My Best Friend's Wedding!

Hello & happy Thursday!  It has been a quick week and I am not complaining because on Saturday, we are headed to the BEACH!  Woohoo!  This past weekend was amazing - my best friend (since birth!) got married and it was a beautiful day!

And on Sunday, we headed down to Open Streets Pittsburgh again and had a blast walking and biking around - and making s'mores on the sidewalk, ha!

Time to go pack for the beach!
See ya after vacation - cheers!*

Fire Trucks, Biking, and a Birthday Party

Adventures with my little fam are the best :)

 Trax Farm

 "Touch a Truck" event

Eli loved it!  (minus all the loud sirens and horns)

Biking downtown and playing in all the spalsh pads!

(and then visiting my sister's arts fest)

My niece, Pari Joon's 2nd birthday party!

Here's to another fun weekend on the horizon - Brett's birthday weekend!

Cheers!*

My Sister, the Starbucks Designer

Happy Friday!!*
And it is a very happy Friday indeed!!!

For so many great reasons!!!

One of those reasons is some great news about my little sister.  A few months ago, Starbucks started a design competition called the White Cup Contest.  The contest encouraged artists to take their own designs and transform them onto Starbucks famous white cups.  When I first saw the contest announcement, I immediately told my little sister Brita about it.  She is an amazing artist and I knew this would be perfect for her.

Well, a few months and over 4,000 entries later... Starbucks has picked their winner.  And it is my SISTER!!  Check out the amazing article Starbucks wrote about her:  "Starbucks Announces the Winner of its White Cup Contest".  As the winner, Brita's winning design will be used for a limited edition Starbucks reusable cup to be sold in Starbucks' store!!  How amazing!  I truly could not be more proud and excited for her.  She deserves this times a million.

Congrats Brita!

This is only the beginning... :)

Oh and PS - I helped her set up an Etsy shop

so she can finally start selling her amazing work.

Please check it out!! -->  Designs By BLynn

{Above photo is Brita's winning design}

Reason #322 Why My Mom is the Best

Her goodie boxes!

Living across the country from your whole family is hard.  But my mom really knows how to make us feel loved even from 2,500 miles away.  Look at all these goodies she sent us for Halloween!  Homemade cookies and chocolates, festive decor (since she knows we didn't bring any with us), cutesy owls, and a sweet little card.  Thanks mom!  You are the best!*

Mom & Dad Visit Southern California!

Well, we dropped my parents off at the airport on Sunday morning.  Womp womp.  We had the BEST time with them visiting this past week.  Our time together flew by way too fast and I miss them already.  We had such a good time showing them around California and definitely did a ton of FUN stuff!

While my parents were here, we...

 Walked along the beach at Crystal Cove in Laguna

Checked out Downtown Disney & the awesome Lego store

 Took the walk with Hanson =)

Went to the Hanson concert at House of Blues Anaheim!
(Dad & Brett did not partake in this part...haha)

Checked out the Griffith Observatory and awesome views

 Saw the Hollywood sign

Introduced Mom & Dad to the amazing In-N-Out

Walked down Hollywood Blvd
(My Mom's nickname is "Fred" haha)

And my Dad got interviewed for Jimmy Kimmel Live!
(and he was ON that night!)

Took another walk with Hanson on Sunset Blvd =)

Made some delicious homemade pizza

Went biking along the beach

Took them to the Top of the World!

Went to Downtown Disney again for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe

Explored Tablerock Beach

And walked along Thousand Steps Beach

Found the Elephant Parade at Dana Point

Witnessed a beautiful San Clemente sunset

And hung out on the pier before dinner at Fisherman's Wharf for their last night

We had such an amazing time together.  Seeing my parents made us miss home even more.  We can't wait until we can get back to Pittsburgh and see everyone!  What a wonderful week we had together.

Counting down the days until we can see them again!

Today is a very great day!

...because I get to see these people!

