Photo Alphabet Series....

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B
C
D
E
F
G
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I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
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"V" from our trip to New York 2.2.14

W
X

"Y" Central Park 2.2.14

Z

Taking a bite out of the BIG APPLE!

**To finish this I post I ended up shoving pictures on the end.  The post/edit screen is not the same as the published so I couldn't get things to align the way I wanted.  Even tried to make the column wider on the DRAFT screen but it wouldn't let me...**

Ok – where to start?!!!! At this very second I am sitting on an airplane hosted by Alaska Airlines for the 12^th Man promotion!  Can YOU BELIEVE it?!!!!  #12fanairlift  Monday we got the call and we were like NO WAY!  Before leaving my husband bought us Lion King tickets for BROADWAY (I was expecting to see the Seattle show, but hey – I am not going to complain!)  This is number 40 on my list!  I am still in SHOCK I am getting to go to NEW YORK – it’s one of my places to go list (not quite a bucket list but things I want to do!!!!!)

I have a lot of catching up to do!!!!!!

So – I added to my list with a few things and then also added some that I had on my penciled in “next” list!

#96 Try 5 new foods  I was thinking Eggplant, Spaghetti Squash and things like that.  I have interesting friends and they are wanting to go really TRY new food (a lot of seafood-ish) things that I haven’t been willing to try!  Not sure yet what I am going to do, but it’s definitely a task that will GROW me!

This one I stole from my penciled in list… #97  Watch sunrise on one coast and set on another (West/East or East/West coast).  I added this late (once I found out about our trip to New York!!!!) but I was considering it because we have family that lives in Baltimore and it could be a possibility when we visit them. 

  

#98 Geocaching… TOTALLY want to get my family on these adventures, exploring nature and learning.  Waiting for my son to get older, he’s not quite ready YET! 

Ok… so I started this particular blog post on February 1st – today’s finishing of this post comes courtesy of March 20^th!!!! Life has been SO busy!  We won a trip to New York, enjoyed the Super Bowl win (along with exhausting ourselves with all we could see in New York), I lost my job, we moved and now I am busy being a SAHM looking for a “new” job.  You would think I had more time on my hands but juggling a 2 and 4 year old is quite exhausting!  Along with unpacking and getting situated in our new home!  J

There is SO much to update you on!  We left EARLY Saturday morning for New York and  my phone died Thursday night… as in “would not turn on FOR.THE.LIFE.OF.ME!”  I had to work Friday so needed to get it all taken care of that day.  Also had to get my kids ready for Grandma’s house (I have an awesome MIL who swooped in and agreed to take my kids for the weekend – my children are not compliant or passive, they are strong willed and full of energy). 

A long story short… Monday morning my MIL goes to work super EARLY so I had to find childcare for that day.  I called a good friend, my walking/jogging Tuesday friend…. She is also familiar with all my quirks and the long list of all my “B-ism’s”.  Here’s our conversation:
Me: I need a HUGE favor next Monday!
J: What is it (reluctant because when I ask this of her it's usually to help with my kids and I never want her to feel used)
Me: Let me tell you the story… I just got off the phone – (insert husband’s name) and I just won a trip to go to NEW YORK (she knows this is my PRIME, top of my WANT TO GO LIST destination location for traveling!!!) with Alaska Airlines to watch the Seahawks for the Super Bowl .  Problem is (insert MIL’s name, they all know each other) leaves for work at the crack of dawn on Monday and we land around 3:30pm.  Could you watch the kids for us?!  

Of course, she is awesome and swooped in to cover the morning shift for kid care!  :-)

Because we left so early on Saturday I got to watch the Sunrise in Seattle and Sunset as we walked the streets of New York!!!!   {Completed number #97}

My Christmas list was a promised “we’ll go to the Lion King when it comes to town” knowing that in the Spring it would be available.  I am a SUPER overly practical Christmas present giver, if we don’t have to spend money on it THEN, it relieves my stress and we held off on buying tickets because we had a few months.  Well, with the surprise trip to NY we got a hold of the itinerary and decided in our available time (pretty much from 4PM on Saturday until 4:30PM the next day, 24.5 hours which doesn't account for sleeping time) we decided to go to the Lion King on BROADWAY!!!! I was overly excited!  God blessed me bigger than I could have imagined!

Husband dropped the kids off for his Mom to watch them Friday  night while I worked (so if you do the math right you will realize I was on about 3 hours of sleep when I arrived at the airport!!!!).  He made sure the kids had their Seahawks dolls.... Sqwak has his own Russell Wilson stuffie and Husband has Lynch & Sherman who Squeak was delegated in charge of.  Both kids were told to make sure the stuffies watched the game and to yell BEAST MODE or TOUCH DOWN as necessary, & GO HAWKS is a regular phrase they use all the time anyway!
Here are my cute kids with their dolls....

Let’s take you on a virtual tour of our trip to New York… it’s pretty AWESOME-SAUCE!
This is us, after the second media shoot!  The green hair is not a new thing for my husband, that's how he attends the games!  He was called "HAIR" by a lot of the media!

