Vacation Recap.

Well, here we are...back in New York, back to reality. As I type this, there is a symphony of car horns (like TEN car horns) being blasted all at once outside our window -- it's like a wall of sound bouncing off the buildings and coming straight up into the apartment where my sleeping baby lies. Lovely. Welcome home! Anyway, let's pretend I'm still at the beach, shall we? :) 

(much better...)

As I said before, we had a great time. Part of me was nervous that Miles wouldn't adapt well or would have sleeping issues (we had to share a room with him) but it all worked out so well. He did great and we had such a wonderful time with Dan's family. 

There was plenty of time spent on the beach, time spent on the boardwalk (seriously the classiest boardwalk I've ever been to), a day at the waterpark, card games at night, lots of down time for reading books, naps(!).....ah vacation. 

Miles sneaking up on people at the condo :)

One lovely warm evening, Dan's mom offered to stay and watch Miles while we rode bikes to the boardwalk for a night of good old fashioned fun including the arcade (skee ball! ms. pac-man!) ice cream and rides. Such fun! 

ferris wheel!

Another night we drove 10 miles up the highway for a date night in Atlantic City. What a crazy place. We enjoyed an amazingly tasty meal at one of the restaurants in AC's newest hotel and casino, Revel, won 30 bucks at the slot machines (woohoo!), and walked the Steel Pier which has been around since 1898 and has a seriously charming old-timey feel to it...it was all such fun. 

 

(those are birds flying around up there...so. many. birds. creepy)

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Aaaand, I seem to be out of photos! Guess I didn't take as many as I thought. So to sum up: beach vacation ---> relaxing ---> fun ---> huge success ---> yay! 

At the beach...

Forgive the long stretch of silence but we've been away at the beach! It's been such fun reading books, watching Miles play in the sand, walking the boardwalk and relaxing with family. We've discovered that it's *much* easier to take a vacation with Miles plus family rather than just the three of us (which we attempted to do over Memorial Day Weekend). Lots of extra helping hands! More to come later -- plus a whole lotta other summertime fun and life to catch this blog up on -- but until then, a few pictures...

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Memorial Day Weekend.

A few photos to share from one of my favorite places on earth: 

Stone Harbor, New Jersey.

 I know Jersey has gotten a bad rap over the years...and while it is true that the Jersey Turnpike is not the most scenic of thoroughfares (and their rest stops leave little to be desired), there are some really lovely (yes, lovely!) parts of New Jersey. Like Stone Harbor, which is way, way down at the bottom of the Jersey Shore. 

I have spent the last two decades going down to this little pocket of goodness with my family (my grandparents began the tradition 60+ years ago) and even had the privilege of living there for two summers after college with my grandparents, which was an incredible gift in so many ways.

 I was thrilled to share this special place with Dan several years ago, and now again with Miles...sigh...I'm pretty sure my heart expanded about three times it's normal size upon seeing my little sweet pea dip his toes into the icy Atlantic waters for the first time. 

When we entered the condo, which sadly has been put on the market by my Papa, I was hit with such strong memories of my grandparents (even 9 years after her death, it somehow still smells like my Nana's perfume). To then see my little one crawling all over the place, in their home, creating new family moments to mix with the old...it brought tears to my eyes. 

Overall, our time in Stone Harbor was so so wonderful. Yes there were some sleep issues and some teething issues that weren't so fun to deal with...and a beach vacation is a little bit different with a baby then without...but the good definitely outweighed the bad. It was so much fun to see the confusion/discovery/joy cross Miles' face when we set him down in the sand for the first time. He liked to scoop up handfuls of it, hold his hands high above his head, then slowly release the grains all over everything. It was quite dramatic :) 

We kind of killed the camera's battery on the first day taking all of these millions of pictures of that cute little face, hence the lack of photos of *anything* else. So here's a post from 2010 that shows off the rest of Stone Harbor's charm :) Enjoy!

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An overdue post about Thanksgiving (and other randomness).

