Nicole & Nathan in NYC

This last week Nathan and I went on a little vacation to NYC with some friends- Brian, Ryan and Cari. We had a great time. It was so nice to get away from the San Antonio Mt Cedar. Nathan was actually finishing up an antibiotic while we were away. I guess he didn't rest enough because as I'm writing this post, we've both come down with bronchitis. We felt fine while we were there but I guess days and days of walking in literally freezing temps didn't sit well for this Texas couple. We came home after a week of being in the Big Apple and we're both ready to be WELL!




Here's the view out of our hotel. We stayed at the Holiday Inn in SOHO. It was a great location for Italian food in Little Italy, Chinese food in Chinatown AND all the great purses on Canal St.



Here we are getting ready to get on the subway. Brian kept calling it the bus. Toward the end of our stay he just called it the giant petry dish. It was pretty dirty but the dirtiness was outweighed by the ease of getting from point A to point B. I wish we had awesome transportation like that!
We saw one guy drop his canister of Pringles on the subway floor and he just scooped them back into the can to eat later. I think I've become a bit of a germ-a-phobe after many rides on the subway.

Brian, Ryan and Nathan walking in Battery Park...

The guy on the left is showing the guy on the right how to feed the squirrels...
Lady Liberty. So beautiful!

Bundled up on the Ferry.

In the base of the statue is a beautiful foyer with the original torch.Brian, Ryan, me and Nathan.








We visited the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. What a neat place. A place where so many new beginnings began. It was difficult to see many of the pictures of the people being "herded" like a bunch of cattle. Some stories were so sad like those of families being separated because of possible physical or psychological illness.

I took a ton of pictures in this museum but I won't bore you. If you haven't been, you must go!!

We ate at Carmine's in Times Square on Sunday before we saw Wicked. Carmine's serves family style. Each menu item serves about 4 people. It was goooood!

TIMES SQUARE

Early Friday morning we went down to Rockefeller Center for the TODAY show. I love, love, love the TODAY show! Here's the beautiful Christmas Tree in Rock Center...

Me, LENNY and Nathan. Lenny is a "regular" on the TODAY show. Nathan and I see him on the show every time we watch. Lenny lives in Brooklyn and takes the subway at 4 am every Mon-Fri to get is regular spot in the crowd. If you haven't seen him, just turn on NBC in the morning. He's a Vietnam Vet and it was a pleasure to meet him...
Al Roker...
Meredith and Matt...
Ann Curry...

After we made our TODAY show debut, we went into the little bakery on the corner for some hot chocolate. It was so cold outside! After we warmed up we went on the NBC Studio tour. It was awesome. As you can see, I was very excited. We saw Conan O'Brian's studio, The SNL studio, Brian Williams news area and a lot of props from SNL.



We also went to the Empire State Building and saw my friend, Shannon Curry. She just graduated from King's College which is IN the Empire State Building. She is the President's asst. We had dinner with her and her boyfriend in Harlem on Friday night at Dinosaur BBQ. It was so yummy!

Okay, enough for tonight. I'll finish this NYC post soon.

Welcome 2009!

I'm so excited about this new year. There's always something exciting, new and fresh about a new year. A brand new start. A clean slate! 2008 was great and here's a few pictures of the end of our '08.....

Here are a couple pictures of our new worship center-inside. This is of the altar area. You can see the communion rails and the pretty rock wall that will be behind the actual altar.


This picture shows the original stained glass from the Basse Road campus. Our founding pastor's wife designed these windows and they have been stored safely since 1998 so that they could be installed into our new sanctuary. They look so beautiful.
Here's Daniel enjoying some cocktails at Becky and Beth's

Here's mom at one of Lacey's choir concerts.

This is Robyn, Miriam and Darlene in their reindeer antlers...

We always go to Austin to celebrate Christmas with Nathan's cousins. We had a mexican food buffet, played Jack Black and caught a few Zzzzz's.

You can see how Grace and I couldn't hang with the grown ups!

CHRISTMAS EVE at CONCORDIA
This is the 9pm service and it was packed! We had services at 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11pm.





Here we are on Christmas Day at Mom's house. We played Tripoly and had a lot of fun.
Lacey was the big winner.

Happy New Year!

Almost a month in review

Geez! I haven't posted in SO LONG and my friend Robyn is starting to really give me a hard time. Here's what we've been up to...

Ava is our 1 year old God-daughter. Her mommy, Shawna, is one of my sweet friends from church. Ok, Ava's birthday was November 5th but as you can see, I've fallen off the blogging wagon! I really have no excuse. I've been busy.

Happy Birthday, sweet baby!



We've been helping Nathan's dad move out to his new house in Bergheim. It's been a big job but it's also been quality time together with family. Here's Daniel's Model A. Did I say that right? (I know nothing about cars).

Jayla got baptized on Nov. 23.

This picture is from a girls shopping night at The Shops at La Canterra. Joy, Rachel, Bethany and I went to get mini facials at Origins. It was fun. We got some shopping done and had dinner at P.F. Changs.




After the 1/2 marathan we had Nathan's Men's Stars retreat, which was awesome, by the way! After his retreat came Thanksgiving. We had a great time with family. For lunch we went to my cousin Sandy's house with Mom, Kelly, Clint and the girls. Here's Sandy's daughter, Lauren. Who hasn't done this olive-finger thing? So cute!

