I finally have a little down time

So I figured I would catch this thing up a little bit since it has been over a month! I don't even know where to begin, we have been SO busy since April and it isn't really slowing down...it is actually going to start getting even more crazy in the next few weeks!

The last thing I posted about was the Color Vibe 5k, the next big thing after that was Black Jack Ball. SO fun! It was our last big party/event all together and it couldn't have been better. It was at this awesome venue called Artisan Works that has paintings and art all over the place, and this place is HUGE! It had all different rooms; theatre room, blackjack room, etc. Really fun venue to have an event!

A few pictures from the night :)

Next was my birthday and trip to DC! We had gone to DC in February for Bobby's MBA Basketball tournament but since it was just a full weekend of basketball we literally had NO time to see anything while we were there. Bobby has been there before (a few times) but I hadn't and wanted to go back and see the monuments/memorials/museums so that's what we did. We jam packed as much as we could into the day and a half we were there and we pretty much saw everything I wanted to see. We went to the Holocaust Museum, which is absolutely heart breaking, but something you MUST see in your lifetime. It is baffling to me that there are people out there who actually believe that it didn't happen....CRAZY! 

Some DC Pictures

Since we got back from DC I have just been working a ton, Bobby's dad has been here, and Bobby is about to take his last final ever tomorrow and he will officially be DONE with grad school! I am SO proud of him! He continues to work his cute butt off to find a job, so pray that something good works out soon! 

Next week is my last week of work with my Gabel girls :( I am SO unbelievably sad about leaving them...I can't even imagine my life without those girls in it. I love them more than words and I am going to miss them SOOO much! Claudia just started crawling last week and I was there to see it. I was FREAKING out SO excited and I feel so blessed to have been there. I was changing her diaper downstairs on a changing pad and she spotted all of Julia's pictures she had drawn on the floor. She flipped her cute little naked butt on to her stomach and took off! I couldn't believe it! It was one of the most special moments ever. No joke not even two days before that I was telling Bobby that I HOPE C crawls before I leave because she had been trying SO hard and was so close for about a week and a half and then boom she just did it! It was truly amazing and definitely a moment I will never forget! Now if only V could kick it into high gear and crawl this week ;) haha yeah right that girl is in no hurry! 

The following week is grad week...full of drinks, fun, drinks and more drinks pretty much haha It should be so much fun though to spend some time with everyone before we all go our separate ways. Then June 9th is Bobby's graduation and then we move that Saturday the 15th back to CA so we will spend the week packing, selling, and cleaning. It's crazy. These last few months have gone by in a blink and here we are almost time to close this chapter and move onto the next. 

We are officially in the 3 month countdown till our big day! AH I can't believe it. When we get back we have so many meetings scheduled with vendors and SO many things to do, my list is endless! But they're pretty much all things you do closer to the day and things we can't do from here so it will be fine. I was working on invitations tonight and am one step closer to having those done. My goal is have them ready to put in the mail by the time we move, and then put them in the mail at the end of June. It will be SO nice to get those out! What I am MOST looking forward to is seeing and trying on my DRESS!!!! I haven't seen it in MONTHS, it has been sitting at the bridal store since October just waiting for me to put it on! I seriously cannot wait. I have gone back and forth with dress regret/second guessing so many times because of it, I just because I haven't seen it or been able to just go in and try it on...didn't get to have that moment when I get the call that my dress is in and I am able to just run down to the salon and try it on...nope had to wait 9 months almost to do it! I will finally be able to June 28th the day before my bridal shower :) I can't wait!

There is so much to look forward to and so much happening. I will try to be better at keeping this up to date, but I am not making any promises ;) 

Until then!

xoxo

Color Vibe 5K

Yesterday morning was the Color Vibe 5K! Of course the weather couldn't cooperate, it was 37 degrees and windy as heck! We were all layered and bundled up and still shivering! This was my first 5k, or race period. I had wanted to do a color run since last year and had been SO excited for this! It didn't disappoint, even though the weather did! There were THOUSANDS of people that showed up, it was crazy! We had a team, but only found a few of them, never even saw the rest of them but they did complete it at least haha

It literally started snowing/sleet/raining within the first mile...it was ridiculous. We were getting pelted in the face my ice, the wind was blowing, I couldn't feel the left side of my face for a good 15 minutes. It felt like a mini-tough mudder in the beginning with the ridiculous weather! But once we made it through that, the sun came out for the rest of the race and we finished in about 35 minutes! We ran the entire time. I was so proud!!! I don't run, like ever, so it proves that you don't have to still have endurance. My P90x workouts clearly built up my stamina without ever having to actually run! It was so much fun and definitely a day I won't forget!

