celebrate

Fun Hangover.

| The Bee Life

This week has been crazy with a side of ridiculous. Since Sunday night’s victory of the Cavs winning the NBA Finals, setting a number of records and making history, this city has been non-stop, myself included!

Monday it was like Christmas, waking up reliving everything, being so happy, and just soaking in all the coverage, the players tweets, party photos, snaps, replaying the last few seconds of the game and going through all the emotions over and over again. Not to mention, the Cavs came home so there was a welcome party that of course we had to watch as they got off the plane.  Tuesday seemed like the calm before the storm, but also crazy just getting ready for Wednesday and trying to plan and guess how the parade would be – as it was a first for many, if not all.

Wednesday was the Cavs parade. The first championship parade this city has seen in nearly five decades. The estimates of how many people who were expected to cram into downtown were anywhere from 500,000 to 1 million.  Well there was a reported approx. 1.3 million people who came down to Cleveland for the parade. People who started arriving downtown at 6AM (if they hadn’t spent the night), waiting for the parade which didn’t start until 11AM, and ended up taking four hours.

We decided to get downtown pretty early since we saw on the news that the crowds were growing fairly fast, at least quicker than we anticipated. Luckily working downtown, we had a parking spot secure in my lot and then we headed to a coworkers apartment near by for some pre-gaming fun. We slowly recruited other coworkers to head over from the office, since the city was packed and celebrating the Cavs!

It was so much fun. I love my coworkers and it was fun to party and hang with them, with B too and some of our other friends. It was also bitter sweet since my last day at the office is today. I’ve made awesome friends and that will be the hardest party of leaving, is not seeing them everyday, all day (but we will still be close!) So I know we will all still stay close.

Because the parade took so long, we didn’t last to see much in person, we waited at the end of the Rally, thinking that was going to be the grand finale and party, but it was a little lack luster.  Apparently the parade was where it was at! So we should’ve started at the beginning! Oh well, it was still so much fun, an experience we will never forget, a part of history, an awesome party and amazing day for our city.

Go Cavs!!!

 

 

 

Champions. History. Cleveland.

| The Bee Life

WOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our city was ELECTRIC last night!!! First NBA Championship to Cleveland, ever. First Championship won in over 52 years. First team to comeback down 3-1 in the finals.

HISTORY.

I knew it since they made the finals that this was going to be the year they won. I felt it. Not growing up in Cleveland, I think I was able to truly believe since a lot of people wanted it, but were easy to heartbreak – and I’ve told them the entire time to think positive and not to say “if they win” but “when they win.” *smiles*

Last night was truly epic for Cleveland. A night that will be remembered not only in the history of Cleveland, but the history of basketball and the history of sports.

We had a watch party in my aunts backyard, which is how we’ve been watching most of the games. It was amazing, everyone was screaming and cheering, and even crying. A lot of us, just couldn’t believe it. We stayed up until 2AM – watching the footage on the sports channels and soaking it all in.

Wednesday is going to be another epic day for our city! Cannot wait for the parade.

Go Cavs!

Weekend Recap – Family Wedding

| The Bee Life

This past weekend was full of family as we celebrated my cousin Tim’s wedding to his long time girlfriend, Morgan! So here is a quick recap of the weekends events.

Friday, we both took a half day in hopes that we could head out mid-afternoon and get down to Columbus early evening… but I had a little too much on my to-do list before that happened. Running around making stops, getting an oil change in, and then forgetting about our call with a wedding planner that I was expecting to have while we were already in the car, pushed back our leave time by about 2-hours, oops! We dropped Moz over to our neighbors, and then finally hit the road and got into Columbus a little after 7pm.

Dinner reservations were at 8:30pm, whenever my family has a weekend of any sort together (especially weddings) it is ALWAYS jammed packed with family dinners, activities, workouts, you name it. So we headed to Bravo! Cucina Italian – my first time there, andddd I know it’s a chain, but I wasn’t impressed at all. Service was slow and the food wasn’t that great. Which only led me to snack on Doritos later in the evening. *smiles* After dinner was over, some people went to the casino and others headed back to the hotel.  We stopped and grabbed some adult beverages to hang out at the hotel with my parents, Nate and Kiera.

Saturday morning we slept in until 9:30!! We haven’t slept in, in so long, it was so amazing! We got up and headed to Starbucks and then came back to workout and hang with the family. The hotel had a basketball court so everyone was hanging out between there and the pool while I sweated through a 45-minute boot camp workout, luckily my cousin Niki joined halfway through! From there we headed to lunch at First Watch, yum! (Avocado toast for days, please and thanks.) By the time we got back after lunch it wasn’t long before we had to start getting ready for the wedding.

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The ceremony; was so nice and the vows were beyond sweet. Tim and Morgan have been together for nearly 11-years, not to mention living long distance, so this has been a long time coming. My cousin Tim is a bit more reserved than the rest of us, so it was so awesome seeing him pull out his handmade scroll with his vows and reading them with so much love and truth in what he was saying.  After they said their vows, and kissed the rest of the night was about celebrating!

Tim & his adorable Mom
Morgan coming down the aisle
The kiss!
The send off – big smiles.

The reception was at La Scala Restaurant, which had a back room for the reception area and was the perfect size to accommodate everyone. The staff was great catering to everyone and we had our own private bar in the back which worked out perfectly too! Although it took some tweaking for the mixed drinks, since I’d like to say my family is a bunch of alcohol snobs, it would’ve been easier if we could just get behind the bar, ha! The dinner was served family style, which I really liked. It was a mix of lasagna, two types of chicken, green beans, and mashed potatoes, with salad and bread as the starter. Yum!

