30th Birthday Present.

I turn 30 in 2 weeks.  Yikes!  I already know what Justin is getting me for my birthday.  And it's not because I'm super sneaky/nosy and figured it.  (But that would be something I would totally do.)  Instead, this present was one he couldn't really keep from me.

We are going back to Paris for a week! 

When I did my Paris recap shortly after returning from our 2-week Europe trip about a year ago, I said the following: "I seriously loved every single second of Paris. I would go back tomorrow if I could."  Well, it may not have been "tomorrow," but I will take a year instead.

Source: Uploaded by user via Emily on Pinterest

I can't hardly wait.  Our trip won't be as near as rushed this time around.  We are already planning on hitting up some of the places we didn't have time to check out last time, and I've been scouring blogs for some other great tips.  If you have any to share, I'm all ears!

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the house renovations go according to plan while we are away!  I like to think I can calm my worries of what's happening back home by drinking copious amounts of wine and champagne and eating lots of French pastries and cheese.

San Diego - Trip #1.

Sorry for the radio silence.  Things have been crazy busy around here . . . more details on that in the next post.  But before this post becomes even more overdue, I had to share pictures from our trip to San Diego in early May.  (We actually went back to San Diego last weekend, but I will do a separate post about that trip, which involves a surprise wedding!  See, I told you I've been busy!)

For our first trip out to San Diego, we went with only one goal in mind -- to meet and love on Henry, my best friend's precious new baby.  (See the details of his baby shower here.)  Of course it's no surprise, but he is a beautiful baby. 

Henry was a perfect angel the entire time we were there.  We had our big outing and meal of the day around lunch time, which worked perfectly with his schedule.  Henry got quite the tour of San Diego while we were there.

One afternoon, we headed to the embarcadero to enjoy the scenery.  It was pretty cool to go there for several reasons, but maybe the coolest was because the last time Lauren and Jacob were there, Lauren was walking up and down the stairs (you can barely see them in the first photo) trying to encourage Henry to make his appearance since he was nearly a week late!   

The next day we headed to Coronado island and had lunch at the hotel. 

We were also happy to be a part of Henry's first trip to In-N-Out.  Lauren had to put a napkin over Henry's head so the delicious sauce from the burger wouldn't drip on him while he was in the Moby!  

When we weren't out and about, we did a lot of staring at Henry.  It never got old.

Justin was on this trip too!  He just happened to be the one taking most of the pictures.  I did manage to get this one of him and Henry on my iphone.

 
Look at his hair!  It is so long!  

These are some of my favorite pictures of Henry with his mom.  How cute is it that they both have on their gray and white stripes? 

And here's a picture of Henry from today.  His hair is parted just like his dad's!  It kills me.  Such a beautiful baby!  

 
While we've loved visiting Lauren and Jacob in San Diego over the years, I am super excited that, as of last weekend, they have moved back to Texas!  I will be able to hang out with Henry so much more now!  (Oh yeah, and Lauren and Jacob too!) 

Hope y'all had a wonderful weekend!  I am hoping to have some time this week to catch up on some much overdue blog reading!

Trip Recap: Greece.

So remember that amazing trip to Europe we went on?  Yeah, I barely do either thanks to my sporadic (at best) trip recaps.  But this is the last and final installment.  And it's Greece, which was too good not to recap!  After Paris and Cinque Terre, and Rome, we headed to Milos and Santorini for a week.

Milos was easily my favorite island between the two.  Not because Santorini wasn't one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen before (as you will see below), but because I liked the vibe better in Milos.  Milos was a whole heck of lot less touristy (and cheaper).  And it also has something like 70+ beaches, while Santorini isn't really a beach island and, of the ones it does have, most of them are only accessible by boat.

We spent 3 days in Milos and spent most of our time driving around exploring the various beaches.  Every beach was totally different and many were an adventure just to get to (whether via driving or hiking).  Many of the beaches were tucked away and not visible until you got right up to them, so we were filled with anticipation each time of what we would see.  My favorite part was finally getting to see the beaches, and each and every time being totally surprised and amazed at how beautiful they all were.  So with that build up . . .

 

 

The only disappointing part of the trip was the winds were too high to go sailing every day we were there, which we really wanted to do.  We were both a little bummed, but as you can see, we still had an amazing time and saw some absolutely gorgeous beaches.  Here are all of the sailboats docked due to the winds.

