Another pretty incredible experience from our New York trip was getting to take Kay to Yankee Stadium!
A big group of us, along with other families who were in New York for the Buddy Walk, took the subway together to the stadium. We had a whole group of families heading there to sit in sections near each other, which made the experience even more fun. There was something pretty cool about riding the subway through New York with a bunch of other families who were all there for the same reason and getting to share another experience together.
Once we arrived at Yankee Stadium, though, things took a little bit of a turn. Kay’s stroller broke, and unfortunately it was not something we could fix, so we had to throw it away. At the time, I was definitely thinking, “Of course this would happen now.” We were already traveling with a million things, and the stroller was a pretty important part of making our days manageable!
We ended up staying for about three innings. By that point, the exhaustion from everything Kay had experienced throughout the trip was catching up with her. She was tired, a little irritable, and I think sitting so high up in the stadium made her nervous. She spent most of the game clutching the back of her seat and refused to let us help her sit forward so she could actually watch the game.
As much as we would have loved to stay longer, this entire weekend was for Kay, so we always had to keep her needs at the center of our decisions. We decided it was best to head back to the hotel and let her rest.
And then we remembered…we no longer had a stroller.
So we had to ask an already exhausted five-year-old to walk a whole lot more than she wanted to. Between the heat, the long day, and the fact that Kay is getting BIG, my mom and I quickly realized that neither one of us was going to be able to carry her all the way back to the hotel. We are strong moms, but we are not carrying-a-38-pound-five-year-old-across-New-York-strong. LOL
The walk back included a few meltdowns, a few encouraging talks about why we couldn’t sit down on the sidewalk and needed to keep walking so we could get back sooner, and probably a few moments where all three of us were wondering why we thought this was a good idea. But we made it.
And once we got back to the hotel, Kay was much happier. We were able to go grab dinner, get some gelato, and let the day end on a much better note.
Of course, we weren’t willing to let the stroller situation be the thing that defeated us. Even though it was Sunday afternoon, we were leaving New York the very next day, and there was absolutely no way we were going home without a stroller. So my mom walked down to the Target nearby and found us a cheap replacement stroller.
Was it the stroller we planned on having? Nope.
Was it part of the original itinerary? Definitely not.
Did we laugh about it eventually? Absolutely.
It was one of those moments that wasn’t exactly convenient or easy, but somehow became part of the story. And when I look back on our trip, I know I won’t remember the broken stroller nearly as much as I will remember getting to take Kay to Yankee Stadium, riding the subway with our Buddy Walk crew, watching her experience something completely new, and being able to say that we got to do it.
It may not have gone perfectly, but it was another once-in-a-lifetime experience that I am incredibly grateful we got to share with Kay.