Photo Blogging Challenge – Patriotic

Posted by Getting Fit In MA

The July photo blogging challenge theme was Patriotic. I knew I’d have an easy time with pictures for this one, and my problem has actually turned into figuring out which 5 to use.

Let’s start close to my home in Quincy, MA.

The flag was at half mast because we lost a MA soldier in the Marine recruitment center shooting in TN

Here’s a close up from earlier in the month of the Quincy WWI statue

Patriotic books display in the Children’s room of the Thomas Crane Library

Also in the library, my Rosie grandmother-in-law set up a collection box for letters for the troops.

To see lots more patriotic photos and learn more about my grandmother-in-law check out my June post:

Quincy Flag Day Parade – Honoring Rosie the Riveter

Finally, here’s a display in the Union Oyster House celebrating the women of the American Revolution

Union Oyster House is Boston’s oldest restaurant, open since 1826. I was there this month because it’s where we host Boston Women Communicators Summer Social each year.

There we have it! They all unintentionally turned out to be photos taken in MA, despite a trip to NYC this month. I also took some photos of the American and MA flags flying next to each other, and some patriotic themed comics at New England Comics, but when you have too many photos to choose from, some have to get cut.

This monthly photo blogging challenge is facilitated by PJ of the Northeast Bloggers Network.

Thanks for inspiring me to take more photos!

Yoga Fundraiser for Jimmy Fund Walk

Posted by Getting Fit In MA

I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be back as a party of the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk in 2015.

This year, I’ll be walking the 5 mile route with the Boston Bloggers team.

One of our fundraisers will be an August 30th yoga class on Boston Common.

You can register for the class by making a donation at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/donation-based-yoga-on-boston-common-with-ali-singer-the-yoga-hub-tickets-17920558874

If you can’t make the class, but would still like to support my fundraising, you can donate at: Danielle Kempe Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk funraising page

I’m looking forward to another inspiring walk to support Dana-Farber Cancer Institute!

Read about my 2014 experience of walking the full 26.2 miles

Enter to Win 4 Pack of Blue Man Group Tickets

Posted by Getting Fit In MA

In my Blogger Bash Recap, I hinted that Blue Man Group hooked me up with an awesome prize to offer to you.

Enter below to win a family 4 pack of tickets to ANY of their US shows. (This includes the North American Tour)

Enter at: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Get sharing to increase your chance of winning!

Tickets must be used between September 8, 2015 and June 8, 2016, and are valid for ANY of these locations:

New York
Boston
Chicago
Las Vegas
Orlando
North American Tour

The winner will be mailed a certificate and you will need contact the rep for your tickets 2 weeks before your desired show.

Blue Man Group shows are definitely family friendly!

I don’t want to give away too much of the show for those that haven’t seen it, but I can assure you it will be a great experience!

I’ve seen Blue Man Group twice, once in Boston and once in New York City. The shows were both wonderful, and I was pleasantly surprised by new material in the NYC show.

Soul Pose – A Yoga Party

Posted by Getting Fit In MA

Have you heard of Soul Pose, the awesome yoga party coming to the Boston area (Waltham) on September 19th?

Here’s how Soul Pose describes there event:

Soul Pose brings the party to your mat. Fresh music, colorful confetti, happy bubbles, and thousands of your new yogi friends posing together – this is Freaking. Awesome. Yoga. This is Soul Pose.

If you’ve never set foot on a yoga mat, Soul Pose is the perfect place to give yoga a try. The great thing about Soul Pose is that anyone can do it! There are only a few rules at Soul Pose:

1. Bring your party: Get ready to bust a move and love your body with thousands of new Soul Pose friends.

2. Wear white on top: You’ll look fabulous. Promise.

3. Have fun: Give high fives, take selfies, and sing along when your favorite tune comes on.

You can do Soul Pose solo, or you can get your posse together and sign up as a group.

Come join us, you know you want to. If you have more questions on the event, check out the FAQs.

I’m going to be there for the sunlight session beginning at 11:30 AM. There’s also an evening black light session that begins at 7 PM. (I may join that too if the morning doesn’t tire me out too much.)

Will I see you there?