Since we couldn't do a boat tour, we rented a car instead.  How amazing is this rental car?  Don't you love how it's perched on the cliff-side overlooking the water?  It totally highlights the dents, dings, and missing hubcab. 

Oh, and here's the view from our hotel room.

Yeah, I could totally get used to that.  In case you head to Milos, I loved our hotel.  We stayed at the Melian and I would highly recommend it.

From Milos, we took a high-speed ferry over to Santorini.  Santorini is beautiful and it's hard to believe someplace so stunning even exists (and its history is pretty cool too).  The island is in the shape of the letter "C" and we stayed more in the middle part of the "C", making for some fantastic views.  Many times we would just sit out on our balcony, relax, and take it all in (something we certainly don't do enough at home).  Here's a view looking to the left and to the right.

And the view looking straight ahead.

Some more cool shots:

 
The sunsets and sunrises were absolutely incredible.  From the view in Oia, it almost looked like the sun was sinking into the water.

You can see all the people watching the sunset in Oia.

Since we didn't get to go sailing in Milos, we decided to go in Santorini.  It was a great way to see the island.   

Well, that successfully completes the recap of our 2 week trip (that now seems like forever ago).  I loved every single minute of it, and we were both depressed the day we had to come back (but the champagne on Air France help lessen the pain a bit on the flight back home).  If you're planning to go to any of the places we visited, feel free to ask me questions!

I hope you've had a wonderful weekend.  I'll be back this week to share what's been going on here and hopefully turn my attention to some Christmas related posts. Somehow or another it is already the middle of December, can you believe it?!

Trip Recap: Rome.

I haven't forgotten about the trip recap.  After Paris and Cinque Terre, we headed to Rome.  We did all of the "touristy" things there.  I really enjoyed Rome, but probably would never choose to go back there.  I feel like I saw everything I needed to see (I would however go back just to enjoy the food!). 

We got to Rome pretty late at night and just had time to grab some dinner.  We had some of the best pizza we've ever had before, and we also had a nutella calzone for dessert.  Yum!  The place was called Pizzeria Dar Poeta, which was close to our hotel in Trastevere.  Our hotel, Donna Camilla Savelli, was very cool.  It was actually a restored 16th Century Monastery.  Neat, right?

The next day at lunch, I had maybe one of my favorite meals on the trip.  I had a simple spaghetti alla carbonara (they don't put cream in theirs, and who needs it when you have all of that pecorino on top?).  I recreated the dish when I got home, roughly basing it on this recipe and it turned out great!  (You can also see what's left of our cheese and honey plate.)

But we did do things besides just eating!  We headed to the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum.  I took 4 years of Latin in high school and we learned a lot of Roman history, so seeing the things I learned about was definitely interesting.  Of course Justin kept asking me what all of the things in Latin meant -- I had no clue for the most part! 

  

Then we walked over to the Colosseum.

Some shots from the Colosseum. 

And the Arch of Constantine, which is in between the Colosseum and Palatine Hill. 

We then cruised over to the Pantheon.  It is just amazing to think that it was built in about 126 AD.

How stunning is this church over by the Pantheon?  

All of this walking and sightseeing made us hungry and in need of gelato.  So we stopped at Giolitti, one of the most famous gelaterias in Rome.  Ordering was an experience in and of itself.  And the gelato (and the generous "scoop" of whipped cream on top) was to die for.     

Now that we had the energy to continue, we walked to the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.  (If you look closely, you can see how Justin spilled gelato on his white shirt.  I am sure he will love the fact that I pointed that out.) 

We had a delicious dinner that night, but one of my favorite parts was the wall decor there.  They put wine crates up on the wall.  What a cool idea! 

Our next day in Rome, which was also our last, was just as busy.  We headed over to the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica.

View of the city from the Vatican museum.

St. Peter's was incredible. 

 

The inside is so elaborate.  It really is hard to convey just how beautiful it is.

This is one of the coolest pictures from the trip.  Look at the way the light is shining through the window right on the cross.  Amazing.   

After St. Peter's, we headed back to our hotel, grabbed gelato one last time, and headed to the airport.  I should mention that the entire time we were in Italy, Justin said everything he could in an awesome Italian accent.  It made me crack up every time he did it.  But I was secretly glad we were off to Greece, where I knew he couldn't even pretend to do the accent!

P.S.  Don't forget to enter the Shabby Apple giveaway!  It ends Wednesday.