We didn't stick around afterwards for too long for the after party because it once again started to snow so we were out of there! It was at the community college that is literally across the street from our apartment complex so we were able to walk which was awesome! We didn't have to deal with parking or trying to get out of the parking lot afterwards!


Bobby was the ultimate trooper and came to watch just so he could take pictures for us! I love him so!

My girl T!

we kicked that 5k in the face!

mid-race

FINISH LINE

we did it!

pre-race dance party

Simon Games

What a glorious day! It was about 80 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, the perfect day for some Simon Games! Every year Simon's GBC puts on "Simon Games" where the school (and partners) can participate in a variety of games. Today we played: Ultimate frisbee, kickball, volleyball, cricket, soccer, kan jam, beer pong, and civil war! A great mix of non-drinking and drinking games. We had so much fun, got a little sun burned, but enjoyed being outside in the warm sunny weather all day! We were there from 11-7....8 hours! We had food catered, 2 kegs, and an abundance of fun people! I must say, cricket is the most confusing, complicated game ever! I think we went over the rules 10 times and I still didn't get it! They compare it to baseball, when really, its so nothing like baseball besides the fact that they have a bat and a ball and you have to hit the ball as far as you can and run. Every other rule is so crazy and complicated I could not keep up, but its always fun to try to learn a new international game lol.  The dean even joined us and he loved it!

Playing volleyball was probably my favorite. I haven't played volleyball in YEARS, and even though the competition wasn't that high, it was still a lot of fun and made me miss it! I may try to look for a city league or something and check out signing up, maybe it will be during the winter and give me something to do! haha

Tomorrow is supposed to be another beautiful day, even warmer than today I think! I think Bobby has homework and stuff all day, but I hope he will make some time to spend a little bit of time with me outside, if not I will just go for a run or something. Our pool isn't open yet...it is so weird living somewhere that pools are not open year round! They open up memorial day weekend (so next weekend) through Labor Day I think...that is definitely something I miss! Being able to lay out by the pool or go to the beach in December :) But I am so glad that summer is fast approaching and I am very much appreciating this weather we have finally been able to have! Now I see what they mean when they say people to FULL advantage of the nice/warm weather here because it IS very limited! I plan on doing the same! :)

25

My 25th birthday was yesterday and because I worked 10 hours, it definitely didn't feel like my birthday, and it was a little lonely since I was just hanging out with miss Julia all day. Although I was physically alone all day I felt so much love from all of my amazing friends and family from across the nation that it definitely made me smile. It is always nice to hear from people you may not hear from as much and to know they are thinking of you on your birthday. It also made me miss my friends even more than I already do! I have to be honest though....I didn't hear from a couple REALLY close friends and that really was disappointing, but besides that let down I can't really complain. We didn't do anything special, didn't go out to dinner, have a party, didn't have cake or anything like that but I got to spend some time with my love and talk to my little Aus and hear his sweet little voice and that was all I needed.

My love did give me some shopping money for summer clothes so that definitely sweetened the deal. When we moved here I literally only brought the "summer" clothes I had from our trip to St Lucia and I left/got rid of everything else so my summer clothing options are bare to say the least. So that is exciting what girl doesn't want to be able to go shopping for her bday :)

There is a Simon Happy Hour tonight so I will be having some bday drinks and celebrating with all of our friends so that should be a great wrap up of my birthday. I have to say being 25 doesn't feel any different than being 24...maybe my car insurance will decrease again and then it will feel different LOL oh and I can rent a car from another company besides enterprise....SWEET! ;)

Thank you again to all of my beautiful amazing friends and family for all of your sweet birthday wishes. I wish I could give each and every one of you a BIG hug! I definitely feel blessed to have so many amazing people in my life and I couldn't ask for more than that! <3

Black Jack Ball

The night finally came and went. The long anticipated Black Jack Ball was last night and it was the most fun I have had in a LONG time! I had an amazing dress I couldn't wait to wear, I was excited to hang out with all of our friends and drink, eat, and dance and we did all of that! The ball was held at the High Falls in Rochester at a cool industrial type venue. They served us appetizers, had an open bar, and also served a great italian dinner! I think the thing I was most excited about at the actual ball was the photo booth! And that's EXACTLY why I am having it at our wedding....everyone LOVED it! We definitely took a good amount of photo booth shots, always so much fun! They also had casino games (not real money gambling of course) on the top floor which was fun, I didn't participate e in that but all of the guys seemed to enjoy it.

