1st Anniversary!

Happy 1st anniversary to the best friend and husband a girl could ask for - it's been one fast and amazing year and I can't wait to see what the next 75 bring!

Nantucket

I was lucky enough to cash in on a free mini vacation by visiting my parents, Kate, Joey and Ben at their rental house on Nantucket for a few days. I think I need to win the lottery so I can buy a house down there. The weather was great, we were walking distance to town, had dinner out by the water, played at the beach and enjoyed checking out Cisco Brewery. I want to go back!

Settling into Suburbia...

Although we still have a couple of unpacked boxes, endless furniture to buy and pictures to hang we're settling into the new house wonderfully! I am absolutely loving being out in the suburbs and feel much more calm and happy now that I don't have the city buzzing about me constantly. Tucker and I had our first Concord "date night" at 80 Thoreau Friday and it was great! I have a feeling it will be our new favorite special occasion spot!

Saturday I was off to Brookline to celebrate Lyndsey and DL's soon to be bundle of joy at Noel's house. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures from the shower but it was so great to catch up with the wine club ladies! Can't wait to see what the Lyndsey ends up having! After that shower I headed to Erin and Matt's to see their new house in Milton and meet their 3 month old, Ryan. Most of the Southie girls were in attendance - Ben and Emmy stole the show - here are the some pictures to prove it!

Kate, Joey and Ben came out to Carlisle for a sleepover after all of the baby celebrations. Sunday we woke and decided to go "look" at cars and came home with a 2009 Volvo XC90 - we are officially suburbianites! To celebrate we made some lobster at home and called it a night!

hot night, summer in the city

Sorry I've been a terrible blogger and sorry there are no new house pictures - we'll get some up once the boxes are unpacked! We just spent most of our weekend in New York City celebrating Jane and Ross with a few other Colgate friends.

The wedding spot, Liberty Wharf, in New York City was gorgeous! Unfortunately mother nature had other plans and something knocked out the electricity. No power meant no air conditioning in 90 plus degree heat - they got a generator up and running to help the band play and some flood lights to illuminate the room but that was it! Jane and Ross handled it like champs though and we all had a blast! Congrats guys!

moving day

There's been a serious lack of posts here which I'm going to blame on the fact that the camera is packed and we've both been way too crazed between work, my final, Tucker's business trip and packing to think about blogging. Last night I was able to have one last night on the roofdeck with some of my favorite ladies from Southie, complete with solo cups of champagne. Besides leaving Kate, Ben and Joey as neighbors, saying goodbye to the most amazing group of girlfriends one could ask for was tear jerking to say the least. I know we're not moving far but it will different not being able to call the girls for a walk around Castle Island, a glass of wine at Local or a quick trip to the beach. I wish we could all move to the same neighborhood for the rest of our lives. :-( Guess we'll just have to work harder to make plans. I'm so excited about the new adventure Tucker and I are about to embark on but sad to leave the wonderful little life we had for ourselves in the city. Goodbye Southie - it's been a blast!

white water rafting adventure

I am so behind on posts! A couple of weeks ago Sean, Christine, Wes, Jen, Ryan, Robin, Dana, Tyler, Tucker and I headed up WAY north in Maine to go white water rafting. I've been a few times before and loved it - thanks to our thrill seeking guide this time I may never go back. ;-) Let's just say my fear of drowing is amplified when my boat is tipped over and I am trapped beneath it. Other than some death defying (says me, not Tucker) boat flips the trip was wonderful! I highly recommend Magic Falls Rafting Company. We all stayed in a huge cabin on the property, ate delicious bbq and were bussed to a "local" bar for fireworks - thanks Sean for organizing! Our actual rafting picture hasn't arrived yet but here are some pictures of us hanging out in Maine.



More fun summer weekend posts coming up!

a very preppy Saturday

This past Saturday the Kelley/Brooks/Bailey clan packed up the cars and headed down to Newport for a delayed celebration of all of the exciting things happening in this group. The weather cooperated and we were able to have lunch overlooking Bannister's Wharf at the Cooke House, take a scenic tour around Ocean Drive and top the day off with a polo match.

Ben unfortunately seemed to enjoy climbing around inside the car more than watching the horses (he also has decided he hates having his picture taken) so this was the best photo I could get of his first polo match - at least he looks the part!

happy anniversary!

Happy anniversary to my wonderful parents - here's to many more years together! Thanks for being such good role models - love you!

Happy birthday Kate!

A very special happy birthday shout out to my sister and best friend - I can't imagine my life without you! Love you!

Celebrations!

For the rest of our lives the weekend of June 18th will be filled to the brim with celebrations! Kate and Brody share June 18th birthdays, my parents' anniversary is June 19th and father's day is always right around this time. To top off this year we were also saying goodbye to Eric and Marley who are off to start business school at Vanderbilt in Nashville. In order to give everyone ample celebratory time and attention we decided to delay some of the celebrating. This weekend we all celebrated Brody's first birthday out in Concord on Saturday morning.

