January Recap: Birthdays, Work & Visitors

January was full of birthday celebrations, out-of-town guests and new changes in our professional lives. First, big news in Kate's professional life.  Kate had quit her job before the world trip we took this summer. When returning, she found a difficult time finding the right job for her.  Kate was lucky to get some freelancing work and after months of searching, she was offered a full-time job at a creative agency at the end of January!  Chris' professional life has had a few changes as well.  After months of rotating through various groups at the financial firm he works at, he was assigned a permanent group in early January.  He was lucky to get the group he wanted but this meant it was time for the work to truly begin.  Which means, his work hours have increased significantly.

Somehow, we made the time to make it to several parties and celebrate our dear friends' birthdays!

Cesar's birthday celebration over some college football watching...

Cesar, Chris, Courtney (Cesar's fiance'), and Kate

Anu and Bharani, who got engaged in the Fall of 2011, share a birthday week.  They join their birthday parties but since this year was Bharani's 30th, Anu wanted to surprise him with his own karaoke party.



Anu and Bharani

We had quite a turn-out for Bharani's surprise birthday party

Last but not least, we celebrated our friend Nicole's birthday in a private party room at a Mexican restaurant in Tribeca.

Kate, Nicole and Patricia

These birthday parties brought our good friend, Fred in town for a couple of weekends in January.  Fred's out in Philly for grad school and we're always thrilled to have him in town.

Kate's sister and boyfriend also came to NY for a long weekend.  Kate's sister, Sarah, travels to NYC for work and when she does she takes a long weekend so we can spend some time together.  We went to see War Horse at Lincoln Center, did a little bit of shopping, had some delicious food, saw the broadway show The Perfect Crime, and hung out at our apartment. We're looking forward to the next business trip Sarah takes to NY!

We've also been enjoying a mild winter.  It's only snowed (and stuck) once this year and temps have stayed in the 20's and 30's.  It's still cold but not the bitter cold that we expected.

Hope everyone else's January (and now February) were filled with good health and good times.

Travel Memories: Our First Trip

We've traveled to many, many places together.   But the first travel memory to share is not the most exotic, or the most adventurous, or the most beautiful place we've been to.  Our first travel memory that we want to share is our first trip together, 4 and 1/2 years ago in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. 

In September 2007, we traveled to Mexico for a small couples trip with Chris' best friend John and Denise (John's then girlfriend/now wife).  

We were looking for some beach/pool time

some adventure 

and lots of romance.

Chris, John and Denise also did some zip-linning while Kate played tennis at the resort.  Kate and Denise were able to get in some spa time while the guys went off to play golf.  Needless to say it was your typical but perfect couples trip in Mexico! And because it was our first trip together, it will always be one of our favorite travel memories.