Monday, October 30, 2017

Kangaroo Farm Fun


Less than an hour away from our home lies a meaningful and very outlandish memory making experience. 


A kangaroo farm; an actual kangaroo farm. 


They also have some tortoises. And other animals like llamas. 


You may recall that we visited the Kangaroo Farm with the family last fall. It was fun then and the kids loved it even more now that they're a little older. 


They both got much closer to the kangaroos and were positively enchanted by the sweet animals. 



The entry to the farm includes food to hand feed to the goats and kangaroos.


Our kiddos keep getting cuter, and sweeter and more kind each and every day. We are so lucky as a family to have each other and, a kangaroo farm right down the street. 


Bright Lights, Big City, Lovin' the Life


Obviously, I am very behind in our family blog. Expect a massive download of blog posts in the next 4 weeks because this blip in recording our family history simply cannot stand. Big thanks to Chris for being Dad-with-the-Mostest as I traveled an insane amount this last two months. 


In the last 8 weeks, I've been in NYC twice for press. The first trip was exceedingly successful. The biggest press was CBS NYC which has an insane reach (around 8 million people). I demonstrated nail polish and bath fizzies, live, for that segment. It was really fun and I really really liked the host (a working Mommy, just like me!).


Every time I'm in NYC, I sprint to Half Priced Tickets and get whatever show they have on sale. In this case, I got super lucky and got a middle seat in row 8 on the floor to Miss Saigon. It's the third time I've seen the show but the first time I've seen it on Broadway and whoah! It was so so so good. 

I also was interviewed for a radio show which shall not be named (photo above; hint hint) which was a real hoot because though the interview lasted for quite some time, by the time the actual interview was broken into what seems like seventy-ten (as Jamisen likes to say when he's talking about big numbers) little snippets of soundbites. It was weird because several of the snippets were used to imply or say things that I hadn't really said or meant. I've never had a 45 minute interview cut down to a sentence or two so it was an eye-opening experience. I'm not sure that I could or would do anything differently but it has me saying, 'Hmmmmm'.


The PR team I work with in NYC is amazing. They're all powerful women who are experienced in PR and they really love the brand story and we all click. It's wonderful to work with people that almost make you forget you're working. 

NYC is the place where all food on the street is basically delicious and also cheap. I bought a boiled egg + black coffee for $1.75. Just the black coffee alone at my hotel was $4.50 (!!!). I also bought sliced mangoes from a street vendor and then ate that delicious sweet fruit for dessert in my hotel room. It hit the spot.

Some other highlights of the trip included People magazine Facebook Live (bath fizzies live). It was really interesting to see how they broadcast live and what they use. Their reach is huge so I was surprised to see that they use iPhones for most of their live filming and work with a core small team. 


Another highlight was BuzzFeed. They're a huge media company that is very "new" media so their offices were giant, super cool (they had an entire wall of just balloons) and looked like they were basically designed for Instagram photos most everywhere you could dream of posing in front of. They took copious amounts of photos and video of a layered ombre soap and bath fizzy making and, nail polish. And then they sent all of the footage to their editors in other parts of the country / world to edit and upload to their Instagram story. Watching the process was inspiring. 


On the way out of People magazine, I met Dave Asprey - the Bulletproof Executive - and he was delightful in person. 


The People magazine offices are right beside this amazing harbor with beautiful views of the city.



To cap off an amazing trip, I met Anthony Boudain on the plane coming back to Seattle from NYC. He was kind and allowed me to take a selfie for which I was grateful. I'm such a fan of how he uses food to help explore other cultures and break down barriers.