An Epic Thanksgiving

Taylor and I decided that for Thanksgiving this year we would have ourselves a little adventure, and since I've never been to New York City before and it's so close to us now we decided to try the whole Chinese food on Thanksgiving deal! And guys, I totally fell off the gluten-free wagon, and let me tell you...bad news bears! Two words: Aliens, 1986.

We decided to start our adventure off right; with an eight hour bus ride! Granted, we were expecting traffic delays due to the holiday and all, but 4 extra hours!? We were champs, and it was cheap! Over all it wasn't a terrible experience, the bus was fairly comfortable! We got into The Big Apple a little later than we had intended, and made our way to the subway, but us rookies, we got on the wrong on! I guess we thought ABC was one train, not three separate ones and we ended up in Brooklyn before we realized we were so sooooo wrong. Oh, and guys, those subways are kind of scary, and kind of really gross...I mean, super glamorous. (I'm totally not hating, it simply made me grateful for the cleanliness of the metro here in DC)

We finally made it to our hotel a little late, but we were STARVING. Herman, the super nice concierge guy recommended a little restaurant around the corner called Ecco, which he gloated as the best Italian around. It totally was. Go there! After dinner we went straight to bed so we could get a head start the next day! My plan was to wake up super early and get to a good Parade watching spot at, like, 7 am. Ha Ha Ha, riiiiiight. 

We ended up sleeping in and leaving the hotel around the time the parade started at 9am (good try Kelc). After a lot of wandering around we found a fairly good spot in Bryant Park to watch the parade! Yay!

Okay, so it wasn't the best view ever, but it was good enough for me! Considering how frozen my snot was at this point, we decided NOT to watch the whole deal (I mean, they rerun the parade later in the day on TV anyways, with a better view no less!). We took off about half-way through and ducked into a little diner for some breakfast before heading to the Empire State Building (we figured everyone was watching the parade so there wouldn't be crazy lines, we were sooooo right).

 This trip taught us a definite benefit to traveling with friends...non-selfies. Sorry about all the arms-length-away photos, we did our best!

We had a recommendation to eat at Lombardi's for some good pizza, so we headed there next! (We totally got around...)

After pizza we took the subway out to Brooklyn so we could walk back across the Brooklyn Bridge. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the Brooklyn Bridge! I think it was definitely my favorite thing about the city.

 On our walk back to the hotel we checked out Wall Street and The Statue of Liberty ( I didn't feel like a ferry ride and super long lines so we caught the view of her from Battery Park and my phone died, so no photos!!) We went back to the hotel, charged our phones, and kicked our feet up for a couple hours before heading out to find ourselves a Thanksgiving meal!

 I know you guys aren't judging my crappy grainy iphone photos right now, because you understand, right?

We found Red Farm, for our cliche Chinese Thanksgiving meal. It was a fun little place. It was all family-style seating, so we shared our Thanksgiving table with some ridiculously hilarious (not on purpose) Jewish Playwright/Actors (?). Let's just say we overheard some pretty interesting conversations.

We order some yummy tempura sweet potatoes, and some crab and duck dumplings for appetizers, and the kitchen made extra sweet potatoes so we got a second helping on the house! Thank you Red Farm! That photo right there was my Thanksgiving special Peking Turkey! It was impressively displayed! I won't lie, we missed the classic Thanksgiving turkey, potatoes and stuffing, but it was fun to step outside our normal traditions and give something else a try!

After dinner we went and saw Hunger Games: Catching Fire. AMAAAAAAAHHHHZING! Oh my gosh. #teamgale right here, won't lie. Brilliantly done! Bravo! Magifico!

Friday we slept in. We were SOOOOOO exhausted from our crazy tourist Thanksgiving! We had the most expensive hotel breakfast of my life (I mean, $25 each for a two eggs and toast combo!?!?!?! I still can't believe we did that. Never again.) and took our time getting ready. We went to The Shake Shack on the Upper West Side for lunch (suh good) and hit up Levain Bakery for a cookie-to-go for our stroll through Central Park. Guys, I thought Levain Bakery was all hype, how a bakery bought cookie be so good that EVERYONE blogs about it? But, really, it was. All my dreams came true with that chocolate chip walnut cookie. Again, suh good.

Another reason we slept in: we knew our day was going to be packed and Kelcie's little footsies couldn't handle more than twelve hours out and about...

After central pack we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was nice, but honestly I wasn't super impressed...sorry. After that we went to the MoMa (on my request, I dig that modern art). I really LOVED it, Taylor...not as much, but it was crowded. We got a tip inside that Friday nights are free, you just have to stand in line. They didn't tell us the line literally wrapped around the entire block! Lucky for us, it went super quick. Next time I'll do the MoMa when it isn't so crazy for sure, like, not on Friday night.

After we finished at the MoMa we grabbed food at a little sushi place, checked out the Rockefeller Center and Times Square before heading to see WICKED!!!! I Love it! I LOVE IT!! I've, of course, heard most of the soundtrack,  but it was really so much fun! And because we bought last minute expensive tickets we had awesome seats! Thank you Taylor! I love you!

