Life Lately: America, Aruba, Anniversary & Aging
Rachel
It's been a while since I've posted and I'm sorry but I'm not sorry...following the holiday weekend, we jetted off to Aruba for a vacation with my family and family friends. It felt good to mostly unplug and though we had wifi access, even on the beach, after a crazy couple of months of feeling completely run-ragged, I really wanted to limit my internet time. So I did. And it was great.
A lot has gone on over the last two weeks, so I'll take it from the top.
America
We had no real plans for the 4th and so we decided to hang around Jersey City. Despite the rain all day long, it cleared up for an evening at Liberty State Park, where JC hosted a huge festival and fireworks. Though it was tough to navigate with a toddler in tow, you really couldn't beat the view. Flags, Freedom Tower...so beautiful.
P was getting antsy so we decided to hop the light rail back to Newport, our old neighborhood, in hopes we could still catch the fireworks from there with less of a crowd. Though we had some obstructed views, we enjoyed some ice cream while watching the gorgeous fireworks light up the sky over the Hudson River, from both Jersey City and the east side of Manhattan, just beyond the Freedom Tower.
It was really amazing and even Penelope kept oohing and aahing and saying 'wooooow' while enjoying her vanilla soft serve with rainbow sprinkles.
Aruba
Sunday morning we were up and at 'em early to catch our morning flight to Aruba. I have lots of feelings on traveling with a toddler and I'll do a post on that soon, but in short, let's just say those feelings include anxiety, stress and why-the-#$@!-did-I-do-this. But it was still a fun time otherwise!
We spent most of the trip on the beach or by the pool, eating, drinking and watching the World Cup. With the USA out of the tournament, we cheered for Holland and sported our Holland World Cup tee's that we purchased in Aruba in 2010 during the last World Cup finals.
It was more of a trip and less of a vacation being there with Penelope, but it was really fun to bring her into the pool and ocean, spend time with family and friends and enjoy some afternoon beach games. I have so many more great photos from the trip of the entire family, but they are floating around on my camera and my sister Kim's camera! If I can get it together, I'll do an Aruba photo dump later this week! But also this:
Cute baby in a bathing suit alert.
Anniversary
While in Aruba, we also celebrated Shaun and my 6th wedding anniversary!
We had a nice dinner alone at Anna-Maria's which is essentially an Italian restaurant in someone's backyard. Very quaint and very anniversary-like.
We didn't exchange gifts because there was really no need. A delicious dinner did the trick.
Shaun asked me what has surprised me the most over the last six years, and my first thought was that I never imagined we'd still be living in Jersey City! I always thought we'd rent there for a couple of years, have our city fun and then move to a house in the 'burbs. Six years ago, I never expected that we'd be still there, owning a home, raising our daughter there and trying to decide if this is where well be for the long run.
After dinner, we got hot fudge sundaes and hit the shops to pick out my birthday present, which brings me to...
Aging!
Today is my birthday and I'm officially 32 years old.
{this photo is not from today, but from when I was in Las Vegas, looking dressed up for a day of trade showing!}
It's weird but not weird. I can't believe that number is my age but since I kind of stopped counting my age after 25, it doesn't really matter all that much what the number is, right? Really the only thing bumming me out today is that I don't have any fun nail polish on my nails, and that makes me feel old because I just didn't have the energy to get to painting them last night.
I have no plans really, aside from eating anything I want today (especially a good bagel for breakfast!) and hanging at home tonight with Shaun & my Penny Bird with copious amounts of cake, while I await a sugar-induced coma tomorrow.
I haven't done a Dukan update in a while but I'll try to do that this week. The short version is that I have kind of bailed on it over the last week and a half with a few extra pounds to show for it...but I plan to get back to the attack phase tomorrow!
So that's the short version of what's been happning in my world lately.
How have you been? How did you spend July 4th?
What have you been eating, watching, reading? I have updates on all of that in my world planned for you as well...
Reader Comments (2)
Happy Happy Birthday! I'm looking forward to your travelling with a toddler post. I can only imagine how different that is!
Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary! Wish you could be my personal shopper, you always have the cutest outfits!