After the ball was over they had the party bus/shuttles take us to the after party at Pearl night club where we had our own private room and bottle service. It was so fun to kick off the heels, put on the flat and just dance ALL night! I had been looking forward to this and it was definitely SO much fun and I am sad it's over...can't wait till NEXT year! Our good friend is in charge of it next year so we are going to make it bigger and better! ;) 

Wine Tour

Saturday was the much anticipated wine tour! We met up with the group at our friend's Jon and Caitlin's house around 9:45am and waited for the party bus to arrive...which would be our ride for the entire day. SO fun! We left promptly around 10am and headed to the first winery, 3 Brothers Winery. The wineries were all about an hour from Rochester, so we had mimosas and bagels on our way to the first winery. We arrived at 3 Brothers around 11am and at this particular venue there are actually 3 wineries and one microbrewery and this was by far the most fun place of the day! We received a tasting passport when we arrived so we would be able to do our tastings at all 4 places on the property. I really like white wine and sweet wine which was what the majority of Upstate New York produces apparently so it was good for me! The main winery was probably my least favorite though, and then the last two wineries and the microbrewery were my favorite and were a lot more fun. All of the wines and the last two wineries were sexual innuendos and was pretty funny joking with the people pouring for us, they were all our age anyway so it was fun! I liked every single wine in the last two wineries and I even liked the beers we had, one tasted like coffee and chocolate which was interesting to say the least!

We ended up going to a total of 5 wineries because we made a spontaneous stop at an extra one on our way home. I feel like we could have gone to better wineries, we have a friend who grew up in the area and told us there are about 50 wineries on the opposite side of the lake that we were on, and that they are all better, but the fun was had by spending time with the people we were with so I didn't care so much and it is just good information to know for next time! I still really want to do the Wine Train in Napa so I hope we can do that SOON!

We got back to Rochester...after some intense dance partying and singing, mustaches included, around 6pm. We took our two friends Matt and Bill (who are roommates) back to their place and we all ordered and split some chinese food. We were literally all falling asleep on the couch so we ended up heading home around 8 and I was in bed and fast asleep by 9! haha I slept for a couple hours and woke up until about 1am then slept solidly till 9am. Wine makes me sleepy! LOL

Although it was cold and rainy the whole day, we made some amazing memories and got to spend all day with a great group of friends and even met some new people! :) I can't wait till our next wine tour!!

Now the countdown to the big Black Jack Ball is on! I ordered a dress from Nordstrom and it shipped today, I am praying it fits and looks good because I am beyond tired of looking for a dress! It should get here sometime this week, in enough time to find a different dress if it doesn't work thankfully, but lets just hope it works because it's exactly what I want! It's crunch time, we literally didn't have 30 minutes to workout in the last few days, so we will be hitting the gym hard tomorrow!!! 17 days until my 25th and 12 until the black jack ball! Where is the time going?!

The Group

The Mustache

Some of the ladies

NYC

Last weekend was my first (long awaited) trip to New York City! From everything Bobby said about it, and how he wasn't a huge fan I was kind of expecting the worst, but I was still very excited to experience it myself. We drove in Thursday evening after Bobby was finished with his classes for the day, and after he packed (last minute of course) and arrived in Jersey City around 11:30pm. We stayed in Jersey City because the City is just too darn expensive...the average nightly hotel rate is around $300 dollars and that is just for an ok room. We stayed at the DoubleTree in a king jr suite for $189/night and that is still pretty expensive for us! It was a really nice hotel though and the area was awesome too. We were right by a mall, and within a 5 minute walk to the PATH station which takes us to NYC across the Hudson. We had an outstanding view of the Manhattan skyline. I would highly recommend staying in Jersey City it was affordable and in a great, safe location.

Friday afternoon Bobby and his dad (who we met...he flew in from Wyoming) had a lunch meeting with a friend who lives in Manhattan so we rode the subway into the city that morning/early afternoon. We were a little early so we took a walk down by Rockefellar Center and down 5th avenue...I would kill to be able to shop there...amazing. After spending 5 minutes in the city I completely understand how people always say that NYC is the one place that you can feel SO alone and still be surrounded by people...it's crazy people are just go, go, go! So after a quick walk around the area we met his friend at a Japanese restaurant for lunch. This was a legitimate Japanese restaurant meaning there were no forks or silverware...only chopsticks haha Well, I had never used chopsticks before because I had never been forced to so I was a little nervous because it was a business lunch and I didn't want to make a fool out of myself. Well Bobby joked around about it with me and the guys wife told him that I had never used chopsticks before and so he asked for a fork for me lol He goes to this restaurant all the time so they know him and it was of course no big deal...even if I was the only person in the whole restaurant using a fork...I gave the chopsticks a shot with the salad and did pretty good but I just used the fork for the meal because I kind of started to make a mess...oops!

