Father's Day, aka Ellie's Big City Adventure

First of all, a warning: It is safe to assume that any post that is entitled anything along the lines of "Ellie's Big Adventure" will probably contain an obscene amount of pictures. You have been warned...

We had such a nice day as a family for Eric's first Father's Day! His weekend really got off to a great start with two full days of golf (with work people) on Friday and Saturday, but Sunday was our family day.

Ellie and I gave Eric his gifts first thing Sunday morning. His gift from me was a framed print of Amen Corner (from Augusta National...you may notice a golf theme here), and Ellie gave him a framed picture of herself in her finest golf-wear:

My little golfer girl

Eric had once told me that he just wanted to see Ellie hold her little wooden golf club in her hand, because he thought that would be awesome. Well, my dear, not only did she hold it, but she really looked the part! Big shout-out to Etsy for the whole ensemble. I just can't decide if the argyle diaper cover or golf shoe booties are my favorite part.

She even re-wore some of her golf outfit on Father's Day, so she was quite festive:

"A whole day to celebrate Daddy?! Whoa, awesome! Count me in!"

To celebrate, we decided to have a day in the city. We took the PATH to 33rd Street, where we stopped for some shopping (my fault) and a snack for Ellie before continuing northward. We also had to make a stop at Crumbs for a Father's Day cupcake for Eric. Hey, it was a golf cupcake! The theme must continue!

Ellie's all, "where's MY cupcake? Rude."

From there it was on to Times Square for Ellie's first experience with what could probably be described as the Overstimulation Capital of the World.

Ellie and Daddy

Ellie and Mommy

The whole family!

There was lots for her to look at, but she handled it all in stride...for a while.

Aaaaand, we're done.

Of course, before leaving Times Square, we had to subject our poor sweet baby to a quick bad parenting moment:

Oh boy.

Yeah. We had our baby take a picture with the Naked Cowboy. Hey, he's a New York City institution, no? Yeah, I know. Shameful. Even Ellie couldn't believe it.

What a look of shock and disbelief!

My poor baby.

From Times Square we headed westward to our old neighborhood, to show Ellie our old stomping grounds. She was treated to some of the great sites of Hell's Kitchen (more specifically, the sites within about a three-block radius of our old apartment), including our old apartment itself, the Colbert Report studio, DeWitt Clinton Park (where Achilles and I spent many an afternoon at the dog park), and The Daily Show studio.

Ellie in front of our old apartment building and The Colbert Report

Ellie at DeWitt Clinton Park

Ellie hoping for a Jon Stewart sighting

Oh, how I miss our old neighborhood. Sigh.

We then made our way over to Daisy May's, our favorite NYC-area BBQ joint. We picked up our favorite meal and took it over to the Hudson, just past the Intrepid, where we had a lovely picnic.

Napping while we wait for Daddy to get our lunch

Ellie admiring the Intrepid

Picnic time!

By that time we were about ready to head home, so we caught a ferry back to Hoboken - Ellie's first boat ride!

Ellie says, "I'm on a boat!"

And that was our big Father's Day outing! By the time we got home Ellie was all tuckered out, so she settled in for a nice nap while Eric and I relaxed. The rest of the night consisted of salads and cupcakes for dinner, a bath for Ellie, and a nice early bedtime for everybody. Even though Eric's Father's Day Celebration really turned into Let's-Take-Pictures-of-Ellie-In-Front-of-NYC-Sights Day, I think we all had a nice time!

Happy Father's Day, Eric! You're the best!