What a weekend!

This weekend was one of the best I've had in a long time. I think the extra-greatness came from a combination of finally starting to feel better, warm, warm weather down in Phoenix, and being able to spend two whole days with my family, both immediate and extended. My Uncle Brian and cousin Daron Grace flew in from New York and we spent the weekend eating way too much, looking at so many old, amazing photos, and catching up. My sister and I also decided we were feeling brave and took Daron shopping for some clothes. Keep in mind that she is 12-years old- that should help you make sense of the "brave" part. I had no idea it was so difficult to find modest length shorts for a little girl!

Saturday was also my sweet mama's birthday, and she turned 58! My Aunt Pat and Uncle Bob came up, and we all celebrated together with a big meal and a delicious ice cream cake. Afterward Henry had a bit of an early Easter and made out like a bandit, thanks to my parents. He's super into Elmo right now and my sister and Abe got him the cutest little singing Elmo doll too. He's a lucky boy.

Some of my most favorite parts- the long walk my Mom, Hank, Henry and I took Sunday morning, the Greek yogurt onion dip my Mom made, watching Henry get so excited over his new treasures, dinner at Nando's Friday night (I could live on guacamole), and seeing how happy my Mom was to be surrounded by almost all of her family. It was such a good weekend. 

We have a busy, busy week ahead and I can't say enough how excited I am to be (almost) back to normal. If you remember I had that crazy food poisoning in San Francisco, followed by that weird prolonged sickness, and then this whole wisdom teeth thing. I'm never, ever sick, so it's been a very weird past couple of months...and to to say I have a new appreciation of feeling healthy and happy is an understatement.

Here are some Instagram photos from the past couple of days. Enjoy!


my still swollen face on Day 9, Mexican food with the whole family, smoothies and shorts- it almost felt like summer! shopping with Laur and Daron, Lauren's "I'm done" smile, the guys and the dogs heading to the park to throw around the football.


the birthday girl, Carvel ice cream cake- so good! Uncle Brian and Daron, our 2nd frozen yogurt trip of the day, our big family Sunday dinner, and Henry zoning out while watching basketball in his new chair from Grandma and Grandpa.

Sister, sister!

I feel so lucky that my sister is not just my sister...she's my best friend too! She's the one girl (besides our Mom) that has seen me through every single stage in my life. When you grow up with someone you have a special bond- they've seen everything you've seen, they've had all of the same experiences, they've been with you, side-by-side through it all. Lauren just gets me. So when she surprised me this weekend with a beautiful sister tattoo on her arm paying tribute to favorite part of our childhood, I was blown away. It was the best surprise, and the meaning behind the tattoo is so, so special to us. We already have matching sister tattoos on our thighs, and I have her name on my forearm, but this one takes the cake for my favorite tattoo of hers. It's just so pretty.

"Sisters by chance, friends by choice." Love you Lauren, Laurman, Auntie Lolo. You're the best.

30th Birthdays and Early Christmases

What a weekend! It's been such a good past couple of days and despite a trip to the mall, my holiday spirit is still in tact. Friday we headed down to my parents' to spend time with family, get our Christmas shopping completed, celebrate our friend Jeffs' 30th birthday, and have an early holiday on Sunday with my Aunt Pat and Uncle Bob. Needless to say the last two days have been busy, but definitely in a good way.

Friday night we headed down south and spent some quality time hanging out with my parents' before heading to bed early. My Mom has converted the two upstairs bedrooms into guest rooms, so Henry sleeps in what used to be my sisters' bedroom and Hank and I sleep in my old room. It's a far cry from what it used to look like in junior high and high school (I had pictures and posters plastered in every corner of the room), but it's still fun to sleep up there- I'm always flooded with so many memories. If I'm feeling especially nostalgic, my big closet is filled with boxes and boxes of photos, notes from friends, and various treasures from back in the day. There have been so many nights I've gotten lost in those boxes, and it's incredibly fun (and usually embarrassing) to sift through all of it.

