What's New With You {April}

Hey, friends! Happy May! Oh by gosh by golly, I can't believe it's May already, ya feel me? Don't get me wrong, I am STOKED for the warmer, summer months ahead. Give me allll the heat after this cold, bitter winter, I love all seasons but SUMMER is my favorite. 

Today I'm sharing 'what's new with me', with a twist. I think I've recapped my April pretty well, talking about the Arizona visit, Vegas trip, my birthday and missing a goal I wanting so badly, so I thought today I'd share my first kickball trip of the year, so it's new right?

Flight debacle: I hate complaining. I really try not to blog with small complaint after small complaint, not my jam and I hate reading that kind of garbage. But travel this weekend was atrocious. First time flying Allegiant and let me tell you, never again. It was so horrendous. We were supposed to leave at 8:05pm Thursday night, we did NOT leave until 1:30am Friday morning because there was an issue with the hydraulic system. DON'T get me wrong, I am grateful the preflight check caught the problem and there wasn't anything horrible in air but landing at 3:30am just was terrible. Plus, everything was closed at the airport so we couldn't even get good food [they brought in pizza, but nope]. Our flight back was delayed three hours because they HIT A BIRD. GOOD FREAKING GRIEF. Anyway, rant over, sorry. It just had to be documented. 

Beach fun: Friday we slept it [because sleep], went to brunch at Datz [so good] then headed to Clearwater beach. It was lovely day, warm with barely a breeze and just perfect. Not so perfect, my expired sunscreen which left me toasted, but oh well, BEACH! It was so nice to see friends I hadn't seen since November and hang with those I love so dear. I didn't freak too much about being in a swim suit, but it's definitely motivation for lake season. I'm also working on my handstands because it's something I've wanted to perfect for awhile, so why not try it at the beach, right?

Food fun: One of my favorite parts of traveling is trying new, local food. Friday night was kind of a wash after the beach, but we went back into the city area and RANDOMLY found this delicious ramen place. It was super hipster, super small, had a wonderful vibe and was DELICIOUS. Saturday night's dinner was a bit random as well because we lost super early [uggggghhhh] and so had more beach time. Le Husband and I tried a place right off the beach and it was super tasty. I loved everything and doubley loved my KEY LIME PIE!

Sunset/life fun: Since we lost early on Saturday Le Husband and decided to take some extra time at the beach. It was nice to relax and walk along the water and see the majesty of the ocean. There was some beach time on Sunday too, but Saturday was my favorite because of the colors and just the mood. I snapped a few great pictures and they just make me smile.

What's new with you this month? What did you do last month that was awesome?

Weekly Wins {The One With Birthdays and Trips}

Happy Friday, kids. I'm back with some wins and also bringing you a quick [kind of] recap of our trip to New York City. We had such a great time, I'm honestly still smiling from it. But first, two wins.

>>> Wednesday was T-Bone's 92nd birthday, woohoo! He'd been feeling sick recently so we weren't sure if we'd have to wait for the weekend, but thankfully he started feeling better that morning. We celebrated with margarita's and prosecco and he really enjoyed his coupon book for 'work around the house' from us. It was all Le Husband's idea and it was hoot when T-Bone finally realized what he had in hand.

>>> Yesterday was Daddy's birthday and we tried to celebrate him as best we could from afar. The girls reached out to family to have tons of letters sent his way. He seemed touched which made it quite wonderful.

Wedding day pictures are my favorite. 

Those are the two big wins of the week, now on to our winning weekend in NYC. My Christmas present from Le Husband was a weekend in NYC, which in itself was awesome, but the main part of the present was a visit to an Athletic Movement Protocol facility. We flew out Thursday night and landed in DC for an evening layover. Which meant we met up with family and friends for dinner that night. It was so lovely seeing people and totally worth the late night before an early morning. 

Friday morning we were up bright and early for our quick flight into La Guardia. I must admit, the NYC skyline is quite fabulous, especially Miss Liberty. 

To save money we took the bus and the subway instead of an uber and it was actually quite fun. I grew up using the DC metro and NYC is soooo different, very well laid out though. Since it was still cold tourists were quite minimal so we had tons of space to move around. Le Husband travels so much for work now [three days up to two weeks at a time] he has racked up some pretty insane Marriott points so we stayed a Courtyard Marriott right in Times Square. We dropped off our bags and took of in search of lunch [more on that below] and sight seeing fun.

