Driving to our hotel after the temple open house.

Walking from the car garage to our hotel so we can change our clothes.

Walking to the Franklin Institute.

Inside Franklin Institute we visited the Egypt exhibit.

They had real mummies, but didn’t allow photos of them. One was “Annie” featured on one of my favorite episodes of reading rainbow when I was little.

You can see the temple from the front steps of the Franklin Institute.

Walking back to the hotel we found these robotic dinosaurs. They moved and were loud!

Fountain at Logan circle.

Walking past/though city hall

Inside Macy’s there’s a cool organ Jason wanted to check out. They play concerts at Christmas time and put chairs all over for people to sit.

City Hall right outside our hotel window

Next morning I couldn’t believe how close and big city hall looked. The building is topped by a 37 ft bronze statue of William Penn and the clock face is 26 ft in diameter.

A tunnel and the courtyard inside city hall.

A tour of Independence Hall. It was REALLY hot outside.

Stopped at National Mechanics for lunch. The food was slow, but super good.

They’re famous for their veggie burger. It is really good.

Ben Franklin’s driveway and museum

Where Franklin’s house use to be.

Ice cream and then a long drove home.

Walking up from the parking garage under the temple.

It was beautiful inside!

Inside the visitor’s center after the tour.

Up on the roof of the visitor’s center.

A month or so later we went to the dedication at our own local chapel.

The hotel lobby

Sneaking up on pigeons.

Eating waffles and playing with bubbles in Central Park

Finally tired of central park and off to find dinner

Waiting for breakfast at a food truck the next morning

St Patricks Cathedral

Rockefeller Center

Riding an elevator to the top, they project a show on the ceiling that was cool.

Magnolia bakery – the cupcakes were dry and tasteless, but the banana pudding was yummy.

Ate by these fountains and walked around the lego store

Grabbed hot dogs and walked to the MoMA.

-Gasp-

Cool water themed carousel by Battery Park

Statue of Liberty

We walked down wall street and past the twin towers memorial

Phoebe pretty dizzy after spinning the whole way back on the subway.

Bagels and eclairs for breakfast!

Playing in the American Girl store

Saturday morning the city sponsored a health fair in the streets and closed Park Ave to car traffic so people could walk, jog or ride their bike.

Caught in the rain in Central Park

The rain wouldn’t quit so se ran to the food court in the Park Plaza hotel and ate crepes and a lobster roll.

The Natural History Museum was excellent!!

Look, our favorite Mo Willems friends!

Finished the trip with Shake Shack. (This place is not overrated. We loved it)

A few pictures of our hotel. I really liked the shuttle buses and wristbands.

“Tinker bell” left the kids these nice Sven, Anna, and Elsa stuffed toys the night before we went to Epcot. The Frozen ever after ride was really fun – lots of anamatronics like the new Little Mermaid ride in magic kingdom.

Jason planned things out so well that we didn’t wait in line much, but Spaceship earth even with our fast pass took a while.

Best food in all four parks were the desserts in “France”. We ordered a whole tray of different kinds. We also had German apple strudel and franks with sauerkraut.

I didn’t have a good photo of Test Track or Soar’n. Both were awesome rides in Epcot.

Star tours was Phoebe’s favorite ride in the park.

Oliver and Mom road Rock n’ roller coaster

He enjoyed tower of terror too.

This was a golden moment for Phoebe

There was a 3-d Toy Story ride like the Buzz lightyear one in magic kingdom. We all liked the buzz lightyear one a little better.

This parade of stormtroopers was AWESOME! It happened twice that we saw; there was music and they all marched in rhythm. So cool.  Two storm troopers wandered the park all day photo bombing or pointing at people and accusing them of being rebel alliance sympathizers.

The frozen sing along was a lot more fun than I thought. Tons of foamy snow at the end.

The Indiana Jones stunt show was great.

Oliver loved Seven Dwarfs mine train and Thunder Mt Railroad.

Someone asked where the “wicked step-mother” was and these two went on and on about the word “wicked”. They boldly defended their mother saying she was misunderstood.

Mad Hatter’s spinning tea cups

Jungle cruise. Our guide was cracking holiday jokes and it was hilarious.

The Haunted Mansion line was really fun to wait in, there was a lot to play with.

Phoebe said she liked the guys in jail trying to get the keys from the dog in Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Cool sprinklers.

This little girl was so cuddly in the line for tea cups.

I bought several souvenirs online a month before we left and brought them with us. Please don’t tell the kids. Phoebe still thinks Tinker bell left stuffed animals for her in our hotel room at night. The silver tinker bell necklaces on clearance at target were a big hit too. It turned out to be a really good idea – the same medium Minnie I got for $16 at disneystore.com was $50 in the park. Identical size and fabrics, the only difference was ours had bows on her shoes and the one in the park didn’t.

Aladdin’s Flying Carpets. We saw Aladdin and Jasmin signing autographs too.

Phoebe is so lucky to have Oliver and Abby. They always helped her feel brave and find a good spot to sit. She really had a blast being with them all day for a week.

Meeting Merida was awesome! Her accent and voice matched the voice actor in the movie perfectly. She took Abby’s notebook for autographs, put it on her head and moaned asked if she had to practice her posture agaaain.

Tomorrow Land. We liked the Buzz Lightyear ride and the Monster’s Inc laugh floor. They spotlighted every bald guy in the audience and asked them questions. One guy in particular was spotlighted and mentioned 3 or 4 times during the show. Like the running joke, it was super funny. On his way out we heard him say he visits the park often and they do that to him every time he goes to the show. Ha!

Abby and Phoebe rode the little rockets with Jas while Oliver and I went to Space Mt.

Oliver rode Space Mt with Jason too. He loved it!!!

Nabby, lately, has been taking a really long time to finish her food.

It’s finally warming up!!! Phoebe discovered the outdoors (sans puffy snowsuit and car seat) and loved it. She screams to go outside every time she sees a window.

Nabby ran all the way across that field in the background and back, and then did superman on the swings for 15 mins.

Nabby waits till Phoebe pushes a button on her toy phone and then puts a spoon of food in her mouth. If Phoebe’s not distracted she wont open up. Nabby laughs and says she feels like she’s tricking Phoebe.

I kept these caricature “face maker” papers from when I was little. You trace the head you want from the first page, the hair from the second, the nose, etc till you have a whole person. Now the kids are using it a lot.

Phoebe stood up holding the couch and snuggled Jason’s knee the other night. At church today she chased (crawling) another baby girl at church and when they met they would gave each other tons of hugs.

Phoebe’s apple. She only has six teeth, but they work.