Memory 17: The Big Apple

Memory 17: Moving to New York, buying a home, and nesting

The last year of my twenties has been one of great change. We got married in November, took an amazing two week honeymoon to Sydney & Fiji, came to NY to house hunt for a week, packed up our home in San Fran, enjoyed Christmas with family in KY and Naples, found out I was pregnant, moved to New York staying in a hotel for the first month until closing on our house, closed on our house, published a book, and set to nesting before Adelaide's arrival.

That is a lot. A lot of change. All at one time. For one person. For one couple.

It has been a booming way to spend my 29th year. Really it has. I can't think of a better way to have spent it honestly. My heart is incredibly full with much joy and love. But mostly with peace. I have developed an inner peace. A more laid back approach to life (despite what my mom and husband might say). Mature in the ways I want to be and a kid in others. More self-confident, more assured of who I am.

I have grown so much in my 29th year and I cannot wait to keep the momentum going into my thirties.

Cheers to 2012!

2012 was beyond good to me. In January, we moved from San Francisco to New York. In February, we closed on our house in Ossining. I spent March in Miami working the Sony Ericsson Open in a new roll which I loved and landed a roll with the New Haven Open but capped off by Kentucky taking home a National Championship! April brought an ADPi reunion at Keeneland with a stop at the World Famous Two Keys Tavern. May provided lots of family time with Oaks, Taylor's graduation, and my baby shower. June was mommy & me time while my mom came up to NY for a week.

July marked the final house projects thanks to the Thompsons and the Collins Family Olympics. August was a big month as 25 Before 25 was published AND Ms. Adelaide Jane was born. September highlighted new parenthood as well as the US Open and the EATF luncheon.

October was bittersweet as we honored my papa in the Bluegrass 1000. November brought our first year anniversary plus hosting Thanksgiving in the city. December rounded out the year with an amazing Christmas including the birth of Ms. Cooper McLane and a relaxing getaway to my parents' house in Naples.

Wow! What a year! I'm looking forward to what 2013 has in store...

December Date: Ice Skating at Bryant Park & Strolling Around Times Square

Recall my anniversary gift to Ryan...

 

Behold date #2 also known as December date aka Ice Skating at Bryant Park

 

 

Saturday, after our mini-Christmas celebration, we headed into New York City. The rink was packed due to the *warm* weather (55 degrees) which made for excellent people watching as well as padding for any falls on the ice. Don't worry, I didn't fall. We enjoyed hot apple cider as we walked through the vendor booths. And even purchased our traditional holiday ornament: choosing a Radio City Music Hall Rockettes one to commemorate our anniversary evening.

 

We also strolled around Times Square taking in all of the festive lights, window displays, and scenery. We dined at 5 Napkin Burger and enjoyed an adult beverage.

 

Making for one tired munchkin...

 

 

Whitney & Ryan: Surviving the First Year

Today we celebrate one year of marriage. To say its been a whirlwind would be an understatement. I don't know many people who manage to get married, take a fabulous international honeymoon, move across the country, buy a new car, buy a house, and a have a baby all in 365 days...much less successfully without killing one another :)

In sticking with tradition, I wanted to give Ryan a *paper* gift and I wanted it to be meaningful & not cheesy. I examined our favorite things coming up with one common theme: exploring. We love to try new things especially in our local community. So with my creative imagination and a little help from Pinterest, I came up with 12 dates (one per month for the next year) that have us exploring New York.

**I would also like to note that the modern gift is clock so I figured these dates give us time together. And coincidentally, one of the symbols of the first anniversary is the gem peridot which happens to be Ms. Adelaide's birthstone. I thought that was pretty nifty**

I created different dates according to the month & any accompanying holiday while making sure that we had not been to or experienced the date activities. Each date involves some type of dining whether it be brunch, dinner, cocktails, or dessert. Preceded or followed by a fun activity. The idea is to continue growing & exploring with one another all year long.

For the presentation, I crafted up 12 manilla envelopes with scrapbook stickers and printed card stock. Inside each envelope is a description of the date along with directions, tickets, menus, etc that pertain to that specific date.

As the year goes on, I plan to create a scrapbook page for each date so we can look back and remember the wonderful times we had during our 2nd year of marriage :) Of course I will be blogging about them too!

So for our first date of our 2nd year as husband & wife, we are heading up to Robibero Family Vineyards to enjoy a little wine tasting followed by lunch at The Gilded Otter. I thought in honor of our wine country wedding that it was only fitting to *pretend* to be back in Solvang at Lincourt. Cheers! Can't wait to share the deets with you :)

It has certainly been a year to remember and one that I will always cherish close to my heart. And I look forward to many, many more years of love & marriage!

New Haven Open at Yale

I started working professional tennis tournaments 7 years ago. Oddly enough, when I ventured to Miami for grad school in 2005, while my major was Sport Admin, a career in tennis never crossed my mind (despite being such a huge part of my life). Enter divine intervention and common sense and I had my first gig with the NASDAQ-100.

