Spring Break part 1: Getting There

New York City is a long way from Atlanta. A VERY long way. But we always enjoy road trips, and we thought it might be fun to do one for Daniel's first vacation**.

We set out around 1:30 on Saturday afternoon, and made great time. Only stopped a couple of times for potty breaks & Chick-fil-A. Made it to Richmond by a little after 9:00. Got a great hotel for the night on Priceline, and the boys were thrilled to get to hop in the pool for about 20 minutes before going to bed.

Day 2: We woke up & were on the road by 7:30. We started talking about the high school from Remember the Titans, and decided to google it to see how far out of the way it would be to stop by. Turns out, it is RIGHT off the interstate. So we made a quick stop for some pics.

Everyone was especially excited that we got to go out on the field!

Then we continued our drive to NYC. Oh my goodness - I knew there were tolls, but boy was that expensive!

By about 2:15 we were checking into the hotel. I realized later that I never took a picture of the room when it wasn't totally destroyed!

Here we are in Times Square, which was right outside our hotel - another great Priceline deal!

We took this as we were beginning to make the trek towards the church (remember - we were planning to meet with a Russian church plant in the city - read about that here).

The walk was about 2 miles. But the weather was plesant, and after being in the car all day, it was a welcomed change! Within 5 minutes of getting going, both boys wanted their first street vendor hot dog. Both gave it a big thumbs up!

We met with the church group (some pictured here). Zack played guitar as we did a few worship songs. We shared our testimonies, and Slava (the pastor) translated, although everyone there spoke some English. We talked about our salvation experiences, and about the fact that a saving faith in Jesus Christ does NOT mean that from them on, life will be sunshine & roses. We emphasized, though, that God can use the difficulties in life to strengthen us, firm up our faith, and broaden our ability to witness to others... as well as bring unexpected blessings. We also talked about obedience to God when He calls you to do something - especially things that aren't necessarily in your comfort zone.

After church (and some delicious Russian bread & tea), we walked to Central Park. We entered right at the Strawberry Fields section of the park. We enjoyed hearing everyone sing along to John Lennon's "All You Need is Love" and took a picture at the Lennon memorial...

We walked around a bit more, and then finished the evening off with some yummy pizza at Famous Original Ray's (if you've seen Elf, you know we went on Santa's recommendation).

**Parenting Mistake #4,197: Don't do a very long roadtrip (that involves big cities, thousands of people, tons of lights, really loud noises & loads of walking) for your newly adopted child's first vacation.