first day of school

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The day has finally come! Today is Preston's first day at NYU, and we couldn't be more excited. Grad school has been a long time coming and we're so glad for him to finally begin. I insisted Preston let me take a couple of pictures of him before he left and he (very reluctantly) let me.

I'm a little nervous for him, just because we have no idea how heavy the work load will be. Everyone says it is so much harder than undergrad work. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the people who say that all tend to exaggerate :) And even if they are right, we're hoping that because it's film school, it will be a bit more enjoyable. Do you have any experience with graduate school? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Wish my man luck friends!

In case you are wondering, here is what Preston is wearing:
{Shirt - handmade}
{Jeans - Gap}
{Shoes - Chuck Taylor}
{Bag - Moop (his graduation gift!)}

welcome to HOBOKEN!

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Friends, I have a lot to fill you in on. To keep a 3 week long story short-ish, here it goes:

We left Utah on Tuesday (July 19th), on Thursday our rental truck broke down 1 mile from a friend of ours' home where we were staying for the night. By Friday afternoon, Penske got it together and got us a new truck (a much bigger truck), by Saturday we were in NYC and found out that we are too poor to live there and since we have no proof of future income, decided we are going to have to look elsewhere. For an additional 2 weeks + we were homeless and subletting an apartment where no children are allowed. Thankfully my parents kept Elliott for us till we found a place but let me tell you, being away from your child for that long is absolute torture. Absolutely the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. After meeting with several realtors, we were referred to New Jersey and in comes Hoboken! Hoboken is one of the quaintest towns I have ever been to. It is family friendly, clean, has everything you need and is only a 7 minute train ride to down town NY. Oh, and the rent is way more affordable. I really think that Hoboken is the best kept secret around NY. Seriously, Liz has it right, Say YES! to Hoboken! We'll have more pictures of our new (pretty much perfect for us) apartment soon.

This past Monday, we moved all of our belongings from a storage unit in Harlem into our new apartment and Tuesday night, Elliott and my mom got here, and we've been unpacking and enjoying Hoboken/NYC every minute. We are very excited to explore Hoboken and NY and discover all the fun things they both have to offer. If you have any tips/advice about the area, please share!

photo from here

we got him!

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As of 24 hours ago, we finally have Elliott again! We never anticipated it would take us so long to find an apartment, and while we are so grateful to my parents for watching him for so long while we found the perfect place, being away from him for 3 weeks was almost more than I could bare. Of course, since he's been here we've been spoiling him like crazy. More on that later :)

Welcome home baby boy, welcome home!

a traveler's companion

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Happy Monday, friends! Sorry about the lack of posts lately, I'm in Arizona for a few days on a "girls trip" with my mom and sister. We've loved our stay here and I am wishing I had a travel journal like this to jot done the fun things we've done and especially the great food we have eaten. Seriously, some of the best pizza I've had in my life! Do you have any type of travel journal? I'd love to hear!

a perfect day for a picnic

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About 3.5 years ago, Preston took me on a picnic to this beautiful semi-secluded waterfall...wouldn't ya know it, that's when he proposed! For Father's day, Preston really wanted to "re-create" the scene, in that he wanted to drive up there and have a picnic, not all the mushy gushy stuff :) We had planned to go on Father's day, but got rained out, so we went today! In the valley (where we live) it was 90 degrees when we left, so we thought it might be 80 or so up at the falls. Wrong! It was about 65, and there was still snow (quite a bit) on the ground in places. Needless to say, we did not go swimming, but it was still warm enough to get a little sun and splash our feet a bit. Elliott was pretty captivated by the waterfall. He kept asking to go swimming and called the water a "fun bath!"

The actual spot where Preston proposed was not as easily accessible due to the flooding and torn down trees (from the flooding!) But Preston was determined to stand on that same spot...
...and that he did! We had such a great time and loved re-visiting such a special spot for us.

p.s. The picture of food was a kiwi-strawberry + mint salad. (The recipe is exactly like the title) It was delicious!

what I'm wearing...

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I wanted to share two of my new favorite things I've been wearing and loving:
1.  Chloe by Chloe. It is...heavenly. I literally run around telling people "smell me!" It's that good. I have the roll-on version and love it! What's your favorite scent?
2. Master Plan - Essie. Seriously, the prettiest soft gray/taupe color. Ever.  Have a new favorite polish? Please share!

my little man took a spill...

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Tuesday morning Elliott had a pretty bad fall and while I don't want to go into too many details, his nose may or may not be broken. He went from Monday afternoon looking like this:
To now looking like this...
Heart breaking, right? I have to admit, I did freak out more than I should have. Freaking out is probably the worst thing you can do when your child is in crisis. They need you to be strong for them and sooth them. You're their anchor! I keep telling myself that next time I'll be a little more prepared...maybe. We go back to the doctor tomorrow to see if it is actually broken or not. They couldn't tell because of all of the swelling, but hopefully they'll give us some good news!

Have you been through something like this with your child? I swear it's by far the most painful thing I have ever experienced. Do you have any tips of how to stay calm in crisis? Please, share!

a day at the pool

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Ok, so it was more like an hour + 15 minutes at the pool. We might have stayed longer but it was windy, the sun decided to take a nap behind the clouds, and well...some kid went #2 in the water. But we had a blast anyway! The absolute best part for me was the 20 minute "my kid is so cold he's shivering" cuddle session. The best part for Elliott was realizing he was in a huge "bath!" Have you gone swimming yet this year? It's one of my great loves in life!

p.s. Elliott's swim suit is from here.