Now that harvest is wrapped up, and traveling is done for awhile, I can catch up on my blogging!<\/p>\n

A few weeks after the visit from Joe, Connie, and Jim, we received a package in the mail.\u00a0 It was a box from Joe and Connie, containing gifts for Jonathan and I\u2026and Pongo, our rat terrier.\u00a0 They sent Jonathan an Hermes tie, and I received an Hermes scarf.\u00a0 They also sent a thank-you note with another invitation to visit them in New York.\u00a0 That really started the wheels turning in Jonathan’s head!<\/p>\n

It is tradition in our family that the graduate gets to choose the summer family vacation destination before they head off to college.\u00a0 Anna chose the Iowa Speedway for the inaugural Nationwide Series race.\u00a0 (She was hoping to see Joey Logano, her favorite driver. Sadly, he was not there.) Christina wanted to go to Los Angeles or Hollywood, but I was trying to talk her into staying in the Midwest.\u00a0 Then we received the second invitation to visit New York.\u00a0 Christina, with Jonathan’s full support, quickly chose New York City as her family vacation destination.\u00a0 The first week of July we were still trying to find an open week in our schedules.\u00a0 We narrowed it down to the week of July 10 \u2013 17. That gave us about 3 days to make all of our travel arrangements, and line up help for chores.\u00a0 Not to mention our town\u2019s celebration, and my very first 5k attempt\u2026<\/p>\n

Jonathan contacted Connie, who was thrilled that we would be coming.\u00a0 She asked what we were planning on seeing while in the City, and gave Jonathan some ideas.\u00a0 Christina really wanted to see a Broadway show, and walk in Central Park.\u00a0 The girls all wanted a chance to shop a little, which was no surprise.\u00a0 Connie asked which Broadway show we wanted to see, which we left up to Christina.\u00a0 Wicked was sold out, so she chose Mary Poppins, since we all love the movie.<\/p>\n

We packed up, loaded the van, and headed east.\u00a0 We put in a long day on that first day, getting past Chicago.\u00a0 Lessons learned…take frequent breaks to stretch and get the blood flowing, drink a lot of water, and don’t eat salty snacks.<\/p>\n

Next up – our arrival and first day in New York City.<\/p>\n

This is me, back home after my very first 5k at Cottonwood Coming Home Days. We left the following day for New York.<\/p>\n

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Now that harvest is wrapped up, and traveling is done for awhile, I can catch up on my blogging! A few weeks after the visit from Joe, Connie, and Jim, we received a package in the mail.\u00a0 It was a box from Joe and Connie, containing gifts for Jonathan and I\u2026and Pongo, our rat terrier.\u00a0 … Continue reading “The Power of Bundt Cake (part 2)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,42,91,97,115,1,125],"tags":[537,559,602,620,622],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","category-family","category-rat-terrier","category-running","category-thank-you-2","category-uncategorized","category-vacation","tag-agriculture","tag-family","tag-running","tag-travel","tag-vacation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n