sunset celebrations

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we took luke to the beach for the first time for my friend devon's birthday celebrations. she is one of my favorite people in the whole world & it has been so nice to be in the same city as her & start working on some exciting projects together :)  we laid down blankets, watched the sunset, made a small bonfire, ate s'mores, & became one with the sand.

my little bear absolutely loved it & this is now my new favorite picture of the two of us!

on the last day in the hospital...

mom & dad put me in an outfit that was too big,

dad snuggled me so i opened my eyes,

then mom put me in a cozy seat,

& dad carried me for what felt like forever....

and then i was on my way home!

:)

a father's day card.

happy father's day to the man who taught me the values of life that are so important to me today. thank you for being so present in our childhoods & lives:

 from holidays & playgrounds,

 to every single birthday.

 from growing up at chatfield hollow... 

(that is the most badass state dep jacket i've ever seen... where is that now dad?) 

to feeding my love of ice cream!

 to teaching us how to grow flowers from just seeds. 

which instilled a love of gardening that all four of us will pass on to our kids one day

 and for your endless love. 

happy father's day dad. wish i was there to give you a big punk-a-doo hug. enjoy your day!

chatfield hollow

yesterday afternoon my parents + pete and i all went to Chatfield Hollow... a state park that is right down the street from where my parents live. it is also the place my mom and dad first met! he worked at the park & she was a lifeguard, too cute right?! i spent the majority of my childhood at this park... swimming, playing, riding bikes, & hiking all the trails. it was so fun to go back & hear my dad tell us "i built that bridge" and "that is where i first met your mother" ... we had the best time walking on the beach & circling the lake. and i had the best time doing handstands wherever i could & skipping along the "swamp walk" :) 

over the past week...

my wound was pretty sore so i spent lots of couch time with this kitty,

lots of girl scout cookies were consumed,

god bless the person who invented samoas!

along with lots of caramel,

the only thing better than Valentine's day candy... is Easter candy!

 this was hung up by my mother on the fridge,

 little brother's soccer team was short a man so pete decided to play,

(this is a guy who played hockey his whole life. he was a smidge out of his comfort zone!)

they warmed up, stretched it out, & won both games!

we let kai sleep in our room again + we had strawberry shortcake for dessert... my favorite!

 i picked up this button up jean shirt + these colorful bowls from none other than kohls!

DAY 1          +          DAY 2

and i am doing a little experiment with my hair:

ok, so normally i shower, flip my head over to blow dry, & then curl my hair with either a one inch curling iron, or a 1/2 inch curling iron. these curls are with a 1/2 inch iron while twisting the hair around the barrel so they are more wavy than ringlets. if this experiment goes well, i will do a video tutorial!

and then, what i have always done over the years is tease my roots and add hairspray... the problem i faced with this was that by the second, and absolutely by the third day, my hair would be extremely ratty underneath from the hairspray & greasy at the roots from teasing. but i truly felt the need for the teasing to add some volume, and the hairspray to hold the curls. 

so on Saturday, i got this idea in my head that i would try to do smaller curls & then naturally let them fall out over the following days. this would allow me to try and stretch out shampooing my hair to 3 or 4 days. so the first picture of the curls is yesterday, and the second picture is of today. my husband really loves my hair curlier, but it is a lot of work... so by not having to do my hair for 4 days in a row, it makes it worth the extra effort. and i really am in love with how it looks today... just wavy & pretty.. and that picture is after i got home from the gym just now. so i am off to go rinse off, but going to keep my hair dry & i'll show you tomorrow how it looks. because this is exciting to me! my hair isn't as greasy as it normally is & it is nice not to have to do anything to it for a couple of days... because if there are two things in the world i hate doing over and over and over... it is my hair & shaving my legs!!

happy Sunday, go UCONN women & see ya tomorrow!

over the past week...

we received our gorgeous wedding album,

i did some bargain hunting: Eddie Bauer boots from here, 

mint Lucky flats, & my favorite Burt's Bees products,

along with a Herschel case for husband's macbook (more from here),

striped Lucky flats (BOTH pairs are from TJMaxx, snatch them before they're gone!)

& a Cali top to get me excited for our upcoming move to San Fran this summer!

we went bowling!

 i was god awful....

but we all had the best time :)

and in case you were wondering how many pictures it takes to get FIVE good ones for a wardrobe post... here you go:

i end up editing out about 20 of these stellar poses. 

(my brief stint interning at Elite Model Management taught me everything i know)