PRETTY PLACE

Still going back (probably too many weeks now) to Memorial Day weekend, I found one of my new favorite places ever. Pretty Place. We were walking in town one day during the town's festival and I noticed a photograph almost identical to the last one right above here. I thought it was so stunning and something about it just caught my heart off guard. My dad said, oh that's Pretty Place. It turns out, this beautiful little chapel up on a mountain is where my grandmother's ashes were scattered about 20 years ago. My father also told me that it was essentially right now down the road from us. Why I had never been there, I wasn't sure! So we took a trip there and we were able to snap a few pictures of this incredibly beautiful spot. Sometimes I forget that you don't have to travel out of the country or even very far from your home to find some amazing places that you never knew existed.

Last two pictures courtesy of my dad.

SHERWOOD FOREST

During our stay in North Carolina there was the cutest picnic gathering for Memorial Day. The wooded community that my parents will be living in is called Sherwood Forest and continues the theme throughout the entire community, as you can see with the Robin Hood Barn where the picnic was located. It really is quite cute and made for such a quaint picnic. My brother, his wife, and I only got to spend a few days down there but we already know we can't wait to go back!

i love barbeques

yesterday we had a huge family gathering in honor of father's day. paris's sister had a paella and a bunch of spanish tortilla's made. someone also brought a caprese salad and i couldn't help but be reminded of home because we eat those three things all the time! man i love going to bbqs (or picnics? this wasn't really bbq food i guess) not only because all of the food you can eat but the time just relaxing with and telling stories with everyone there.

it was a great celebration for all of the dads there but of course the most important dad of all time was missing .. mine! hope you had a great father's day, dad and i can't wait to see you in just two weeks!

springtime at home

i was lucky enough to be in NJ during the perfect springtime weekend. i heard the weather wasn't that nice before i got there so i like to think mother nature brought the spring time just for me. 

i wanted to take advantage of all the flowers in bloom so i ran around my house taking a million pictures of my parents' garden area. they do a pretty good job, don't you think?

speaking of parents, happy mother's day to my wonderful mom! as always it was such a lovely treat to be home with you for a few days and i cannot wait until my next trip :) miss you!

catching up

i hope you will excuse my absence recently. instead of blogging i have thoroughly been enjoying my time at home and have taken two more little trips since my journey to tampa for christmas! two weekends ago i went to philly with some friends and most recently i just got back from 5 days in boston. but i need to play a little catch up so i'm going to bring you all the way back to christmas again.

we ventured over to ybor city while we were in tampa. ybor has one of the most famous cuban restaurants called the columbia restaurant (take a moment to work that one out). and inside of said restaurant it looked like we had traveled all the way to the motherland, spain.we enjoyed some great tapas for lunch that day and then some more for christmas eve dinner that night. don't worry we didn't overlap! basically this trip consisted of family and a whole lot of spanish food. my kind of trip.

sweet 15

as i've mentioned many times before, paris has a huge family and we are always going to birthday parties and other family celebrations/gatherings.

this friday we went to one of his cousins 15th birthday party and here in costa rica the 15th birthday is like our sweet 16 birthdays. and as you can probably imagine, the last sweet 16 i went to was when i was 16.

however, this party was a blast, complete with a 25 minute drum/dancing session that i had never seen before. the group felt like a mixture of mardi gras/las vegas and it was intense.

and i can't forget the larger than life piñata at the end of the night.

it was a really good time and we danced the night away until the wee hours of the morning.

more weekend happenings to come tomorrow :)

tapas

my mother's parents are from spain and that has always been something i really loved about my family. it is one of the main reasons that i chose to move to spain for a year after college.

growing up my whole family would gather at my grandmother's house and spend hours talking over a ton of tapas. tapas are basically just like little appetizers that you can really make a meal out of.

since my whole family doesn't really get together anymore and my grandmother moved down south, we don't have big tapas gatherings anymore. but we do have little ones.

this weekend since my brother and laura were here, every day for lunch we had tapas. lots of cheeses, chorizo, olives, little fish, and bread. nothing too fancy but just the way we like it: delicious.