 Our last day was Saturday, and we took our time getting ready again because we were BEAT from our long, awesome night on Friday! We ran and got some yummy NYC Bagels for breakfast and brought them back to the hotel to eat them (we weren't about to pay for that hotel breakfast again...no way jose!). Our first stop after checking out was the 9/11 Memorial, which we happen to be staying across the street from. And while the line to get was the most ridiculous thing of my life, I'm so glad we did it. GORGEOUS. The feeling I had standing there was one of the most sacred I've ever had. I highly recommend seeing it, and see it early before the line gets crazy so you can really go into with a humble and reflective attitude. Amazing.

 I've never seen such a well done memorial in my life. It is so inspiring and thought provoking and beautiful. I could have stood there and watched the water for hours. I'm not exaggerating.

We went and ate at The Meatball Shop for lunch. We're awesome and watch Sunday Morning on PBS with Charles Osgood every week, and it spotlighted the Meatball Shop a couple weeks ago. And if Charles Osgood reports on a restaurant, you go to there. This was, no foolin', my very favorite place we ate at the whole trip! BEST OF MY LIFE! The atmosphere was so fun with their collection of vintage silverware and moody lighting. Taylor and I both had meatball heroes and the best ice cream sandwiches of all time! I mean, homemade pumpkin icecream stuff between two homemade pecan cookies! Get. Out. It was small, and crowded, and the door kept opening bringing the coldest chill ever, but we absolutely LOVE-ED IT!

 We had a few hours to kill before our train ride home, so we made our way over to see the big piano at FAO Schwarz, because Tom Hanks touched that piano, that's why. I didn't take many photos there because that part of town was insane with Christmas shoppers. not even worth trying to pull out my phone. Also, it was freezing and I didn't want my fingers to freeze off when I took off my glove to operate my iphone camera, you understand, of course.

 And that, my friends, was our fun, cliche, New York City Thanksgiving adventure! And while we had an absolute blast, I'm excited to do the traditional Thanksgiving next year...in Arizona with the sun, and the 75 degree weather, and the swimming pool, and the nieces and nephews. Thank you New York, for treating and Taylor and I like your family this Thanksgiving!

xoxo, gossip girl

(hahaha, I had to, sorry)

Fall Recipes to Try

ONE||TWO||THREE||FOUR

Taylor has a case competition this weekend, and so far I've only got work tomorrow. So I figured I should finally make an attempt at some of the recipes I've pinned lately! I found out recently that I'm kind of really sensitive to Gluten, which wasn't hard to avoid at all...until Fall came, and Pumpkin EVERYTHING came..I'm pretty proud of myself, actually, for how well I avoided it ALL OCTOBER, and I'll probably give myself a reward and have a cheat day this weekend (and REALLY regret it later, when my stomach is in pain and I can't...well...TMI)...so maybe I won't actually partake, but I can always make two and four for someone else, right?? They just look (and smell I'm sure) sooooooo delicious! I couldn't help sharing!

What are your favorite fall recipes? I wanna know!

Autumn (I've heard Mercury is in retrograde, whatever that means..)

Fall has finally found us here in D.C.! I've been waiting...and waiting.....and waiting for the leaves to turn, and October came and went, and every morning I on my way to the gym I cursed the trees for remaining green. But alas! Everywhere I looked today was gold and red!
I'm in LOVE with autumn here! I can't get enough of it! The more I think about (most likely) moving back to Arizona next year sometime, the more I think about how much I love Fall here. Spring, I can do without, it's gorgeous yes, but my allergies go hay wire, and who wants to see the world through swollen bloodshot eyes in between earth quaking sneezes while simultaneously breathing through ones mouth very loudly...not I. For all that Arizona has (and I LOVE) a gorgeous fall, Phoenix does not brag of. I wish I could have Phoenix weather all year round, with trees like theses...

In other news!

Marker Miller Orchards

I am so behind, I feel like the laziest blogger of all time. No, kidding, this post is on an outing we had over Labor Day Weekend. Guys! That was TWO MONTHS AGO! I really need to step up my blogging game. We'll see...

So! Labor Day Weekend we took a trip out to Marker Miller Orchards in Winchester, Virginia with our good friends Cary and Lauren Ning for some apple picking fun! We took Coco and Indy with us and just had the best time ever. Virginia is so beautiful, and Winchester was the cutest little town! Plus the orchard was puppy friendly! A++ for that place, go there!!
We went with Honeycrisp apples this go around, and we could not have been more happy with the quality of these apples. They were crisp (duh!) and juicy, and tart and sweet, all of it! There was a little shop and bakery there as well and we indulged in the most heavenly apple cider donuts, I don't even like donuts, but these were fan-freakin-tastic!
I really fell in love with this place, the rocking chairs, the wide open skies, the most gorgeous colors everywhere! I would like in this orchard, no joke, and Coco and Indy would make the best orchard dogs ever...they've also taken a liking to apples ever since and sit and stare whenever I eat apples with my breakfast. Don't worry, I'm a good dog mom...I totally share with them every time.

