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Honeymoon Recap

Thursday, July 31, 2014
I am one of those weird people who LOVED planning their wedding. Matt and I had a long engagement which gave us a nice window to take our time on each detail. I gladly took over picking out invitations, flowers, dresses, the whole nine while Matt took over the honeymoon details. Our entire engagement we decided that he would keep the honeymoon a secret from me until we reached the final gate. Somehow (even after a 20 month engagement) I couldn't get him to slip.

Long story short, a man working the gate during one of our layovers unintentionally let the cat out of the bag. I was so excited to hear that we would be spending the next 10 days in Maui! Due to connections and delays, we were 'forced' to spend the night in LA. Twist my arm.


Once we arrived to the hotel, we made our way to Nobu, starving and half delirious from traveling all day. Luckily the food never disappoints and regardless of the minor hiccups, our honeymoon was off to an amazing start! The next morning we caught the first flight to Hawaii and for the next two weeks time had stopped.




We stayed at the Grand Wailea, which was so beautiful. I was in love with all of the outdoor hang out spots and the views were unreal.



Honestly, a lot of the highlights of the trip revolved around the dining experiences. Wherever we went, the wait staff would bring out cute little celebratory indulgences. We went a little overboard one night at the Four Seasons restaurant, DUO. This ice cream cookie flight was totally worth it.



Matt and I made sure that we designated a few days to just hang out by the pool with drinks in our hands. Which later lead to us hanging with the cool kids, racing down the water slides.


No-fuss ice cream on a sailboat after swimming with sea turtles.









The first portion of our honeymoon was coming to an end and we were off for a few days in San Francisco. Matt and I have been together once before but it was about one month after we found out I was pregnant with Parker. At that stage in my pregnancy I was tired all the time and constantly nauseous so my trip was mainly spent in bed. Little to my knowledge, this time around Matt had arranged to have my parents fly down with Parker to surprise me once we arrived to the hotel (story on that later since it deserves it's own post). Having her along with us in SF was the absolute best gift I could have ever asked for. Our honeymoon quickly converted to a family vacation and I wouldn't have had it any other way. She was an angel on the long flight back across country and again, we are counting our blessings for this little girl.






Kitchen Sink

Monday, July 28, 2014
Last Friday we ran into a situation where I needed to work from home. I think I can safely say on behalf of any mom who has found themselves entertaining a small child and working at the same time, that it is nothing short of an accomplishment. During one of my meetings, I left Parker alone to discover the goodies stored in my purse (the typical treasures such as my wallet, phone charger, bobby pins and makeup). After five suspicious minutes of silence on her end, I checked on her in the other room only to find her eating and smearing my beloved Baby Lips lip balm all over her sweet toddler skin. Luckily none of it made it to our off white carpets or our WHITE couch, but an impromptu wash-off in the sink made for an adorable photo opp.



When taking photos, I try not to use the flash but I can't help but love her showing off her mess. I asked her to show me what happened and she, without missing a beat, put her hands up and posed for the camera. I love this girl!







Hope your week is off to a great start. Happy Monday, friends! xx

Lovely Lake Life

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

This past weekend I packed up the car, grabbed the babe and dog and headed to the lake. Matt was out of town for meetings the first part of the weekend so this was my first time getting everything together for a trip, solo. Three attempts at packing the car, two curse words and one bruise later we were ready. I have been going to Seneca lake since I was a baby but this was Parker's first 'real' lake vacation where she could nap on the shore, interpret her own version of skipping rocks and play in the shallow water. She loved spending time with my parents and was constantly dragging them from the cottage, to the tent, to the lake, back to the cottage, repeat.





She was a natural lake girl with sunscreen in her hair and tiny rocks stuck to her chub legs and I was slightly obsessed with her tiny blonde pony sticking through her baseball cap. Her first morning there was a little chilly so I threw on a jacket over her pajamas and we walked down to the shore as she pointed saying things like 'waaaaaaaaaater' and 'baby yogaaaaa!'. She could barely contain herself and before we knew it she was knee deep and doing a face dive into the water. From then on she was skeptical of the water to say the least but still had so much fun. The cottage that my parent's were staying in has the best walking road so as you can imagine there was a sunset walk each night after dinner and we ended the weekend celebrating my younger brother's 24th birthday.


We always love watching Parker experience new things, but watching her embrace one of my favorite things with such open arms really warmed my heart. We are looking forward to more laid back vacations just like this for many years to come.

Expecting Mama & Newborn Love List

Thursday, July 17, 2014
One of my life long friends is expecting her first baby at the end of October and we couldn't be more excited over here! It's been so fun to watch her switch into mama mode when she talks about ultrasounds and first kicks. Not to mention, Parker can't wait to have a new buddy to join her wolf pack! Whenever I am out running errands or shopping online, I am constantly keeping my eyes open for anything that her or her babe might need love. As you can imagine looking at all the impossibly cute baby items has really kick started some serious baby fever on my end. So much that I can't help but create imaginary carts online packed with what I would pick up if we were expecting again. Here are a few of my absolute fave items for expecting moms and newborns!



Summer, Don't Leave Us

Tuesday, July 15, 2014
It's already happening. Maybe it was the way the dark and rainy weather made me feel like I needed to throw on yoga pants and the biggest sweater I own. Or maybe it was the lasagna rolls on our plates (a repeat in our house come September), but I couldn't help but think that it felt like fall. I was thankfully reminded this afternoon that we have a few months left of sweet summer when I stepped out into the 80 degree heat. We still have some summer bucket list items to cross off our lists including letting Parker get down and dirty with a sprinkle overdosed ice cream cone. Not to mention I am completely obsessed with Parker's summer wardrobe so I'm not rushing to pack away her tiny clothes for winter storage quite yet. If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably seen a few of these gems but here are some of our fav get ups thus far.


A mini military coat? We'll take 10.







I swear this child smiles. I now understand why people say it's so hard to photograph toddlers! xx

Parker's 21 Month Update

Saturday, July 12, 2014
It seems like forever since the last post! Looking back through the older posts, I am blown away with how much time has passed and how much our little girl has grown. So much has happened between then and now that it's hard to pick up where we left off, but it's sweet to be back none the less.


Parker is now 21 months and I swear, learning something new each minute. I work during the day so I can't wait to hang out with her when we get home to see what new she's learned at school. She can count to 10 (we're working on 11), and can recite her ABCs up through 's'. She loves to sing songs and dance. Sometimes Matt and I put on music in the kitchen and try to teach her some of our awesome moves. Her favorite move is rolling her fist over the other. One of our favorite things to do is have her mock our facial expressions. She is so spot on sometimes that it leaves me speechless (case in point, the last picture of this post). Her go-to food is definitely hummus. Over Father's Day we had our entire family over and put out a bunch of appetizers, one of them being hummus. Parker manned the hummus station the entire time and eventually ended up scooping it with her hands into her mouth over and over. No chips for this chick! Which leads me to her next favorite. Parker also loves anything that involves her new stool that we found at Ikea. She could spend hours brushing her 'teeess' or washing her hands. 


I know each parent says this, but with each passing day she gets so much more fun and smart that it's hard for me to miss her baby days. Not so say I don't have my moments, but I just love this age. Happy weekend, friends!


 
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