NYC and crazy snow! And Black Panther.

Wow, the weekends have been sooo busy!!  Super fun, but busy.  Two weekends ago (Feb 17-18) I went into NYC with Kevin's mom, aunt, and sisters for a little daytrip.  We caught a morning train and were in NYC in time for a nice brunch!  The restaurant where we ate brunch (Lillie's) was AMAZING, and so darn cute.  One of the items on their drink menu sounded a little scary (see below!) - I did NOT have one, don't worry!! 

Here's the restaurant!  Our seat was way in the back by that awesome window. 

Here's the awesome window!  Such a cool restaurant. 

I can't for the life of me get this picture to rotate... I'm sorry!  But that drink is called "Death In The Afternoon" and it has sparkling wine and Absinthe.  Noooo thank you.  

Here's Kevin's sister Mook and her Bloody Mary!  

After brunch, we walked just down the street to see the broadway show Waitress!  McGee's mom knows someone who works for Broadway, and he gave us the MAJOR hookup on some amazing seats.  We were maybe 10 rows back from the stage!!  It was crazy.  I've seen the Waitress movie a bunch of times and I love it, so I already knew the plot, but I was sooo curious about how they would turn it into a musical!  They did a really great job, and it was such an amazing show.  After the show was over we started walking back towards the train station to head home, because we wanted to get home as soon as possible since some bad snowy weather was supposed to be hitting soon!  Our walk started out great, but after a few blocks it was starting to snow pretty hard!!  We got to the train station and were able to jump right on a train!!  It was amazing timing.  

You aren't allowed to take pictures during a Broadway show of course, but I took this right when we sat down so that you could see how close we were to the stage!  Isn't that pie backdrop cute??  

Here's the group of us!  Me, Mo, Kevin's aunt, Kevin's cousin, Mook, and Kevin's mom! 

Here's Mo (on the left), Kevin's Mom (dark coat in the middle), and Mook (right) walking back to the train after the show!  The snow was starting to hurt our faces it was coming down so hard!  

Mook didn't have a hat or hood!  We were totally making fun of her and kept singing "Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match!" 

 

Madison Square Garden!  You can kinda see how hard the snow was coming down. The ground was too warm for it to stick at this point though. 

The train got us back to Trenton NJ at about 6pm, and that's where Kevin was waiting to drive me and Mo (Kevin's sister) back to our house!  Everyone else was going to Kevin's parents' house, but we wanted to get home as soon as possible because it was snowing HARD and it wasn't supposed to stop for the rest of the night!!  That drive home was SCARY, but MY GOODNESS was Kevin amazing!!  He was driving so carefully, and there was NO visibility whatsoever (one inch of snow was falling per hour!)  It was pretty scary.  But the highway traffic was down to one lane, and everyone was behaving themselves and going super duper slow.  So, the drive took a really long time (and we all needed a drink by the time we got home!!), but we were relieved to be home.  Mo was spending the night, because the next morning we were going to see Black Panther!!  By Sunday morning the snow had stopped and the roads were totally fine (all of the snow was melting, actually), so we were able to easily get to the movie theater!  Black Panther was absolutely AMAZING.  We all loved it. 

I also snapped a few pictures of Guinness playing in the snow on Sunday!!  He loooooves the snow so much.

That's about it for that weekend!  I'll do a separate post for this past weekend. It was another super fun one!! 

The Eagles won!! Valentine's Day!! And The Oscars...

Hey guys!!  So, the Eagles won their first ever Super Bowl!!  How awesome is that?!  It was such a fun game to watch (and slightly stressful... haha), and McGee was SO beyond happy at the end of the game. And McGee made sure to take off work on Thursday and Friday of this last week so that he could go to the Eagles Parade!  He met up with Timmy and Mo in the city, and they had a blast at the parade!!  I had to work that day, but it is CRAZY how many people at my work took the day off!!  I was one of like 4 people there, so I was BUSY.  I have a few pictures from McGee's parade experience!!

Super cool "Philly" skywriting! 

Mo, McGee, and Timmy! 

That's Jason Kelce! He put on one of the Mummers costumes. And his speech was epic if you have time to look that up. 

Valentine's Day is on a Wednesday this year!  Such a bummer.  I love when it's on a weekend, because then we can just chill all day.  We did some of our Valentinesy activities this weekend though!  We went bowling on Sunday, but OH MY GOSH it was crowded!!  It was a super rainy day, so I think that's why... But we bowled two games (I lost both of them... boo...), and then we went home and watched a horror movie!  That's one of our traditions.  We got "It" from Redbox and watched that, and then we made homemade pasta for dinner (another Valentine's tradition for us).  It was a lovely day!! 

The Oscars are coming up soon!!  I loooove watching The Oscars, and I can't really explain why.  It's just been a fun event for as long as I can remember, and it's something I look forward to every year. McGee and I have also been trying to watch the Best Picture nominees for the past 5 years or so (I think we only saw all of them one year though... but most years we see a majority of them!).  Here are this year's Best Picture nominees, and my thoughts on them so far:

1. Call Me By Your Name - I literally know nothing about this movie.  I think there's a kid in it?  That's about all I know.  Haha :)  I haven't even seen a trailer.