That's right!  My Mom & Dad are coming to visit us in California!  They land at LAX this evening and then we get to spend the next 5 glorious days together.  I can't wait to show them around and take them to all our favorite spots!

Hooray!!*

Adventures with Lee & Jess

Well, our house guests have officially left as of 4am this morning.  We had so much fun having Lee & Jess here visiting.  We took them to all our favorite spots and but also had just as much fun hanging at our apartment playing endless rounds of Cards Against Humanity.

Along with taking them to Stone Brewing Company, hiking along the coast, and teaching Lee how to surf, we also...

...introduced them to our favorite beach town: San Clemente...

...gave them their first awesome Pizza Port experience...

 ...and took them to various other breweries that we love, including the Bruery...

 It was sooo nice having family here and being able to hang out with some of our favorite people.  We always have the best time together!

Lee and Jess, we miss you already!

Hope your flights go smoothly today and you get home safe!

Come back and visit again soon! :)

Tis the Season!

Tomorrow is the last day of 2011.  Um, whoa.  When did that happen?

Anyway, we had a great Christmas.  Lots of parties, lots of family & friends, lots of food comas, and lots of running around.  On the 23rd, Brett and I hosted a family Christmas party at our new house for my side of the family.  We jam-packed about 20 people into our house to celebrate the holiday.  I'd say it was a success!  We were so busy entertaining that I forgot to take any photos.  Except for this one...

That's the veggie Christmas wreath I made!  I'm very proud of it... I felt very 'Martha Stewart'.

On Christmas Eve, we spent the day hanging out at my parent's house.  We played games, had a great dinner, and relaxed.  Oh, we also put together about 50 luminary candle bags for the front of their house.  Pretty outcome!

When we got home that night, Brett and I exchanged our gifts!  We always exchange gifts with each other on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas day because we have too many people to see and too many places to go on actual Christmas day.  Exchanging on Christmas Eve lets us relax and spend some time alone together.  We went easy on the gift giving for each other this year since we just bought our house (along with a brand new washer/dryer and dishwasher...).  Here's Brett's gifts all wrapped up by the tree!

    

The meaning behind all the "this" tags is because there was a common theme for all his gifts.  I got him a bunch of mountain biking accessories like biking socks and sweatbands and also a bottle of Stone Brewery's Arrogant Bastard beer.  And then the big box was a Stone Brewery mountain biking jersey that he had been eying up when we went to the brewery in California in September.  See the connection??  I know, I'm clever.  If there's two things my husband loves (besides ME of course!), it's beer and mountain biking.  So I think he enjoyed these gifts.  Right, BABE?!

We also watched "Elf" on Christmas Eve after exchanging gifts.  But we only made it about 15 minutes into the movie before we both passed out on the couch...

Christmas morning was spent at my parent's house with my parents and siblings (and Riley).  I always love how my Mom decorates their house.  It's so Christmasy!  The stockings have been growing in number over the last couple years... and I like it that way!

We got Lee & Jess headlamps for Christmas and they LOVE them!  And Yes, their dog Riley is wearing his Christmas sweater.

After spending Christmas morning with my family, we headed up to Erie to spend some time with Brett's family.  With two little nephews in the mix, it makes Christmas time and opening gifts so much more fun.  Everything excites them.  I didn't take many photos while there, but I snap these two of little Andrew.  Is he not the cutest thing ever?!

  

Cue heart melting... NOW.  I love this picture of Brett and Andrew.  So cute!  We stayed in Erie until Tuesday, then headed back to Pittsburgh because I had to work Wednesday through Friday... Boooo.  We also got to see Alan (Brett's Best Man from our wedding) for a brief couple hours Tuesday night when we got home, which was a pleasant surprise.  

And this is what's getting me through these couple days of work (while it seems like everyone else has the whole week off!)...

Tomorrow we are heading down to Lee & Jess's to spend New Years Eve at a huge party downtown in DC with Third Eye Blind and 5,000 of my closest friends!  I can't wait!!  Recap to follow...

Happy New Year!!*