Thursday and Friday, on a Saturday!

heading out to meet Andrea for breakfast, loving my new Petunia Picklebottom bag. It's the perfect bag for summer.




Hank has been on a business trip all week, so I took advantage of having a few days to myself in a row, and Henry and I came down to Phoenix to see friends and spend time with some girls I haven't been able to see a lot of lately.  Thursday morning I went and met an old and dear friend for breakfast in downtown Phoenix. Andrea has been in my life for a long, long time, and was close friends with Hank years before I even met him!  We have seen each other through a lot of ups and downs and life, and been friends for about ten years now. Over the past couple years as life changed the most, we drifted apart a bit, but over the past month we've been back and touch. Thursday morning was the first time we'd hung out in so long outside of mutual friends' weddings or events, and it was just the best time. It was as if no time had passed and we spent a few hours talking and laughing, and walking around downtown Phoenix. I adore Andrea and all of her positivity; she's truly a burst of sunshine, and I'm beyond ecstatic that we are back to talking, texting and hanging out. I've missed her!  That morning we enjoyed veggie breakfast burritos at the Phoenix Public Market (click the link to read more about their support of local farmers and business), I had a delicious jasmine iced tea and Andrea had coffee, and then we went over and visited the adorable Ashley at the GROWop.  On a side note, have you ever been to the GROWop or checked it out? It's the cutest store, full of handmade and vintage items inside, and a million plants, fruits and vegetable gardens on the outside. Really cool. I had sleeping Henry with us of course, but if I would have had more time I would have loved to try on some of the super rad vintage dresses and tops. Next time, for sure!  So we hung out with Ashley for a bit (be sure to pop by her blog for tons of handmade goodness and crafty creativity), then headed out.










Andrea and Henry

inside the GROW-op



Ashley!










Henry and I headed over to Autumn's house, and Shirley popped over on her lunch break from work so we could all have lunch together. Autumn made us her famous Strawberry Balsamic salad and a tartlette from Trader Joe's, and we caught up for a bit while the babies played. It was so good to spend the afternoon with two of my favorite girls and best friends. Shirley is getting married in the fall, so I'm looking forward to dress shopping and all of the wedding fun to come!

All in all it was the best day. Delicious food, good conversation, reconnecting with an old friend, and spending time with two of my oldest. Happy bellies and happy hearts!  Later that night I worked out with my sister's personal trainer so I got to end the day on a fantastic note too. But let's not talk about how sore I STILL am today, two days later. It's a good kind of sore though, and I feel really inspired to take my workouts up a notch and finally lose these last pounds. Thanks again Lauren!














Friday was another fantastic day.  I hadn't seen my friend Zoe (visit her Tumblr here- seriously one of my faves!) since she came up for my baby shower in the fall, so we were way overdue for a catch-up date, and for her to meet Henry!  She suggested that we go to La Grande Orange in Phoenix, and since I've been wanting to try it forever, I was really excited. We got there and ordered at the counter- I got egg whites and fruit, and Zoe got the most delicious looking pastry, and we sat in the main dining room to eat and chit chat. Henry was in a screaming mood (happy screaming, but screaming none the less), so after awhile we moved back into the market area so H. could look around. We checked out all of the adorable items they had for sale, from toys to cards to candy, and I promised myself I'd be back soon to try one of the delectable looking sweets in the case. Tammie Coe cupcakes anyone?  After breakfast we ended up talking in the car forever. Of course. haha. It was such a fun morning. 




















After breakfast I went over to visit my friend Emily and meet her new son Maxon. He's about 3 weeks old, and in the excitement of seeing the Barnas I forgot to snap any photos, but next time for sure. It was so refreshing spending time with Em though- I admire her so much as a mother, and I feel lucky to call her a friend. Shirley is actually marrying her husband's brother, so pretty soon it will be all in the family! Very excited. 


After our fun day Henry and I hightailed it over to the mall so I could find a dress for our girl's night last night and then headed home so we could squeeze in a nap! More on our girl's night tonight.


