crazy nyc

ryan's parents treated us to a weekend in new york city

and

we had a great time!

 we stayed at the Marriott marquis in times square.

right smack dab in the heart of the

craziness!

 ella always loves to ride the subway

and never likes to sit down

 we went to the 9/11 memorial and museum

 it was too sad and too recent.

my heart was broken all over again.

 

we rode the staten island ferry

to get a good view of

lady liberty

we went to the top of the empire state building

and we could see the whole city.

the lights were beautiful!

 this is our view of times square from our hotel room.

 grandma and aftie found the jewelry store at the hotel

Pandora charms

alex and ani bracelets

 ella found isabelle at the

American girl store

 grandpa got us amazing seats at the nederlander theatre

for newsies!

a new favorite!

we also hit up:

m&m world

Disney store

tinsel trading company

street vendors

 on our way home

we stopped at the peter whitmer farm for a tour.

I love this place!

it's where our church

was organized on april 6, 1830

 it was a lovely and welcome

contrast to

all of the craziness we experienced in new York city.

no underwear cowboys or body painted naked ladies here!

USTA isn't scary after all!



I've always been so nervous to play USTA tennis.

I've heard it's very competitive, in a mean sort of way.

but after being asked to join a team, I decided to give it a try.

it turned out to be a wonderful experience!

I joined up with the Orange Crushers,

playing doubles mostly, and singles twice.

we ended up as the league champions...



which led us to regionals in Rochester,

where we dominated!

(ok, there was only one team to dominate.  but we totally did dominate them!)

winning regionals led us to sectionals in Schenectady!

(we drove 4 hours & 37 minutes Thursday evening)

we played two matches Friday

two matches Saturday

and one match on Sunday
(but I left after our Saturday matches)

we played at two locations-

Shenendahowa high school

and

Central Park

this is central park early on Saturday morning.

our first match was at 8:30am

this is the standings after Saturdays matches...

2nd place!

the other teams were from Manhattan, long island, Albany and new jersey.

the jersey girls were our favorites-

but long island had the cutest outfits!

Friday evening we attended a fun reception where all of the teams

(women's & men's)

gathered for food & drinks, prizes, a photo booth, and socializing.

 

while getting ready that evening at the hotel,

 we oohed and aahed as each lovely lady exited the bathroom

 with their hair and makeup done!

we were all a little surprised to see each other dressed up.

we've only seen one another in tennis attire.

this was taken Sunday after these superstars beat the number 1 team!

don't tell, but...

I cheered as reverently as possible

when I received a text during church

saying

"we beat southern 2-1!!!

 

not only did we have a fun season with a very unexpected outcome,

but we had a really, really fun weekend together.

these girls are

so fun,

so kind,

so smart,

so funny,

so accomplished,

so supportive,

etc,

etc.

love them!

Jenn, Wendy, Kim, Jill, Andie, Darcy, & Pam

Corning Museum of Glass

we finally made it to the

Corning Museum of Glass!

 for years I've been hearing about how fun and amazing this place is, and we loved it.

the girls were able to work with glass.

aftie made a windchime

and ella decorated a glass, then had it sandblasted.

 they sandblasted the glass cup in this machine.

 here's the finished product!

 here are some pictures afton took throughout the museum.

soooooo beautiful!

 pretty glass flowers

we watched demonstrations of glass breaking, glass blowing, etc.

it was so cool watching that melted, hot glass being shaped into all kinds of different things.

so glad we finally made the time to visit this place!