I’m looking forward to a wicked fun yoga class! I’m thinking of it as color run style meeting yoga, instead of running. 🙂

Revere Beach International Sand Sculpture Festival

Posted by Getting Fit In MA

On Saturday, my husband and I headed on a walking adventure to Revere, MA.

It was the 12th annual Revere Beach International Sand Sculpture Festival.

We got in over 5 miles of walking and 11,984 steps.

Here’s a view of the event in some photos I took. I highly recommend checking out the Revere Beach Sand Sculpture Festival next year!

All the artists worked on the center sculpture – themed “Spirit of Massachusetts”

This one didn’t look impressive from the front, but I found out through instagram that there was something hiding on the beach side

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A post shared by Nick Mendes (@nick_mac_92)

This vendor must have been having a good day. I saw a bunch of kids wearing squid hats.

That’s the original coaster from 1925 that used to be on Revere Beach, with a pedestrian bridge from Wonderland station in the background. The beach has changed a lot over the years.

We stayed at my aunt’s condo on the beach to watch the 9 PM fireworks display with a small party of family.

I love Revere beach since I have many fond childhood memories of it. Both my parents grew up in Revere and my grandmother, great aunt & uncle, and aunt, uncle, and cousin still live in there.

Blogger Bash – Day 2

Posted by Getting Fit In MA

Blogger Bash day 2 was even better than day 1!

Our day began with the Disney Infinity breakfast:

Then, I headed to the expo floor to chat with some brands.

I’m looking forward to working with the plus size clothing rental service Gwynnie Bee quite soon. (I’ll write a whole separate post about them once my 1st box of clothes arrive.)

Gwynnie Bee ladies at Blogger Bash: Melissa, Kelly, and Deidre

The Rite Aid recharge lounge was pretty awesome, and the portable phone charger they gave away rocked!

I totally used it at BBNYC to be able to charge without being next to a plug.

How cute is this flower arrangement from Teleflora?!

Then it was time for lunch! Lunch was sponsored by the Peanuts Movie.

The surprise at lunch was the entire voice acting cast for the Peanuts Movie joined us. Those kids are adorable and talented! (I was too far back from the stage to get a good picture of them)

We also got a crazy huge gift bag! It’s got a ton of awesome Peanuts stuff that I’m keeping for myself!

And I guess it’s a tie in with Pigpen, but there was also a full bottle of All laundry detergent in the bag.

The All made it back to MA with me, but it’s weight ripped the Peanuts bag so that didn’t make it out of NYC.

Post lunch, I was ready to go to some speaker panels.

The 1st session I attended was called a “Brand” new you. It was about health & wellness.

Renee Syler aka Good Enough Mother spoke 1st

Then Renee passed the mic to Nicole Sanders to speak about fitness.

Both women rocked it and I’m glad I attended.

Then it was time for a topic close to my heart, using social media for social good!

The panelist were awesome! Debbie Bookstaber, co-founder of Bloganthropy and President of ElementAssociates.com, moderated. Experts from UNICEF, Understood.org, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, and Woman’s Day were on the panel to share examples of effective social good campaigns.

I work in fundraising for a nonprofit, so listening to other nonprofit professionals speak about the impact social campaigns can have on them financially had me nodding along.

By then, I was getting a little tired, so I grabbed a snack to wake up!

Re-energized, I watched the Lights, Camera, Fashion show featuring Gwynnie Bee and Project Gravitas.

Then came the event I was looking forward to the most, the Bloganthropy Awards.

Bloganthropy recognizes and honors bloggers who use their social media influence to support charitable causes. They announce the winners of their 2015 Bloganthropy Awards. It was wicked emotional but the finalists deserved their honor.

The night ended with a carnival sponsored by Canadian Lentils! WOW! That was impressive.

This woman was in the chandelier and served attendees champagne! Crazy cool!

There was a whole row of carnival games!

A test your strength hammer & bell, complete with strong man

There were dancers

and a live band!

There was also lots of tasty carnival type food – like corn dogs, hamburgers, and ice cream – all made with lentils (and quite tasty)!