Riverside Park

I really have been meaning to get on here for a week now to post about our Thanksgiving in NYC...but...exhaustion has overtaken me. These days I am lucky if I manage to shower much less compose eloquent blog posts (or emails, or etsy orders (which are starting to roll in for the holiday season) or cleaning or working, etc.). In addition to Miles' multiple awakenings throughout the night now (growth spurt??), my tired body has decided to give up on the idea of sleep all together, it seems. The last few nights I've had a horribly frustrating case of insomnia in between all of his feedings. Ugh...

Anyway, Thanksgiving! This year was my first first Thanksgiving in the city and I am so glad we decided to stay put. We hosted Dan's mom and a good friend and shared a lovely meal together (mostly made by Dan's mom). Miles wasn't quite sure what to make of our feast. He'll stick to milk, thankyouverymuch:

Staying in the city also gave us the opportunity to do something I've always wanted to do: go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloon Inflation! It happens in our 'hood on the eve of Thanksgiving, and so despite the rainy, chilly weather, we decided to bundle Miles up and take him out for a real New York experience.

A very cool experience that I would highly recommend :)

P.S. new prints for sale in my etsy shop! (the original pieces were featured in the Art + Music show in Boston that I talked about here and here). More prints to come soon!

A family stroll.

(love this pic -- you can just barely see Miles' tiny head poking up :)

Having a newborn is definitely limiting in some ways, but Dan and I try to get out for walks and meals out with Miles as much as possible. It helps us feel 'normal' and still connected to our city and the world.

Last weekend we decided to take a stroll down Broadway towards Lincoln Center. It's the farthest I've ventured out since giving birth (soreness/tiredness prevented such long walks before) and it was so dreamy to walk through sparkly Lincoln Center again with Miles in tow. 

my boys

So excited about the beautiful Fall weather we've been having lately and looking forward to more family strolls in magical New York :)

Mother's Day Weekend.

blue Virginia skies on Mother's Day

Just back from a lovely (surprise!) visit to Virginia for Mother's Day. The look on my mom's face was priceless when I walked in on Saturday morning, fresh off a plane from Boston. So glad the plan/surprise was a success! Dan, sadly, had to stay behind to finish up his final papers, but I was able to get in some good quality time w/ mom (shopping, lunching, chatting...all the good stuff :) and we had a wonderful time on Sunday with family and some of their friends, brunching and enjoying the beautiful Virginia countryside at some local wineries (well, I was an observer for the winery part). Oh, and the weather was dreamy all weekend. Another fun surprise was Dan sneaking a Mother-to-be Mother's Day card into my suitcase! So surreal to open my very own Mother's Day card...melted me a little!  

mother, daughter and baby bump!

Heading west....

me & dan, santa fe 2009

taos, nm, 2008

Heading out tomorrow (Lord willing & no travel issues!) to beautiful, sunny Santa Fe for some quality R&R time with my dad. Can't wait to breathe in that fresh air and take in those mountain views.....YAY for vacation! May be on here sporadically next week....or maybe not :) We'll see.....have a great weekend/week!

Farewell, cold weather!

 

Harvard building, post blizzard

I  think I am starting to fully see & understand the infamous "Boston winter" that everyone speaks of....it. is. COOOOLD here! No doubt about it. Lucky for me, I'm about to trade in my furry boots for flip-flops. My winter coat for tanks & skirts. That's right! Heading to sunny Florida for a little family visit and some much needed sun-soakage! Ahhh, CAN'T WAIT. Might be on here next week, might not. Always depends on internet connections (and whether I feel like it or not :) If not, have a lovely week and I will be back soon with some fresh freckles and sunny, blue-skyed photos! 

Goodbye, vacation...

Lady Liberty (as seen from the Staten Island Ferry)
Here we are, sharing our last moments at the condo in Stone Harbor before driving back up to Boston early tomorrow (with my mom in tow ~ she's anxious to see our new digs and spend a couple days exploring Beantown!). Not quite ready to say goodbye to vacation just yet (it's never easy), but feeling refreshed and ready to dive back into life up there -- it's been a rejuvenating time of reconnecting with all my people in my city and on the beach. Perfect.

My days are all wonky but I just realized it's Friday, sooo...hope you have a great weekend and see you back here on Monday!

Beach love.

