Beachin'

Building memories as a family is so important to me and when friends are like family, vacationing with them is the best! 

Two of my best girlfriends, their husbands and us love to try and meet up a couple or more times a year. Now that the wedding season of our lives is coming to a close, we're looking forward to traveling to new places and each others' homes more often. 

Labor Day week, we met our besties in Tybee Island and had the best time. 

They are incredible to let us bring and love on our beach-hating baby. How can she be my child, if she hates the beach!? Maybe next summer we'll have more success when the waves, noise, and sand aren't so overwhelming.

Adding a baby into the mix, sure does change things: early dinners, early bedtimes, nap scheduling, and general fussiness being out of her routine, but it's so much fun having her spend time with people we love and see new places.

None of us had been to Tybee before and liked the beach and loved that it's so close to Savannah. The boys golfed, and the girls shopped. We snuck in some beach time with J and I trading to watch CHP nap in the condo. Our favorite spots were: Tybee Social Club, Collins Quarter, Tequila's Town, and Red Clover.

We can't wait for our next trip together! 

Traveling with Bebe

If you've ever flown with a baby, you know it's quite the task. There is so. much. stuff.

Here are my top picks for packing and traveling with a baby:

Packing cubes. They will save your sanity while you're packing and once you've reached your destination. 

Baby Carrier. I wore CHP in her Baby Bjorn through both airports to have my hands free for luggage. 

Diapers and wipes. Unless, you're going somewhere that you can easily purchase these, it's best to pack them. 

Clothes. Pack a couple extra onesies, jammies, and outfits for those unexpected poop explosions. They'll happen. 

Car seat. This was a huge first-time-parent fail. We rented a car and car seat; however, they did not install it due to liability. After flying with a baby, strapping her to my chest, getting my bags, and shuttling to the car rental, installing a car seat was the last thing I wanted to do. So my advice is, bring and check your car seat. Even if you have to pay for it, it's cheaper than renting it from a car rental. 

Stroller and travel bag. I loved having our stroller in Chicago. CHP took a few naps in it, and while I love baby carriers, it was too hot to walk around the city with her on my chest. Before leaving, I purchased the travel bag for our stroller, and it guarantees our stroller if it's damaged during the flight. We were also allowed to gate check it for free. 

Covered Goods. This is essential for breastfeeding while traveling. I nursed CHP on both flights, at restaurants, and on our boat ride.

Toys. I packed a few of CHP's favorites to keep in my diaper bag for the flights, at dinner, and in the hotel room.

Happy baby traveling! 

City Love

J and I, both love the urban lifestyle and love to travel. Traveling may look a little different these days with CHP, but we want her to see and experience new places with us. In five short months, we've flown to NYC and now Chicago.

I hope she always loves to travel with us. 

We loved...

Beatrix for brunch. The brunch hour is relative when you have a five month old in tow. Ours happened to be at 8:30am on Saturday morning. But brunch on the weekends is just the best, so it doesn't matter what time you actually eat it right?
I highly recommend the chicken tinga and a latte. 

The Architecture boat tour is a must. We chose the Wendella because infants are free and was slightly shorter than other lines. 

Walking the city streets. We all loved the sights of Michigan Avenue. But Saturday, I grabbed an iced Intelligentsia coffee and the largest chocolate chip cookie and shopped while CHP napped, and J caught up on golf. 

Eating deep dish Chicago pizza. Although, that will be a one and done for us. Can you have too much cheese, sauce, and crust? We say, yes. 

We couldn't miss taking Bean pictures. I think, J rolled his eyes at how many photos I made us take together. 

The Publican. Our breakfast was tasty, but Beatrix was better. 

We're loyal Marriott stayers, and the Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile did not disappoint. The added touch was sending bath soaps, lotion, and a rubber ducky for babes. 

View from our upgraded suite. CHP is a charmer.

I'm hoping J can find a reason to go back, so we can have another Chicago weekend. Here are a few things on my list for next time: 

Lincoln Park Zoo

Children's Museum

Sky deck at the Willis Tower 

shop, shop, shop. 