2. Darkest Hour - I know this is about Winston Churchill, but that's all I know!  I haven't seen a trailer yet.

3. Dunkirk - McGee and I saw this when it was in theaters, and we loved it!  It's amazing, and the cinematography was incredible. Great movie! 

4. Get Out - Oh my gosh you guys.  We are late to the game on this one, but we just saw this for the first time last week. And... holy shit.  That's all I can say about this one. It was SO GOOD, and it definitely stays with you!!  I am proud to say that I predicted a few of the "twists", but definitely not some of the others. Awesome movie. 

5. Lady Bird - I haven't seen this yet, but I'm soooooo excited to see it.  I've really really really been wanting to see this, and I've had multiple people tell me I'm going to love it. I know it takes place in the Sacramento area, and I know it stars Saoirse Ronan (who I looove... She starred in the movie Brooklyn a few years back), but that's about all I know so far!

6. Phantom Thread - This one seems super boring, and to be honest I don't really have any interest in trying to see this one.  I might try to watch another trailer or two and see if that makes me more interested... but so far nope. I know it stars Daniel Day-Lewis (and he's always amazing), but that's it.

7. The Post - I know this one is about the Washington Post, and I know it stars Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, and it's directed by Spielberg.  So, it's probably awesome, but I haven't really seen any trailers or anything for it!  I'm sure we'll try to see this one though.

8. The Shape of Water - I know this one is by Guillermo del Toro... and that's about it!  I've also heard this one is awesome, but I haven't even seen a trailer for it yet.

9. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - I didn't even know the full name of this one (I thought it was just "Three Billboards"), but I know it stars Frances McDormand and Peter Dinklage... and I know there are three billboards... and that's about it.  I did see a trailer for this one, and it looked funny. I definitely want to see this one.

So, we've seen 2 out of 9!  And I think we only have a few weeks... So I'm hoping we get to 5 out of 9.  We will see what happens!  :)  I hope you're all doing really great, and I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Guinness is 5 years old!! And E-A-G-L-E-S!!!

Happy February, you guys!!  And yesterday was Groundhog Day, which also happens to be the birthday of a certain puppy!!  That's right:  Guinness turned 5 yesterday!! I can't believe our little guy is 5 years old... Where has the time gone?! We celebrated by playing a bunch of frisbee with him when we got home from work (frisbee is his favorite thing ever, and we try to play whenever the yard isn't muddy!), and we MAY have given him a few extra treats yesterday too. We spent our evening chilling on the couch with Guinness, and we watched the movie Groundhog Day!  I love that movie, and Bill Murray is just always amazing.

This weekend is the Super Bowl, and the Philadelphia Eagles are in it!! Wahooooo!!  Goooo Eagles!!  I will definitely be rooting for them, and the excitement in this city is so crazy and infectious. Plus, you all know I really hate the Patriots (and Tom Brady). I hope it's a really awesome game, and I hope the Eagles win!!  We are NOT going to go into the city or anything, because it's going to be total madness whether the Eagles win or lose, so we are going to stay home and make some good food.  We're going to make wings, and then we're also going to make some pulled pork!  We bought an Instant Pot with some gift cards we got for Christmas, but we have been too nervous (and busy) to try it out for the first time!  Tomorrow is going to be the big day where we make our first Instant Pot meal!

Last weekend was a very fun weekend!! On Saturday we went to Valley Forge (like 10 minutes from our house), and went on a long hike with Guinness!  The weather was very Spring-like and great, so we figured we should get outside!!  And on Sunday the weather was kinda crappy (rainy, but not too cold), but we figured that might be perfect to head into the city and go to one of our favorite restaurants for breakfast (Sabrina's Cafe), check out the new Yards Brewery, and go to the Philadelphia Zoo!  We have season passes, so we want to get some use out of them before they expire!  And we figured if it was a little rainy then it wouldn't be crowded. We put on our waterproof pants, waterproof boots, and our rain coats, and OH MY GOSH the zoo was so empty!!  There was no one there, and I think the animals were LOVING the peace and quiet! 

Guinness was very puzzled by the cannons at Valley Forge.

 

There's some cabins over to the right in the pic! 

Sabrina's Cafe!  They always have a themed Brunch Specials list, and last weekend it was Super Bowl themed!  I had the "In Foles We Trust".  But I was also tempted by the "Bleeding Green Chilaquiles". 

Kevin!  We had an awesome window seat, so we could check out all of the cool houses/buildings around the restaurant! 

After brunch we went to the new Yards Brewery in the city!  It's brand new (opened in November), and it's always SO packed but we were there kinda early and I think the rain also kept people away, so it wasn't packed at all! 

The zoo was so fun!!  This tiger was just chilling, and seemed super relaxed. 

But then it noticed us standing there.  Haha.  Less chill and relaxed.  We left shortly after this so it could relax again. 

A pretty red cardinal I saw in just a random tree at the zoo! 

The giraffes were super excited to see us!   

This adorable rhino was just scratching its horn on this big log for a long time.  I love rhinos! 

Then we went to the primate house and watched this baby gorilla for a looong time. She was so playful and active!!  And there were only two other people there, so we could just sit there for as long we wanted!  She was thoroughly entertaining. 

Papa gorilla was mostly napping while we were there, but he woke up for a bit to look around and check on everything.  There were two moms there (and two babies, but the other baby was just napping the whole time).

A picture I took of the city as we were leaving!  Such a fun day in Philly.