For the conference, I was trying to kill my impulse to post right that second, but keeping off social media and taking all my pictures with a digital camera. (With plans to upload them either back at the hotel or back home.) The one problem with this is I didn’t realize how active the BBNYC Attendees facebook group would be during the conference, or that BBNYC staff were sending us daily e-mails. The staff were kind enough to open the carnival up to non-attendees that traveled to NYC with us. I had no idea, until one of the bloggers that walked over from our hotel to the conference with me called me over to tell me to go invite my husband. (Thank you for telling me!)

My husband joined me for the last hour of the carnival and we had a great time!

Thank you Blogger Bash for a wicked fun introduction to the world of blogger conferences! I’m glad I attended.

And with all the awesome walking throughout the day, I got in over 12,000 steps on the 2nd day of the conference!

Cyc Boston

Posted by Getting Fit In MA

Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to try a free spin class at Boston’s newest cycling studio: Cyc

Cyc is pronounced “psy” – like in psychology. (That’s not how I was pronouncing it, so I looked a little silly. Oops.)

It can be a little bit of a hunt to find the studio the 1st time you visit, so leave yourself some extra time for that. It’s the same address as the Boston Park Plaza and is actually inside the David Barton Gym. (You can use the locker rooms at David Barton gym when you attend a Cyc class.)

What makes Cyc different from other spin classes in the area is the emphasis on arm movements with weights.

To quote their website “the Cyc Method utilizes weighted arm sectors and sport specific movements for more than 60% of the workout.”

The weights are beanbag type, which is different than other studios but I got used to them.

The bikes are no frills, with just the red resistance knob to turn, but no digital displays to tell you what the resistance level is or how many miles you’ve traveled. (I guess Flywheel bikes spoiled me.)

Similar to other studios, there is loud music playing and you’re asked to spin to the beat.

I’m going to chalk this up to the studio being new, but I had major problems hearing the instructor over the music. I’d catch about every 3rd word, so I was very lost most of the class trying to figure out which movements I should be doing or what position my hands should be in on the bike.

The instructor, JB, was great! She checked in with me before class, helped me get set up on the bike, and cheered me on during the class. I know that if the audio problems are fixed so I wasn’t so lost, I’d really enjoy her classes.

I’m definitely going to give them a 2nd chance though and go to another class in the future.

If you live in the Boston area and are interested in trying a class at Cyc, let me know in the comments. I was given some free 1st ride passes that I’d love to share. I’d also be open to scheduling my 2nd class for the same date/time you ride, if you’re interested in that.

If you’ve taken a class at Cyc Boston, let me know what you thought! It’s always great to hear which other instructors classes are worth checking out.

Blogger Bash NYC – Day 1 & Sweet Suite

Posted by Getting Fit In MA

As I mentioned in a recent post, I attended my 1st blogging conference: Blogger Bash NYC

It was a 2 day conference, so I’m going to split my recap into a post for each day.

Day 1 of blogger bash began with the Care Bears breakfast.

We learned about the Care Bears “Share Your Care” program and even got to take photos with a life sized bear!

As a nonprofit fundraising professional, I was really impressed by the Share Your Care program & profile of Zach Kaplan – a 12 year old that’s giving stuffed animals to NYC homeless shelters

Next, we headed to Blue Man Group in NYC for a private show!

Me & a Blue Man

The show was wicked fun & they gave us an amazing giveaway prize for our blogs – so watch my blog for a future post on Blue Man Group and the prize. I promise you you’ll want to enter!

Once we returned from Blue Man Group, it was time for “Sweet Suite: The Biggest Night of Play”.

Basically Sweet Suite was a huge toy fair for bloggers.

Here I am at the Goldie Blox booth

This was huge for me since my Grandmother-in-law was a Rosie!

I got to relive my childhood with Strawberry Shortcake!

I was overwhelmed demoing all the cool toys!

Yes, R2 is blowing bubbles

Change this sign to “god kids” and you’re on to something!

Since the god kids love Minions, I took some photos just for them:

It was an amazing day!

I got in 7,049 steps walked and was looking forward to more walking and adventure on the 2nd day of the conference.

Thanks to the wonderful women that walked over from our hotel (Courtyard Marriott Chealsea) to Blogger Bash NYC with me both mornings! It was great to start my day with a walk. Works better than caffeine to wake me up. 🙂