IF: Gathering

Over a year ago, my bestie Mallory heard about a new women's conference in Austin called IF: Gathering. We talked about going and decided to try and get tickets. When tickets went on sale, we were both at work and tasked our husbands with purchasing tickets. They sat at their computers and refreshed the page but the conference sold out in 45 minutes along with the site crashing multiple times.

I got one, and Mallory didn't.

As it got closer to February, Mallory found a ticket! So we booked our flights, met in Atlanta, and flew to Austin together.

The whole experience of IF: Gathering was incredible. We loved the worship, speakers, and environment of IF. The premise for last year was "If God is real, then what?"

We were challenged by each of the women who spoke and left feeling energized and encouraged to be bold women, grow deeper in our faith, and grow in relationships. After we got home, I was already planning and hoping to go again this year but after finding out that I was due in February, I knew I couldn't go. 

IF: Gathering is held in Austin, but there are local venues with live feed from the conference. I thought and prayed about hosting but decided being 37 weeks pregnant might not be the best time to host. I was so thrilled to find someone else is hosting an IF: Local in Raleigh. I cannot wait to go this year, meet new women who live in my community, and be challenged again. 

If you're interested in what IF is all about, check out their website and also look for up an IF: Local. It's next weekend, so go!

Summer Days

These summer days have flown by. While I'm looking forward to fall, I cannot believe it's already September. 

July and August were jam packed with family, friends, food, and fun for us. Every minute we weren't at work or doing house projects (which I still need to post about), we were finding fun in Raleigh and DC. 

After my sister finished her summer job, she came and stayed with us for a week. We devoured tasty food truck food, celebrated her birthday, and road tripped to Baltimore for a cousins' weekend. 

 In August, we spent a weekend in Baltimore seeing Justin & Laura, the newlyweds, and enjoying a cousins' weekend. It was so great to be back at some of our favorite spots with some of our favorite people.

Laura and Justin are so sweet, kind, and thoughtful. Weeks before seeing them, Laura posted about making macaroons, and I made a comment about having them during the Baltimore weekend. I never expected she would actually make them, but she did! Just for me. They were incredibly delicious.

One of our absolute favorite Baltimore spots is Woodberry Kitchen. Somehow the Chef got us brunch reservations, so we got to see and taste the best Baltimore brunch.

Another one of our Baltimore favorites is Mama's on the Half Shell. All of the cousins' and Justin and Laura went out for dinner. I stuffed myself with crab soup, crab dip, and crab cakes. Nothing is better than Maryland crabs.

...And Elisabeth tasted her first oyster!

One of the best summer afternoon activities this year, has been visiting local coffee shops for a coffee and treat. Plus, I heart latte designs.

Dinner and dessert with nurses always does my heart good. And Bittersweet in downtown Raleigh has the tastiest bites: like this salty carmel corn ice cream sandwich.

To round out the summer, we enjoyed a Labor Day weekend in DC enjoying some of our DC favorites, seeing friends, family, and attending wedding of one of the Chef's high school friends. It was a gorgeous outside ceremony and reception in their backyard despite the thunderstorm that made 150 guests run from the tent to their house. It was a beautiful night filled with laughter, and the Chef seeing old friends.

And there you have it.

Summer days might be fading, but I'll be ready for some cooler weather, pumpkin everything, and decorating our house for a new season.

European Vacation: London part 2

I never finished sharing about our European vacation that was back in May.

In order to not get overloaded with posts, I'm going to try to have travel posts of our vacation on Thursdays. We're not going to be traveling anywhere exciting in the near future with all of the upcoming holidays.

So, looking back at our Europe trip will have to keep my desire to travel at bay for now.

You might remember our first day in London.

Our second day was packed full.

After stuffing ourselves on the delicious hotel breakfast, we took our coffee and headed toward Buckingham Palace.

Can we just talk about how amazing European hotel breakfasts are? And how miserable American ones are in comparison? The American breakfasts are full of processed, unhealthy foods whereas every European breakfast we ate had fresh bakery items, muesli, eggs, meats, and tasty coffee and teas.

We stopped by crowded Buckingham Palace for a quick photo op before following the calvary down another street.

We found a changing of the guard to watch before continuing our walk.

We followed the calvary for more changing of the guard.

