Together, Together in New York

When Harry Styles comes to town and your daughter (his #1 fan) wants to go, you should go....or 3 years later, you'll have to fly all the way to New York to see him!  

Jordan and I spent 5 days in New York--just for Harry:)  Well, we did manage to do a little sight-seeing too.

 
On our first day, we stumbled upon "Central Perk" (a Friends themed cafe).  We got our first bagel of the trip and were reminded that New Yorkers don't have to best customer service.

We stopped at The Strand Bookstore 

[where "Dash & Lily" (a cute Christmas min series) was filmed]

Even though the leaves weren't looking very "fall" and it was stinking hot outside, the neighbourhoods were definitely decorated for fall. 

We found "Monica's Apartment"

The ice rink was set up at Rockafeller Center!

HARRY!!!

NY Library had a Winnie the Pooh exhibit

Buying our $10 water

Monet at The Met

Icing my very sore knee--over 20, 000/day

Saw Reese (from DCC Cheerleaders) in Chicago--my first show on Broadway!

Central Park-Bow Bridge (a bit of fall color)

I was so proud of us for navigating the subway--not my favorite

Dumbo in Brooklyn

Foggy morning walk in Brooklyn

Found these mini dumplings/soda from Instagram

And we finished the trip with our second Broadway Show, Hadestown--so good!

I finished the trip with a cold, the longest flight ever, and a very tired knee.  It felt so good to be home, breathing the fresh air, drinking our free water, and sleeping in our own beds! 

I don't think I'm much of a city girl;)

Solo

This stage of life has been so hard for me...but, it has also been very introspective.  Who am I?  What do I believe?  What do I really care about?  What do I want out of life?  What am I capable of?  I never anticipated this "re-discovery" phase of life.  It's strange, and confusing, and daunting, and liberating all at once.  One of the results of this process for me, has been becoming a "doer" rather than a "thinker"...I'm not completely transformed, but it's taking root and I'm learning to "cease the day" more.

Ever since my knee injury spring of 2025, I have been so distraught that I couldn't hike.  Now that my knee is mostly healed, I've been wanting to get outside and start back up again.  I was struggling to find a hiking buddy with the same schedule and level as me, so I finally just decided I would be a "doer" and hike solo.  

I set a goal for the month of September to hike at least once a week, and I did it.  It was therapeutic. It was hard.  It was scary.  It was beautiful.  It was life changing.  It felt good to be proud of myself.

Wallace Falls

Rattlesnake Ledge

Little Si

Heather Lake

Bridal Veil Falls

Meadowdale Beach

Cherry Creek Falls

I See You September

I do everything in my power to hold on to summer as long as I can.  When people start talking about pumpkins, sweaters and leaves changing colors, I cover my ears.  I just don't want summer to end.  But then somewhere in the middle of September, I relax a little and open my heart to welcome fall.  

School starting means the dreaded 6:30am wake up calls and making lunches...but it also means being productive and living life a little less kaotically.

The cooler weather means umbrellas and muddy hikes...but it also means cozy fires, warm hot tubs, and hot chocolate.

And this September brought me a trip to Leavenworth to see my very favorite Author.  What is more fall than a rainy drive through the mountains for a discussion about books?!  It was magical.

Just like Mom (and Dad)

The end of every summer (and into the fall) growing up, Mom was always busy in the kitchen.  She had apples, pears, apple-pears, grapes, plums, blueberries, salmon and even some currants and gooseberries to process!  She baked pies, canned, made jam, froze, made juice, and filleted for hours upon hours and days upon days.  Well, I seem to be following in her footsteps.

This year my vegetable garden didn't do great.  My pumpkin plants absolutely flopped for the first time ever, the birds ate most of my blueberries, my peas didn't grow very tall, and even my zucchinis' had a poor showing.  But, you know what did do well?  My raspberries, plums, apples, and pears!  I can't even tell you how many apples we have--it's insane.

So I spent a good part of the end of summer making apple crisp, freezing raspberries, making plum cobbler, freezing even more plums...and I still need to do applesauce and harvest the rest of the apples.  Mike even ordered an apple press to make juice (against my wishes).

Plum cobbler was so good--reminded me of my childhood

So far I've made 6 apple crisps

All I can say is thank goodness Mike doesn't fish!