Both Le Husband and I wanted to see the World Trade Center memorial and on a whim we decided to take the One World Trade Center tour. Tickets weren't horrible and we both thought, why not. The elevator ride up was not my favorite but the view was spectacular. Saw lots of Instagram husbands doing their thing for a special photo. We just snapped the quick one below, ha.

Afterwards we spent time around the memorial. It's quite moving and very well done, definitely tear inducing.

 Someone Le Husband convinced me to walk the 30 (!) blocks back to our hotel before dinner. It was quite chilly and a few times I wanted to tap out and take the subway, but the people of NYC kept me pretty entertained. There was a quick stop to a bar for a whiskey and then it was time for dinner.

Saturday morning we headed to Penn Station to catch the LIRR out to Long Island. Mad props to people who do that often, woof. The whole trip was based around visiting Athletic Movement Protocol which a friend of Le Husband owns. He took us through an hour assessment, gave us an hour of treatment and then an hour of drills/workouts to implement on our own.

I learned a TON about my body, specifically I have an anterior [forward tilt] in my shoulders which causes my lats to be loaded constantly and keeps strain on my neck aka TENSION headaches. The treatments were DIVINE and the drills are savagely simple to keep up with so I'm excited for progress. If you're in the New York area needing functional/mobility you must check out this facility.

Lunch was quick and then it was back to the city. Our dinner on Saturday night was also Le Husband's birthday celebration and we found this fabulous French bistro a few blocks from the hotel. The evening was warmer so there were quite a few more people out, which was fun for people watching of course.

Sunday morning was for sleeping in and getting brunch before the trek back to the airport. Best part of Le Husband's travel is his Admiral's Club access, free food and quiet, wahoo. Soon we were up up and away in the clouds on our way back to DC.

Le Husband timed our layover long enough for us to do a quick trip to our favorite Arlington restaurant, Pollo Rico. Mom and dad picked us up, Babyspice met us there, we ate dinner, had birthday cake for Daddy and then went right back to the airport. It was the perfect ending to the perfect weekend.

Our eats: None of our food was planned, we just YELPed around the area with thoughts, so us.

PHO!!!!

Macaron and cappuccino after lunch 

Whiskey to keep the cold at bay.

Street corn at Mexque 

Pomegranate margarita 

Tuna ceviche, Lobster & duck tacos

 Our delicious French dinner was incredibly authentic and made me reminisce about our European trip.

There you go, our weekend recap. Wishing you a wonderful weekend, friends. Catch you back here on Monday!

Thanksgiving Family Vacation {Arizona}

***Only two weeks later than promised, but hey, I'm here right? Life kind of just happened and spending time here was the last thing on my mind. So thank you for waiting and I hope you enjoy my lil recap of our Thanksgiving family trip to Arizona. ***

Most of you will remember my sister, Sportyspice, moved to Arizona with her husband this past January. He's in the military and they are stationed out there until 2018. This year the family decided to head out to west for a full week of Thanksgiving fun with a little sight seeing thrown in too.

Travel
Normally I wouldn't even update this, but man, our trip out there became a bit cray-cray. About two days before we actually bought our tickets T-Bone, my 92 year old grandfather, decided he wanted to come out west with us. We said "YAY", then Le Husband and I went "oh boy, we in charge now". Thankfully it wasn't too crazy getting out of Knoxville on the way to Nashville [we flew on Southwest points and SW does not fly into Knox, boo] just had to chase down the GPA who got lost getting to our house. Once that was straightened out, we pushed the speed limit, got to the airport where I took T-Bone through security and to the gate and Le Husband went to drop the car off at parking. Here's what ensude the hour before the flight boarded - Le Husband got a flat tire and almost missed boarding; I left my backpack at security because I was so worried about T-Bone, we were told the wrong process for pre board, we almost didn't get the seats we wanted. Thankfully everything worked out but it was a STRESS MESS until take off.

