Scenes From Staycation

Today is pretty much the most depressing day ever because it’s back to work after a really, REALLY awesome week off. It’s been so fun relaxing, sleeping, spending time outside, and celebrating with friends, family, and each other. I want to share our (mostly) staycation with you guys today, so here’s the day by day rundown of our week:

Friday night
We stayed in and made blackberry mojitos and fish tacos to enjoy while finishing season 3 of The Walking Dead. Does anyone own season 4 that we could borrow?

Saturday
After hitting up the Waltham Farmer’s Market in the morning, we ventured up to Gloucester where the engagement happened.

After we got home from our day trip and dinner, my parents stopped in for hugs and a glass of champagne while we relayed the story.

We drank the champagne on our front porch, which Tim’s parents decorated while we were away for the day. So thoughtful! This picture doesn’t really do it justice because it was hard to capture the porch in one shot, but you get the idea.

Sunday
On Sunday we slept in and then called and texted what felt like a bajillion people. I also got my nails done before planning an impromptu celebratory BBQ at our apartment with some of our favorite friends.

I just realized that we didn’t get a single picture of any of the men who came to celebrate. Oh well!

Monday

On Monday, Tim and I were finally able to get a beach day in. We headed back up to Gloucester and spent several hours relaxing at Wingaersheak Beach.

On the way home, we stopped at the jeweler to square some things away with my ring. We spent the rest of the night cleaning up from the BBQ the day before, and then I went to bed early since I was teaching class the next morning.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning was an early gym day for me. I taught an outdoor Tabata stations bootcamp workout on the basketball court, and then I stuck around to do a strength workout since I hadn’t exercised Saturday, Sunday, or Monday.

After the gym, Tim and I packed up the car and headed first to work to pick up our CSA produce and then to a nearby lake to get our first kayak of the season in. It was a beautiful day, and we just floated around while enjoying the water. We also had a picnic lunch, Tim did some fishing, and I did some sunbathing.

Wednesday

Unfortunately, I woke up on Wednesday not feeling so hot. My throat hurt, my head felt cloudy, and I felt stuffed up. I was seriously annoyed because who gets a head cold in July? I made it through the entire winter without being too sick and then I felt all stuffed up on vacation? Gah. Anyways, I slept for 12 hours from 10pm Tuesday night to Wednesday morning. On Wednesday we didn’t do anything outside since it was so humid. Instead, I got another strength workout in with a cardio finisher to try to sweat out the stuffiness. The rest of the day I spent inside getting some things done around the apartment and shopping at the mall for some new shorts. Tim and I also went out to dinner at night to try to beat some of the heat. We enjoyed a bunch of different small plates at Temple in Cambridge before calling it a night.

Thursday

I woke up Thursday feeling better. I was still stuffy, but without the head pressure and sore throat, so we packed up the car and headed down the Cape for the next three days. I wasn’t going to let a little cold ruin the rest of our time off!

We got to my uncle’s Cape house around noon, ate lunch, and then met my parents and Uncle Chris at the beach. We stayed at the beach for about three hours before stopping by our favorite Cape Cod bar, The Summer Shanty, for a few drinks.

We spent the rest of the night just hanging out, grabbing a bite to eat, and having some more drinks.

Friday

The weather on Friday wasn’t as horrible down the Cape as it was everywhere else in Massachusetts, but it still was no beach day. Tim and I woke up and went for a three-mile run to start our 4th of July. It was still humid, so we appreciated when it rained a bit on us during our run!

When we got back, my aunt, uncle, cousin, and grandfather arrived. We spent all day just hanging out together at the house, eating, drinking, and playing cornhole.

After dinner, Tim and I were on the porch when all of a sudden everyone came out with a big cake singing what they thought was the wedding song but was really the graduation song. It was hilarious! My uncle made Tim put on a big fourth of July hat with a little tux pinned to it, and he made me put on a light up fourth of July crown that he attached a little veil to. Then they made us cut the cake and take one thousand pictures.

As you can see, Tim smashed the cake in my face, and I told him that it better have been the first and last time he did that! The rest of the night included games, strawberry prosecco floats, and more relaxation.

Saturday

When we woke up on Saturday morning, the weather still wasn’t so hot, so I did the Baby, You’re A Firework workout that I posted last week. Once the sun popped out, Tim and I packed up our things and said good-bye to my family.

We then headed to the opposite side of the Cape to visit with our friends Jeff, Jill, Cate, Joe, and Nicole for the afternoon. I was happy to squeeze in another couple of hours at the beach and see baby Hannah.

We left the Cape around 6:30 to go to Katrina’s parents house (halfway home for us) where she was throwing Geoff a surprise 30th birthday party. We wrapped up the night with more fun friends and some night swimming. Geoff was surprised and happy, and I was happy we could be there for his day.

