Welcome to 30

We've had a busy last month or so, since the holidays ended and here's a little recap of what we've been up to!

• Kels turned 30!

And Mike got her the best card.

I got dessert at Ambar with Mike and Kelly on my actual birthday:)

Hamilton-themed prezzies:)

Day after my birthday at Philz coffee!

• Mike and Kels went on a weekend trip to New York!

View from the train station. Super cold this day!

Hot ramen in NYC:)

I love ramen so much!

Beautiful flowers at our hotel. Real!

A nice gift of champagne and dessert from our hotel for my birthday.

There is a nespresso machine in the room, so obviously I drank all the coffee.

And we did our first live Peloton rides!

A picture with our favorite instructor, Jess!

A pilates reformer class that I tried while Mike was working on his paper!

I love early mornings in NYC.

Fancy class.

When I tried to sleep in our sleeper car on the train trip back.

Trains are the best way to travel.

Hard at work on his paper:)

• We saw Louis CK at DAR Constitution Hall! First comedy show together.

And I took this awesome picture that evening.

• Mike got us a new shower head.

And the first time I saw it (he surprised me), it scared the crap out of me and I ran from the shower.

• We celebrate Beau and Jen turning 30 (this will be a theme for the year) at a cabin in New Hampshire!

The mighty ski lodge we stayed in!

Mike trying to start a stove fire with one of those accordion devices.

Wearing my We Are All Wonder Women tank to the gym near the ski lodge!

Walk back from the gym, backing in wintry New England splendor!

• Mike keeps outdoing me with his awesome presents.

Best Valentine's Day present ever: a solar system necklace! I just couldn't wait until Valentine's Day to open it:)

• Kim visited (from Montana), and we went hiking in Shenandoah National Park!

View from the top! So glad Kim made us try this:)

All of us at the top!

This past weekend, we went to Williamsburg to celebrate 3 birthday in the group (2 turning 30) and we did many of the traditional Williamsburg things: Aroma's, Dog Street, Paul's Cheese fries. 

Hopefully we get another blog post up this month:) I'll be headed to Raleigh next weekend to see a book speaker and also Leslie and Rachel! And Mike has a big paper due. Can't wait to get through this month and on to March!

The Holi-days

Mike and I had a wonderful time visiting with family and friends over the holidays. Here are a few pictures we captured and paragraphs for ones we didn't.

Christmas in North Carolina:

We spent time staying in both Burlington and Raleigh over the holidays and here's a pic of Mike driving Rachel and I around:)

Leslie, Mike, and Rachel with "The Bumble" at the musical showing of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

All of us.

The lovely stage!

Morning table setting at Leslie's.

Other highlights:

• The famous coconut cake from Ween which is always a once-a-year treat.
• Seeing both sides of Mike's family on Christmas Day.
• Seeing Nanny Mary Ann and Papa Bill (Mike and Rachel's godparents)
• getting Rudolph songs stuck in our head the rest of the weekend
• Me standing in for MJ to have scotch with Daddy Jim since he was on duty and couldn't drink

2nd Anniversary Dinner at 1789:

The night before this dinner, we met up in the city with Jake, Kelly, Alex, Will, and Julia to get pizza and drinks. Jake happened to have a layover in the area on his way back to Houston and then London! Mike and I stayed with him and his wife, Marilyn, while we were in London.

Back in the room where it happened. Same room where we got married that we had all to ourselves!

Table for two.

Beef carpacchio and tuna crudo.

Duck

Lamb

Chocolate ganache with pistachio crust

Gingerbread dessert

Special menu and card which I then lost later that night, but at least I capture it first!

Other highlights:

• Seeing Ahmed, Elgar, and Stellios again...staff members who were all there serving the night of our wedding.
• Meeting up with Adam, Will, and Julia after to have a mini reunion before the year ended.
• A late night snack detour to Wise Guys pizza on the way home in our uber...soaking up every last minute of our 20s;)

NYE in VA for 2nd Christmas:

The weekend after Christmas, we went to spend time with my family in VA. We had a spread of goodies and exchanged presents and had lots of fun in the short time we were there.

At some point, I thought it would be fun if Mike gave Ashton a "ride"" by doing push-ups with him on his back. "Doesn't that sound fun?", I asked Mike. I'm lucky he humors me.

Ashton loved it!

So Mike kept doing more push-ups....

...and then decided he was done and was going to play the sack of potatoes game haha.

Mike was a tough act to follow.

But I couldn't disappoint Ashton!

Whatever brings him joy.

Dressed up for NYE in the dress my mom got me for my birthday! (This was after we were back home and about to head to a party at the house of one of my coworkers)

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving up in Cumberland with the Buchanan clan.  It was the same group as the year before, with the addition of Rachel, who is no longer working abroad! We had the ambitious plan of seeing both of our families for the holiday weekend, meaning 3 stop across MD and VA. 

It was a wonderful couple of days, playing CodeNames, working on puzzles, watching the Hamilton documentary (don't know how we snuck that one in there)!! We were also celebrating the engagement of Mike's cousin, David, to his now-fiancee Ashley!

The whole gang.

Then, after a couple of days, we were off to get lunch with my dad, before arriving at my family's house to spend some quality time with my mom, stepdad, grandma, sister, and Ashton. One day, when I went with my sister to the gym, Mike babysat Ashton and got a ton of wonderful pictures of him. Here's your treat! All taken by Mike!

Right before we left, I discovered an 'airplane' game that Ashton loved to play and Mike snapped a few pictures.

We are going to try to work on taking more pictures at future get togethers. I may even try to take over the camera a bit:) 

We have lots on the docket for December. We're going to NC for Christmas and going to see my family for NYE. We have lots of holiday parties and some much needed days off. Oh, and Brian and Kay are going to be visiting next weekend! Hope to have another blog post headed your way soon!