The Whole Famn Damily

The past two weekends have essentially been family-palooza for Brett and I! It's always awesome to spend time with the family for both of us because when the school year kicks off we both basically drop off the face of the Earth until the holidays (sad, but true). Though these last two weekend consisted of a butt-load of driving (~3hrs both ways to NH and ~6hrs both ways to ME), the people we were spending time with made it all worth it in the end.

Photo courtesy of Brett's sister Melissa!

Two weekends ago we hiked it up to NH for Brett's Uncle Mike's wedding! The ceremony was so pretty - in the lake on a sand bar, with all of the attendees in boats surrounding them. It was a beautiful event and so perfect for the setting! After the ceremony we hung out on the boat for a little bit then headed back to the campground for a reception - complete with champagne & chocolate fondue fountains and puppies everywhere. That's my kind of wedding!

Photo courtesy of Brett's sister Melissa!

Being silly at the reception!

This past weekend we trekked up to Maine to see my extended family! I only get to see them a couple times a year, and this year it worked out that Brett could join me! This was the first time Brett was going to be meeting the majority of my extended family, so it was an exciting weekend. We left late Friday morning and spent a solid 6 hours in the car, but it was fun to hang out, talk, and listen to music as we watched the Maine scenery go by.

As soon as we hopped out of the car, my cousin Tucker - who is 9 - was ready for us to play. We walked out to the back yard and saw the beautiful image that was our view for the entire weekend:

Not too shabby, right?

We took a walk down the shore while the tide was out and saw tons of tidal wild life all over the place, including snails (I taught Tucker the trick to get snails to come out of their shells - by humming!) and tons and tons of washed up jelly fish. Tucker was immediately BFF's with Brett and they played a little bit of frisbee while we explored.

We returned to the campsite and the rest of the family arrived for the weekend. There were drinks, stories, and so many laughs shared and it was so good to see everyone - and for everyone to finally meet Brett! We enjoyed the weekend full of sunshine, sea kayaking, camp fires, good food, and good company. Oh, and not to mention the world's most breathtaking sunsets.

On our way home on Sunday, we made a few stops. First we stopped at Caterpillar Hill, which was this awesome scenic stop that overlooked a lake and the ocean. We knew we had to grab a selfie and a panoramic before heading home for good! (Panoramics were seriously my favorite setting on my phone this weekend, with time lapses coming in at a close second - check out the vlogs below to see what I mean!

And it really isn't a trip home from Maine if I don't make a stop at Pat's Pizza in Yarmouth. I don't remember when this became a tradition of my family's, but every time we drive home from Maine we have to stop at Pat's and get a personal pizza. Even though I wasn't with my parents, I wanted to continue the tradition and introduce it to Brett as well. (Success - Brett loved his pizza!)

After another 6 hours in the car we were home and the weekend was over once again. It's crazy how fast weekends go by, huh? At least they're fun! :) Of course, I vlogged throughout both of these fun and exciting weekends, so make sure you watch both vlogs below!

Brett and I took this weekend easy. We ordered take out and watched the new Netflix series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (hilarious) Friday night, saw a show that I was asked to check out for work on Saturday (because my job is awesome and allows requires me to do things like check out shows to bring to campus), and just relaxed with some movies after my #SundayRunday 12 miler yesterday. There's nothing like a month of traveling every single weekend to make you REALLY appreciate the down time!

What did you get up to this weekend?

Food, Football, Friends & Family

I had a wonderfully relaxing weekend with Brett, watching the Pats take the division title over Indianapolis, eating awesome food (including my favorite Buffalo Chicken Dip! I'll have to share my recipe with you guys one of these days...), and playing with Brett's adorably awesome niece and nephew. It's amazing being surrounded by great people without the worry or need to be anywhere or do anything except eat good food and enjoy the company!

Little Sophia was loving playing with my camera and got some pretty awesome vlog footage for tomorrow, haha! She's just starting to get the hang of walking and is learning more and more words (well, at least noises that sound like words) each time we see her like "socks" ("caks"), "ball" ("bah"), and "Brett" ("Beh"... pretty similar to ball!). So adorable! She's the first baby I've really been around and seen develop over time (Brett and I started dating about a week after she was born!), so it's been a very cool experience to see her grow!

How was your weekend?

Weekend Update

I can't just name my post "Weekend Update" and not include an SNL GIF.

This past weekend was action-packed! I was slightly losing my mind with all of the reading and I desperately needed some fresh air and human interaction. Needless to say, it was definitely nice to take some time away from the books and do some new things!

Breakfast Pizza and Polish Horseshoes

If you have no idea what those words mean, then you probably haven't spent much time here:

Ossipee Lake in Ossipee, NH!

Brett invited me to spend the weekend with him and his family at their camp in Ossipee for the 4th of July. Ossipee is spoken about so highly in his family so I was excited to take the trip with him. We spent a lot of time at Long Sands (this giant sand bar that can only be reached by boat) swimming, drinking, playing, and relaxing, and when we got back to camp at night we made s'mores and I taught everyone to play my favorite card game, Egyptian War! I had such an awesome time with everyone, and I hope that Brett and I can sneak in one more weekend up there before the school year eats up all our free time again!