Afterwards we went by to see Granny in her new place. She seems to be very happy.





















For dinner we had Nathan's parents over to our house for Thanksgiving dinner. I'm 34 years old and this was my first Thanksgiving where I cooked. I've gotten by for a nice long time without being the cook. Not bad, eh?

Now, it's almost time for Santa!

13.1

Sunday was the San Antonio Rock-n-Roll Marathon and 1/2 Marathon. Months and months ago Nathan and I had signed up to run the 1/2. Well, we didn't run the whole thing but at least we finished it and got our pretty medals. In training, we only worked up to 5 1/2 miles. Then my back would freak out. So, we decided to just run the first 5-6 miles and finished the race with walking and jogging.

Our morning started very early. We had our outfits picked out. In fact, a major cold front blew in so we woke up to 35 degrees outside. Nathan didn't have the appropriate clothing so I did what any caring wife would do, I went shopping for him on Saturday while he worked all day. I spent about $500 between Target (sorry, Daniel) and Academy. Don't worry, we're getting most of our money back when I return all the things he didn't wear. Basically, I shopped so he would have an "at home" dressing room session . We didn't know the weather was going to change so drastically otherwise earlier in the week he could have shopped for himself.

The bands were a lot of fun and they really kept you going. Every mile we'd mute our i-pods and listen to the band and run while we clapped our hands to the beat above our heads in the air.
At mile 9.6 our friends Bethany and Joy were there to cheer us on. It was great to see them. They made a sign and switched out names for all of our friends participating. We had to stop and give them a hug.

We had a 12 min mile up until mile 6. Then, we slooooooooowed down. We finished at 3:28. Next time we plan to train for a full 12 weeks and follow a good training schedule. I would like to do another 1/2 marathon in the near future and I'd also like to work toward a new personal best. The time to beat for me is 2:48 (Houston 2007).

It was a fun day, overall. I'll sum it up with my most memorable moments...
5. Seeing Randy Beamer, news anchor for WOAI Channel 4. He was right in line with us to hop on the shuttle
4. Running through the beautiful King William District.
3. Passing the Alamo. It was really neat being in a mob of people all participating in this huge event.
2. The B-A-G-E-L-S after the race. Gosh, either I was delirious and starving or it was the best thing I've ever eaten. EVER!
1. Doing this with Nathan.

Backyard BBQ

Sunday we had a little BBQ to celebrate Joy's birthday. She had her 2 girlfriends from high school in town, Nicki and Cayla. We had a nice evening just hanging out with friends! Happy Birthday, Friend!!

Here's the littlest party goer...

3 Years!

Yesterday Nathan and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary and it really was the perfect day! We both were off from work. I had a hair cut at 8:30 and Nathan slept in. When I got home we watched a little TV...naturally, there was a ton of election results coverage. I definitely wanted to see a little of The View since they are all so opinionated on this "Hot Topic". I loved what Elizabeth said and I can relate to her on this...."I may not have been the first to stand behind Obama but now I will jump in that line and support our president because that is what as an American I believe we should do". Well said!

I digress. Back to our anniversary.

We had brunch at The Gunther House and it was delightful! Nathan had pancakes and I had a waffle. We shared an order of biscuits and gravy. Mmmm! Everything is good with gravy. After we ate we drove out to Vanderpool TX to go to Lost Maples. It was a nice drive. About 2 hours. The weather was so nice.

Here's a picture of the start of the East Trail. It's just under 5 miles and gets very, very steep. You'll see in a minute. Since it was a Wednesday the crowds weren't bad at all. The colors were magnificent. The park rangers even said that this year is looking to be "the best in a long time" so if you can, plan an outing to Lost Maples soon and go DURING the week.
Here we are at the top of Lost Maples. It's quite a climb. I've been out a few times and the East Trail is my favorite. I think it's easier to take this trail clockwise (it makes a big circle). If you have ever had knee surgery, like me, you'll want to go clockwise too. The left side of this trail is as steep as the right (duh) but the left is mostly small rocks on a steep climb. Hello, can you say WIPEOUT???? Yes, I tend to end up hurt and on the floor when doing outdoor activities. I didn't this trip, thank goodness!
The right side of this trail has more stair like steps which make it easy coming down. Going up is easy for knee challenged people. It's the coming down part that gets tricky and the stairs help.
Nathan is doing an "Olan Mills" pose that I put him in....Once we finished our hike we got back in the car and headed back home. We had dinner reservations at The Melting Pot. Nathan had requested one of their tables in the area they call "Lovers Lane". It's a tucked away hallway with 3 little private booths for couples. After hiking all day we were starving!!Here's our little table for two. It's a half booth and the table is connected to the wall so there's a lot of privacy. We enjoyed a bottle of wine and The Big Night Out.
Mmmm!
A 4 course meal starting with cheese fondu, next a cobb saldad followed by the main course Lobster, Filet Mignon, Shrimp, Chicken, Pork, Tortellini and finally, we chose to end our feast with their Turtle Chocolate fondu.

Here's how I felt at the end of the night...

Happy Anniversary to my best friend! You sure do make life a whole lot of fun.