Sunday

Cue Sunday blues. A lot of the day was spent catching up from our week off, but I was able to sneak off to the pool to meet Slesh for a couple last hours of sunshine and last minute wedding talk. I cannot believe her big day is in less than a week!

And that’s that! Do I have to be back in the office today?

–Let’s chat–
What’s been going on with you in the past week? How did you spend your 4th of July? How are you enjoying summer? Do you have any time off to look forward to?

Scenes From Greek Easter 2014

I’m playing catch up with my recap posts! Today’s recap is of Greek Easter.

My family’s Easter traditions include:

–Church in the morning

–Going to my Papou’s house

–Taking 25 combinations of awkward family photos on the back deck <— we seriously take the same pictures every single year

–Eating a lot

–Annual Easter egg cracking tournament which you can read all about here.

Here’s the photo shoot:

Here’s the food:

And here’s the egg cracking tourney:

This year we took our egg cracking tournament to the next level because Uncle Chris had a giant trophy made and called it the Avgo Award. In case you are wondering, “Avgo” is the Greek word for egg. We are a bunch of nut cases, don’t you think? In our defense, we each knew about three other people who were trying out this tradition with their own families this year. Maybe we’re setting a new standard for everyone else to follow?

–Let’s chat–
What’s the weirdest family tradition your family has?

For past F&F Easter posts that you probably have absolutely no reason to look at right now since Easter was a month ago, check out:

• Easter Recipes
• Scenes From Greek Easter 2013
• Easter Egg Bracketology
• A Fun Easter Treat: Coconut Nest Cupcakes
• Calories Don’t Count on Easter
• Christos Anesti

Catch you guys later!

Life Lately {March 2014}

Morning! Thank you to everyone who participated in my Reader Focus Week last week. I loved reading through your comments and getting to know you a bit better, and last night I finally had some time to respond to everything. You guys also sparked a lot of new post ideas for later on. It was a fun little change for F&F from my usual posts, so I hope you enjoyed the different format as well.

Since today begins a new month (spring, where ARE you?!), I want to talk about my life lately and recap some things from March.

Unfortunately, I have some sad news that I want to share first. For anyone living in the Boston area, you know that last week there was a terrible fire on Beacon Street downtown that took the lives of two local firefighters. One of those heroes, Ed Walsh, was also the facilities director at the Oak Square YMCA where I teach classes and have worked for many years. While I didn’t know Ed very well on a personal level, I did know him as a colleague and a friendly face in the YMCA community. When I was working as the group exercise coordinator, if I needed something from an operations perspective, Ed was always so nice and quick to help. To quote our president and CEO, “he was a respected, committed, and important member of the Y family. To so many, Ed was a hero. To us, he was a friend and treasured colleague. Today, our hearts and prayers are with Ed’s wife and three children.” Such a terrible tragedy.

There’s really no way to transition nicely into happier topics, so I’ll just leave it at that.

***

Exciting news

A lot of my March was spent studying. The 18 week wellness coaching class that I took ended at the beginning of February, so I’ve spent a lot of time highlighting, making note cards, and memorizing all the information and concepts.

I’m happy to announce that on Friday, I passed the written exam! This doesn’t make me a certified coach just yet, but it’s another milestone reached on my journey, nevermind a huge weight off my shoulders.

My next steps include working with a practice client and passing the practical part, but I wanted to have the written exam over by the time my insane spring started. Yay!

Tim and I celebrated with an AWESOME dinner and a bottle of wine at Il Casale on Friday night.

Aside from preparing for my test, I spent my March subbing a lot of classes at the gym and cooped up in my apartment getting over a cold. Needless to say, my social life hasn’t exactly been hopping, but I think I’ve managed to balance everything fairly well.

Here are some of the other things I’ve been up to:

Celebrating my Papou’s 85th birthday party with the family, and an unpictured visit with Geoff and Trina afterwards

Dinner and drinks in Cambridge with the girls

Our friend Jeff’s 30th birthday party

My goddaughter Layla’s 5th birthday party

And a stress-free and relaxing weekend up in Vermont at a blogger retreat with Tim

So that was my March! You guys might not see as much of me on F&F over the next couple of months because there’s a LOT going on, but we’ll see.

Here’s a rundown of my weekends for the next two months:

— Only free weekend left until Memorial Day
— Chicago trip with Jen and Ashley (after a week of work travel in Minnesota)
— Tim’s birthday, double Easter, and Marathon Monday weekend
— Slesh’s bridal shower weekend in Connecticut
— Katrina’s bridal shower and bachelorette weekend
— Work 5k and Mother’s day weekend
— Slesh’s bachelorette weekend in New York
— Face planting on a beach somewhere for Memorial Day?

Um yeah. See ya guys never?

But it’s all fun stuff. Party time!

–Let’s chat–
What are some of your highlights from March? What are you looking forward to in April?