Forever Wedding Date ❤
Our Table!
Kiera & Nate
Their cake!
Most of the Fruit Loops!

Once the dancing finally started, the rest of the night was toast (unless a country song came on, then the dance floor was nearly cleared out, yet the DJ still insisted on playing his set-list).  Everyone tore up the dance floor and definitely got a second workout in. I think B danced the most out of all the weddings we’ve been too together, it was so much fun! Of course, there were a few breaks for shots – although we had to order them in the main restaurant, so it was funny to see the bartender mix up 25-lemon drops and a rowdy crowd come into the main area demanding shots.

B and Tim
The First Dance
Jordan and I cutting a rug
Me and Niki
Hampel Ladies
With the beautiful bride
Final Dance!

It was a great time,  and family drama was at a fair minimum, minus a few situations which I am currently ignoring for the time being. *smiles* You could tell how happy Tim and Morgan were and how excited they were for their big day and commitment to each other. They’re truly just a sweet couple. It’s always a great party when we are welcoming another person into our family, needless to say everyone was hurting the next day.

We had a family brunch Sunday morning so everyone could see each other one last time before we all went our separate ways, a family tradition for wedding weekends. B and I were back home by 12:30 and got our little pune baby back (Moz). She was exhausted from her weekend with her friend Maybel! We were exhausted too, so it was a lazy afternoon.

Cheers to another beautiful wedding and fun weekend!

Weekend Recap – Katie’s Bachelorette!

| The Bee Life

Where do I even begin? This past weekend was Katie’s bachelorette party, after months of planning, it was finally the day to actually celebrate!!

We started the afternoon with a toast to the bride, I selfishly wanted some practice for my MOH speech, although totally winged this one.  We then piled onto the limo bus with our coolers and started the party.  Apparently you can get pretty buzzed in 30-minutes thanks to Jell-O shots, wine and champagne – oh and some fun music.  We were also lucky enough to have some hotties join us for the days festivities, you may know them… Channing Tatum, Ryan Gosling and Benjamin McKenzie (famously known from the OC).IMG_1877Our first stop was Monet & Merlot. A wine and painting place, which is all the rave lately.  This was my first time at one, and I ended up liking it way more than I expected! It went off without a hitch, for having 17ish buzzed women, not to mention we actually finished under the estimated time frame!  We did a pretty simple picture, but I thought it was amazing how everyone’s picture came out differently, even though the directions were all the same.

After paint, we made our way to dinner, although the drive again was a good 30+ minutes, so more jell-o shots, dancing, and drinks. By the time we made it to dinner, I’m not sure if many people were hungry but most people were definitely tipsy. But hey, that’s the point of a Bachelorette party, right?

I loved everything about Katie’s bachelorette, especially because we were celebrating this beautiful girl and everyone truly let loose and had a good time.  I seriously want to consider renting a limo more often just to drink and dance without having any cares!  But all-in-all, we danced, drank maybe a little too much, laughed a lot, took way to many selfies, and had an awesome time. Oh, and the guys were a hit.

The party was definitely a success! And I can’t wait for the wedding, I was a little sad when I said good-bye to Katie realizing the next time I would see her would be DAYS before her wedding as opposed to WEEKS. It amazing that after so long, her big day is finally going to be here.

Weekend Recap

| The Bee Life

Let the busy and booked weekends commence!  This past weekend was the start of a series of busy weekends, because you can only be busy if you’re consistently busy week after week, right? Apparently…

We had a fun weekend visiting my parents, they had a little engagement party for us with everyone back home. It was great visiting, and seeing everyone because it’s always so piece-mailed throughout the year – or jammed into holiday celebrations with the masses.

Friday night we got into my parents a little after 7 – and enjoyed a haddock fish fry. My parent’s local fish fry’s is seriously one of THE BEST I’ve ever had. I still haven’t found anything comparable around us.

Saturday AM we woke up and enjoyed coffee and banana bread.  B and I then hit the country roads and clocked 5-miles.  We haven’t gone on a run together in a long time, and it was nice having him by my side again, we both pushed each other, having started off with the intent of running at least 4. It was nice running back where I grew up, and where I first started running – and it’s all viewed with a little different perspective now.

Saturday night was the engagement party! We had a taco bar and endless drinks. Kates and Travis were among the many guests, and it was great seeing and spending time with them! Although it’s never long enough. My brother and sister-in-law, aunt, cousins, Katie’s parents, and my second sister also came to celebrate.  We luckily only told the engagement story ONCE, because we made everyone gather around, before we had to open presents in front of everyone – practice for what’s to come I supposed (although, if I have it my way I won’t be doing that at any of my showers!!) The gifts were awesome, and unexpected it was so sweet to have extra love from everyone.

We of course stayed up way later than we would at home, so that loss of an hour really caught up to me yesterday! Hope everyone has a great week!

House Party

| The Bee Life

Our house was officially broken-in since we hosted our house warming party on Saturday!  I would say the party was a success overall.  The weather of course wasn’t as warm as I had hoped, in fact it was almost chilly, a cool 60-degrees, it would’ve been perfect had it been October. We had plenty of food and plenty of alcohol… we have so many leftovers, but I am not complaining about that! A lot of friends came that we hadn’t seen in awhile, that meant a lot and it was great catching up with them.

It was nice to be able to share our home with some many people who are near and dear to us, the first of many parties, I am sure.  I will hopefully get the food/drink portions down a little better and also try and be a little less stressed pre-party. We could probably have a second party with all the beer and left overs we have!