I want to go to there…I am!

In just two days I am going to Jamaica to photograph the wedding of spectacularly hip Jessica Sutton to Alexander Maniatis, and it is coming not a moment too soon.  I need a break from all things renovation.  Yesterday’s work revealed that the 5 inches of concrete we removed from the old kitchen floor had of course compromised all the flooring joists below.   Yes the old kitchen tiles were set in 5 inches of concrete!  How insane it that?!?!  Our old house has amazing craftsmanship and bones, but all the crappy renovations slapped on over the years have made a mess of it.  So in addition to all the rewiring we have to do, we now have to replace all the cracked floor joists.  Another good news/bad news.  I am glad we are finding these unsafe things, but all these repairs are taking away money from other areas of the project.  So Jamaica, here is come!

(This is what I feel our house looks like right now…only not in Jamaica)

This is what our house actually looks like right now.  Not far off.

Cracked joist

Where I will be in 2 days.  The wedding has the whole resort!  It is nice that my big dilemma is how to pack all my camera equipment, SCUBA gear and wedding clothes all for only 3 nights.  Haha.  Thank goodness I have status on Delta.

To Everything There Is a Season

Spring is FINALLY peeking it’s flower buds here in Boston, services are being held for the MIT police officer, the two young women and the young boy who were killed in the Boston Marathon bombings of last week, and the city seems to be healing.  I heard a quote on the radio the other day that really got me thinking.  After you have something like a bomb got off in your hometown, you realize “everytime a bomb goes off somewhere it is someone’s hometown.”  We do not live with daily scares as cities like Baghdad, Kandahar, Jerusalem or even New York do, but it was my hometown this time.  Last weekend we needed a mental and physical change of scenery so we went down to the beautiful coastal town of Duxbury, MA to stay with some friends, run in the grass and play with their crazy yellow labs, Olivia and George.

Photos with my iPhone

As we took a walk on the beach we saw some people clamming, right off the neighborhood.  How cool is that?

Weekend Update

Yes, it is once again, time for another installment of “Weekend Update.”  If you are sick of seeing photos of the beach and ocean then I suggest you tune out from this blog until after Labor Day, because I will be eking out every last minute of summer.  This past weekend we visited friends in Duxbury, ate lobster, played on the beach, swam off the dock and got pile drived by an over eager yellow lab…the later just happened to me and was totally my fault.  I mean, in the la la land, coastal town of Duxbury, one should just expect a yellow lab to be following you everywhere, especially if you jump off a dock in the the beautiful blue ocean waters.  For more on why I love Duxbury see my earlier post this summer, here.

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Next weekend…Maine to see the sis, so prepare for more gratuitous beach shots.

Vacation remains

A few extra images from our wonderful beach vacation on this Wednesday.

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Loggerhead turtle nest

Vacation all I ever wanted.

You know you have had a good vacation when you return home rejuvenated and excited to dive back into things.  Our week at the beach did just that.  Our days were filled with morning walks on the beach, afternoons in the pool, water activities (I tried paddle boarding for the first time), naps, barbequing, and loads of family time.  It was probably one of the best vacations I have every had.

Morning walk on a quiet beach

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Paddle boarding

The seas were a little rough and the wind was up, but it made for some fun wave riding.  I love, love, loved paddle boarding.  My thighs are still sore.

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Sea oats

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Oh, and did I mention the one and only Tibi Outlet is nearby…needless to say a little shopping spree occurred.

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Until next time, I love you Sea Island.

Beach Time

This is where I will be for the next two days, so you may not hear from me until Monday. Hope you had a wonderful 4th of July.
Cheers.

Beach Babe

Digging out from a fun weekend and a busy Monday.  Hope you all are having a great week.  xoxo

Cape out

Our amazing friends called us late last night to offer their beautiful home on Cape Cod for the weekend.  It is in the darling town of North Falmouth and walking distance to the beach…an offer too good to pass up.  So I am running around like a manic this morning trying to make it all work, amid nap schedules and tying up projects.  I mean, we don’t even have a travel crib for the little munchkin.  Here are some of my favorite photographs from our previous Cape getways.

Happy Summer!

Cape – out

Weekend Update

I don’t think I could have planned/not planned a more perfect weekend than the one I just had.  It was my first mother’s day as a mom and while we had some events planned, we also just let things happen.

Saturday – During my early morning Starbucks and breakfast run I could feel the cool air was going to give way and it was going to be one of those gorgeous days.  I texted the hubby saying we should scrap our to-do list and chores and go to Duxbury Beach for the day.  Duxbury is an old colonial ship building town about 30 miles south of Boston, and their beach is a 6 mile long barrier peninsula with the bay on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other.  You can purchase an annual beach sticker allowing you to drive a 4×4 vehicle out on the dunes of the long remote beach.  It is so beautiful and unspoiled.

After a fun day at the beach, we drove back home, showered up and had a relaxing evening at home.  Baby went to bed beautifully and the hubby and I stayed up until midnight talking, sipping wine and catching up.  It is amazing how the week can fly by and I barely get a chance to catch up with my husband.  It was wonderful.

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Sunday – I was a little tired from my late night wine sipping and catching up with my hubby…not to mention the 4 am feeding squeezed in there, but it was my first Mother’s Day as a mother!  It is so strange when I say it out loud. “I’m a mom?!?!” I can still hardly believe it.  We had a lovely Mother’s Day brunch and then grandma and grandpa took the baby, while we went to the Red Sox game.  I even found a vendor that had gluten-free beer!  Bliss.

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We scooted out at the 7th inning stretch for an afternoon snack at Island Creek Oyster Bar.  (I love going to the ballpark on a nice day, but we also had a babysitter for the day, so I wanted to cram as much in as possible.)  Island Creek Oysters are a local oyster farming company (Duxbury in fact)  There is so much to love about this company.  Oyster are a great sustainable food source and Island Creek Oyster supports sustainable agriculture and fishing practices through their foundation. Oh, and their brand aesthetic is beyond perfect.  The font, the letter press, the logo, the decor…am so in love.

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We ended the day with baby bath time (my favorite), some yummy left overs and HBO.  Seriously, HBO has been making Sunday nights bearable since Sex and the City and the Sopranos…my current faves: Game of Thrones (I have a bit of the fantasy nerd in me.) and VEEP (some seriously funny political stuff.  Julia Louis-Dryfus is amazing)  I usually have to save Mad Men to DVR.  I can’t say up that late.  Which makes for a great Monday night!  Yay me!  I hope all the moms out there had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend.  Mine first one was perfect.

Bonded Pair

Some of you blog readers may remember last year my husband and I went with the New England Aquarium on a collecting trip to the Bahamas.  It is wonderful to see many of the fish we collected thriving in their new home and educating visitors.  Steve and I actually collected this exact pair of banded butterfly fish.  A fascinating fact about butterfly fish is they are monogamous, having a single partner or are a “bonded pair.”  When collecting any butterfly fish we had to collect both individuals of the pair and never separate them during the collecting and transportation process.  Other wise the butterfly fish would not thrive in their new home.  The romantic in me loves this idea of a bonded pair.  Especially since I have found the other half of my pair in my wonderful husband.

Here is a video of the pair we collected in their New England Aquarium home.  We nicknamed them, Sarah and Steve (note: this is not their official New England Aquarium name )

video: New England Aquarium, diver Chris

Some favorite images from our trip…ahhh…dreaming of warm tropical waters..

  Hope you all have a happy happy weekend!