Day 11: The Met, Central Park, Times Square, and Retreat

Tuesday there was not so much rain. Yeah! 

We wandered down 5th Avenue to the Met and took a pic at the Gugenheim (I love Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture)

Further down 5th, we found the building where my dad lived as a missionary 45 or so years ago. That little dormer window (right-most of the three) was his window.

Then we explored the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a bit. The modern art was the kids' favorite. I loved seeing some old favorites from my Art History days at Wellesley when we'd take a bus down to NYC for a day to do write-ups on art pieces at the Met.

The kids and I studied Jackson Pollock one summer and made our own splatter painting on a huge sheet so they were excited to find this painting.

One of my favorite's by John Singer Sargent.

Great views from the roof of the Met

Headed over to the Bethesda Fountain where Tal and Anita had all their wedding pictures taken and found a really remarkable concert going on there.

Three years ago Jared and I were here for Tal and Anita's wedding and took great photos right here - fun to show the place to the kids since they missed the wedding. And oh, how they love their little cousin!

Then we headed to Times Square where we met up with Tal - and Josh - surprise, surprise. Josh had a long layover on his flight home from Iceland so it was a great bonus to get to see him.

After Times Square, I hurried over to get set up for our NYC Retreat at a beautiful building nearby.

We had 60 wonderful moms - most of them young moms with just one or two young children, navigating life in the city as best they can with busy husbands gone most of the time and tiny apartments. It was so great to meet so many stellar moms and share some tips and tricks that have worked for me while learning from them and from my great co-presenter, Chrysula Winegar. We addressed Peace, Purpose, Order and Joy again - so interesting for me to see how the same topics play out differently with each Retreat group on this trip. This time we talked quite a bit about the "Mommy is a Person" concept - something that young moms especially need. We also delved into how our purposes and passions as people can and should dovetail with our purposes and passions as moms, how there are times and seasons for different things in life, how important it is to live with intention, and specific ideas for planning and goal-setting.

I totally forgot to take photos until the end. Sad sad sad! But I did get this one photo with Tricia and Anita. Tricia is the reason we were able to do this Retreat. A few months back, she emailed me, sharing her love of Power of Moms and offering the gorgeous amenities space in her building if we ever wanted to do a Retreat in NYC. As my road trip string of retreats idea materialized, I told Tricia we'd love to take her up on her offer and it all worked out so perfectly. Tricia and her friend Vanessa even made us all delicious homemade cookies to make the refreshments extra delicious! And Tricia talked about Mind Organization for Moms and added just the right dimension to that topic as we talked.