Thursday, July 26, 2012

Our Summer Trip


A couple weeks ago we went on an adventure to the Northeast!

Leaving Charlotte early in the morning ready to go.


To get ready for our trip, we sopped here to get breakfast. If you live in Huntersville, NC you should try it out. Pretty legit. 

 First stop: Philly!

We went to see Kathy and she so kindly let us stay with her!

We ate at one of my favorite restaurants: European Republic. So good.

 Another really cool thing we did was to go to the U. Outfitters headquarters (where she works) and saw some of the home goods she has designed. Go Kath!

Leaving Philly Thursday morning and headed to NYC!
And we made it! 
{Although we've vowed to never, ever drive into Manhattan ever again. It was just too stressful. Next time we're taking a plane and using mass transit. Plus it cost $12 to use the Holland Tunnel just to get into the City.}

After we found a free parking space on the UES I showed Andrew my old neighborhood. Including my old apartment building! 
 We got breakfast at a bodega and then made it to {Chris & Mir's} Starbucks for coffee.

We did a lot of walking around and went into the Converse store in SoHo. I love this picture. :)



Made it to the bull!

Yayayay! We met Tammy for a yummy lunch! So great to see you, Tam!
We left the City early that day and headed out to Long Island. This makes me so happy.
We went to visit and stay with the family I used to nanny for in Lloyd Harbor. Oh it was so good to see them. Here is me & Alec (and the picture to the right is from 2006!).
I always loved Tamara's hydrangeas. 

 Nicholas impressed us with his lacross skills! 

And Alec is a budding scientist.

They also showed us their biggest diving board splashes.

I can't believe how big they are.

 The next morning Tamara dropped them off at tennis camp and we had a lovely breakfast at their Bath Club.




 We made it back into the City and I took Andrew to Grand Central since it's one of my favorite places.

I also tried to do this Grand Central trick but it didn't work due to construction.

We made it to Fishs Eddy!!

Then we had lunch with LeeAnne at a cute cheese sandwich shop. It was wonderful to catch up with you, LA!!

Black & white cookie on the UES = happiness.


Made it to the Met!

It was Andrew's first time and we basically jogged through it as time was short and there was so much I wanted to show him.

Oh the architecture!

Made it to the reservoir and wished I could go for a run.


 Sunflowers!
Friday night Mir & Chris invited us over to their apartment for...tacos! A Park Ave. tradition! And we picked up some flowers for Miriam.

 Ollie!

 Miriam is a wonderful hostess and it was so fun to catch up!

That night we left the City and headed to Connecticut. Then woke up and had breakfast on the Yale University campus. How beautiful! It made me miss college.

We made it to Rhode Island. By this point Andrew and I were pretty tired and sat on a shaded bench for most of the afternoon with this view:

Then it was time for Jeremiah & Amy's wedding! What a perfect day.

They were so happy! The reception was in her parent's backyard and it was beautiful.

Friends in Rhode Island. 


Now they're headed back to South Africa to be missionaries. I'm going to put that on my list of places to travel.


 We finally made it to Boston!

Here we are visiting with Andrew's grandmother.

That afternoon we hung out with Andrew's sister and her adorable kids.
Souley's a soccer player!

 Jacques was so cute.

It's been a year since we've seen them and it was so funny how the kids reminded me that last summer I made them a homemade pizza with star shaped pepperoni, and watermelon cookies for dessert. Kids are so impressionable and remember even the little things!

We took a ferry tour to Boston and then enjoyed a yummy Italian dinner.


I love vacations. Thanks to all our family and friends for your hospitality. It was such a special trip!

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Back to school!

I hardly ever go to Walmart just because it's far-ish from where we live. But I was there last week and saw that it's that time again! Back to school time! I picked up 6 markers and 6 packs of Crayons for our nieces and nephews.

I love being an aunt, it's so fun. I love my aunts, especially one that isn't with us anymore. I was so touched by my Awah's thoughtfulness when I was younger and how much she loved us. So now it's exciting to be one to Andrew's, and now my nieces and nephews. {It will be even more exciting when my own sisters have kids one day.} 

I also love art. I don't know why except that I just do. Maybe it's my middle school bff's influence on me as we traveled to Paris in 2000 and toured the Louvre. I love going to art museums in new cities. I also love kid's art. We have one of our niece's pieces of artwork framed in our apartment. There's just something sweet about it.

So I looked for some inspirational quotes from artists and found the ones below which I wrote on some of the note cards.




"I dream my painting and then paint my dream." -Vincent Van Gogh


"I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people." -Vincent Van Gogh (I've also thought about getting this.)