Annapolis Summer Weekend

July 25, 2016July 24, 20165 Comments

Good morning! I hope you are all staying as cool as you can- this heat wave is crazy! I wanted to pop in today to share some photos from the past weekend. We flew to Maryland to celebrate my cousin’s wedding in Annapolis. He and his fiance were able to come to our wedding, too, so it was a blast getting to share in each other’s special days! Plus, Keely and I hit it off way before we even met- we both love bubbly AND working out- obvi we were besties right away!

This was at our wedding

I hadn’t been to Annapolis since I was probably 14 and RM had never been so it was nice to get to explore together. Even though it was blistering hot, we were still able to enjoy how charming the city was and still were able to walk around a bit. Enjoy!

Our first stop was McGarvey’s for a late lunch- oysters & a fish sandwich with a side of bubbly… perfect way to kick off the weekend!

Similar to what we did the night before the wedding, they had a gathering for a crab feast which was a really awesome experience! I had never eaten crabs like this and while it was a lot of work for a small yield, it was a blast and totally delicious!

We stumbled upon an amazing little restaurant on Saturday morning when we were searching for food. Metropolitan Kitchen & Bar was the hidden gem we were looking for. I got this amazing avocado toast with feta, tomatoes, a poached egg & a balsamic reduction, RM got a lamb hash and we shared a blueberry pancake and everything was outstanding!

After breakfast we walked around the city center and did some shopping before we went and toured/walked through the Naval Academy. Although it was SO hot, it was still really cool to walk around the campus and visit the museum. We highly suggest this if you travel to Annapolis!

The wedding was at the Maritime Museum which was right on the water. The ceremony was similar to ours: short & sweet! She looked absolutely stunning and I loved the simplistic details. They had incredible passed apps, too, and really great options for the food stations. It was fun getting to go to someone else’s wedding now that we know all that goes into planning on!

The after party was held at Pussers which was a great bar right on the water.

All in all, while it was a short trip, it was so much fun and I’m so happy we were able to partake in their special day as well as get to spend time with my family. Sean & Keely- we wish you a lifetime of love and happiness!!

Questions for you: How was your weekend? Have you ever been to Annapolis?

Weekending {Extended Version}: Birthday Celebrations & Marathon Monday

April 19, 2016April 22, 20168 Comments

Good morning! I opted to not blog yesterday as I had the day off and figured a lot of you may also have it off or may even be running the marathon! Between taking my birthday off last week, working from home on Friday and then having yesterday off, I feel like I’ve been on a little vacation, which is pretty awesome. With everything going on these days between wedding planning, the BoxFIIT certification, teaching, blogging, working, etc. I feel like I was running on empty and really needed some time to re-charge the batteries. Granted, the past week has been filled with lots of things, but most didn’t involve work which helped give me that “recharge” I needed.

I’m going to keep my captions short, so enjoy the pictures!

Birthday yoga!

Birthday manis/pedis/lunch with my birthday buddy!

Strong ladies supporting me in class. Not pictured: after class drinks at Gaslight 🙂

Julian pizza from Max & Leo’s- the birthday girl doesn’t cook on her bday 😉

Beautiful flowers and prosecco from coworkers who came to my class

Extra bday flowers from RM

All dolled up! Love the new bag RM got me

My sister surprised me with a bottle of bubbly at dinner. We went to Committee in the Seaport and everything was unbelievably good- we couldn’t stop raving about how flavorful everything was AND they sent out a birthday treat- I highly suggest checking it out!

Post kickboxing sweaty selfie.

Entertaining my parents- I’m so sad that I didn’t get a single photo with them while they were here 😦

Food shopping

Pancake breakfast

Birthday presents from my dad- picnic table, fire pit and a heck of a lot of wood. It was SO nice of them to come down not only to celebrate, but also to bring all of these things to help us have an awesome back yard/patio!

4miler in gorgeous weather. I wish I could say it was a great run, but my legs felt like lead the entire time and my miles averaged 15-20 seconds slower than usual… BUT… I finished it and it felt great to be outside. Who cares about the mile times!

Taking advantage of the sun and doing my thank you cards for the bridal shower gifts we’ve received outside. And then I started reading Defending Jacob, which is our new book club book. So far, I’m enjoying it, although it’s crazy that it takes place in Newton!

Beer at home by myself: a rarity, but the weather encouraged it 😉

Meal prep for the week: a cauliflower rice & other veggie “stirfry” with a peanut sauce and then a veggie-filled quiche- both have so much flavor!!

Loving our outdoor patio space! Took my workout outside yesterday morning and it was amazing.