Saturday night Tucker and I headed back into the city to experience a pub crawl of sorts with Eric and Marley on their last weekend in Boston - we hit up the important Beacon Hill bars - Emmet's, 21st Amendment and the Red Hat. Hard to believe our monthly Groupon dates with these two are over and Tucker's losing his biggest partner in crime!

Sunday we headed back out to Concord to celebrate father's day with Tuck - fun and relaxing!

Next weekend's delayed celebration for my dad and Kate involves a trip to Newport for lunch at the Black Pearl and a polo match! A big thank you to my dad for allowing us to celebrate both families and for ALWAYS being my biggest cheerleader - I love you!

the great outdoors

I survived! My first ever 2 day camping trip and I have to say it was WAY more fun than expected. It was Bilello's 30th birthday so Sarah, Chris, Caitlin, Ryan, DeeDee, Josh, Loren, Tucker and I headed up to Acadia for the weekend and had an absolute blast. We hiked the Beehive, had lobster's at Thurston's, enjoyed a "scorned woman" shot or 2 at Joe's and hung out by the campfire. Believe it or not I'd do it again. ;-)

Happy birthday Bilello!

Cape Cod

Back to work after a crazy weekend on the Cape! Friday night Tucker and I were able to have a celebratory date night at Petit Robert to catch up on the house and a great month at work for him as well as a (hopefully) fully recovered appendectomy. After a lazy Saturday morning we headed to Falmouth to spend some time with Amy, Pete, Maisie, Miles and Lou of course - so fun catching up with them for a night!

Sunday was my cousin Kristin's wedding in Yarmouth - despite what looked like a dismal forecast the sun came out just in time for their ceremony!

We had to work this morning so we unfortunately had to leave the reception a little early but it was great catching up with family - congrats Kristin and Greg!

exciting news!

It's official! We're moving to the suburbs in August! It happened a little sooner than we expected but we've been admiring the house we bought from afar for a couple of years now so when it went on the market we jumped at the chance. It needs a little updating (and a lot of furniture!) which we'll slowly get to but we're so excited at the prospect of creating what will hopefully be our forever home! We can't wait to host friends!

Love Square

We just got back from a fabulous weekend in Philadelphia celebrating Liz and Dave's wedding - what a fun filled time and what a beautiful and sweet couple - congrats!

I was honored to be a bridesmaid but very sadly I brought our camera minus the memory card so I have no pictures of my own. Hoping to steal some from other people soon. Here is a picture of the post rehearsal dinner festivities with the girls out in Philly!

Liz and Dave we had such a wonderful time at your wedding - wishing you a lifetime of love and happiness - enjoy Hawaii!

Celebrating mom

Happy belated mother's day! The picture above is from the afternoon of my wedding when my mom was heading down the hallway to help me put on my wedding dress. I absolutely love it! I am very lucky to have such a great role model, confidant and friend for a mom. The older I get the more I appreciate the sacrafices she made for Kate and me...and continues to make for our growing family. Kate and I were able to surprise her Friday night - she thought she was heading into the city to babysit Ben but we whisked her away for massages at Bella Sante - definitely a well deserved treat for her! Hopefully all the other moms were spoiled and able to celebrate with their loved ones!

Oh hello weekend...

Happy Friday! Very excited for a somewhat restful weekend ahead (the patient could still use it!). We have a few mother's day surprises up our sleeves so I'll wait to post our plans until Monday - until then enjoy the sunshine!

In sickness and in health

Six months into marriage and that vow became applicable! Poor Tucker is currently snoring away on the couch after a rough 48 hours. Tuesday while I was at work Tucker called me to say he was having stomach pains in his right side. After we both did some WebMD research and he didn't have any other symptoms of appendicitis we decided to wait it out to see if things got worse...at 3:30am they did and we headed to MGH. A CT scan confirmed everyone's suspicions - his appendix needed to come out and fast.

After 18 hours in the hospital he was finally able to come home. Recovery has been painful and slow but we're happy he's alright - big hugs to everyone who called, texted, visited and dropped by - we're lucky to have such great friends and family - here's to more healthy adventures!

Life long friends

Just got home from a whirlwind trip to New York City and New Jersey. My company's annual event - the Digitas NewFront was held on Thursday and was a success - I got to stay at the Trump Soho and do some solo exploring of the city which I don't get to do nearly often enough. Below is a shot of us setting up for our guests.

After a successful event I took a train down to New Jersey to meet Christine, Amanda, Jess, Kelly, Michele and our host Emily. Emily and Dave's new house is wonderful and I am absolutely in love with their town - made me more ready to move to the suburbs! Spending the weekend with such wonderful life long friends happens too infrequently these days so I definitely enjoyed every second! Here's a shot of all of us before we headed into the city to Craft Bar and Flute - I miss these girls already!

