Please join me and pray for my amazing sister, Kamin, and her husband, Cory, as they welcome their sweet baby boy to the world today. We are over-the-moon excited to meet him, he is already so loved and adored. MANY photos to come over the weekend, I'm sure, but you can watch the Insta-feed in the sidebar or follow along (@tazandbelly) to see live updates today! ...
the GrandLife
Our plan for the last day in NYC was... you guessed it, to walk around some more. Since we're both big Lumineers fans, Josh wanted to walk to the corner of Canal & Bowery. We saved that for Sunday and spent the morning exploring Chinatown, Little Italy and more of SoHo. The neighborhoods were beautiful, the cheap goods were abundant and the food was delicious. I've only stayed in the city twice and both times were for business trips where the hotel were paid for. Once we stayed in a smaller boutique hotel and the other time, a massive modern chain. Both times were in midtown, only a few steps from Grand Central. Since Josh was working part of our last trip, we opted to stay outside of the city closer to his office and take the train. It was less expensive for us, but we ...
Brooklyn Bound
We slept even later on Saturday morning than we did on Friday morning and it was WELCOME. I think I woke up somewhere around 9 o'clock, but it was closer to 10 before I made myself get out of that cushy hotel bed. We were just about 15 minutes from the Brooklyn Bridge, so we took our time getting ready and then set out on foot. The last time we were here, it was freezing and when we got to the halfway point we turned around and found the nearest Starbucks to warm up. This time, we planned to walk into Brooklyn for lunch and some sight-seeing. Just in case you haven't noticed a theme, SD & I are masters at the self-portrait. We always laugh because people volunteer to take our photo (and we let them), but we still take one of ourselves, too. One day I'm going to put together a post of ...
City Love
We haven't been to NYC enough that I would consider us pros in any sense, but had definitely hit all of the tourist traps on our last visit and decided to take this trip at a decidedly slower pace. We didn't have an agenda, just a handful of restaurant recommendations and a few must-sees that we knew we wanted to fit in. Otherwise, this trip was a walking tour of quirky neighborhoods and an inventory of hole-in-the-wall restaurants we found along the way. We slept in on Friday morning (and watched John Mayer perform on the Today Show while we got ready). At the recommendation of one of my favorite girls (hey, Leila!!), we made brunch reservations at Sarabeth's in TriBeCa for Friday morning. It was about a ten minute walk from our hotel and the restaurant itself was adorable. The ...
Independence Day
The fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays and while we usually spend it laying around the pool enjoying BBQ and homemade frosties, this year we did something completely different. I was sad to leave my girls, but so excited to spend a few uninterrupted days with SD. Some of our best trips have been spur of the moment and this was kind of one of those. When we decided not to go to Europe this summer, we contemplated what to do instead. Early in May Josh mentioned spending a weekend in NYC and before he could change his mind, I booked non-refundable plane tickets. That's one way to guarantee your trip! When he asked me what I wanted to do when we got into the city, the first thing I said was SHAKE SHACK. Y'all, it is crying shame that we don't have one of these in the south. I ...
Dailies / Week 28
190/365: The Monday after our NYC there were no photographs. I was just trying to survive. There was laundry to fold and groceries to buy and babies to love on. Photos weren't high on the list. 191/365: On Tuesday, Taz crawled up in the bed with me and took a nap. She's wearing her "I Heart NY" t-shirt. They barely took those off the entire first week we were home. 192/365: On Wednesday, I finally went for a run. It was good to be back in a routine after our trip full of yummy food and little exercise. 193/365: On Thursday it was more of the same... eat good food and exercise. 194/365: On Friday night we went out with three other couples and had the BEST time. We had Italian for dinner and a few games at the bowling alley. There was a ton of Instagramm-ing going on, a little dancing ...
Recital Recap | Four Years
It's hard to believe my Elly-belly just completed her fourth year of dance. She was such a tiny little thing, just shy of three when she started. It's time consuming and expensive and she is exhausted so much of the time, but then I think about how much she's grown and how good she is and I see all of the friendships she's forming that won't have anything to do with school districts or neighborhoods. It is so good for her to be pushed and to step outside of her comfort zone and form relationships with people that she wouldn't otherwise get to know. I am so thankful for signing her up on a whim four summers ago. You can see previous dance recital recaps/photos here: 2012 | 2011 | 2010 ...
Dailies / Week 27
alternately titled, New York City via Instagram! 183/365: This was one of those weeks that couldn't pass quick enough. We were so ready for our long weekend and thankfully, work wasn't too stressful. My friend & I took a lunch-time trip to the mall on Monday for a few last-minute travel necessities (i.e. tie-dyed skinnies from the Gap and a few tank tops that were on clearance for $2!?). We also managed a yummy salad at the tex-mex place, followed up by a delicious Steel City Pops chocolate popsicle. When I got home that night, I packed for the weekend in an overnight bag. Y'all, this is serious. I packed for 5 days in NYC in a CARRY ON BAG. 184/265: Tuesday was house cleaning, children/animal organizing, reading material acquiring and boarding pass printing. Nothing super fun, ...