to go ahead and head to the Empire State Building since we wanted to be there at sunset. On our way, we went by the New York Public Library

As we walked to each place in NYC, everything was decorated so beautifully for Christmas! All the store fronts and windows were so pretty. It was fun just seeing all the decorations!

We made it to the Empire State Building and it was definitley perfect timing because there was really no wait to get up to the top.

On the way up, you get to read all about the construction of the building and then, of course, you can take a picture and pay a boat load for a copy. We knew we wouldn't get the picture so we decided to have fun with it. Most people just stood and smiled but we decided to pretend we were looking up at the building. It's hard to see because I took a picture of a picture but I'm still laughing and loving how it turned out.

We got to see King Kong too!

They offered for people to walk up the remaining 6 flights of stairs instead of waiting for the elevator. We did it and let's just say, I'll need more exercise before we do that again :) But it was great when we made it to the observation deck.

Looking up to the top of the Empire State Building from the Observation Deck

It was so very neat to see all the city

Big thanks to Brian for getting us a selfie stick to use because it came in handy many times on this trip - including this shot of us on the observation deck

Looking at Macy's and where the Thanksgiving Parade route is

The Empire State Building was the top thing on my wish list of things to do when we got there so my smile definitely shows how happy I was to be there!

NYC Skyline at sunset with the Statue of Liberty in the background

After leaving the Empire State Building, we headed to Macy's

9 floors of Christmas fun and decorations! They had a Santa's Village and we got to meet Mrs. Claus and see the Elves.

Next, we headed to Times Square with the rest of the city - ha! It was jam packed but we were still able to enjoy it. We just had to stick close as we walked through the crowd.

We all needed to find the Disney store to stock up on NYC gifts for the kids

We got our gifts and decided to head for the Rockefeller Christmas Tree. On the way, we saw some more amazing lights and decorations.

Radio City Music Hall - home of the Rockettes

And then we made it! Mallory and I had watched the lighting of the Rockefeller Christmas Tree before we left for our trip and I told her I was going to see it in person and would send her a pic and I did. She loved it and so did I! It is so spectacular!

I think there were more people trying to see the tree than there was in Times Square so trying to get a quick pic was a challenge but we did the best we could!

After seeing the tree, we stopped to see Saint Patrick's Cathedral

It was breathtaking inside and out

They add baby Jesus to the manger on Christmas

Walking back to our hotel, I was able to get another good pic of the Rockefellar Christmas Tree

The Chrysler Building and Grand Central Station were close to our hotel so this was our view as we walked back

We got back to our hotel to put our souvenirs and gifts down and then got ready to head to Serenditpity

This was one of the first reservations we booked and I'm glad we did because it is a 3 hour wait otherwise! It was decorated in many pink lights and pink decorations.