And one more from dinner!

Maine

Just recovering from a great weekend in Maine! We headed up to Kennebunkport Saturday morning for Dunky's 88th birthday. It was great to spend time with some extended family members and these 2 cuties.

After the party we continued our journey to Portland (via Freeport of course!) to see Lyndsey, DL, Alyssa, Kate, Heidi and little Noah. The Lis' were nice enough to cook us a delicious dinner and it was wonderful to catch up with most of wine club. We found out we have a few more little wine club babies scheduled to make their debut later this year! On our way back from Portland Sunday morning we stopped by the Pappas' beach house in Wells to say hi to Alyssa, Annie, Charlie and Eva and then it was on to a delicious breakfast. We had Red Sox Yankees tickets for Sunday night but (thankfully!) the game was rained out. This week I'm off to NYC for work and a Westford girls reunion and Tucker has a lot of golf and entertaining Tim and Lauren who are back for good from Australia - should be a fun week for both of us!

Wedding, Engagement, Sox and a Marathon!

Phew! Exhausted just thinking about our weekend - tiring but wonderful! We headed down to Newport Friday to begin celebrating Cara and Collin's wedding weekend. Dinner at the Cooke House and drinks at the Parrot started everything out right...until Jenny and LB got hit with food poisoning. :-( Sadly they were barely able to rally for the wedding but as you can see from the photo below nothing could upset Cara on her wedding day!

And there was no shortage of after party celebrating in their honor as well...

After a big brunch with the whole crew Tucker, Christine, Wes and I drove up to Portsmouth, NH for Lesley and Nate's engagement party and collapsed into bed around 8. Tucker had to head to Milwaukee this morning for work and I was lucky enough to score Tuck's Red Sox tickets for marathon Monday with Christine, LB and Kate - HOT day! I am so impressed with all of the marathoners! After a day of just sitting in the sun I'm ready for bed...unfortunately I have to stay awake a few more hours for soccer to work off this weekend!

Back to reality...

We're back from a fantastic (but too short!) weekend in Bermuda. The weather was much better than predicted and we got in a lot of golf and a little pool time. The golf improved over the course of the weekend so hopefully this means I'm learning? Here's a shot from the gorgeous course...

Aside from golf we spent a lot of time overindulging in food and wine. We had a fantastic dinner at Tom Moore's Friday (they wished us a happy anniversary - it was close to our 6 month so we went with it) and had dinner Saturday and Sunday at Tucker's Bar.

Can't wait to go back for Thanksgiving!

Bermuda bound!

Off first thing in the morning through Monday afternoon - have a great weekend!

birthday celebration

What a great day (minus the whole working thing!)! I was able to celebrate my birthday with close friends and family which was perfect in my book. I had lunch with Kate and Kristin full of mac 'n cheese and cupcakes...

and came home to be whisked away to dinner at the Butcher Shop with the best husband in the world. The day was perfect. More celebrating to come this weekend in Bermuda! I feel like the luckiest girl on earth - thanks for all of the birthday wishes, cards, calls and texts - I have the best friends and family!

weekend most needed

Boy did we need this weekend to come. It now looks like plans for London are off and its been an emotional roller coaster of a week to say the least and I'm ready to get off. Tucker and I are headed to dinner at Asana at the Mandarin for some much needed quality time together tonight. Other than the MS Walk Sunday things should be pretty low key which suits us well considering we're gone every weekend in April - Bermuda one week from today!

Savoring

Back to the Monday grind - luckily we had a great weekend in between! Friday night we headed out to Red Bones for dinner with Eric and Marley. It's looking like the two of them will be Vanderbilt bound this summer for business school so we're trying to pack in some quality time while we can! Saturday we headed to Roslindale to meet another addition to the group - Evan Henry Adams! Congrats again to Ian and Emily...

Since my mom's birthday was March 18th and mine is coming up next week we figured a joint birthday dinner made the most sense given everyone's schedules. We wanted Ben to be there so we decided on Five Napkin Burger (at 5:45 pm of course) - as you can see Ben enjoyed the atmosphere as well as a matching outfit with Pops.

 Post dinner we celebrated Sean's 34th birthday at the Junction - ended up being a little crazier than we anticipated so we made a delicious breakfast Sunday to ease into the day - chive waffles with salsa and fried eggs - delicious!

We are definitely trying to savor all of these moments with friends...we recently found out we are most likely being relocated to London come August 1st for a year. I definitely have mixed emotions - I think it will be a wonderful opportunity for Tucker and an adventure for us as a newly married couple but I'm also sad to leave the amazing group of friends and family we've been blessed enough to meet. If the move does happen this blog will become even more important to keep everyone up to date on our life - wish us luck!