New York Botanical Garden.

Blame it on the long winter, but I'm obsessed with spring this year. I cannot get enough of the blooming trees and flowers planted all around the city. My phone keeps warning me that it's running out of storage because I've filled it with hundreds of flower photos over the last few weeks. Christine and I made it our personal mission to see ALL OF THE BLOOMS so we were perfectly overwhelmed when we visited the New York Botanical Garden a few weeks ago. It was the nicest day of the year so far - 80 degrees with not a cloud in the sky! We brought out our pale skin (mostly me) and spring dresses and had such a happy day frolicking in New York's biggest botanical garden.

Newport, Rhode Island.

Aaron so sweetly surprised me with a Valentine's Day getaway to Newport, RI this year - the funny thing is, I'm so bad at letting the guy surprise me that somehow I got it out of him way before he had planned to tell me. Oops :)

He booked the trip right before we decided to move and once the weekend finally came around it felt like terrible timing to leave the city - so much so that we even tried to cancel since we knew we'd want to spend money on new things for our home and not a vacation. As luck would have it, the hotel booking was non-refundable so we made the trip and are so glad for it! After a stressful few weeks thinking about our upcoming move it was just what we needed to get out of the city and just be together. I highly recommend the gorgeous Castle Hill Inn where we stayed. We had a cozy oceanfront cottage, they served afternoon tea everyday, and all of the meals we ate there were amazing. It's a quick 3 hour drive from the city and I'm already looking forward to going back sometime!

"Blizzard" of 2015!

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of snow. Growing up, I lived for snow days and playing outside. We had a huge sledding hill behind our house, and I was convinced my parents chose our house because of the prime sledding ;) I've continued to love it into my adulthood, and last year during the first snow of the year Aaron and I had one of the most memorable nights in the city. We were practically alone in Central Park and we definitely put the "frolic" into Eat Sleep Frolic. Winter in New York can be pretty rough, so when all is momentarily calm and covered in white, it can give the city a new life during some of the bleaker months. I was quite excited at the prospect of winter storm Juno, and although it wasn't as monumental as expected, the snowy beauty did not disappoint. It may be because I don't have to shovel a thing, but I say keep the snowing coming!

Tuscany.

Aaron reminded me the other day that I hadn't yet posted about our final stop on our European adventure last spring… Tuscany! It was the most relaxing part of the trip and a wonderful way to round out all the adventures we'd had the days before. We stayed 3 nights in a picture-perfect bed and breakfast located near the hill-top town of Montepulciano. The place looked like it had been taken straight out of an Anthropologie catalog, and it provided the ideal setting for drinking local wine while reading and watching the baby chicks! Not only was the setting beautiful, but the hosts were so kind. Thanks to their great recommendations, we ate some of the best meals of our life and I discovered my new favorite pasta dish - cacio e pepe! Its basically a grown up version of macaroni and cheese. SO GOOD. We brought back some pasta and I've created it a few times since being home. Obviously not nearly as good, but it does the job!