After lunch we started exploring...we walked down 5th avenue again and ended up in Central Park which was beautiful! We got so lucky with perfect weather! It was a little windy, but there was not a cloud in sight and it was beautiful, sunny, and around 60 degrees perfect for walking around outside and still be comfortable. Both times Bobby had gone to NYC it was in the winter and absolutely FREEZING! When the wind blows in between some of the buildings it is literally like a wind tunnel and it just about blows you over. I couldn't imagine having to walk around outside everywhere in the winter I so would not survive! After Central Park we walked to ground zero where they opened the memorial fountain and are building the memorial towers which are now the tallest buildings in NYC. We didn't have advanced passes to see the fountain because we didn't know we would need them so we just walked around the area, it is pretty crazy being there and knowing what happened and imagining how that day must have been....it's unimaginable. From there we went to the financial district and to Wall Street. It is pretty cool seeing places you have seen on TV or in movies in real life! From there we were hungry again so we went to a place near by that they had gone last time they were there...a Scandinavian place. They had both been raving about these Swedish meatballs they got last time so I was excited to try them...boy were they GOOD! Bobby got a steak dinner and that was amazing too! The owner raises his own cattle and the meat is a true testament to how well he raises them...seriously amazing! For dessert I got a raspberry and nutella crepe....to.die.for. SO good I think I could have even every crepe on their menu which was close to 20 haha!

After dinner we decided to walk to Times Square...WOW. There was a Niki Minaj concert going on and there was an INSANE amount of people. You could barely even walk it was so crowded...not my thing. It was awesome to see Times Square though, where the ball drops, and to experience the immense amount of lights...it was pitch black at night and because there were so many lights it was literally like day time! We got back to the subway that night around 10pm

The next day, Saturday we wanted to go to the Discovery museum in Times Square because they had an exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls which was pretty amazing to see. So we went to that which took a couple hours and after that we went back to 5th Ave and walked around, went into the 6 floor Tiffanys and the original Saks Fifth Avenue and pretty much day dreamed about how amazing it would be to be able to go shopping there...ok maybe that was just me lol By the time we were done doing all of that we were hungry and wanted to try a pizza place my friend Theresa had recommended called John's Pizza. The wait was about an hour but it was so worth it. It was classic New York style pizza and oh so good! After pizza we of course had to get dessert so we went to the famous Junior's for cheesecake! YUM! After dinner and dessert we were so disgustingly  full that we went back to the hotel. We were also SO exhausted from walking two days straight basically we couldn't wait to get into bed!

Sunday we went to breakfast at a diner called the Brownstone Diner & Pancake Eatery that come to find out was on an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives! They are known for their 30 different types of pancakes...holy cow that was the biggest menu I have ever seen everything I saw come out of the kitchen looked amazing. I decided to go with good ole chocolate chip pancakes and they were by FAR the best pancakes I have ever had. I couldn't come close to finishing them and I didn't eat again until after we drove ALL the way back home to Rochester (7 hours later) if that tells you anything lol

The trip was GREAT! There is still so much more I want to see and do there so a follow up trip is definitely in order! I definitely don't think I could EVER live there, but visiting is fun so I think I will stick with that! :)

Central Park

Manhattan Skyline

NY Stock Exchange

Empire State Building behind me

Times Square

one of the 9/11 Memorial Towers

Original Bloomies

Smorgas. Delicious dinner!

GBF Gala Weekend

Holy cow! This weekend was a lot more exhausting than I ever imagined it would be, but it was SO much fun it was definitely worth the amazing lack of sleep we got! The GBC (Graduate Business Conference) started on Thursday afternoon and last until last night/this morning when most people just had breakfast and then went to the airport to fly home. I had worked Thursday and was just waiting on Bobby to let me know what the plan was for the night. He had a dinner Thursday night after all of the meetings, etc so he called me at around 10pm and said that there was an after party in the suite are the Hyatt which was the hospitality suite that Simon had booked for the weekend. It was basically just free alcohol all weekend long for all of the students and GBF members that were in town for the conference. So I had already packed all of my things for the weekend knowing we were staying at the hotel that was provided for us all weekend. The place was packed with students from all over the world; Switzerland, Denmark, India, you name it. The GBF (Graduate Business Forum) is made up of the top 50 graduate business schools in the world and every year they get together for this conference and this year Simon hosted. 38 of the top 50 schools in the world were represented at the conference this weekend. We met so many awesome people and actually ended up meeting a guy who also graduated from Chapman and lived on the same street as us in Orange! He's the incoming president at Anderson School of Business at UCLA so we talked to him a lot and Bobby hung out with him...another funny connection was the outgoing president of UCLA was from Stockton! haha So, Bobby and those two talked a lot! It's pretty amazing that with everyone being from all over the world you still meet people with really close connections such a small world!