It's A....
One of the most EXCITING moments of the trip was finding out the gender of Sportyspice's baby. She put together a super fun, yet still casual gender reveal party and it was quite lovely meeting her Arizona peeps. There was voting and yummy food to enjoy and then it was time. After waiting FOREVER it seems we FINALLY found out....IT'S A GIRL!!! Bring on the pink, haha. Mama B and Daddy didn't land until later on Saturday evening so we did a separate lil reveal for them at the kickball fields {yes kickball, read the next point, ha} using the napkins from Sportyspice's party. Mama B was so overcome with emotion, it was super sweet.

Kickball
Immediately following the gender reveal party we all headed onto Luke Air Force base for a kickball tournament. SPortyspice joined a team made up of wives/girlfriends/service women and of course they scheduled a tournament when we were out visiting. I was initially bummed when I heard but then thought 'what a cool way to meet all of her friends'. The rules were different and there were a few times my competitive nature almost sprung out, however I was good and kept it in check, ha. The team ended up losing in the finals and we were EXHAUSTED with the time change. I was super happy to have played though and jumped in when needed.

Sedona
Sunday morning we repacked into our suitcases and headed off for the two hour drive to Sedona, AZ. Sportyspice is only four hours from the Grand Canyon, but we decided to split up the trip and see a lil more on the way out. Our first stop was the CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS which is a gorgeous church built into a mountain side. Super popular destination so parking was kind of crazy, since you are parking UP an incline. We used the 92 year old grandpa and pregnant lady to our advantage, woop woop. The church is super popular so if you plan to go try and get there early and just prepare yourself for a bit of a walk up a hill.

Devil's Bridge
The second part of our Sedona visit included hiking up Devil's Bridge, another popular tourist destination. We had a picnic lunch before the hike and then all the girls and Le Husband headed up the mountain. The original plan was to have Sportyspice's husband, CT, stay with T-Bone since he'd already done the hike. Sadly, his unit had an emergency call and he wasn't able to travel with us, super sad face. Daddy decided to stay with T-Bone [such a great guy] and they actually ended up going on a helicopter ride together which was soooo cool to hear. Yay for everyone having fun. Devil's Bridge wasn't too tough if you've been on other hikes and the views are pretty awesome. We all had fun taking pictures and being silly on the actual bridge. Once we had all the pictures we wanted we headed back down and met up with Daddy and T-Bone for a delicious dinner at the Sedona Airport Retauratnut. Highly recommended if you head out that way. To split up the drive we stayed right outside Sedona before the next morning's drive to the Grand Canyon.

The Grand Canyon
Our last two days were spent in the Grand Canyon. Where it is quite chilly in the winter time, le brrr. Key thing to note, cell services is pretty horrible so make sure you have a PLAN and then stick to it when meeting up. The first thing we did was the tourist thang, looking over the rim and getting pictures together. People were really helpful and our tripod came in SUPER handy, too.

Next a group broke off to hike the popular Ooh Ahh trail. If you take this trail be prepared for lots of people. It started of kind of blah then became more like hiking. The weirdest part about canyon hiking is the going down then up, verses normal up then down hiking. We snagged some great pictures, had a quick lunch then headed back up to the top. It was a bit of a snafu trying to meet back up with T-Bone and Mama B but we made it about an hour before sunset. Since it was so chilly we spent time in the rock museum, snapped quick pictures then heading back to the village where we grabbed some dinner then relaxed the rest of the evening.

The following day, Le Husband, Babyspice and I stayed to hike a bigger trail and the rest of the group did some walking around then headed home. The Hermit trail is a lot more difficult and wouldn't have been fun for the rest of the family. It was fun, challenging, gorgeous and awe inspiring. We had a fun time then headed back to Sprotyspice's house, stopping for my first In and Out burger experience for dinner.

Thanksgiving
The reason for the vacation finally arrived and Thursday was a fun day of pulling together food, having drinks, hanging out and just being together. I found many moments of just sitting back and BEING. Hard to explain but my heart was so so so full, even fuller than my tummy, ha. We all had a blast together and I'm honestly sad because I don't know the next time we are all [including husbands and T-Bone] going to be together again.

There you go, the highs of our amazing trip. I'm so sad it's over and can't WAIT to get back out there again. Le Husband and I have big hiking plans and I can't wait to get out there early next year to snuggle on my baby niece when she arrives. EEEEK!!!