Our Next Adventure.

An Adventuresome Timeline.
Stevie and I have been on a LOT of adventures since we've been together. When I think back over all the trips and moves we made together, my head swims through a messy wonderful kaleidoscope of memories. As we look forward to what is coming next, I can't help but smile at our milestones:

2006:
- Moved across the country in a hippie-ish caravan of our brothers, sisters, cousins and friends. We saw penguins in Tennessee, marveled at the Grand Canyon, bathed in the Colorado River (epic mistake), mountain biked in Moab and finally found our way into the city of Redding, Ca.
- Encountered Jesus in a whole new way during our time in ministry school. Life changer.
- Got engaged at Christmastime in Atlanta's Centennial Park.
- Trekked to Kenya together. We watched Nacho Libre with the Masai in the middle of the Masai Mara National Reserve. Not to mention, we saw some crazy big animals.

2007:
- Got married on a sunny southern plantation in the wonderful month of June.
- Went to Ecuador. Fell in love with the Andes.
- Went garage sale-ing on the weekends. Cuz that's a wild Saturday while living in Redding.

2008:
- Attempted to uproot the Redwoods and take them with us when we journeyed back across the country a year later. Moved back to Atlanta.
- Stevie got a job.
- I went to college.
- We made the best friends of our life.

2010:
- Had the pleasure of creating sweet music with some of our favorite people.
- Ate a lot of family dinners. Because, you know, we could. (Hi Mom!)

2011:
- Stevie got accepted into Harvard Business School. Whoa. He's so smart.
- I figured out a way to work and go to school in Atlanta. While living in Cambridge. (Someone please pound a sarcastic "That was easy" Staples button)
- Made more best friends.

2012:
- Stevie went to India with his classmates to play with multi-million dollar diamonds. "For school purposes". I whined the entire time he was gone. LIKE THE GIRL I AM.
- Discovered the glory of Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod and all things Maine.
- Surfed in Puerto Rico. Where I performed mild surgery on my husband because he stepped on an urchin.
- I graduated! Go Owls!

2013:
- Stevie graduated! Go... Crimson??
- We took off to Europe for a month and had the trip of our life.
- Moved to New York City.

And now? Well...

Oh Baby.
Here we go... and we are thrilled! Bring on this next adventure!

Because Honestly... THIS is New York in the Fall.

// My view from Belvedere Castle in Central Park. //

Central Park. In the Fall.
I don't mean to brag. I really don't. But I do mean to be shamelessly thankful. I AM SO THANKFUL TO BE LIVING IN NEW YORK CITY. I can't say it enough. I can't stop thinking it. Every single day I wake up, so thankful to be living in this vibrant, pulsing metropolis. Even when I see the rats saunter around the subway tracks. They saunter. Because they have no reason to scurry. They own those tracks. And even when my lightyears-old radiator decides to wake me up in the middle of the night, hissing like the soundtrack from a horror movie. And even when I go on auditions and, you know, get rejected (don't cry for me, Argentina.)  I am still happy to be here. So over the moon. And why shouldn't I be? This place is a dreamers city. Full of bright-eyed crazies and cold-blooded cynics alike. What an effervescent kind of mess.

Even those of you who don't care for NYC at all have to admit - the fall foliage in Central Park this year can't compete with even the most picturesque of New England's Berkshires. This autumn has been outrageously gorgeous, and having previously pounded a lot of New England pavement, I can speak from experience when I say that this autumn has been utterly mesmerizing. The papery leaves continue to fall like confetti, swirling around and having a parade in the sky before finally landing and collecting in a decorative array all over the great yard. The temperatures are continuing to drop, but I just had to share these beauties with you before the winter wonderland overtakes my Instagram.

// Classic panorama. Stevie is so good at taking these. See midtown in the distance? //

// We are children. The end. //

// The sun is SO bright. I'll take it. //

From Glory to Glory.
I just love autumn. So tell me. What has fall been like in your neck of the woods - Dreamy? Dull? Comment below!

The Merrell Challenge Wrap-Up

The End.
It's been a good run (pun intended.) This Challenge ended last week, and I wanted to share my final thoughts and stats.

My Running Stats: (via Mapmyrun) 
Final Standing: 1333rd
Percentage: Top 3%
Average Mile/Minute: 9:15 min/mile (I shrunk my time in the past week!)
# of Runs Completed: 30
# of Days Left: 0

Obstacles.
There are always reasons not to run. Amazing, perfectly reasonable reasons. Am I right? I thought it would be NO BIG DEAL to run 30 times within 45 days. I really did. Ha. I didn't really factor in life. Over the course of 45 days, we had 4 different sets of visitors in town (which made me want to go to brunch, not run!) and I got sick (which took me out of commission for almost a week!) Those two things alone kind of threw off the discipline I thought I had been cultivating. Ultimately, I learned that my runs had to be faster in order to get everything done in a day. Thus, I increased my speed. Believe me, this whole running thing was NOT always convenient, and it certainly didn't just make time for itself.

Reflection.
I honestly can't believe I did it. I've never run so consecutively in my life. It's been really rewarding because I never really believed I was a runner. I think the incredible fall foliage and the high of running in Central Park everyday really helped the "wow" factor for me. There was always something new to look at, or someone new to look at. Occasionally I would run in the afternoon and catch some of the local schools around the time of their track practice (tons of schools use Central Park, and especially the Reservoir as an extension of their facilities. It's everyone's playground!)

One Memorable Moment.
One time I was running and I stopped for a second to change a song on my iPod, and this kid (he couldn't have been older than 8th grade), ran right by me with a few of his friends and yelled, "Stop for nothing! KEEP RUNNING!!!!" I was like, "Alright, alright!" That little Upper East Side kid kicked my butt. I tell you what, I never stop to change songs anymore. I feel like he will appear out of the bushes and scold me. Another time the track team was doing sprints and I might have tried to race them. But alas. I never won. Those teenagers are scrappy.

What's even stranger is that I still feel like a teenager, yet when I think about what I've done since high school, it's been quite a lot. It's weird how you can feel young and at the same time be aging. Living. And then aging some more. All the reason to keep running!

Now that I've done this, I think I want to continue running but diversify a bit. I want to increase my mileage and try to work on my endurance. I also want to start hitting the gym a bit more regularly to incorporate more weights and strength training. You can't keep running without hitting the weights (so says my Health Magazine.) It's a journey! Thanks for joining me.

If you want to learn more about the Merrel Mapmyrun Challenge, you can follow my journey here and here and get a peek at my gear here.