A Good End to a Great Summer

I'm finally almost caught up to the end of our summer vacation! After our trip to Jackson and Yellowstone time sped up and everything happened much too quickly. After two months we were definitely missing our home and were excited to get back, but also hadn't gotten to see or do nearly everything there is to see (people included) and do. I guess that just gives us something to look forward to for when we actually move back someday! Now, the rest of our summer, in photos.

When we got back from Wyoming, Taylor built this gorgeous crow's nest tree house in his parent's front yard for all the grandkids to decorate and play in. Our friend Billy Thompson helped and they knocked it out in a few days working hard all day (which, mind you, were all 110 degree days, so....yeah, we're lucky no one died of heat stroke). It turned out just perfect, pretty sure it will be well used.

Yellowstone National Park

I don't have many words to go along with this post. All I can say is that Yellowstone is the 

most beautiful place and I would literally live in a tent for all of my days if it meant I could 

stay there forever. I can't wait to go back again and again, and maybe some day find

someone who is willing to go backpacking there with me?? (Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?) 

*also, no filters or edits

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

I honestly believe that every single photo of our time in Jackson Hole, Wyoming deserves it's own post. If you haven't been there, you seriously need to get there, like tomorrow, I'm not joking, your life is not complete until you experience Jackson Hole. You still think I'm joking don't you, I'm really really not. While you're there, go check out Yellowstone National Park, you've probably never heard of it, it's only the most impressive National Park known to man, no biggie. While you're there, take some photos, cause it's amaaahhhhhzing. Also, just for reference, all of my Yellowstone photos have absolutely zero filters, no foolin', not a one. I was pretty impressed with myself, no lie.

Pre-Jackson Hole

I've decided to break up our summer into distinct time periods, for blogging purposes of course. Of course, because I keep track of time by how many months it's been since I've been in Wyoming, there would be no better way than to divide out summer as such. Pre and Post Jackson, of course when we get to Lake Powell, it cancels out the whole keeping time on Jackson thing, and we start all over again. You pickin' up what I'm puttin' down?

Our original intentions were to be in Phoenix for only a few weeks at most, but all that went down the drain and we thought, hey, Kelcie is independently contracted, Taylor's Internship/Fellowship can be done online, and what, we're just going to drive 2,400 miles back to DC and then try and figure out how to get back to Arizona for the 20 something-th annual Robinson-Daniels Lake Powell Extravaganza!?! So we stayed, for two months...that's about 7 weeks longer than intended, no biggie!  And so, pre-jackson, in photos.

The Owen's were in town and Taylor got the jeep up and running so they could take a night drive in Cari's old high school car! We love them so much and had so much fun playing with them in Phoenix!

For Gracie's birthday, Grammy got her Taylor Swift tickets to see the Red Tour! She let me tag along!

The Owen Family before Taylor came on stage

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Let me tell you, Taylor Swift is AMAZING live! No kidding, I liked her before just fine, but now...oh man, now I'm pretty sure she's my favorite. She is classy, fun, creative, and extremely talented! Plus, she had an amazing line up! 

In case I haven't told you, Coco hates cars, with a fiery passion. Her and Indy stuck to that corner for the whole two mile drive, mind you we were crawling! Oh, and this was after she jumped out! I wish I had a video of that one, pretty impressive stunt Coco, and my my, you sure are a quick one!

Speaking of puppy love! If there was ever a moment anyone wondered where Hank had gone off to, all you had to do was open the garage door! He could NOT get enough snuggles from Marco and Polo, be still my heart!

Because I'm not sure I've ever in my life seen anything more adorable, I'm going to post about every photo of this cuddle fest that I got, bear with me!

But really, can you even be mad at me?!?

I mean, the hand (paw?) holding, come. on.

Indiana Jones with his sharp new haircut. I'm diggin' your style, Doctor Jones.

Being that handsome all the time is pretty exhausting...

Arizona hikes are always my favorite! 

I went hiking with my friend Kylie, from my single days, up at Tonto Natural Bridge, it was a nice hot day, but we had lots of fun!

I get a lot of comments about Arizona and how I must be so glad to be in D.C. because the East is so beautiful, and Arizona is just a big desert. Well, let me tell you East Coasterners (??), personally, I'll take Arizona's blue skies and miles of cactus any day over the humidity and the constant overcast weather.

I also got a lot of gym time in over the summer. Because, honestly, it's 120 degrees outside, even at night time, who wants to even shower and get dressed? Just do two-a-days and stay in airy gym clothes all day long.

Of, if you aren't the gym type, just go to the lake! Duh.

Glass for days

Back to puppies for one hot minute...Coco took a liking to the underside of our bed in the guest house in Phoenix. 

And then this happened. Puppy dog tails. Lovers

Puppies>Kitties! So, I'm HIGHLY allergic to cats, but for some reason this guy doesn't make me itch like all the rest. And so, I confess that I love him. I love you Marty, you wild thing, you.