Kate's Birthday Celebrations

So what else happened this summer you may ask? Kate turned.... well the number isn't important, Kate had a birthday!  And we had a three-day long celebration. 

First for the actual birthday - Thursday, July 12th - Kate planned an all-girls celebration in the West Village.  Rooftop drinks, Sushi Samba, and cocktails at the speakeasy Little Branch.  When Chris surprised us all by emerging from work before dinner, he of course joined the girls-night out!

Rooftop bubbles and cupcakes

Blowing out the candle on Brittain's West Village rooftop

Brittany, Mel, and Kate with tiny little crabs

Brittany, Brittain, Kate, Mel

Ending the night at Little Branch: Kate, Mel, Gabby, Brittany, Brittain

The next night the celebration was a romantic dinner for the two of us at Dovetail.  It was delicious!  Highly recommended. Kate snapped a little picture of one of her truffle-filled dishes.

Saturday, was the main celebration, a champagne and neon-colored themed birthday celebration on our rooftop. It was so relaxing and great to catch up with friends over champagne and macaroons. As the night passed on we headed to one of Kate's favorite neighborhood spots, Slightly Oliver's, for cocktails and dinner. So glad everyone made it out!  We didn't get too many pictures because we were too busy having fun!

Kate and our favorite champagne that we brought over from Paris

Chris enjoying the view before the party got started

Ending the night at Slightly Oliver's: Liz, Courtney, Kate, Melissa, Jess

Summer 2012 Recap: Visitors, Weddings, Broadway

As the leaves are changing, the weather is cooling, and football is gearing up, I've realized we haven't posted all summer!  Here's a brief recap of our summer (and maybe a little bit of a recap for spring!).

Visitors:
In April, Chris' Aunt Pat came to NYC for a work trip, decided to extend her trip, invite her daughter, Sandy, and spend some time with us! We toured downtown and went to see the Lion King the musical.  The show was great and the costumes were amazing - definitely recommended if you're a fan of Disney's version of the Lion King.

Sandy, Chris, and Pat in South Street Seaport

We are so lucky that many of our friends and family come to NY for work, it gives us an excuse to meet up!  Kate's sister Sarah continues to travel to NY for work.  And this summer, our friend Les from LA also traveled to NY for work.  We took advantage and met up for dinner and drinks. (We missed you Lauren!)

Kate, Chris, Les, Fred

Our friend Katie also made it to NY for work.  This just happened to be the same week of the Tony Awards, which is filmed on the Upper West Side. Since Kate and Katie are big Broadway fans, we made sure to check out the red carpet.  We didn't really get any pictures but we did have some great celebrity sightings.

This summer, Kate's childhood friend Jennifer dropped in for sushi during her summer trip to Connecticut. CT is a short train ride away from NYC and we were thrilled to meet up with her!  BTW: if you're ever looking for sushi in NY, try Momoya in Chelsea - it's our favorite!

Jennifer and Kate... and our delicious sushi rolls!

Theatre:
We also took in a Broadway show this summer.  Chris is a fan of the TV show The Big Bang Theory so when we heard that Jim Parsons (who plays Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory) was appearing in Harvey we knew we had to check it out.  It was so funny; we really enjoyed it!  Plus, it was in the most beautiful, iconic theatre - Studio 54.

Weddings:
In May we knew two lovely couples who tied the knot!  Kate traveled to Iowa for her cousin Tyler's wedding to Tara.  It was a beautiful day for an outdoor wedding and a great excuse for Kate to visit her family.

Tara and Tyler

Kate's grandparents: Jane and Chuck

For memorial day weekend, Chris' ex-roommate of three years, Cesar, married our sweet friend Courtney in Vail, CO.  We traveled with our good friends Fred and Liz out to CO and back for a four-day weekend of celebration. Chris was a groomsmen which made the weekend extra special.  It was a blast to say the least and we couldn't be happier for Cesar and Courtney!

The beautiful drive from Denver to Vail

Courtney and Cesar

Fred and Liz

 

Kate and Chris at the rehearsal dinner

Speaking of weddings, we've continued to plan our upcoming wedding.  We've booked both a band and a photographer - two of the more important decisions in the wedding-planning process!  Kate had a difficult time choosing a photographer so we decided to have two engagement shoots to test them out.  We highly recommend this because after the shoot and seeing the photos, it was very clear who was the best fit for us!  Here's two of our favorite pictures from the photographer we hired: Guy Heart. If you're friends with us on Facebook, you've probably already seen the rest!