I hope all of you had the best beginning to your weekend! Today is a family day for us, so my parents' and I are headed over to Green for lunch in a bit. Have a great day!
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Wednesday/Thursday

 

I feel like I'm finishing up a great weekend, but no! It's only Thursday, and I'm loving it. One thing I am really, really grateful for is the freedom being a stay at home mama gives me. I'm able to kind of do as a please, and come down to Phoenix to see friends and family whenever I want. It's the best. And speaking of, this week something incredibly exciting happened for my darling Sarah...she got engaged! I am just beyond happy for her and Andy. Sarah has been one of my closest friends for a long, long time now, and we have one of those relationships that has grown and changed so much over time, and luckily, through all of it we are still here, together. It's amazing to see her so happy, and their wedding is going to be one for the books! So of course I had to come down and celebrate, and that's exactly what we did! We ended up going to Pita Jungle for dinner and spent a couple of hours talking and talking as usual. We talked wedding plans, engagement stories, future hopes and dreams...there were happy tears and it was just an all around amazing night. We got so wrapped up in conversation (and the good food!) that I forgot to snap photos of us, but I did manage one of our delicious dinner. Sar got the Macro platter (one of my all-time favorite dishes) and I got the Mediterranean salad. Now comes all the fun wedding planning, and I am so excited to be a part of it. Between my sister, Shirley, and now Sarah, my bridesmaid's card is full for 2011! So no one else go and get hitched! ;)




and here's a photo of the future Mr. and Mrs. Leubner just because I love them! Aren't they a gorgeous couple? Their babies are going to be beautiful.




Then this morning Henry and I woke up and headed over to the Phoenix Children's Museum to meet our sweet friends Anita and Natalie and their little ones, Lola Birdie and Victor. I'd driven by the museum before and had always been curious about what was inside...and now I know!  I absolutely loved it and can't wait to go again, hopefully when Hank can make it because I know he'd love it too. There were so many different rooms, things to climb on, interactive tools, art everywhere, both to admire and create...in one word: awesome! It's a total kid's paradise and I can only imagine how much Henry will love it when he's a bit bigger. Even now though, at 3 months he was perfectly content to walk around and take it all in with wide, wide eyes. It was adorable. It was also great to have some good chats with Natalie and Anita, and I foresee more fun playdates in our future. Love it.

Here are some photos from our morning:



























 















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Yesterday, Thursday

Last night Hank and I decided to drive down to Phoenix for a little impromptu date night. We left right when I got off work, and drove straight to Green for a delicious dinner. If you live in Arizona, and haven't been to Green yet, I highly recommend it- it's one of our favorite restaurants and we've been going since it opened. I usually get the Green burger, but this time I got the Spicy mock chicken sandwich (on an Ezekial bun), with a side of pasta salad. Hank got some sort of ginger tofu bowl and both choices were delicious. If you're curious about the restaurant, click here to visit their website and definitely try it out as soon as you can! We there, we spoke with one of the counter-workers about a vegan restaurant in Sedona that we will hopefully we trying out soon. The name of it is escaping me at the moment, but once we try it I will be sure to post a review.

After dinner I had Hank stop by Yogurtland so I could try the new Red Velvet flavor. I wasn't a huge fan, but it wasn't bad by any means. I always think I am going to branch out, but usually end up with plain tart and a lot of fruit. Either way, I love that place. After I got my yogurt fix, we headed over to ASU to listen to Johnny Cupcakes speak. I didn't know very much about the guy, besides the fact that he once put Hank and the dudes up while on tour, we know some of the same people, and he runs a highly successful tee shirt business. To be honest, I was slightly apprehensive- I didn't know what to expect and I wasn't in the mood to sit in a lecture hall and listen to some guy speak about how he became inspired to put cupcakes on tee shirts. But...once we got into the room and Johnny began speaking, I found myself truly enjoying my time. His story is inspirational, he's an extremely "real" guy, and I liked that he was so personal and forthcoming while sharing with all of us. By the end of the night, I was a total convert, and now consider myself a fan of him, and his brand. Super cool dude, awesome story, and his lecture was extremely entertaining (all four hours of it). I definitely recommend checking him out if his lecture tour comes to a university near you.