*****NOTE TO SELF: FIND ANY MEDIA CONTENT*****



































    Signing of the Alaska 12th Fan Airlift Flag - you can totally see where Husband wrote us in!

They had a parade line of employees as we left and arrived SeaTac  - it was pretty  COOL BEANS!

We took two... this was the better of the two!  I try my best to  be independent and not  high maintenance.  Earlier in the trip I had misplaced my ID so I was already on a roll (at this time it was still unknown where it was).  So, I *REALLY* wanted a good picture of this but there were people waiting, etc so was trying not to be too anal about it.... SO, I decided that it was a picture we wanted to try to recapture again!

The flight was described as being like a tailgate party in the air!
It was so much fun!

This was a media picture, but I love it!

Loving the "throw back" apron - way to REPRESENT!

We played trivia... before me my husband was going into Sports Journalism and I messed up his plan.  He still loves all the details of sports and is quite the resource for random information.  The only answer he didn't have was what Russell Wilson's middle name was... we were given the letter "C" and told it was a fancy name.  Carrington was no where on our radar of guesses.  So, but my husband was a winner!!!!

We were a little spoiled... a yummy goody bag was just one of the perks!

They had a "RUSSELL" they passed around the airplane
Is it just me or is the positioning of it just a little "awkward" (the first one he is looking at my husband) the second we were supposed to give advise to him for the big game and it looks more like and intimate conversation than advise... AWKWARD!




There was a guy who was brave enough to join us that was a Bronco's fan... there was a special gift just for him!  :-)  He sat the row behind us and was very nice)  

As we were getting off the plane (we were in the back corner and were very patient for our turn to get off the plane).  My husband was the one who got all the attention with the media (as of today, I still haven't looked it all up).  Husband was walking in front of me, we were walking out and saying our Thank You's (because we SO appreciated the opportunity to go on this adventure) and I was stopped by one of the guy's: "Congratulations, you made the news on the West and East Coast before we even landed!"  I was in shock because I had no idea what piece they used but he remembered me rather than my husband so "WHAT DID I SAY????"

Pictures from Website

Pictures from their Website

We stayed at the DoubleTree in Manhattan.  It was fancy which is how I like things - basic and resourceful!  The one challenge was there wasn't free Wi-fi so we weren't able to look up any of the news stations.  Our phones had decent service but finding things on a tablet can be more challenge than using a laptop or desktop.















We dropped off our bags and hit the pavement  We didn't have a dinner destination location in mind and were just trying to find something simple and basic.  Husband was not thrilled that I settled for the Public House but I wanted something simple laid back and accepting of our casual dress (he was wearing warm ups from the flight and I was in Jeans.... both of us in our Jersey's).


After dinner back to the streets!  We attempted to go to the Empire States Building but they were CLOSED (BUMMER!!!)

Then we went to Grand Central Station. 

When walking we noticed that 12th Man must have blown up the twitter feed because it's blue & green (the lady who took our picture was a photographer, but why did she angle it with the light behind us - it didn't happen when I took her picture and I am not a photographer)....

The Paramount

Apparently their job is dress up and ask for money...

Times Square! Not only was it SUPER crowded but they police were attempting to block a lot of movement because they were trying to disassemble "SUPER BOWL BOULEVARD" and get the Lombardi along with other things to it's new location in preparation for the game the next day!

LION KING!!!! I may be a LITTLE GIDDY in this picture!!!

COMPLETING #40

Picture going up the escalator to the show (so many people tried to get the picture leaving and it was a real mess, glad I work backwards!)



















A view from inside looking out on Time Square and the crowds we were midst

On the way home I got a taste of New York (we stopped at the Disney store you can see in this picture on our way home from our show).  We were walking back to the hotel, it wasn't crowded and there was lots of room on the sidewalk.  People came and went, sometimes they walked with a block, sometimes they didn't.  There was plenty of room and this lady runs into me bumping my arm that I am carrying  the Mickey & Minnie we got the for kids  I look her direction naturally expecting her to say she's sorry as I am saying "whoops" (I am actually used to having no personal boundaries right now with children and I wasn't offended until she spoke).  She looks at me and says "it's New York, get used to it" and crosses the street.  Ok?  I guess it's ok to run into random strangers when there is plenty of room on the sidewalk..... only in New York?  Husband was a few steps ahead of me and we were the only 3 people on a large sidewalk.... hmm.  I am thankful that I am a little more courteous to strangers.

They had a lot of "highlighted" attractions were highlighted with rotation colors (Blue&Green, and Blue&Orange)

We went back to the hotel for about 5 hours.... and got minimal sleep.  The next morning we started early!  Grabbed breakfast and headed towards the subway!
Here's a building I liked pieces of.... I am sure I could find out  more about it if I researched it but haven't been that motivated....




