Thursday, November 3, 2011

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone had a very Happy Halloween!

Ryan and I celebrated by making Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple Cream Cheese Filling, dressing up as a Zombie and a Pirate, and carving some pumpkins.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The weekend celebration continued Sunday as well! This time it was Birthday Time!!

Apparently it's quite difficult to get a Sunday brunch reservation for 11 people in a cool location in New York City at a "brunch hour". But, kudos again to Ryan for organizing a birthday brunch for me and David at Balthazar...even if it was at 9am ;)

Everyone was traveling back home Sunday (except for Michelle since she was the lone local) so we all met back up for breakfast before parting ways and heading home.

We chatted some more, exchanged birthday gifts, ate, kissed and hugged and then we were al off to check out some things before leaving via planes, trains, and automobiles (bus...really!).

Mmmmm....NYC bagels!

Star Wars theme continues! (Please see my previous Christmas Post!)

Corned Beef Hash and Eggs &

Scrambled Eggs in a Puff Pastry

Eggs Bella Donna

It was so great getting to be in New York City with everyone! I wished the weekend didn't go so quickly and that it didn't have to end so soon, but I guess this just means we'll have to all make plans to go back. :) What a great birthday weekend. Happy Birthday to me & Dave!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Lots to celebrate in one weekend <3

First and foremost, let’s just say that I am one lucky gal! I’ve got an amazing fiancé..yup, fiancé and I have an amazing family!

What better way to spend a weekend than with them?!?

Before jumping the gun on the proposal…let’s lead up to it…it makes for that much better of a story!

So…I had wanted to go to NYC for my birthday for a while, but never really acted on it. Once I heard that Dave and Natalie were going to be in town, Ryan solidified plans for us to spend the weekend in town as well.

Ryan and I landed in NY Friday afternoon and headed over to Michelle’s to drop off our stuff and then met up with her at Aldea for dinner. Besides getting to eat dinner with great company (Ryan and Michelle), we also got to go into the kitchen and all meet Chef George Mendes.

Dinner consisted of:
Sea Urchin Toast, Portuguese Sardine on Brioche Toast, Cured Foie Gras;
Shrimp Alhinho, Spanish Octopus a la Plancha;
Hanger Steak, Diver Scallops, Arroz de Pato;
and some birthday desserts!

Next Up: We high tailed it up to the Theater District to catch Anything Goes!

Great show, even if it was full of understudies…jk

Dave and Natalie happened to be down the street catching The Lion King, so we met up and grabbed some food at a diner employed with Broadway hopefuls…more singing for the night!

Saturday morning, Ryan headed off to Starbucks to read while I caught up with Michelle and got ready. Mich had brunch plans so she was off while I met up with Ryan for some NYC bagels and some shopping before heading to Central Park.

Making it over Central Park, we walked around and toyed with the idea of renting a boat. Too bad there are protesters chanting for people to boycott the boathouse. OK, so boating in Central Park was out. We then continue to walked around…and around. Ryan seemed to be on edge. But oh well. I just continue to walk along.

Ryan was so insistent on walking around the park! It’s not like we’ve never walked around Central Park before! We make our way over to some rocks by the lake and settle ourselves up on top and do some people watching.

We’re chatting along and next thing I know, Ryan is in front of me with some cracker jacks and then...a ring box and I’m being proposed to!

We don’t have any real pictures of the actual event, but some staged ones work just fine for me! (Especially the one that starts off this blog entry!) Don’t mind me in my jeans, tshirt, and fleece. Ryan tried (covertly!!!) to have me dress nicer that morning, but I just wasn’t having any of it!

So now you might be asking…What does a brand new happily engaged couple do next in NYC to celebrate?

Shake Shack, of course!!!

Then it was off to our next NYC adventure which was another surprise to me - a helicopter ride over downtown Manhattan! We even flew over Central Park.

And then as if there weren’t enough surprises in one day…there was still room for ONE more <3

Ryan arranged a surprise celebration dinner at Buddakan. I knew something was up, but he just wouldn’t spill *ALL* of the beans. We walk downstairs, I turn the corner and then see…

How unexplainably a.ma.zing to see my family and Ryan’s family all there to celebrate this with us!

How even MORE amazing to me was how everyone, especially my family, kept it all a secret from me! I had even just spent an entire weekend with my family in FL and not a one of them slipped up. And they had all been in NY since the NIGHT BEFORE. (Sorry Dah Jeh Jeh couldn't make it...you were missed though!!!) I was wondering why no one was calling me that weekend...or why Ryan kept telling me to call them later on! Dave and Natalie didn't say anything the night before either. And Katie even told me she had to stay in Boston that weekend because of work. Well done families. Impressive...just impressive.

That’s really the word that summed up the weekend for me. I was and am so impressed with Ryan. He pulled off an unbelievable weekend. Amazing proposal. Amazing ring. Amazing dinner. Amazing families. Amazing Ryan <3

I couldn't have asked for a better proposal...or fiancé!

From Russia With Love

Has it really almost been 4 months since I went to Russia?!? Guess, it’s about time that I posted something about it, huh? :)

Ryan had his last international Duke residency in St Petersburg, so how could I NOT tag along?!?

First night, after a long flight (actually 3 flights) in, it was dinner time! As always, I was excited to try out the food. We ordered Russian food that I was familiar with, but how exciting to be able to actually order it and then eat it IN Russia. No offense, Russia, but my family's dumplings and my grandfathers borscht is better ;-)

Next up, a whole lotta sightseeing! We happened to be in St Petersburg during the White Nights - those 80 or so evenings, running from May to the end of July, when the city emerges from long months of cold and darkness and celebrates the brief return of nearly round-the-clock daylight.

We spent the next couple of days checking out what I would think was a lot of, if not most of, the St Petersburg must sees before heading down to Moscow.

Here are some St Petersburg highlights:

The great thing about the White Nights is the almost around the clock sunlight. We went to a bar to catch the sunset at MIDNIGHT. Pretty cool seeing the sun and the moon out until almost 1am.