Life Lately: A Wedding Extravaganza East Coast Trip

Hi there!

Long time no talk. I have been crazy busy lately! An anniversary, 2 weddings, a bachelorette party & visiting family on the east coast have all taken place… and today I thought I’d back it up a few weeks to share with you guys just what I’ve been up to!

At the beginning of the month, my hubby and I celebrated 7 years of marriage! I was traveling to the east coast two days later, so we elected to celebrate lucky #7 locally.

First up, we went to a San Diego Chargers game. They played the Saints and the game was so much fun….until the Chargers totally blew their 13-point lead in the last 4 minutes and lost the game. Whomp whomp. 

Let’s just say that there were many die-hard fans that were not too pleased after the game. Even we were bummed out about it, and we are both really fans of other teams (the Giants for me, the Eagles for him).

After the game, we headed down to Coronado to have dinner at Il Fornaio. It’s an Italian restaurant I’ve mentioned on the blog before that offers great views of downtown San Diego. It was a gorgeous day, so we sat outside to enjoy our meal.

 {Pasta pomodoro for me for dinner}

{And gelato + a boozy coffee to split for dessert}

It was such a fun day together! I especially appreciated it since I knew we’d be apart for a few weeks, and since A has been so insanely busy with work & school lately.

A few days later, I headed cross country to NJ. Even though I was just in my home state of NJ over the summer, this east coast trip came up when I found out that two of my friends were getting married in the same weekend. One of my close friends works for JetBlue and was able to hook me up with free flights, which was awesome!

It was actually the first time I’ve ever flown JetBlue (they don’t fly a lot of routes that I do… yet!) and I absolutely loved them. Free wi-fi, free TV, free snacks, enough space to sit so that I don’t feel completely claustrophobic… it’s the little complimentary things that make me a happy traveler! I was able to work the entire flight out with easy wi-fi access, and the 6-hour flights flew by (pun intended!) both ways.

The first wedding was for the friend that I’ve had the longest in the world. Ashley and I started cheerleading together at age 7 and were carpooling buddies our senior year of high school, and now as adults, we keep in touch & meet up whenever I’m in the area. She looked so happy and stunning at her wedding!

Sans my hubby, my friend Danielle was my date for the night. It was fun to get to catch up with her the whole night and crash at a hotel together!

The following day, I went bridesmaid dress shopping with my soon-to-be sister-in-law, and the day after that, I attended the wedding of one of my college roommates, Marla. It was quite a wedding extravaganza weekend!

I went to the wedding with my best friend Meaghan (who the bride and I lived with) and her hubby, and our other college roommate was in attendance too, who I haven’t seen since we graduated, so it was quite a reunion! Marla’s wedding had beautiful views of NYC, including the always stunning city skyline, along with a view of Lady Liberty herself.

Besides wedding fun, I stayed at my parents’ house and got to spend some time with my family. There were a couple nights spent relaxing with my parents over nice bottles of wine… 

….and I had time to do a lot of cooking for my loved ones. Some of my favorite meals included: black bean sweet potato soup, recipe a la Cook Nourish Bliss…

…pumpkin beer pretzels, which didn’t rise properly and got a bit burnt, but still wound up being tasty…

…broccoli red pepper twice stuffed potatoes (similar to this recipe):

…and pumpkin almond butter chocolate cups, recipe via Nutrition Nut on the Run.

I also whipped up a bunch of things for an essential oils party that my mom threw one night. My mom has gotten really into using essential oils lately, and while I’ve used tea tree oil for years, I don’t regularly use other essential oils. Being a holistic health coach and someone who always likes trying out holistic remedies, it was interesting to learn more about them. I wound up ordering a whole kit, so I’m sure I’ll talk more about them once I get to use them a lot more! But back to the food…

For the party I whipped up the above Mediterranean feta hummus dip, which was a hit.

I also made chocolate chip pumpkin cookies, chocolate PB energy balls (similar to this recipe), and pumpkin apple banana muffins.

As I do nearly every time I’m in NJ, I couldn’t resist picking up food from my favorite Chinese food joint ever, Veggie Heaven. All of their food is vegan and so delicious!

The second weekend I was in Jersey, I headed down to Atlantic City for my last wedding-related activity of the trip: my friend Maria’s bachelorette party.

I haven’t been to Atlantic City in many years, and while it’s not really my favorite scene, the group of us ladies had a blast together. We went to an indoor pool bar and danced the night away.

I was excited to be in Jersey in October, because weather-wise it’s a great month there. The temperatures are typically cool and breezy, but not cold. The leaves are vibrant and colorful. It’s ballet-flat, a light sweater & scarf kind of weather.

I took advantage of the weather by taking my parents’ and sisters’ dogs for lots of walks around the neighborhood.

I worked normal work weeks while I was on the east coast, so I got to spend a lot of time with these two.

Can you tell that they’re spoiled? 

I loved getting to hang with my family’s cuddly pitbulls, but it also made me thankful for my pup – who is much less of a handful. I missed my pup and am happy to be home with her now!

I arrived back in San Diego last night and am recovering from lots of busyness and fun – and I’m a tad under the weather because so many people that I’ve been around have colds. I’ve been fighting it with lots of tea, Vitamin C, and essential oils… so I’m hoping that I can kick it quickly. Wish me luck!

And on that note, I’m off to grab some food to stock my empty fridge a bit. Wishing you a great week!

Tell me… When was the last wedding you attended? Do you use essential oils at all? Best meal you’ve had lately?