Friday night was the Gala! Bobby had conferences and workshops all day and I worked for a couple hours. I was able to leave work at 5 to be able to get ready so I came home where Bobby was so we could drive to the hotel room together so I could get ready. Bobby made us late (Grr) So of course I only had about 30-45 minutes to get ready so I just had to wear my hair straight, I was going to curl it but no time so oh well! It ended up in a pony tail by the end of the night anyway so it was probably a better decision. We arrived at the venue the Harro East Ballroom around 7pm for cocktail hour and met up with all of our friends, found out where we were sitting etc. We sat with a group of incoming presidents (since Bobby is the incoming President too). It's always fun meeting new people! So there were awards presentations and dinner and then it was time to dance! At 10pm the awards were done and the band came out and the bar was again open for the night! My good friend Theresa was a part of the band so I was really excited to finally see her perform and hear her sing! She was great! The whole band was awesome it was SO much fun! Bobby isn't a big dancer but I was out there ALL night from 10-1am my calves were SO sore the next day...at the half way break I had Bobby go grab my flats and put my heels in the car lol I was ready for round two! All of the European guys were SUCH a blast they were out there all night with us! The band was playing some fun oldies songs and one of the Danish guys grabbed me and we just started swing dancing LOL It was such a blast! Everyone was just sweating bullets, singing, laughing and having a good ole time I didn't want it to end! Buuuut it did at 1am...but then it was time for the after party back at the suite! :) We were again out until 3:30-4am and the next day I had to get up and meet up with Theresa and some prospective Simon Partners for breakfast, a tour at the Memorial Art Gallery, and lunch at 9:45 and Bobby had to get up even earlier for more conference events! Wow was I tired! Coffee was the best thing that could have happened to me that morning!

We all met in the lobby at the Hyatt where the prospective students and partners were staying. This weekend was also Scholarship weekend for Simon so all of the prospective Simon candidates and their partners were in town as well and the partners group always takes them around Rochester and talks with them about coming here, answers questions, and just shows them a great time! One of the girls is around my age, has the cutest little 2 year old boy, and is from Southern California too! We had a lot to talk about she was such a sweet girl! There was also another girl who was from Northern California. We went to a local coffee place called Boulder and got breakfast and coffee and chatted. The girl from Socal also had her mom with her to help her with her son and check out apartments while her bf was busy doing presentations and such at Simon all weekend. After coffee we went to the visitors center so they could grab any information they might need before going to the Memorial Art Gallery for a tour. I always love going to museums and just never think to go on my own so being able to do this with the partners (for free) was great! We took an hour tour (which was definitely NOT long enough) before heading to a place called The Gate House for lunch...SO yummy! After lunch it was around 3pm so the limo took us back to the Hyatt and we all went our separate ways. My plan for the rest of the day was to go back to the Radisson and NAP...but that didn't really happen every time I was about to doze off I swear my phone would ding from a text or someone would call so Bobby eventually came home around for about an hour before having to go to the final dinner. I eventually fell asleep around 9pm for about an hour haha I didn't really expect to go out after but of course when Bobby got home around 11pm we headed over to the suite again for another after party! HAHA I was a zombie but again it was a lot of fun...we got back to the room again around 3:30am...that was our average bed time every night this weekend.

T and me :) 

End of the night. Pony tail time! 

We checked out this morning around 10am and came home. Bobby had to meet up with someone at 1 to do some homework so I napped on and off all day and was a total bum I had no energy to do anything at all and definitely needed the day to recover! I haven't partied three nights in a row since college! It was SUCH a great weekend though and work all of the lack of sleep. Bobby got elected as the Graduate Business Forum representative of North America this weekend as well which is a HUGE honor! He always amazes me and I am so proud of him!

I can't believe it is April! We have a lot of events coming up this month too! NYC this weekend, Movie night for the partners, Wine Tour, 80's party, and probably more! Then the Black Jack Ball early next month and my 25th Birthday! AH! Time is flying by but we are having so much fun...we got some SUPER amazing/exciting news that I can't announce yet until I get an ok but this is an amazingly blessed year and it has definitely been good to us!