And I even elbowed my way past the other tourists to get a photo with this man and his horse. 

We loved walking around the city, seeing the sights of Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey.

We decided we didn't have enough time to see the inside of too many sites after our walking tour.

Westminster Abbey was unfortunately not included in our London Bus Tour and was fairly expensive with a long line, so we opted to visit the famous tour of London with an exhibit of the Crown Jewels instead.

I accidentally lost our Bus ticket with a 24hr hop on hop off but somehow still had the included river cruise, so we cruised down to the Tower of London.

We really enjoyed the ride because we saw another view of the city and got more history.

We loved the Tour of London with the tour from a Beef Eater and seeing the royal jewels.

After our afternoon touring, we grabbed a taxi back to our hotel before heading to dinner at Kettner's.

It was a recommendation from one of the Chef's friends, and it was the best place we ate in London. The atmosphere was incredible with everything decorated in roaring 20s style.

We would have loved to have stayed longer, but prior to our trip we bought tickets to our favorite show: Wicked.

It did not disappoint.

We loved London and wish we had had more time to spend in that amazing city. Honestly, I was a little overwhelmed by the crowds of tourists and how long the lines were, but I can't wait to go back someday again.

Our next stop was my favorite because it was home to Vienna!

#AJdoColorado part two

Part two of our Vail trip started Saturday morning at the Little Diner for intended breakfast that quickly turned into brunch. The food was tasty but the service was extremely disorganized and slightly unfriendly. Recommendation: despite Trip Advisor recommendations, skip this spot and opt for other breakfast options. 

We then soaked up the sun and strolled through Vail Village popping into shops and checking out the eats and found the local Starbucks for a skinny vanilla latte. 

The beauty of Vail speaks for itself.

After a morning of poking around town, we headed back to our cozy room for a little football, a nap for the Chef, and sitting by the fire catching up on blogs, for me.

In the afternoon, we headed over to the Four Seasons for a cocktail and beer, a gorgeous fireplace, and more football. The lounge overlooked this view. 

We loved an early dinner at Leonora of tapas: cheese plate, corn soup, sliders, sweet potato fries, and beets. I highly recommend this restaurant: everything was fresh, tasty, and elegant.

Sunday morning, we were both up and ready to enjoy our last morning in Vail. We loved Tavern on the Square, and it thoroughly made up for the Little Diner. I loved the muesli with fresh fruit and sunny-side up eggs. The restaurant also had an incredible view. 

After a hearty breakfast, we hit up a short trail. The scenery was beautiful, and it was so much fun getting a little exercise and fresh air before heading home.

We absolutely loved our weekend away traveling and relaxing in such a pretty place. Vail, you were such a treat.

#AJdoColorado

If you've been following me on IG (aileenpp) then you know I've had a great weekend. I had a stretch of days off of work (the upside of being a nurse!), and the Chef was going to Denver for work, so we decided to meet and enjoy a mini-weekend vacation. We thought it'd be a great opportunity to start celebrating our upcoming three year anniversary! 

I flew into Denver on Thursday afternoon and enjoyed walking the downtown area and seeing the sites and people. It was rainy and overcast but the mountains are in the background somewhere. 

Friday was extremely relaxing for me. I found the closest Pure Barre and took a class, which was great after a day of flying. It was much harder than expected: probably due to the altitude and not having taken class in five days.

Once the Chef finished with work, we packed our bags and headed for the mountains. Thankfully, we arrived before the snow and accidents happened. We arrived at the Vail Marriott and enjoyed this gorgeous view!

And our room wasn't too shabby either with our own fireplace.

We loved seeing our first snow of the season in Vail Village.

Apparently, we weren't the only ones excited about the first snow because the bar staff gave out free champagne for the first snow toast. #ChampagneJeff loved it. 

After walking through the crisp night, we enjoyed dinner at the Swiss Chalet. The restaurant had the perfect Alpine atmosphere, and we indulged in the cheese fondue which was the best part of the meal. I highly recommend going there for drinks and fondue but skip dinner: it was mediocre for the price.

More on our Vail weekend to come tomorrow. 

Linking up with Shami, LeeAnn, and Sarah