IMG Tennis led me to the William Sisters Tour, Advanta Championships, Bank of the West Classic, & now the New Haven Open. Everywhere I've lived, I have been fortunate enough to find a tennis tournament to be a part of. And I adore them. All of them.

The NHO held at the prestigious Yale kicked off Friday with qualifying as well as the US Open Playoff Series on our outer courts. Perfect weather was ordered for the weekend and it operated for the most part aside from a few morning showers on Saturday. By Sunday, the crowds were hopping in part thanks to Aetna's Kids Day and the beginning of main draw tennis. Lined with vendor booths including Green Mountain Coffee (handing out delicious ice coffee samples), Molton Brown & their beautified products, and Lexus' car display with ping pong challenges as well as delicious treats of Crepes, crab cakes, and Ben & Jerry's frosty treats, the weekend proved to be a huge success. Oh plus world class tennis from 5 of the Top 10 WTA players!

I'm looking forward to a full-week of more tennis, entertainment, and fun on & off the courts! If you live in the CT/NY area, be sure to stop by for a day or night of excitement!

working 9 to 5 at 38 weeks

Laura Robson and the kids doing the draw

staying at the New Haven Lawn Club

Home Makeover: Before and After (Take Four)

You probably recall takes one, two, and three from the previous months. We have been working diligently on getting the house ready for Baby T as well as hosting our families in November for Thanksgiving. *Yep* that's right we will be housing 14 people in our 4-bedroom just months after I give birth and we adjust to being parents. Call me crazy, go ahead.

We continue to chip away at our list, pre baby and pre turkey day as often as we can, but it always helps when we have helpers. Insert Nana & Pops who flew up for 10 days of work (and some play: here and here).

The main areas of focus this trip included finishing the purple room, the upstairs foyer, the main basement, and landscape clean up. A rare treat, Ryan was able to help 4 days thanks to the mid-week holiday which makes the work go by much faster. Two hands are always better than one!

The boys get the major projects (i.e. painting, drilling, power washing) while the girls get the fun stuff (i.e. baby assembly, crafts, party prep).

Without further adieu, here is what we accomplished...

Upstairs Foyer:


      Before

      After

*missing Ryan's portrait that should be here next week!

Goodbye wallpaper, hello paint! We liked the yellow (and since the blue is on the lower level) so much that we decided to stick with it. Adding a mirror and corner nook to spice it up. We added the wedding canvases up the stairs: one of bride, one of groom (to go on right side), and one of the happy couple! Once the baby comes, we plan to add 3 canvases of him/her up the other stairway.

Purple Room:


     Before

     After

No more kiddie border or lime green :) This is the perfect guest room for girlfriends with all of the little purple touches. 

Basement:

     Before

     After

Toodles to the orange & green. Love me some "U" but not enough to have our basement painted those school colors. We chose neutral colors with a darker brown for the playhouse to make it an accent. The theme is "travel" so I whipped up a little Pinetrest craft with the map on a canvas idea along the stairwell. We also have some art work that needs to be hung to strengthen our theme.

Weekend Treats: NY Style Edition

Despite the weekend starting off with a few Friday the 13th hiccups (i.e. our wedding shadow box being shattered and the foyer mirror scrapping the paint and busting the dry wall all ending with me in tears), it turned out to be productive yet relaxing.

Saturday Winston came up from the city to play handyman. He assembled our new modern piece for the dining room then helped Ryan hang several pieces of art work and some mirrors. His help cut about 3 hours off of the project time which made us forever grateful.

banker/trainer by day...handymen by night

power over the mirror finally!

newly framed keepsakes hung

Paris is so vintage...but we'll be painting the frame mahogany 

Then Win & Ryan played chef whipping up some homemade burgers, corn on the cob, sweet potato fries, and cookie ice cream dessert. We had a full blown burger bar with topping choices of lettuce, tomato, bacon, guacamole, and thousand island dressing. Plus the usual fixins' like ketchup, mustard, and mayo. Delicious!

burger bar

time to feast

Sunday we headed to the 10am church service on a blue sky kinda day. Followed by brunch at The Patio in the down of Briarcliff. The food was amazing and the service was killer. A quick in & out breakfast followed by a flavored coffee to go from Moonbean Cafe next door.

omelet extraordinary

egg & bacon sandwich roll

We headed our separate ways as I played in the finals of my tennis tournament while Ryan mountain biked through our backyard. Figuratively not literally. Although I lost, I loved playing in the tournament and held my head high that I even reached the finals with a few wins along the way. And I was reminded that I am not 18 and playing rather I am 29 plus 5 months preggo. Still competitive and fierce as ever though.

a little history

I came home to Ryan still in his bike gear gleaming after a wild ride. Our neighborhood is the mecca for the great outdoors, and I am glad he is getting to explore. He is like a caged animal during the week who definitely needs release on the weekends!

"our backyard"

All in all, a fairly laid back but extremely fulfilling weekend in Westchester County. The countdown continues until baby T arrives as does the progress we are making on getting all nestled in.

How was your weekend?!