lately around these parts...

actually, i haven't even been around these parts.  i've been in vegas, yo!  i feel like you all are thinking, 'ok, she said she's going to blog more often, then the blog is blank for a week. wtf?'  but there were no computers on my vacation, and i kind of loved it. 

we traveled to las vegas to celebrate pi's uncle's wedding.  it was a huge family reunion of sorts, with all of us holed up in a spanish mansion off the strip, cooking and swimming and laughing.  it was wonderful. 

playing pass the baby!

enjoying the patio and barbeque

easter eggs!

saturday on the strip

the venetian

our little gondolier

the happy couple who hosted us!

cocktail hour on our formal night for the celebration.

auntie nat with baby james. she has a way with those babies :)

our nephew little man easter egg hunting!

CANNONBALL!

who could not LOVE that little face?

lounging by the pool on easter sunday

uncle philip & little man - buds for the weekend.

OH. MY. GOD.

we were so blessed to be able to still go on our vacation.  something came up and we weren't sure if we'd be able to travel, but we lucked out.  and it turned out that a little bit of sunshine went a very loooooong way for us.  i'm one of those lucky few with amazing in-laws, and the trip was such a welcome break for us from the gloom and dreariness of boston lately. 

luckily we've come back to some sunshine - so we should be able to get out more!  i'm so excited to start exploring boston more, and the sunshine should make that easier. 

hope YOUR weekend was as fantastic as mine, and your family is equally awesome. 

til next time...!

montreal!

it just dawned on me as i sent an email to a friend with montreal recommendations that i still haven't blogged about our trip!  it was such a wonderful weekend fulled with smiles, snow, hockey and poutine.  pretty perfect for me. 

our first day, we spent the late morning and afternoon walking around old montreal, filled with churches, colorful buildings, great shopping, and wonderful food.  some of the best we found was mechant boeuf bar & brasserie and taverne gaspar - what foodies those canadiens are!

our second day, we spent some time walking through montreal's underground city, which was basically like giant connected malls one after the other, all underground.  then we took the metro to poutine la banquise, which makes over TWO DOZEN kinds of poutine.  that's right.  two dozen.  we sample a few, and each one was more amazing and guilt-filled than the last.  that evening we had our hockey game - which was the main point of our trip to montreal.  centre bell is definitely worth seeing whether or not you are there to see a canadiens game.  the history of the team is amazing, and being into the team made it all so worthwhile and meaningful.

canadien beer at la banquise

me + guy lafleur!

our last day we stumbled upon the most amazing place for brunch - griffintown cafe, and explored the area around it.  we didn't spend too much time reading guide books or researching where to go.  besides the bell centre, we ate our way through the city and wandered wherever we felt like it, spending most of our time in old montreal.  it was such a great trip, being only five hours from us, and i would happily go again [but maybe in the spring]! 

pretty awesome birthday gift, if you ask me :)

memories of istanbul.

over the weekend, PI and i decide to re-live our honeymoon a little bit. 

when we went on our honeymoon, we had the most amazing time.  now i am sure everyone has an amazing time on your honeymoon [how could you not?!], and ours was no exception.  i thought our honeymoon perfectly suited us.  we didn't pick a traditional honeymoon spot like jamaica or hawaii, but instead wanted someplace where we could see some history, take in a new culture, but also relax... you know, have a real experience.  so we decided to go to istanbul.

and it was just right for us.  not only did we get to see places like the blue mosque and the hagia sofia, but we were able enjoy the water on the bosphorous and the border between europe and asia. 

but, just like many honeymooners, we were tired.  all the planning and traveling that we had to deal with for the wedding [especially we had left brooklyn a week before the wedding to see the plans through in denver, then on to turkey from there] had left us just wanting to relaaaaax.  so, we would generally sight-see during the morning, then after stopping for some lunch, would find a cafe and sit for the rest of the afternoon.  we'd order a nargile water pipe, get out a deck of cards, and sip some mint tea. we would smoke, talk, laugh and just be together all afternoon.  and we still talk about how amazing those times were, while we sat around and dreamed about what our married life would be like.

enjoying the sunshine and comfy pillows

view up from our fave hangout

view to istiklal caddesi, one of istanbul's busiest avenues

so, tired of being snowed in our loft out here, we decided to venture out for some turkish style fun.  we woke to more snow on saturday morning, but by the afternoon we were heading over to allston to an authentic hookah lounge, habibi.  not sure if any of my readers are actually looking for an authentic hookah experience in boston, but if you are, this is it.  we spent the afternoon enjoying rose and lemon mint hookah, sipping mint tea, and remembering how amazing our honeymoon was five years ago, and plotting our next trip. 

the hookah - and mint tea - was amazing!

yesterday i cracked open my new book - the glass of time - and completely devoured it.  i am already halfway through it after more snow yesterday encouraged us to hole up with tea, blankets and our books.  pretty lovely weekend if you ask me.

pi is off to la tomorrow for work, so i'll be hanging out here solo.  i'll probably finish that book by tomorrow.

enjoy your monday off!

xoxo

digging out

now that nemo has come and gone, we have finally dug out of our place here... kind of.  the blizzard didn't put too much of a damper on our weekend fun with mom, and we were mostly able to do the things we wanted to do [which was mostly taking her to some of our favorite restaurants].  since we were snowed in but never lost power, we were able to have a daniel craig bond marathon, drink bailey's + coffees all day, and fantasize over mom's wedding plans! 

