East Coast Tour {H Travels}

I am working part-time these days and as part of my job I travel occasionally. Luckily for me, H has a grandma that also enjoys doubling as nanny.

Hanging out in the hotel room.

 

Working girl. Diaper bag doubled as work bag.

NJ is beautiful, isn't it? Who knew.

Since we headed out there the week before Mothers Day, I thought what a better Mothers Day gift than to spend the afternoon in one of our favorite cities? We hopped on the train from EWR and headed into NYC. We spent the afternoon walking through the West Village, eating amazing food and shopping. Hello, amazing. H was a champ through it all and by evening we were headed into NJ.

Park in West Village.

Mom's favorite tree- the dogwood.

Lunch at La Esquina- so delicious.

Running into old friends -- Emily and Hudson are New Yorkers!

Hunter's entertainment while Gma shopped.

Hanging out.

Being a working mom is hard, but I am grateful for my job and the opportunities it gives me. After a few days of work-- we drove south to DC to pick up my Grandma's from the airport. What a treat to get to spend time with both of my Grandma's!! They are lovely, wonderful women-- we laughed, played and enjoyed the time together.

H was a champ in the car for a LONG day.

GGma and Hunter!

Gma Barbara and Hunter

The final icing on the cake was getting to see Marc graduate! I am so proud of him for going back to school and working so hard in school. 2 years down and 2 to go-- and I can't wait to see him graduate from UVA next! I love their cute family.

Gmas and Hunter and I.

Cousins. So. Stinkin. Cute.

Love love love these women and girls.

The whole gang!

Aunt Tarin loves baby Hunter!

We got up Saturday morning super early to fly back to Chicago and reunite with Ryan. It was a welcome reunion and we were so happy to be home!

Spring in Chicago {my favorite}

Spring in Chicago is my favorite. The rebirth of the city from winter is so beautiful and majestic in a subtle way that only us locals can recognize.

We went on a family walk one Sunday afternoon to admire the city in its spring glory -- here's a few photos from our excursion.

As excited as I am for summer, I'm sad spring was so short this year. Its the best!

Art Institute of Chicago

The Magnificent Mile

My handsome little devil

Family photo!

Beautiful flowers

love.

Blossoms and flowers.

Costa Rica {More Photos}

In an effort to blog this vacation, here are a few highlight photos from Manuel Antonio and then our 2nd Destination, Arenal:

the fog had rolled in and I thought the beach was beautiful.

Our morning hike in the National Park.

We found dozens of monkeys wanting to play with us.

Beautiful beach.

Hunter was a great travel buddy but he did have his moments... like this one. When all I wanted was to drink a pina colada overlooking the ocean (is that too much to ask?) It's OK - we still had a good time :)

Onto the mountains and Arenal! We took a 5 hour drive up to the mountains and drove through the central valley. Surprisingly, it reminded me of driving through my home state of California -- through the desert and farmlands. All of a sudden we were in the mountains and had the most beautiful view of Lake Arenal. What ensued was one of the coolest drives we have ever been on. 

Anyone from Central California agree this could be Ca?

Getting some fresh air after a long drive.

Sadly, the only exotic bird we saw was one owned by someone....

Dinner with a view.

After a morning at Tabacon (all of those pictures on Ryans phone...I need to upload) we headed to the National Park for some hiking and went on our first suspension bridge.

Beautiful waterfall surrounded by lush green vegetation.

The next day we got up early to hike to this much larger waterfall -- 230 feet.

And then we hiked to this volcano lookout spot.

Family photo in front of the volcano.

It's very rare to see the top of the volcano -- its always covered in the clouds!

The other view was of Lake Arenal -- so beautiful.

Other highlights from the trip were the amazing Costa Rican food we ate, relaxing by the pool, morning breakfasts alfreso, and my ultimate luxury-- outdoor facials and massage!! It was an amazing vacation and a place I would love to go back to!

Costa Rica {A Family Vacation}

When you live in the midwest, you learn to keep your sanity by planning a warm weather vacation in the middle of winter; which is really the beginning of spring everywhere else in the country. This year, we decided we would go on our first family vacation. We chose Costa Rica for a few reasons:

1. It is warm
2. It is exotic
3. It's far away, but not too far away
4. It appeared to be a great balance of relaxed vacation and adventure vacation
5. It looked beautiful

Thankfully, it lived up to our expectations. We absolutely loved it and loved having Hunter there with us to experience it all. It was such a special time to get to spend a week uninterrupted with our little family and explore a new part of the world. We got to unplug and really get a break and let go. It was so so fun and we can't wait to do it again some day.

First things first, we found the Temple (ok, this was a tender mercy -- as Costa Rica doesn't believe in street names and addresses, we were lucky enough to 'stumble' upon it after getting our rental car).

After getting out of San Jose, we begun a 1.5 hour drive to our first destination -- Jaco, a dirty little beach town. Our hotel was up on a hill with gorgeous views of the mountains and the coastline. We made it there just in time for sunset and were so hot we had to jump in the pool immediately.

I took a lot of pictures so hopefully I get around to blogging the whole trip -- but here's a few from our first stop in Manuel Antonio in case I don't finish:

Our version of church!

Pool time!

Love this face.

Happy Baby! Outfit courtesy of Sprout :)

Love our cute little family!

H was snoozin so we got a rare photo of just Ryan and I.

Happy Happy Baby!