family

Weekend Recap – June 24

| The Bee Life

Remember how all your weekends are booked? And before you know it the weekend is over, and the work week is looming. Ugh!! Not to mention, this past week didn’t even seem real, or that anything productive happened, I have a feeling this week will be the same. But any who…

This past weekend was a fun one, and one of many consecutively booked weekends. My parents came in town on Friday, I had Friday off, so it was nice to run errands in the morning, take Moz for a walk, vacuum the house, and then spend some time with my parents before our plans. We surprised my parents (but especially my dad) with a tour and tasting at a local distillery, Cleveland Whiskey.  One of the game changers for Cleveland Whiskey is that they speed up the maturing of the whiskey, and can produce an aged tasting whiskey/bourbon within 2-days! They’re not a favorite in the whiskey world, but they’re definitely shaking things up, and their drinks are tasty and innovative. My dad is definitely a fan! I enjoy the whiskeys in my manhattans, *smiles.*

 

Saturday was a busy day, I had a few surprises up my sleeve for Mom, more details to come at a later date *winks* needless to say, she was surprised and I think she liked what we ended up doing! The guys worked away at the house, and we (my dad and B) finally installed our new storm door on the front, it’s all open so you can see our pretty blue door!  It looks awesome!  My aunt and uncle came up for dinner, so we all went out along with G&P. We went to a new spot, at least for us called Forage. I was pleasantly surprised, the food was really great, especially the appetizers we ordered: pretzel sticks, calamari, and devils on horseback, OMG, yum.  I really need to get in a better habit of snapping some pictures before we dive into the food… telling you it was good without showing you half defeats the purpose!  B and I will definitely be going back for a date night.

Sunday, B was itching to do something around the house – so why not on a 84+ degree day do decide to do some sweaty gross yard work. We made small progress, but progress still, which is huge when we want to finish the project since we figured out all the kinks (hopefully) with our test round today!  Getting more items crossed off our to-do list, woo!

Today, marks a new chapter and journey in my professional career, it’s not how I imagine it would be, but I think that’s part of life’s journey of growing and evolving and continually finding and pursuing things we love.

Please send me your positive thoughts and energy this week!

XO

 

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.

IMG_2908
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!

#CoakleyEverAfter – Part 2

| The Bee Life

Ready for Part 2?!

Katie was one of the most beautiful brides. Her dress was perfection and she was glowing. We made our way to the venue after everyone got ready at the hotel, the rain was starting to pick up on and off as we got to the venue, so came the decision of keeping the ceremony outside or setting up inside just in case. It was touch and go for awhile, and it got set-up inside just in case. About 15-minutes before the start of the ceremony, Katie decided to make it happen outside. The venue was beyond accommodating and made it happen, sprinting to clean off the wet chairs and getting everyone from inside to the outside location.  After all, her vision for the last year+ was having an outdoor wedding, and it was going to happen, rain or shine!

Bathroom Mirror Shot
Almost ready!
Ready to go!
The Ceremony

Katie and Travis wrote their own vows, which were very sweet and touching, in fact that was one of my favorite parts – it was truly personal and unique to them and their relationship. And the rain held off! Woo!!

From the ceremony we went and took pictures while the rest of the guests enjoyed a cocktail hour before the festivities got started around 7.  We were announced and quickly got into the speeches, Katie’s dad spoke, then the best man, and then myself. I was surprisingly so nervous, like shaking nervous! I think it was the setting, and I wanted everything to be perfect. I was told it sounded great! Phew.

After dinner, was the cake cutting, first dances, and then real dancing! It was such a fun night, and like I mentioned before completely surreal to see Katie and Travis married, yet so awesome because they’re completely meant to be. My family was at the wedding too, so it was great to hang out with them, and B once all my official duties were finished (although they never seemed to be, we had to get Katie ready with a new up-do after all the key moments).  There was also a photo-booth, which is always fun to take a few photos with everyone. Enjoy some of my favorite pictures from the night!

Cake Cutting
First Dance
B + Me
Nate, Kiera + Mom
Dad, Me + B
Me, Travis, B + Katie
Katie and I with Lori, her mom
Genesee Light, in cans.
Katie & Her Dad dancing
Best Friends.

The night was just perfect mainly because it was Katie’s wedding. I can’t wait to see her professional photos from the day, not to mention her photographers were awesome. We helped shut the place down and clean up. By the time we got back to my parents it was probably 2AM. It was strange saying bye to Katie with no future plans in hand like we’ve had for the last few months, which I’ve truly enjoyed. But I know we will be seeing each other soon. Hopefully they’ve landed safely for their honeymoon!

Cheers to the bride + groom!

 

 

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: Easter Showers

| The Bee Life

This past weekend we headed north to my parents again for the weekend since it was Katie’s shower and a bonus of Easter!

Katie’s shower was Saturday morning, a brunch at a local country club. I got there early to help decorate with her mom, and having never been to the venue I was a little nervous about how some of my decorations (future post coming with some of the fun DIY’s I did for her day) would work in the space. Luckily everything worked out perfectly and looked great! Katie was so happy with everything, woo, success! It was fun celebrating Kates with the official countdown starting towards her big day. Having been friends for over a decade, it’s crazy that we’re at this stage in our lives! I can’t wait for her bachelorette party and the big day!!

