Empire state of mind.

I came. I saw. It conquered.

New York.

Glamorous? 

The trash on the streets, no.

The people however, yes. 

Can I mention those pigeons are fearless. One of them almost took out my eye.

Times Square--where we stayed. This was taken at 2am when we got in.

The Hudson. It had literally frozen over. My moms show was right here on the pier.

Shake shack. 

Heavenly.

I went there three times--twice just for the black&white shakes.

'Yum Yum' Thai food on restaurant row. 

We went to two broadway shows. First we went to Spiderman and then to Phantom of the Opera. 

I cant explain how cool spiderman was. I loved it. Everypart of the stage was made of moving parts and the characters would fly all over the audience.

30 Rock.

Magnolia Bakery.

I literally had the best cupcake of my life. 

I gave my sister their cookbook for christmas this year because I know how much she loves to make ther vanilla cake recipe.

I totally regret giving it to her and not keeping it for myself. 

are you dying?

We went to The American Girl Place. 

They had everything for your dolls--like this headgear set.

Where was this when I was 15?

I had ditched my dolls by then but maybe if they had to go through braces too I wouldnt have.

My morning cab ride. My mom wouldnt let me go around NY by myself but had no problem sending my in a cab alone.

I was a lot of fun, but by the end all of us were ready to get back.

foot-ballin'

Today is the day. The first day of camp. Hes had his physical. Weighed in. Fed a tasty meal of steak and lobster. Went to his meetings and hopefully will come home soon. 

Sometimes I think, this is going to be really, really long. We've only knocked out one season in his football career. But then I stop and think "How cool is it that I get to experience all of this with him?"

Right from the beginning we've been in this together. Its going to be long, its been hard and its a huge blessing. 

Im so glad to have his college years. wish us luck. 

Legitimate.

Today I became a woman. Hahaha. Anyway, I got offered a real legitimate I-got-my-degree-and-actually-got-to-use-it-and-not-work-at-a-bank J to the O to the B. JOB. (disclaimer: im not making fun of anyone, I just have a huge phobia of having to work at a bank, thats all).  I am the new Assistant Manager of Maurices. And I start next week. Whoa. Im going to miss everything that I do now. Being in school has the best benefits. You get so much time off for every holiday! Im really going to miss that. A TON. But I guess I had to grow up some day. Its such a blessing to have everything ready to go and not have to spend anymore time worrying about finding a job or where my future--at current, is. Im continued to be amazed at the blessings and love I recieve and I have so much to be thankful for.

And just because, theres nothing like a blog without photos:

here is a current photo of the G-babes for ya. 

Photoshop skillz gone wrong. 

Jeff never had jet black hair.

And my dad, because hes just that cool

Nike

On Friday I went on a Study Tour to Nike to meet with Merchandisers and Product Developers--and do some networking. I got to take a tour of their campus and do some really, really fantastic shopping.

Since Nike is headquartered in Beaverton, they are really involved with our school and we are always having guest speakers in our classes and what not.

Did you know that Phil started this whole thing with a waffle iron?
Thats how he made the sole of his shoes.
I pretty sure you knew that, just about everyone does.
But just in case you didnt...

Nike's campus is huge. All seven extra large buildings surround a 4 acre man-made lake.

the lake and our full group

Each building is named after an athlete.

We started out in the Micahel Jordan building

all his air jordans he wore during his basketball games--signed.

they even had his baseball cleats with the dirt still on them.

this is lifesize and 3-dimensional cast of his standard air jordan pose.

We accidentally took a wrong turn into a small parking lot that held the spots for all their presidents and CEO's and thier athletes.

Every spot was filled with Mazarati's and Audi's.

They had spots for Carmelo Anthony, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter etc.

Tim Tebow was there that day, but on our way over to see him he had already left.

They have soccer fields, golfing greens, basketball courts all of which have hoseted the worlds greatest athletes and teams.

The whole trip ended like this.

dont worry, its all socks. Im lying, its full of shoes and clothing.

They gave us all passes to go to the Nike employee store and I enjoyed every minute of those wholesale prices. 

DISNEY!

A couple weeks ago I became privvy to a promotion by Disney called "Give a day, get a Disney day." All you have to do is volunteer at a participating group in your area and you get a free one day pass into Disneyland. 

And it all kind of worked out perfect because we will be in California for the big Oceanside beach trip this summer, which also happens to fall on our anniversary. 

Did you know I've never been to Disneyland???

I know, its absolutely horrible.

Anyway, I signed Geoff and I up and we did our volunteer work today. We volunteered at a place called Home Life. It houses and takes care of disabled adults. We signed up to help paint tenants rooms.

I was excited about it because I thought that I was going to be able to meet some of the people. Instead we ended up painting a womans office there, which was kind of weird. 

It was a pretty good day though, which included minimal compaining from Geoff (did I tell you I dragged him into this? He said we should just buy tickets  because they are only 30 bucks---they arent 30 bucks they are more like 70 bucks) and we only had to deal with 4 other girls who were volunteering from Eugene. (They were ANNOYING!) 

But now we have some sweet free passes into Disney!

I'd say it was totally worth it.

"all this to walk in the snow and eat chili?"

We went snowshoeing the other day. Geoff wasnt so keen on the idea, especially once he realized that my sisters family wanted to stop and eat chili out of a thermos in the woods (as part of my own beliefs--I dont eat chili from a can) but it sounded like a fun idea and something new to try out (minus the chili part)---and dont worry, we didnt eat chili in the woods, we went to a pizza place after we were done.

Geoff ended up having a pretty good time once he stopped complaining and forgot about the fact that he was walking.

It was so beautiful out there.

Geoff hadnt quite embraced it yet.

nor at this point either.

But then I think that the flavor of his hat started to come out and with the combination of his beard started embracing his inner woodsman. (does that sentance even make sense?)

strong.

Look closely, someone decorated this little tree with some christmas ornaments.

so sweet!

almost perfect, if air jordan hadnt decided to accompany us.

snow kayaking.

its a very dangerous sport.