We walked from the Intercontinental Hotel (where RM parks his car) to the Back Bay and it was so nice strolling through Boston Common’s in the gorgeous weather.

We were fortunate enough to hang out at the Solas Pub (part of the Lennox Hotel) pretty much right at the Marathon finish line thanks to New Balance- drinks, food, prime spectator location?! Yes, please. So thankful for this opportunity!

Watching the marathon is always a super emotional and inspiring thing. I love watching everyone who is finishing strong, but I also love how everyone is looking out for each other. The crowds roared even louder when struggling runners were trying to get to the end. Fellow marathoners helped those who were physically too beat to run on their own. Paramedics and EMT’s and all of the other helpers were there to help get people safely over the finish line. It gave me chills soaking all of that in. Such a wonderful experience.

If you made it this far, THANK YOU! I’ll be back tomorrow with a workout… and maybe even a recipe for you this week!

Questions for you: How was your weekend? Did you get outside to enjoy the weather? Did you go to the marathon or did you run the marathon? What do you have planned this week?

Weekending: Frank Pepe’s Pizza, Boxing, Brunching & More

April 11, 2016April 10, 20166 Comments

And just like that- the weekend is over in the blink of an eye! Don’t get me wrong- we certainly made the most of the weekend, but it doesn’t mean it makes it any easier when it’s over.

Friday

After work on Friday I did some shopping for shoes to wear to various wedding-related events. I ended up finding a few pairs at Off Saks, including these fun pink heels. What do you think?

They’ve got a snake skin-ish type of material, too. Once we both got home, we headed over to Chestnut Hill to check out Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria. While there was a long line, we ended up getting seated in just about 35 minutes which wasn’t bad. We opted for their famous clam pizza and a traditional cheese pizza. Both of us were “meh” about the clam pizza but totally loved the cheese pizza. It was light and thin so you could eat multiple slices without feeling too weighed down. Definitely worth a trip if you’ve been thinking about checking it out.

Conveniently next door was a little Gelateria, so obviously we had to stop and get one. I opted for the baby sized Biscoff and Hazelnut and both were amazingly good. I haven’t had gelato that good since Italy!

Saturday

Saturday morning started with an awesome Bags & Body class at The Club, followed by mitt practice with Nicole. I have never done that so it was really humbling, but it felt good to be out of my comfort zone and learning something new. The best part? Nicole sent me home with some awesome fighters swag so I can be outfitted for my first class (more details soon!).

After class I met up with a few friends to celebrate Jessi’s engagement. We went to Worden Hall in Southie which was another place on my “want to try” list. We got a bottle of bubbly and I got spinach and goat cheese omelet which was really tasty.

I love girls luncheon dates! Jess had to leave after lunch but my sister stopped in so she, Jessi and I had another drink at Stephi’s in Southie before heading home. On my way home I offered to pick up food at Whole Foods for dinner so I opted to get food shopping for the week out of the way, too. The rest of the night was spent hanging out, making wings, eating left over pizza and watching House of Cards.

I love Saturday night’s where I’m in bed by 10:30… yes, I’m 30 going on 75 😉

Sunday

After breakfast, I went to church and then came home and worked on my taxes. While spending 2 hours on that sucked, I’m getting a good chunk of money back which will come in very handy for the wedding! Once I was done, we went for a quick walk and then I finished off with a quickie 5K since it was so gorgeous out. I needed Vitamin D in a bad way!

We finished off the day with the most delicious eggplant parm and chicken cutlets at RM’s mother’s house. I opted to not do any real meal prep this week since it’s my birthday week which was a nice change.

Although my Sunday was not nearly as productive as I wanted to, it was perfect. I had wanted to get to the gym to film a few BoxFIIT videos and work on that certification, but I decided that I wanted to go for a walk and a run MORE, so that took precedent over that. Sometimes you just have to pick and choose what’s important to you on a particular day… and sometimes that’s not in line with what you “should” do or what’s on your to-do list…. and that is totally fine.

With that, here’s to a good week! It’ll be a busy one for me due to birthday celebrations, but it’s all fun things so I can’t wait!

Questions for you: How was your weekend? Have you ever been to Pepe’s Pizza? Did you get in any good workouts? Did you go out to eat at all? Did you get out to enjoy the sunshine throughout the weekend? What’s going on this week?

Weekending: Through Pictures

April 4, 2016April 3, 201611 Comments

Good morning! Anyone else grumpy from this crazy “April” weather?! My birthday is in t-minus 10 days and I really hope it’s seasonably warm by that point. Also, today we are exactly 3 months out from our wedding- EEEKK! With that said, the weekend was filled with a lot of wedding talk and shopping- trying to get things checked off the list as much as possible!