It has been a few years since I’ve been home for Easter, and the first time since B and I have been together, I am usually dog sitting! My brother and sister-in-law came over Saturday and stayed over so my mom had a full house, she was beyond happy. Sunday morning, the six of us headed to church, which was full of Alleluia’s! After church we snapped some pictures at the house and then mom and dad got cooking brunch! Yes, two back-to-back days of brunch, it was terrible. =) They made their signature waffles, bacon and an egg souffle all to end with a triple layer carrot cake! #foodcomma

To top off the weekend, we found Hank a home! Our close friend’s parents ended up taking him, they came up Thursday night to see him with their dog and ended up taking him home- for a test run, and ended up falling in love with him! We’re so happy he is in a (permanent) loving home and is going to be so spoiled. That was a big relief, this past week was very stressful for B and I trying to figure out what we were going to do with Hank!

I’m looking forward to getting back into our routine and starting some workout classes! Here’s to a great week!

 

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!

Christmas Hangover.

| The Bee Life

Am I the only one with a Christmas hangover?  Somehow, I don’t think that I am. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas, full of love, laughter, sweet moments… and not too much drama (let’s face it, families are the best at drama).

This Christmas was one of new traditions and changes. I spent Christmas for the first time ever away from “home” – and at our home with B, our first Christmas in five years that we’ve spent together!

The weather has been a bit amazing too – mid to high 50’s in the midwest, is NOT common especially for this time of the year.  Being able to take Moz on a walk on Christmas Eve in yoga pants and a sweatshirt was amazing. In fact we’d joked about a month previous that it’d be cool to do the exact thing.

Our Christmas Eve was nice and busy – we did a lot of prep around the house, I did a lot of baking and Christmas dinner prep, and of course a few last minute gifts with B.  We went to church and then came home snapped a few pictures and made some pizza’s and flipped the TV between It’s a Wonderful Life and Elf!  We also toasted with Manhattan’s in honor of my Grandma’s birthday and to new traditions.

Christmas morning we woke up and opened our stockings and presents – we had a great Christmas and both spoiled each other.  We relaxed a bit and then got ready and headed to B’s grandma Dee’s house for breakfast. We then headed over to his parent’s for presents and a movie for most of the afternoon! We finally headed back up to our place just in time to prep and cook dinner while my parents made it into town!  My aunts came over too – and we had a nice dinner around the table talking and enjoying each-others company.  More presents ensured after dinner from my parents!  It was then almost time to call it a night.

The mayhem continued on Saturday – after relaxing a bit in the morning we headed down the road to my aunts house for Hampel Christmas. Snacking and drinking, playing a new pickle game, laughing, dancing and catching up was the next few hours until dinner.  Pork, sauerkraut, gravy and dumplings are the main dinner items – presents and white elephant followed after dinner and then the games commenced.  We always play Pass the Trash and this year played a few fun games of LRC.

Finally, Sunday was B’s birthday – so we headed to church with our parents and then out to brunch right after.  It wasn’t until almost 3 o’clock we finally had the house back to ourselves and were able to crash for a nice nap!

It was four days of non-stop family, drinking, eating, and a lot of fun.  I’ve enjoyed taking some down time today to continue to relax and recover and get the house back in order.

Merry Christmas!

 

Throwback Thursday – Christmas

| The Bee Life

Since we’re just about at that week away point for Christmas, I wanted to share a little TBT of past Christmas’ a look back at the memories and traditions, and oh how I’ve changed over the years!

What I love about the holidays is making cut out cookies with my mom on Christmas Eve, listening to Christmas music non-stop and still having the same reaction whenever Mariah Carey’s – All I Want For Christmas comes on (which is getting so excited and belting it out!) I love getting excited to walk down the stairs in the morning to see all the presents (Yes, Santa is real). I love our big family parties we have (always after Christmas) – I love going home to see my family and dear friends and I love getting dressed up for Church and singing at the evening mass. I love the waffles and bacon my parents make for brunch on Christmas morning, now with mimosas! I love eating cut out cookies as soon as we go downstairs before any present opening commences. I love opening our stockings! I love when there is a fresh coating of snow on Christmas morning. I love the new traditions that’re being created, and I love remembering the old!

The Bee Life – Christmas TBT http://www.emilyboylan.com
The Bee Life – Christmas TBT http://www.emilyboylan.com
The Bee Life – Christmas TBT http://www.emilyboylan.com
The Bee Life – Christmas TBT http://www.emilyboylan.com
The Bee Life – Christmas TBT http://www.emilyboylan.com
The Bee Life – Christmas TBT http://www.emilyboylan.com
The Bee Life – Christmas TBT http://www.emilyboylan.com
The Bee Life – Christmas TBT http://www.emilyboylan.com
The Bee Life – Christmas TBT http://www.emilyboylan.com
The Bee Life – Christmas TBT http://www.emilyboylan.com
The Bee Life – Christmas TBT http://www.emilyboylan.com
The Bee Life – Christmas TBT http://www.emilyboylan.com

Let the countdown commence!

Wednesday Reminders – Thankful

| The Bee Life

On the eve of Thanksgiving it’s nice to be reflective and going into the day overlooking the typical superficial parts of the holiday like family drama , worrying about eating too much, the travel and running around.

So I wanted to list a few things that I am thankful for;

  • My loving and supportive parents
  • My patient (sometimes) and best teammate, B for nearly 5-years
  • Our adorable puggle – Moz; she has our hearts
  • Strong and trusted friendships (especially all the awesome women in my life)
  • Having great “in-laws”
  • Our beautiful house and all we’ve been able to do this past year

It’s the people in my life that truly make it special and bring true joy, without them I would be living a very different life.  I wish all of you and your families a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!