Some Good Times

Matt and I went on a date! Our first one since Carlee was born...9 months ago. We had some Friends watch Carlee Saturday night and went to a free concert with some classmates of Matt's in Manhattan at the Lincoln Center. It was the Julliard ChamberFest put on by some talented students. That is about all we had time for, with a quick stop for some ice cream on our way to pick up sleeping Carlee. It was fun. To begin the day I went for a run and then we cleaned the church and on our way home Matt spotted some toys put out on the sidewalk not too far from our pad that were accompanied by a a sign that read "free stuff, please take" so we did. We got this cool wooden box with activities on every side and on top. Don't worry, we sanitized it! Carlee can stand up to it to play so she loves it. It is as tall as her. We also got a tunnel tent that Carlee has fun crawling through. Score! (Sorry, no pics of the toys, Matt has our only camara at school.)



Monday, since it was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, We loaded up and drove a couple of hours to New York's Minnewaska State Park Preserve to explore the Shawangunk Mountains and the Peter's Kill rock climbing area. It was crisp, blue sky day when the weather forecast called for rain; how sweet it was that we got sunshine instead! We weren't exactly in the mountains and far from being in the wilderness. It was still good for the soul however, to take a few steps away from civilization and get some fresh air. We could still hear cars and airplanes, but at least we couldn't see em' and for a while, the peaceful song of the icy stream meandering its way through snow and ice and spilling over rocks drowned out every other sound. We trudged through the snow and got out on some pretty nice cliffs as well. It will be amazing to see the view this fall with Autumn colors blanketing the valley. Hopefully we can go back in the warmer season too and use our rock climbing gear again! There is still a lot to do and see and we have to go and get more apple cider at the little Jenkins-Lueken Orchards shop just off the road because it is absolutely delish! To top off this perfect day, we went and had pizza, cake and ice cream at a friend's home in celebration of their little guy turning one. Some good times indeed.