the snow is definitely fading now, and since it rained all day yesterday we are left with heaping piles of snow, along with big puddles of water and slush all around us.  it's not quite as romantic as some of the snowed-in-imagery would have you believe.  but luckily mom and i were able to have the day all to ourselves out of the loft yesterday.  we celebrated our birthdays [hers was on christmas, but i haven't seen her since then and mine is thursday] by shopping and then having champagne and tea at the boston harbor hotel right on the water.  it was so lovely and i can't recommend it enough.

this week is a little low key, but i'm ready for a few boring days because in about a week it looks like we will be heading to cali to visit family, friends, and little baby james... i'm pretty excited! 

here are some of the pics of what nemo did to our neighborhood and a few other highlights from our weekend. 

walking along the south end saturday night

philip's snow art     : ]

dinner at stella!

snow at least two feet up the fence

birthday tea for my mom at the boston harbor hotel

til tomorrow ladies and gents!

well, it's a blizzard!

guys, i think there's a blizzard here in boston.

i can't tell if the snow is blowing up, down, or sideways - but there's a lot of it. we are so lucky mom got here yesterday - the flight she would have been on today was cancelled, and by 6pm the T was shut down and gov. patrick ordered all cars off the roads - and a $500 fine for anyone caught driving (including cabs).

we slept in, had a pot of coffee, and laughed to gag reel of the office all morning before deciding to venture out to buy bailey's for our coffee :)

EVERYTHING was closed. i can't say enough how strange it was to walk down newbury street while it is deserted -
no people on the sidewalks, no lights in the shops and no cars in the street. we found a liquor store still open, grabbed out booze and haven't left the loft since.

we still have power for now but strangely our internet has been flickering... it will be very interesting to see what we wake up to tomorrow...

laughing and cuddling over coffee

getting bundled to brave the snow

it's not so bad out here!

snow piling up our 2nd story window

thank you nemo

unless you live under a rock, you have probably heard a thing or two about the 'worst of all time' blizzard named nemo heading towards the northeast.

like i was mentioning the other day, my mom is supposed to get here tomorrow, right around the same time nemo should be hitting new england - HARD.

so after bugging my mom for most of the day yesterday to change her travel plans, jet blue issued a travel alert for the northeast and her flight was changed from tomorrow to today, a whole day early!  she should be here in about three and a half hours.  after i pick her up from the airport we will have to stop by trader joe's for some weekend provisions in case we get snowed in. 

we have a lot of great plans for the weekend - shopping on newbury street, dinner at stella, brunch at gaslight, and a birthday surprise for mom that i can't share just yet.  it's our combined birthday weekend [hers was in december, mine is next week] so we are going to celebrate together and have a great time.  

thank you, snowstorm nemo, for bringing my mom out here early to hang out with me! 

stay safe and warm out there!

high high #25

it was a pretty amazing day.

it started out with work, but it got kind of amazing afterwards.  PI & i went to pick out or christmas party invitations from our favorite stationary shop [i CAN NOT believe that it's already time for christmas party invitations!].  they are amazing - can/t wait to share pics!

but after, mom and i had an amazing spa day at  izba.  we had body masques, beating with banya leaves, and an amazing rubdown by a man named dimitri.  after we were sufficiently relaxed, we went for wine and cheese at cellar.  i would highly recommend it :) 

it was an amazing relaxing mother-daughter day... and we don't do it often enough.  it was pretty awesome.

hope you enjoyed your saturday!

xoxo
 

weekend with our favorite couple

hey friends! i don't know about you, but we had an awesome weekend.  we drove up to glenwood springs to hang out with one of our favorite couples ever.

it was a nice little getaway.  it has been so unbelievably busy around here that i can't even explain - or share just yet - everything that's been going on!  but all in good time my friends.  a great way to pass the time from homework and other stresses is drinking with friends i learned.

PI & LP

you know you get along too well when you both make goofy faces at the same time

the boys strutting

 

hope your weekend was as awesome as mine :)

we finished the weekend off with some tacos and mojitos with momma at a local el camino.  lots of big changes to discuss.  wish i could say more now... but it will have to wait just one more week folks!

happy sunday evening and i'll be back again soon!

october catch-up

well, i promised a blog post before the end of the month - so i guess i'm getting it in just in time!  it's been a crazy month, with finishing up one weekend class, starting a new weekend class, celebrating PI's birthday, and dealing with something new i am not at liberty to discuss just yet...

blowing out 28 candles

for PI's birthday, i booked a weekend getaway at the stanley hotel up in estes park.  it was perfect - from the halloween-esque atmosphere of the hotel.  it was the only weekend i had off between my two classes, so it was the perfect time for a little mountain escape.

it was such a relaxing time, and with fall the colors changing were gorgeous.  we got some pretty good pictures too.

 

elk just in front of the hotel our first afternoon

my shadow and the elk - soooo close!

maybe one of my favorite pictures of PI ever

evening at the state's biggest whiskey bar at the stanley

driving through the mountains on the way home

mountain goats in the way home

 

stopped for pumpkins on our way home

it was a lovely weekend.  i'll post some pics of our halloween costume tomorrow, and this weekend we are headed BACK up to the mountains to visit some friends of ours.

hope you are enjoying your fall as much as i am, and stay tuned friends...!

48 more days

til graduation! 

xoxo