NY Fun

Snow falling at home but rain down here in NY today. No running today but we've kept busy and the girls have been having fun.

Out for lunch

Kristen and Morgan

Neenie and the girls

Running a few laps around Willowbrook Park

Geese!

All sorts of ducks

Jump!

Trail selfie :)

Birthday excitement

Opening presents

Happy birthday Morgan!

Birthday girl

Cousins

Children's Museum

That's my girl, getting it all organized

Fun

Radio broadcasters

Climbing wall

Snowflake fun

Staten Island Greenbelt Exploration

The ride down to NY yesterday was much less painful than last year, with less traffic although with perhaps a slightly more impatient Samantha. After a slightly too early wake up by Sam this morning, I finally headed out for a run around 8:00. I had done a bit of research ahead of time and knowing that I had hit the edge of a trail here last year on a run, I decided to figure out how much more trail I could find today. I discovered that there was a large network of trails starting where I had ended last year and set out to explore them. Very cool. 

I had the map pulled up on my phone along with Google maps but was able to follow the route I was hoping for without too much trouble but with quite a few stops to be sure I wasn't headed off into never never land ;)

http://www.sigreenbelt.org/Trails/trailmap.pdf

It was right around 40 degrees and pretty pleasant out on the trails. The trails are definitely suburban in nature, with stretches along the golf course, views of houses in the distance and multiple road crossings. I ran the Red Trail and then up Moses Mountain and along to High Rock and back. Some fun running and great to get in 8 miles almost entirely in trail in the midst of Staten Island! Would love to explore more, and would have, if I'd had some water with me! 

View of the lighthouse through the trees

Red Trail

Golf course vista

Four deer scampering off

Moses Mountain trailhead

After a short steep Scramble, I got to the top of Moses Mountain

Suburban vista

View along the trail

Can you see the deer? I saw seven in all, and they were not scared of me at all!

 Fun on the trails!

Saturday Fun

Amy drove back up here this morning to meet me for a 7:00 am run out through the Commons and Coleman Farm. The full moon was rising over the pond as we headed out and later, as we ran down to the ocean, the light was shining brightly off the still water in the marsh rivers. Beautiful morning to be out, and always nice to run with Amy!

Moon just hidden behind the trees

Ocean overlook

Later in the afternoon, Mom, Dad and Sam took off for the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden 'Gardens Aglow' exhibit up in Boothbay Harbor, while Ryan and I headed to the movie theatre to watch the new Star Wars. Wow, great movie. We followed up the movie with a fun and delicious dinner at Frontier - what a nice night out! Thanks, Mom and Dad! And 'Gardens Aglow' looked pretty awesome too!

Exploring

Lights

Taking in the sights with Neenie

Snowman Scavenger hunt

Beautiful lights

Flower lights

Garden aglow

Kids garden and playhouse

Fun with Neenie and Pip

Sam, in her PJs, of course ;)

Tall trees

Glowing lights

Merry Christmas

A whole lot of laughs, fun, chaos, good friends and family today! I'm not really the entertaining type but I loved having the house full of love and joy today! Such a fun way to celebrate :)

Yup, I'd say that about sums it up :) Cheers!!