We bought a subway pass (we learned a lot about how to use the public transportation last summer thanks to our BIL James - he was a rock-star on showing us West Coasters how the East Coasters operate.) I may have had small panic attacks if I were to have to learn this on my own - it's not hard, it's just new and outside of my comfort zone.

We went to Wall Street but it was Sunday so there wasn't anything functioning...  Did get a picture of the bull!

Apparently we can't just ask anyone to help take a picture...

Statue of Liberty from Battery Park

Approaching the Statue of Liberty (So thankful my husband is persistent in my obnoxiousness and kept looking for alternative)

See... even the 12th Man was here before it all began!

Ellis Island, we decided to wait on the boat to get back on the streets faster :-)

Back to the mainland....

Something about where this bird decided to hang totally cracks me up!

I have no idea about this sculpture... but I totally dig it









We headed to the Twin Tower Ponds, we visited the South Tower first

This is the only Pear Tree it was damage but survived the 9/11 attacks.  It was replanted and has continued to thrive

North Tower Second

The Roses made this super emotional... instead of just being names it made me think of the depth of who this might be.  Some one's husband, son, father or brother... oh the tears!

The Museum was not open quite yet, it was almost done!

Memorial dedication on a wall - there was a guy who was going on and on and on about the conspiracy theory and I just tried to take a quick picture without him in it.

As you can see, my Seahawks husband was on the move!

Carnegie Hall

Just a building that is full of intricate designs

The whole purpose of our trip

Central Park

Subway Entrances are EVERYWHERE!

I loved the "season" the water was a little frozen which makes it beautiful!

Skating rink just beyond this pond!

The Park is a nice escape from the City 

Trump Tower

We had to start slowing down a little at this point.... my Stress Fracture in my left foot was KILLING me!

I caught this picture and made Husband turn around so I could capture it!

Of course we went inside....

We saw the skittles people and Husband took a picture with them.... we forgot to do a picture with our camera's!!!  But we did get souvenir's out of it!

And we have arrived to the party!

Pregame party/prizes (we didn't win anything else, we were completely happy with what we were given!)

They did a contest with the Bronco's fan and the youngest traveler in our #12thfanairlift

that one MAY have been rigged, but everyone walked away a winner!









Pictures of us during the party

I lost the cute sunglasses... thought they were win the bag, but they fell out!

My husband is always the "Manager" around every one else... this is the version I know and love

This is one that the media published but that's totally us.  Husband is texting with his friend who is AT the game!

Walking home pictures

After the Win (again, great photographer!)

I swear my husband reminded anyone wearing a NFL Jersey that wasn't a Hawk that we were better than them  It was OH GEEZE moments!

Once again we got minimal rest!  We got up early to pack quickly and not rush ourselves too much so we could grab some food before leaving.  Next door was a little diner and with the SNOW coming down, we were glad to have flexibility!

I stole this from a friend FB feed.  Later on the guy from Q13 tried to put it on his profile as if he came up with it... made me a little ticked because he was not the originator of the material and posted after this was already going around.  I do enjoy it and not sure WHO is the genius who put it all together!

So, a couple got engaged at the party yesterday and they were the last ones we were waiting for... the group facilitator went inside the hotel to find them.  That's when our friend J (he is the one that my husband has season tickets with) finally was able to get to us (we were all so busy while in New York to make arrangements to hang out - I had so much I wanted to do and see since given the opportunity).  It's also MY fault that he was here in NY.... The Super Bowl Party was at his house until my husband called and said, "HEY, can't come to your party, WIFE won a trip to NY!".  What's really cool for our friend is that HE got to get AT the game!  Talk about being there for the record breaking moment!  Anyway, my husband stepped off the bus to get a picture with our friend (I almost killed him, but he still made it back on the bus before the "engaged couples" returned).


At the Jersey Airport they were giving us Thank you decks of cards for our visit... Husband asked if they had pictures if bridges on them due to the big controversy the Chris Christie created!  LOL

We were side lined due to snow... thankful it was a Charter otherwise would could have been stranded at the airport for a lot longer.  It was 8:30 by the time we got home and our estimated land time was originally 3:30.  They weren't prepared with de-icer even though they had predicted the Super Bowl may have to get moved due to weather.  We got home, it was late, but it was so good to see my children and hug the snot out of them!  I missed their faces!

Asked someone else to attempt to get this picture for us on the way home...

Our Bronco Fan and Me.... He was a good sport and we all were friendly (I am SUPER thankful that we didn't have any mean fans among us - that would have made things AWKWARD!  We had to get off the plan so I asked him really quick for a picture.

Getting back on the plane (FINALLY going to head home)... thankful for ONE last try to get this as a "decent" picture!


First impression of New York: Smog and Scaffolding.  My expectations were so much higher than my experience but I was so thankful to have the opportunity (the city had higher expectations, the trip was above and beyond expectations!)  It was a great trip - so many awesome memories and experiences!

Here are the media SNIPITS that I was able to find:
The published Blog (I am the short blonde #3 standing next to the green haired #12)