do you have any traditional foods that your family likes to eat?

family weekend

this weekend my brother and his fiance came down from boston to hang with me and my parents.

our weekend mostly consisted of shopping, eating, and just hanging out. we hit up the outlet mall where everything was on sale. 

i got a bridesmaid's dress! going to keep it a secret though ;)

it is always a good time when we're all together. lots of good food and lots of good laughs. and next weekend i'll be heading up to boston for a little more time with my brother and laura. can't wait!

leavin'on a jet plane

welp, tomorrow i'm off to the good ol' usa for two weeks! as you probably already know, i could not be more excited.

however,

i am most certainly going to miss my boys.

one of them even tried to get into my suitcase this afternoon! okay maybe it was me who tried to put him in there...

but seriously, i am going to miss these two like crazy. lets see how they do without me for a few days.

love you both! and see you before you know it.

<3

a photo

photo from: rebecca hansen weddings

 remember when i said here that i was going to be a bridesmaid in my brother's wedding? well last week my brother and his fiance got their engagement pictures taken.

they so graciously let me look at them and then said i could share on my blog. i know they are just using me to get their 15 minutes of fame to be featured on here. 

i kid, i kid. i asked for the picture.

anyway, they look great! i know you can't see their heads but it's like a suspense factor. i don't want to give too much away to my fam!

i'm excited to start actually looking for my bridesmaid dress when i am home. i know its a ways away but yellow is in right now so i'm hoping to snag something ;)

día del padre 2

i thought it was interesting how today was father's day here in costa rica and in the usa! mother's day is celebrated in august in cr so i was suprised when i found out father's day was the same.

since i couldn't be with my padre today i spent the day at a bbq with paris's family. we went to his sister's apartment (which i love!) and had a lovely lunch outdoors by the pool with p's family and his sister's in-laws.

there was a ton of food. just the way i like it.

there were appetizers, a big paella, and my favorite costa rican dessert, torta chilena. i'm not sure how to describe it, but its a graham cracker(ish) and raspberry type filling, pie with icing on top. yum.

all in all it was a great afternoon. the weather was beautiful and the company was entertaining :)
happy father's day to all those dads out there.

dia del padre

happy happy father's day to the best dad in the whole entire world.

love you a ton and i can't wait to be home oh so soon.

enjoy your day!!

<3

a birthday

 i don't know if i've said this before, but p has a huge family. and because of that huge family, there is a huge number of birthday parties we attend. last night was one such occasion but we were lucky enough because it was at our house! yay for not having to leave the house. anyway, p's youngest sister turned 21 yesterday and we had a surprise party for her. she cried she was so surprised. then we ate, talked, laughed really loud, ate some more, and had a lovely time. here are some pictures!

 

the birthday girl and i...and rocco

 

couples. that is p's best friend. the one whose gma sold us rocco.

can't leave out isaac. he sure was getting a little bit jealous about all the attention on rocco. but he came around. and then rocco passed out.

the end!

happy birthday, marion xo

what i'm looking forward to about my trip home pt 3

i figured i'd give you a break of all the food i'm looking forward to at home (for now) and tell you that i'm excited for .. my backyard!

there is nothing extremely special about my backyard. we don't have a fancy back porch or a big in-ground swimming pool (as much as i bugged my parents for one when i was little). but my parents have done an excellent job of turning our normal sized backyard into a lovely little outdoor getaway.

since the last time i was home was december/janurary, i wasnt able to fully appreciate everything i love about my backyard. but since i will be visiting in the summer time i am excited to spend a lot of time out there.

when the weather turns nice, my parents usually push our kitchen table against the wall to make more room in the kitchen, and start eating every meal outside.

there is just something to be said for enjoying a meal outside in the fresh air. my favorite times are early in the morning (you know, if i choose to get up early) while i'm drinking a nice cup of coffee, and after i've finished eating dinner just relaxing with a nice cold beverage. 

and when it's not a meal time, i enjoy hanging out in that great hammock with a good book, which i plan on doing a lot of when i'm home.

is there anything specific that you guys love about your homes?