Ameri-versary:
A few of our friends were not born in the U.S. and so the day they obtained their U.S. citizenship is quite special to them.  Celebrating the U.S. on the 4th of July is simply not enough; we often celebrate the day they became an American!  Our friend Anu (originally from the U.K.), had such a celebration this summer - a BBQ on her apartment's outdoor deck.

Anu serving delicious BBQ

Chris, Fred, Bharani, Brandon

We can't fit our whole summer into one blog post so there's more to come: Kate's three-day birthday celebration, exploring some of NY's history, and traveling to Maine to celebrate our anniversary.  But, we'll leave you with a few pictures of our spring and summer in the city.  You'll see we spend most of our time taking in the parks.

The view from a friend's family BBQ on Long Island

Central Park

Central Park

Riverside Park

Cool old cab parked outside of our apartment

Entertainment while we wait for the subway

Chris' 30th Birthday!

There are a handful of birthdays that you look forward to, that you dread, and that you really need to celebrate.  A 30th birthday are all of those things. It's a milestone birthday.  The year you're supposed to leave behind your crazy 20's and look forward to a more mature lifestyle.  In our opinion, this meant there should be a variety of celebrations for this milestone in Chris' life.  

To celebrate leaving behind the crazy 20's, we invited friends to join us at Chris' favorite Irish pub on the Upper East Side: O'Flanagans.  He used to live across the street from this bar in his mid-20's, his first two years in NYC.  They have a band on the weekends and beer pong in the back room.  Perfect way to re-live the 20's. Looking at the pictures, we think our friends had a good time!  We'll only post a few so we don't embarrass anyone with drunk pics.

Chris & Kate taking a birthday shot

Tom, Brittany, Fred, Chris, Brandon, and Kate

Chris and Brandon playing beer pong

Brandon playing beer pong

Brandon, Chris, Kate, Liz, Anu, Bharani, Magoo, Fred, Allison

To celebrate entering the more mature years of Chris' life, we invited a smaller group of friends to one of the best restaurants in the tri-state area.  Blue Hill at Stone Barns is a high-end restaurant located on a farm in NY state, about a 40 minute drive from Manhattan. We had been here once before for dinner but this time we went for Sunday brunch and we took a tour of the farm. Blue Hill is different from other restaurants.  It's a farm-to-table restaurant where the ingredients grown / raised on the farm are the ingredients that make it into your meal.  In fact, the menu is only a list of ingredients.  The chef chooses what dishes to serve you based on what ingredients you dislike or are allergic to and based on how many courses you choose to have.  We're so glad this is the way the restaurant operates. We probably wouldn't think to order some of these courses and the food is beyond amazing.

Courtney, Cesar, Ana, Liz, Chris, Kate, Mikki

Kate loved the beet-infused vodka

The birthday boy and his birthday cake!

Ana, Mikki, Kate, Chris, Courtney, Liz, Cesar - having some wine at the start of our farm tour

The hen houses - for the hens that lay the eggs they use

The greenhouse

Interesting fact: the ewe are marked with colors after they have "been with" a ram.  This allows the farmers to know that everyone has been fertilized within the same time period so that all the lambs are born within the same time period.  

Of course they had pigs!

And hens!  Apparently there's a different breed of chicken for laying eggs, than for eating.

Geese!

9/11 Memorial Site

At the end of November, we went to see the newly opened 9/11 memorial site with our friends Liz and Fred.  The site isn't completely finished - the museum isn't open yet but the memorial is and it's really beautiful.  Although the site is free to visit, it's so popular that you have to reserve tickets for a specific time and date.  We heard the tickets were unavailable for months but that wasn't the case, there were plenty of dates to chose from.

Chris, Liz, Kate and Fred in front of one of the fountains and in front of the base of the Freedom Tower

The still work-in-process Freedom Tower

The fountains (there are two of them) are set in the footprints of the twin-towers and are huge.  The center of the fountains appear bottomless from all angles.

The outer ring of the fountains is circled with the names of the people who lost their lives on 9/11

At the back of the photo, you can see the museum which is still being built.

The Freedom Tower

The courtyard of the park

We visited the park in the late afternoon which ended up being a great time because we were able to see the fountains in the daylight, at sunset and at night.  Even though you are still in the city, the park is very quiet and serene.  It's a wonderful experience. If you're interested in seeing the memorial, visit: http://www.911memorial.org/