Saturday morning Hank and I headed out on a little daytime date. We first stopped by Green for lunch then spent the afternoon Christmas shopping. This year I tried to do most of our shopping in town, but there were a few items we had to pick up while down in the valley.  It was such a fun day though, and I most enjoyed just walking around and spending time with Hank...and ending our day with frozen yogurt.  I need to talk about this frozen yogurt trip for a minute too because it was probably the best combination I've ever had- Yogurtland's Madagascar Vanilla Bean with their Kona Coffee flavor. Delicious!



After shopping we came home and got ready for Jeff's 30th birthday party, whose wife Erin is a good friend of mine.  I've written about her many times before, but Erin and I met my freshman year of college at NAU when we both lived in Sechrist (one of the freshman dorms). We instantly clicked, and both ended up rushing, pledging, and joining Pi Phi. We spent all of college side by side, and have had some great times together. Since we all graduated from NAU back in 2004 our group of friends has stayed in tact, and it's pretty neat to go through so many of life's milestones together. Erin and I even had our sons just months apart. This past weekend her husband Jeff turned 30, and Erin threw him a Mad Men-themed party. It was a ton of fun, and all of the little details she put together were awesome. I'm not a big drinker and Hank doesn't drink at all, but it was still so fun to see all of the signature cocktails being made. Hank even got in on the action with one of the fake cigarettes pictured below and a Shirley Temple. :) It was a great night spent with really great people.

Then today we had an early Christmas with my Aunt and Uncle since we won't be seeing them next weekend. We ate a big dinner then had fun watching Henry open his presents. I know I've probably already said this 100x, but celebrating holidays with Henry is the best. He makes everything so much more fun. My favorite part of today though would definitely have to have been sitting around the dining room table with my Grandma, Mom, Aunt and sister girl-talking about everything and anything under the sun. We probably scared Lauren from ever wanting to have babies (birth story overload) but it was just so much fun talking for so long.










So, that was our weekend! I hope you had a great one too. xoxo

a Tucson adventure

Last week my family and I (minus Hank, he was on a business trip in Chicago), headed down to Tucson to celebrate my cousin Ryan's graduation from University of Arizona. It was so nice to head down to their neck of the woods for once. Aunt Pat is my Mom's sister and she and her husband, my Uncle Bob, have four boys. Before we even lived in Arizona we would come out to Tucson to visit them from NJ, and I have so many great memories of when we were all so young- visiting Old Tucson, Mt. Lemmon, desert adventures, and lots of laughs. Whenever we all get together I can't help but think about how neat it would be to have four boys. Originally I wanted a girl at some point, but whenever I'm with my cousins I feel like I could be the mama to a bunch of boys just like my Aunt and be so happy.

So anyway, Ryan (the third oldest) graduated UofA so they had a party at my Aunt and Uncle's. Their home is so beautiful and it's always such a treat to enjoy a cool(er) desert night. The night was full of Mexican food, way too much cake, some badminton on their sports court, lots of longing glances at the crystal clear pool, and some trampoline jumping. It was a great night.

Sarah, Henry and I drove down together, and on the way down we of course made the hours fly by with so much girltalk as Henry snoozed away. On the way home it was no different...until I looked down at my odometer and realized that my gas light was on. And had been on.  We were on the long, desolate stretch between Tucson and Florence, about 35 miles between each point. I checked my "range" and it let me know that I had 5 lovely miles left until we ran out of gas. In the middle of nowhere. With little to no cell reception. In 90+ degree heat. And a baby in the car. My worst nightmare. BUT luckily my parents, sister and Abe were in front of us, so my iPhone managed to grab a signal and let them know what was up. I fully anticipated running out of gas...but guess what? My fabulous, wonderful, super car got us all the way to the gas station. We may have been running on fumes, but we got there!

So lesson learned- check your gas levels before engaging in intense girltalk sessions.

All in all though it was a wonderful day and I'm so happy we got to celebrate with Ryan. Unfortunately (and REALLY regretfully) I only used my phone's camera that evening, but these are still good representations of our night, however embarrassingly bad the photo quality...

I sure love my family.