2016 McLaughlin Christmas Pictures

I love my photographer and once again she got some great pictures of us. Here they are!

New York Trip Recap

We left on Thursday morning early for our quick trip to NYC. My #1 goal was food this trip (you could clearly tell if you followed me on Instagram). I scouted out my top 10 places and off we went. Thursday for lunch we headed to Carmine's which was family style Italian food. It was delicious but it was way too much food for just 2 people. We walked around the city, stopped in quite a few bars because it was so windy and cold and then braved it outside and did some Ice Skating in Bryant Park. 

We headed back to the hotel and had dinner at a restaurant called Beauty & Essex. It was very trendy and all tapas foods. The food was amazing! I could eat there everyday of my life! :) The coolest part is the front of the restaurant is a pawn shop and you go through the door into this really cool restaurant.

The next day David had to work so I slept in, worked out, and did some Bible study. I ventured out for lunch and had to try Shake Shack. The cheese fries were heaven. I did some shopping at Macy's which was pure madness and then headed back to meet Dave to get ready for dinner.

 We ran out to see Rockefeller center and St. Patrick's Cathedral before dinner and then met up with Dave's PA and his fiancé who he took up here for work.

 Had to stop in the American Girl store for Delainey! Add that to the bucket list of trips with the girls in a few years!

We had dinner at Gallagher's Steakhouse. All the meats were aged 21 days and were so tender. Highly recommend.

 After dinner we headed to a bar to meet up with my cousin Megan. It was so much fun catching up with her. She is hilarious and I wish she lived closer. :(

Haha late night pic of us in the hotel elevator. 

 The next morning we checked out of our hotel and then had till 4 o clock to walk around and enjoy the city before flying out that night. We had pizza at John's pizzeria. The restaurant was an old concert hall and was so neat. The pizza was pretty good, but the garlic knots were the best. Then we hopped on the subway to go to Ferrara's bakery in Little Italy. 100% the best canolis I have ever tasted! I would be there weekly if I could. We walked down to Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty and then called it a day.

All was right in the world until we arrived to the airport and found out our flight was delayed till 9 pm. We actually didn't board till 11 and then once the pilot was doing his cross checks he noticed a scratch. After 30 minutes of them trying to fix it, they decided to cancel our flight. I was so mad! They rescheduled us for Sunday night at 7:30 arriving at 12:45 Monday morning (assuming it wasn't delayed or canceled again). I knew that wasn't going to work, so luckily a flight to Tampa was delayed that same night so we ran and hopped on while they were boarding. They couldn't get our luggage to us, but I didn't care. I just wanted to be back to Florida. We landed in Tampa at 2:30 am and slept in the airport hotel until 9 the next morning. We then rented a car and drove home. It was quite the adventure, but we made it back luckily. It was a nice little getaway for us and of course NYC at Christmas time is just Magical! 

Mickey's Christmas Party 2016 & our visit with ALL of the Cousins

Tony & Brandi flew in to Orlando Thursday evening in preparation for the big Disney adventure on Friday. The rest of us drove down to Orlando Friday morning and all met up at the park at 4 o clock and off we went. We did some rides, we ate dinner, we watched the parade, had some lollipops... By about 9 when the parade was over most of the kids were done. So everyone left except for the McLaughlin's...the crazy Disney lovers. :) We had some hot chocolate and cookies, went on another ride and then watched the fireworks and then finally called it a night. We had a great time with all our cousins! 

 I just can not get over how big Blakely is getting. She just fits right in with Georgia and Delainey.

Saturday morning, we got up and ran around our hotel. We stayed at the All Star Sports Resort so there was some fun stuff for the kids to play on. Then we headed to some outlets and Ikea to buy some furniture items.

That afternoon we got home and took all the kids to a live nativity at a church down the road. It was so cute! Of course the hit of the whole thing was the petting zoo area. 

Sunday we went to church and had Christmas dinner as a whole family before Tony, Brandi and the boys left on Monday. The kids exchanged presents and we had a wonderful (loud, crazy, wild) night with all 6 grandkids playing together. I can't wait to see what it looks like in 5 years. :) Actually I can totally wait. I don't want them to get any older. Well off we go to NYC and I'll be back on Sunday with some pics and more posts. Follow me on instagram @jamiemclaughlin0 to stay up to date with our vacation!