More Pictures

Museum of Natural History

Times Square

Metropolitan Museum of Art

View from the Empire State Building

Crowds waiting on Justin Beiber in Macy's...we got stuck in the madness trying to pass through.

And on the last day...the President made a stop at our hotel so it was blocked off all around with dump trucks of sand. 

New York was never boring :)

The Park

Sure all the bright lights and towering buildings were pretty cool, but, my favorite place in NYC was Central Park!

It is amazing how you no longer feel like you were in a city at all. You could tell how much everyone appreciated having it too. New York is a very active city and it was interesting to see so many people there just winding down. Sure some were exercising, but most people had picked a nice spot on a grassy area with their blanket and books or newspapers.

We walked through some of it, but it is huge and I know we barely saw any. 

But we did rent bicycles and we rode around the outside of a vast majority of the park. I loved this! I hadn't ridden on a bicycle in yeas. Honestly at first I was nervous because I really feared I would no longer know how! But, the saying is true, it seems you never forget how to ride a bike. Poor Derek however got a bum bike and the peddle started to come off half way through. It wasn't exactly as great of an experience for him as it was for me. :)

One of the few spots where you can still tell you are by a city.

"Top of the Rock"

After visiting the Museum of Modern Art we walked down the street a few blocks to the Rockefeller Center. I was so used to seeing pictures of it at Christmas time I almost didn't recognize it. 

 The area with all the umbrellas is where they usually have ice skating in the winter. I didn't even know where the big Christmas tree usually sits. We came here so we could go up to the observation deck at the top of the Rockefeller Center (aka "Top of the Rock" as it is known). We bought City Passes so we could do several traditional tourist sites. We had tickets for this as well as the Empire State building. We chose to do this first since it was close. The view was great and it was a beautiful day!

 Nice view of Central Park

 The Empire State building. I loved this lookout place because you could see the Empire State building. So I think I enjoyed the view a little better at the Top of the Rock. However, one of the really awesome things about visiting the Empire State building (which we did visit on one of our last days) was their audio tour. At all different spots around the lookout at the Empire State Building we listened to some of the history and neat tid bits about each area of the city. The narration was great and felt so personal. It really gave us a greater appreciation of the city and how it came to be. Both sites are great, yet my one recommendation would be to do the Empire first (to listen to the history and it gives a pretty detailed description of the layout of NYC which helps you when trying to get around) and then do the Top of the Rock if you wanted to see both.

This was still in day 1...and we still weren't finished for the day! 

Hello New York City- Day 1

This past week we were in New York City. Derek had some work there and I decided to tag along and we caught some sights along the way! We had a great time and really enjoyed the city. We walked tons, took many forms of transportation, ate way too much, and took pictures to remember it all. We also stayed in 3 places in 5 days because 2 days were just our vacation and the rest was for work...which seems kind of stressful but I enjoyed being in different parts of the city. 

The first couple of nights were right off of Broadway and Times Square which was so neat! This is was our view from the hotel.

 Then we went out to explore the city. We may look tired...we had been up since 4 am this morning and literally did not stop until 9 or 10 that night. But it was a great first day!

 A few feet away we walked into Times Square. I was amazed by all of the lights and advertising. Even though you see it on tv so much it still felt so different being in the middle of it all. In the middle of the top of the picture you can even see the New Years Eve ball.

 This NYE ball was in the NYC tourist info center. Since there was actually one still outside I thought maybe this was one they had used in previous years that is now on display. The colors kept constantly changing.

From Times Square we took a quick walk down the street to the Museum of Modern Art or MoMA as it is known.

 There was a lot of modern furniture on display (which keep in mind was developed in like the 60's and 70's). However I thought everything looked like it was form IKEA...:)

 We saw a Jackson Pollock, a Picasso painting, and a Monet. Those were my favorites!

More on day 1 in the next post!

The Facts are Always Humbling

The more you become aware of the challenges of others, the harder it is to live life the same as you always have. I think most people tend to ignore it because, lets face it...changing our lives can be uncomfortable. As Americans, we are all about the comfort and luxuries life can bring us. Sometimes we need to reflect and think about how important some of those luxuries really are. We could all make small changes in our lives to make a HUGE difference in the life of someone else.

The video is just about 5 minutes long, but it really puts it all into perspective.



True Religion from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Africa T-Shirt!

I made this t-shirt yesterday after seeing some t-shirts like these. I loved them and decided since I have time this summer I would try to make one for myself.

 I got the t-shirt at hobby lobby and I bought some of the iron on bonding sheets. I printed an outline of Africa and traced it onto this fabric I already had. Then I used the bonding sheets to attach the fabric to the t-shirt. It really wasn't too difficult. It just took some time to get it just right. The heart is placed over where Ethiopia would be. :)

 Then by hand I stitched around the outside of the fabric. We'll have to see how it holds up when washed. I think it turned out pretty well and it  makes me want to try some more things. Maybe I will have to come up with some cute onesies for the boys :)

Growing a Garden

I remember gardening with my grandmother when I was young. Planting the seeds annually and waiting anxiously over the summer to see the plants sprout and grow. There was something very satisfying about fresh tomatoes or cucumbers from the garden, eating something you had helped to grow. My father gardens yearly now as well. Derek's grandmother has a huge garden. So I am hoping that maybe some of this "green thumb" trait may have rubbed off on us. I have had a house plant that has stayed alive for 5 years now. Pretty impressive if you ask me :)

 So here it is, our little raised garden bed. It is pretty small. Hopefully it will turn out well  and we wil actually be able to eat the vegetables from the plants. Then we can expand and build another one next year!

 We have tomatoes of various types, pepper plants, broccoli, spinach, basil, lettuce, onions.....

 These are our garlic plants. Derek's grandmother gave us the bulbs last year and I was so happy they actually came up.

 Our one pepper plant already has a pepper on it. It is weighing down the plant. I guess we are going to have to give the plants some sort of support as the veggies starts growing more.

The teeny cucumber plants. So here's to hoping our garden is a success!