happy mother's day

 

this is one of my all time favorite pictures.  my mom and my grandma. i love showing it to people because for a split second i see them get just a little bit confused thinking, i thought she said this was a picture of her mom, not her. some people say we look a like ... or that we are identical. but nope, this is my mom at her nursing school graduation with her mom. 

happy mother's day, mom. sorry i can't be there to share it with you but i hope you have a fabulous day. you deserve it. i can't wait to see you in a couple more weeks. :) 

i love you.

i'm going to be a bridesmaid!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

my brother is getting married next year and i'm going to be a bridesmaid! actually, one year from today to be exact. i've known for a while since my brother and sister-in-law got engaged a few months ago, but they decided to have a long engagement because weddings sure to cost a lot of moo-lah. i've been around a ton of weddings before, as i worked at a wedding venue and was in charge of making sure every ceremony went smoothly. but now i'm so excited because this is the first time i am going to be in a wedding party! (well minus that one time when i was like 5 and my grandpa got remarried and i ended up sitting down in the aisle....but thats another story).

the color scheme is yellow and the venue is The Hampshire House in Boston. it is an adorable venue that is small and very quaint and looks like it would be the library from clue. the color scheme is yellow, hence all those lovely yellow dresses up there. there is no set dress that the other bridesmaids and i are supposed to wear, it just has to be yellow! i love this idea. my brother and sister-in-law want to focus on a celebration for their wedding day and not so much a stiff formal event.

so even though there is a full year until the wedding i have been searching for the perfect dress! i want it to be something classic but really fun. i've found these 5 dresses on pinterest and they're some that i really like i'm just not sure which one would be the most appropriate! as of right now number 3 is my absolute favorite. its a custom made dress i found on etsy and its only 60 bucks! too good to be true? help! i want your opinions on which dresses and styles you like the best!


*i understand that some of these dresses are either a. sold out or b. way out of my price range, but im looking for opinions on styles, colors, shapes, etc!

a birthday

today i went to the first birthday celebration of paris's twin sisters. as paris has been at the beach with his cousins for the past few days and doesnt come back until tomorrow, i had to go without him. paris has a huge family. and when i say huge, i mean we can't go anywhere without him running into at least one cousin. and because of said large family, there are always family parties.

in the beginning of our relationship, this terrified me. i have to introduce myself to all of these people, what if i can't understand them? what if they can't understand me? every time i would think "oh great another awkward family party." and sometimes, when paris was working odd hours at a hotel, i had to go by myself ... without my boyfriend .. to his family party. and i constantly was having to introduce myself to people i didnt know as paris's girlfriend. and then i constantly was having to do that thing where i would give a polite little smile and pretend to laugh as if i had understood the little joke someone had just said. the language barrier was just too much! with paris i'm always saying "wait, what did he just say to me?" but without him there, family parties were not something i looked forward to.

fast forward 8 months, and these family parties are starting to grow on me. now i rarely have to introduce myself because most everyone knows who i am. and people don't stare at me thinking "who is this random gringa girl and why is she not talking to anyone." i now have the confidence to start conversations and ask questions and really laugh at jokes i actually can understand.

so thats what i did tonight. i had a really nice time at a birthday party of my boyfriend's family.... without my boyfriend.

a mish mosh of vacation pictures

here is another little splattering of vacation pictures from when my parents were visiting. there were probably about 3 million pictures taken those few days by the four of us so i'm trying to give you as much as possible without giving you everything.

so we're starting off with some sloths because i certainly love them and i know at least one other person reading this loves them too. so these are for you, girl. then we head to some downtime at the lovely hotel restaurant where we quickly turn to a little jungle hiking action, veer towards some kindle reading, piña colada-sipping, pool lounging, and finally an airplane restaurant (we did not eat there .. just took the picture).

so there you have it. this may or may not be the last vacation picture post. i mainly just want to keep thinking that i am on vacation instead of back at work. today was kind of a wonky workday, as most first workdays are after a lovely vacation. but there is a strong chance i am moving into my new classrooms tomorrow! fingers crossed everyone.