Stone Harbor sunset
Greetings from one of my favorite places on earth! Internet has been a little spotty (and I've been a little lazy), and so I've taken a break from blogging and such for the time being. We are wrapping up the last few days of family time down here at the shore (where we are celebrating the birthday of a certain amazing lady: happy birthday, mumsey!).

Despite the rain and chilliness of the last few days, it's been a full and lovely time, and I can't say that I've missed being online all too much :) I will be back on here in full swing on Monday, but until then (as long as the internet decides to behave) I'll intermittently post some pics of my time in New York/at the beach.

Until then...

Back in business!

love & silliness in the Canadian Rockies
A quick post to say I am back! Back to Boston -- back to my new "reality" (which is a little confusing at this point. what does reality look like? what will life look like here? not sure). But flying over the water, returning to my new beautiful city, my heart swelled with lots of emotions...some sadness that it wasn't New York, that I wouldn't be returning to my Upper West Side home or to my New York friends, but lots of excitement as well. It's a whole new chapter in a new city that I am excited to explore.

And I feel refreshed and ready for this new chapter after such a lovely whirlwind trip out west. There was some great quality time spent with family, some adventures in a beautiful (see above!) rugged mountain setting, and some great times and laughs with my buddy, my love. AND, along the way, something VERY exciting & important happened...I became an aunt for the first time! Yippee! My brother and sister-in-law became first time parents on July 6, 2010 to Baby Luke, and I am SO EXCITED for our family!! There was *maybe* some dancing and happy tears when we found out about his arrival (after a long & hard delivery by my rockstar sister-in-law, Ang) and we are just thrilled to pieces to welcome this new little life into the world.

So now it's time to go and watch the rest of the Bachelorette (oh, the DRAMA!! are you watching?? this is serious emotional stuff. and Tahiti has now moved to the top of my list of places to go in the world. beautiful....). But I'll have more vaca pics & such to share tomorrow. Until then....

I love a good Broadway show...

Lincoln Center Theater
It's been awhile since I've been bitten by the Broadway bug, but it's also been awhile since I've seen a reeeeeally, reeeeeally good Broadway show. But since seeing South Pacific on Saturday night with my fam (mom & george were in town - yay!) I can't stop twirling around the kitchen singing "I'm in Love With a Wonderful Guy" (which is true, btw) and looking up Boston auditions online. You know, just in case :)

Definitely go see South Pacific. And also go eat at New Leaf up by The Cloisters (another highlight of the weekend). So. Good.

Weekend in Virginny.

chelsea, NYC
Well, we're back in New York -- back in the middle of it all. Which is pretty nice in a whole lotta ways, but we're also missing the rolling green hills of Virginia that we experienced this weekend, too. The weather on Friday was a dream -- perfect for our friends' beautiful outdoor wedding -- and the drive through the countryside to get to Charlottesville (where the wedding took place) was just so gorgeous and reminded us that we do indeed (still) heart Virginia. The wedding on Friday was lovely, followed by a lazy Saturday at a Virginia winery with a group of friends and then a perfect (albeit chilly) Mother's Day on Sunday at a little french cafe in Leesburg with both of our sweet mamas. A really lovely & perfect weekend all around.

*King Family Vineyards, Charlottesville, Va.

The San Remo

The San Remo
I know we've seen this building before (well, here anyway) but I just really like it :) One of my faves. And home to Bono and Demi Moore (he's in the north tower, she's in the south). Do you think they're friends?

We are heading to Virginia tonight for a weekend of celebrations (specifically, a wedding and mother's day). But I will set this sucker to auto-post a special NYC picture tomorrow on my behalf while I'm out frolicking in the southern sun with family and friends :) Yay technology!

Happy Monday.

tulips on third avenue
We were back to New York late last night after a very full, very fun, very family-oriented weekend in the DC area. Starting in Northern Virginia with my family then ending in Maryland with Dan's family, we accomplished a lot of that celebrating I mentioned in the last post, all while soaking up some PERFECT Spring weather.

Here are some shots from the weekend (there were more I wanted to share ~ and with fancier formatting ~ but my computer is NOT cooperating & keeps freezing up & shutting down on me):

(the parents to be ~ my brother & sister-in-law)
(my cousin Lauren & me at the shower)
(us in our Easter finery)