I Got my Chase On

This Past Saturday I got my chase on....City Chase that is. 

For those of you who have heard of the Amazing Race, I did a mini, urban version of that race.  It was a day long race through the city streets of Manhattan.  Basically we had about 6 hours to complete 10 challenges.  we raced about 200 other teams through the streets of the city, our goal being to first figure out the clue to the challenges and then complete the challenges in the fastest amount of time.  The challenges ranged from swimming, archery, getting change out of a bucket filled with hissing madagascar cockroaches, teaching strangers on the street a magic trick, biking 40 blocks while singing at the top of our lungs, and so on.  It was quite the experience to race through the streets.  We could either take public transportation to get from one point to the other or we could use our two feet.  But With public transportation often being slow our team ended up running ALOT!  I was so tired by the end of the day, but the experience was so great.  I saw parts of the city that I have never seen before, got to do some fun and crazy things in the city, was pushed out of my comfort zone, and had a great time spending the day with 3 of my friends!

Getting into action before the race began...

This was us running to one of our many locations 

Waiting on the subway.  The green sheet I am holding is the clues for the challenges.  We used our subway time to work on our clues and plan out our routes

My last challenge was to put my hand in the jar of roaches.  It may not look like many in there, but there were a TON.  I had to pick the roaches up in order to get the change out of the bottom of the bucket. eeewww!!! 

City Chase is the largest urban race in the world.  If you live in a big city I would totally recommend you taking part in this crazy adventure!  

We went on a Safari....

A NYC Safari that is

Last week was Vacation Bible School at Redeemer. 

I was in charge of Crafts and had a blast!  The first day we made binoculars and I actually had the kindergartners convinced that they just might see some wild animals in the city with those spectacular toilet paper rolls! 

AND at the end of the week I got some BIG news....

I got handed a letter offering me a full time position at Redeemer in the Childrens Ministry.  YAY!  pictured above is the children's ministry staff team. L-R:  Joanna (she is the new administrative coordinator), Tracy (our boss), Amy, and Me!  

Summer in the City

NYC is a happening place in the summer.  There are so many fun and cool things to do here this time of year.  Last summer I was so new that I was I just trying to survive my days.  Now that I have my head above water it has been so fun to take advantage of all these events with my friends.  This summer has been filled with concerts in the park, live music and dancing on the pier, movies on the hudson, broadway at bryant park, street festivals, swing dancing at lincoln center, shakespeare in the park, beach days and so on......you get the pictures. 

I have really enjoyed the benefits of living in this city the last couple months and am trying so hard to soak in these summer days!  

This is what Great Lawn looked like when the Philharmonic played in Central Park this week

Grab your park blanket, some food, and maybe a few beverages and enjoy a delightful evening listening to the symphony in the park 

NYC restaurant week is another wonderful summer "must do".  About 100 or more fabulous, yet very expensive restaurants have a special low cost menu for 2 weeks only in NYC.  It is a great way for us New Yorkers who can not typically take part in these fine dining experiences to be able to afford to have the opportunity to enjoy such a nice place.  Several of my friends and I took advantage of this offer and had a very yummy dinner at Delmonico's on Wall Street.  We actually chose the very first restaurant that was established in America to dine at this evening.  

For my tasty 3 course meal I chose a blue cheese salad as my appetizer, filet mignon, mashed potatoes, and vegetables as my main course, and a yankee doodle cake for desert... "Oh it was delicious" as the 2 year old H mister says

Thats all for now.  My new goal(although I think I have had this goal before) is to blog more.  I don't even know if anyone really reads this thing, but blogging is such a good outlet for me to share my thoughts and experiences.  so for those of you who keep up with this little blog maybe you should just check it more often:-)

A Must Read...

Ok, so I have to share this book with all you blog readers.  I found out about this book from another blog and read it on my vacation.  It is an amazing story of the lives and friendship of a modern day slave and a wealthy art dealer.  This book impacted me tremendously in many ways. If you are in a book club this would be a great book to read and discuss with others.   I would highly recommend it!  If you live in the city you can borrow my copy of the book:-)

More to come later!  The theme of my summer has been WORK HARD....PLAY HARD!! It has been a super busy and super fun summer!  

Family Vacation

Our vacation was really great.  We spent 10 days in Orlando in the heat (and I mean HEAT!) and the sun.  I spent the first few days by the pool just relaxing and reading and then the last few days we went to Disney World.  Here are some pictures from our trip..

The siblings

My sister and I at the condo

My Dad and I after the Shamu show at Sea World.  My parents just LOVED that I insisted we sit on the 3rd row where we would get TOTALLY soaked! 

Of course we had to ride the tea cups.  My brother-in-law and I got a little out of control with the spinning!

Before riding Tower of Terror.  Let's be honest...I was freaking out!  I mean an elevator that drops you 13 storys..Woah, but I survived!

There was even a model street of New York City at Disney.  It felt like a little piece of home

After riding Rockin Rollercoaster...So fun!

The family at Epcot

I always thought this was a golf ball....I learned this trip that it's not.  haha!

We went to China for a little bit:-)

Aren't they so cool in their Bug's Life glasses?

Mt Everest rollercoaster

Happy Fourth of July!