I also have to add that while we were standing in line to get in, a blog reader/friend of mine came over and introduced herself! The lovely Chelsea and her boyfriend John Scott were just adorable, and it was really neat to meet yet another blog friend in real life. Two in two weeks is two more than I've met in my entire life, so I'm wondering who I will meet next week! ;) But really, it was wonderful to meet both of them, and Hank and John had a lot to talk about. Chelsea put it best in her blog about it, "It seriously made me so happy about how easy conversation came, and I really believe that it was due to already feeling that we knew one another (thank you blogs, flickr, and twitter!)." :)

After the lecture we headed home to Prescott. One of my most favorite things to do with Hank is go on drives, go on road trips, really just go anywhere with him. We always have the best conversations, listen to great music, and have have such a good time. Sometimes it's little moments like last night that kind of snap me into reality, and remind me just how good I have it. I written about this before, but I think people are blessed with different things in their lives. I would say one of my main "blessings" is this love in my life. I'm very grateful.

When we got home it was past 2am, and I wasn't feeling very well, so I decided to call in to work today. I've spent most of the morning in bed, and it's about 1:30pm right now, and I'm feeling much better. Sleep did me well, and I'm glad I stayed home. Later tonight Hank is playing a show at Sundance's which should be fun.

What are your weekend plans? Are you experiencing nice weather wherever you are? Whatever you do, I hope it's amazing!

I'll leave you with some photos from yesterday...

top: J. Crew
skirt: Leifsdottir (you can find this brand at Anthro or Nordstrom)
shoes: Target







on the drive down


Hank, me and Chelsea :)


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Friday night- birthday fun

Last night was such a great night. Two of my closest friends, Alana and Erin, celebrated their birthdays. The night began in downtown Phoenix, at the First Friday Art Walk, continued at a couple of bars- including Lost Leaf, my favorite...and ended at Hanny's, for a late night birthday dinner. The older I get, the more I appreciate birthdays. I'm not one to get sad about them at all- I think it's so awesome to have "made it" another year, and the whole idea of the celebration is fantastic! YES! Let's celebrate you and your life, and this past year, and let's toast to the next year. Birthdays are my favorite days, and this is even more so when they are the birthdays of people I love.

I've been friends with Erin since our freshman year in college, when we lived in the same dorm, and we both ended up rushing Pi Phi. We've been close ever since, spending birthdays and holiday parties, nights out, girl's trips and vacations across the country together. She's a really special person to me, so her birthday is a special day to me too, since I'm so happy she was born...as weird as it sounds! haha. And my sweet Alana- I met her my sophomore year of college and immediately fell in friend love with her. We've been the same kind of close ever since- spending those same girl's nights, trips, etc. Alana is one of my all-time favorite people, and to know her is to love her forever. Our group of girl friends has been close for a long time, and once you get to the point where you've all been friends for close to a decade, it's really just a big family. We're all so incredibly different, and it's so neat that over the years we've remained so close. Weddings, babies, up and downs...we've all been there for one another.

Last night was no different! It was super fun, and a night to remember for sure. Here are some photos from the evening-

downtown Art Walk


the birthday girls and me


my cute little besties and me


the gorgeous sisters


Erin, Kyle and Jeff (this was one of the few photos I took with my D60- you can totally tell the picture quality!)



Erin and me


sisters!


same shirt, kinda...


Alana, Em and me- these ladies are the best.


Pi Phis ;)


The Kolbes


Shirls and Sarah


Leah and Alana


Shirley and Nate, aren't they the cutest couple?!


walking downtown to Hanny's


birthday table one!


birthday table two! (still missing a couple of people)


Happy birthday Alana!


dinner


The Barnas...good people :)


me


Kati! I love this photo so much.


annnd, one of the lovely birthday girls! So pretty.


I hope all of you had a wonderful Friday night, whatever you did! I slept in super late this morning, and now I'm off for a day at the salon with Rhonda. Have a great day. :)

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