Opted for the burrito bowl at Buff’s Pub on Friday night instead of wings- so tasty!

Bachelorette Party shopping at Bebe

Date night stop 1: drinks and the most amazing hummus & fresh, warm pita combo at Tavern Road. HOLY YUM

Date night stop 2: Stumbled upon Pastoral and were blown away by how good the pizza (and Brussels Sprouts) were. Two new-to-us spots in one night?! Awesome!

A post semi-workout selfie… I went to the gym to film some Box FIIT video submissions and did a tiny workout after- realized I was more sore and tired than I thought so I called it quits quickly.

Another Just Add Cooking delivery- can’t wait to make these Asian-inspired dishes this week!

Not picture from the weekend: After work drinks at the Gaslight at the M Street shops with some girls from the office on Friday, teaching on Saturday, MOH dress shopping with my sister and her friends and then post shopping drinks at Stoddards, shopping for wedding shoes, Sunday morning pancakes, food shopping and visiting RM’s brother and SIL at their new house in Concord.

Questions for you: How was your weekend? Did you do something fun? Visit any new restaurants? Shop at all? How are you feeling about this crap weather? What’s going on this week?

Weekending: Wedding Update & Double Easter Celebrations

March 28, 2016March 27, 201611 Comments

Good morning! Hopefully by the time this post goes up, I will have already gotten my butt kicked by Eliza at the Watertown GymIt/EBF studio. As part of the Box FIIT certification I’m working on, I’m trying to get as much class experience as I can with other instructors to help better prepare me for when it’s time to start teaching my own classes- eek!!

This past weekend was another good one- lots of family time with both families which is always a nice treat! However, I am looking forward to this weekend since we FINALLY have a weekend with virtually no plans, which hasn’t happened in forever. I have so many general life things that I want to catch up on, so hopefully I’ll be able to get a bunch done!

After work on Friday I went to the Paper Source in Lynnfield to finalize our wedding invitations. I started them online which helped because I went into the store knowing exactly what I wanted and how it looked, but I was also able to work with a super helpful lady who helped me add more text lines and change the layout a bit. They are super simple, but classy- I love them and can’t wait until they come in! Oh, and the best part? All wedding invitations and related things were 20% off, which really helped keep them within my budget.

Once that was done, I picked up a few things at Whole Foods: pizza ingredients for dinner and quiche ingredients for Saturday brunch with my family. I made this quiche which was a big hit.

The pizza I made for RM and me was also fantastic- the dough from Whole Foods is so good!

Saturday started off with a sweaty kickboxing class. I don’t know if it’s because I hadn’t worked out in 2 days or if it was because I hadn’t slept well the night before but the class kicked my butt!!

After class we showered up and headed into the city to go to my sister’s apartment for part 1 of our Easter celebrations. So much food, so much wedding talk, so many laughs! I also brought out my biggest of hair for the occasion 😉

Oh! And my mom washed her vail and brought it down to see if I wanted to use it for our wedding. I think it will be so special having my “something old” (and something borrowed) as her veil. I just need to find a nice comb to attach it to.

(and yes, I am a giant next to her!}

We stopped at Branch Line for a few drinks on our way home. As good as the drinks are, we REALLY need to get back there for dinner because everything looked and smelled amazing!

Sunday morning I kicked off the day with a quickie 20 minute bodyweight tabata workout (I’ll share it with you on Wednesday!) and then went to church. I haven’t been to church since we moved, so I figured Easter Sunday was as good a day as any to start. I hope to get back into a more regular church-going schedule.

When church was over I went food shopping and got wine and flowers for the Easter dinner at RM’s mother’s house. I didn’t get any photos of the food, but it was quite a feast: homemade lasagna (homemade noodles and everything!), grilled lamb, salad, brussels sprouts, potatoes, peppers and so many desserts. My future SIL’s parents came and when her mom walked in with a bunny cake it made me so happy because my mom always made me a bunny cake for my birthday/Easter!

As much as I didn’t want to food prep when we got home, I knew it would be better if I just got it over with!

And that about does it- the weekend came and went way too quickly, per usual! I hope you all had a great weekend and have a kick ass week!

Questions for you: How was your weekend? Did you do anything fun? What did you do for Easter? Did you get any good workouts in? Do you go to church?

Burpees to Bubbly

Because good workouts deserve bubbly rewards!

Tag: weekending

Annapolis Summer Weekend

Weekending {Extended Version}: Birthday Celebrations & Marathon Monday

Weekending: Frank Pepe’s Pizza, Boxing, Brunching & More

Weekending: Through Pictures

Weekending: Wedding Update & Double Easter Celebrations

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