Out and About: “Coastal Spain” Dinner at Lure

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Sean and I have been big fans of the midtown seafood restaurant Lure since it opened a few years back. Overall, we love Fifith Group Restaurants and feel we always have a consistently great, personalized service experience with interesting menus that offer seasonal items as well as ongoing staples. When I saw an ad for a Coastal Spain, community-style dinner at Lure, I knew it as for us. And at $45 per person, it was a tremendous value for what we got. Read on for the highlights! Continue reading →

New Bites: The Alden

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Sean found out about this new, upscale dining option in Chamblee called The Alden, with a chef who had traveled the world cooking – even doing a stint at Noma for a couple of months. While we love Buford Highway and the incredible multicultural cuisine we have easy access to in this part of town, “fancier” options are fairly limited. 

The restaurant offers brunch, and has a dinner too with a 7-course tasting and wine pairings (which we would like to go back for). Sean and I are not big on going out for breakfast or brunch – read anything Anthony Bourdain ever said on the brunch topic and you’ll have our many reasons, too. BUT The Alden takes reservations for brunch so we decided that would be good for us since the “waiting for an hour for eggs” brunch scene in Atlanta is really too ridiculous. As far as brunch goes, this place has great food.  Continue reading →

Work Baby Shower: What a Surprise!

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The company I work at and the team I’m on is spread out across the world. In my immediate team alone, we are in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Charlotte and London. I’ve met my boss in-person twice. I have one direct report on my team who is in Atlanta with me, Cesley, and another woman who is in our larger Corporate Communications group, Heather.

Kim, our group SVP (senior vice president) is the one who lives in Charlotte and she usually tries to come down to Atlanta a couple of times a year for department meetings, etc. I really like Kim and my interviews with her during my recruiting process were a huge part of why I decided to join the company. She wasn’t able to come earlier in the summer and I had mentioned to Cesley I hoped to see her before I went out on maternity leave. Apparently, this was the comment that started a heck of a lot of planning… Continue reading →

Chasing Waterfalls and Chihuly Lights in North Carolina

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We’ve been asked occasionally if we are taking a babymoon since we love to travel so much. Earlier this winter, I was really struggling with the expense of a big trip knowing we had a baby on the way. We took a huge trip to Japan less than a month before I got pregnant, too. We decided to do some weekend and driving trips that included Chicago, IL (twice for me); Nashville, TN; Austin, TX for Sean; work travel for both of us; Charlotte/Outer Banks/Savannah weeklong vacation; Plains, GA; Pittsburgh, PA and NE Ohio; and our final trip before baby’s arrival – Brevard, NC and the Chihuly exhibit at Biltmore Estate. I don’t think we did too shabby – got PLENTY of travel in this year.

This weekend trip up to the Land of Waterfalls was truly perfect, though. Lots of the other trips involved family and friends so this really was the closest to “babymoon” that we got – and it was the perfect place to unwind and explore gorgeous scenery on our own. Continue reading →

Maternity Photos in Savannah, Georgia

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It’s been several weeks since our trip to Savannah. I was 24 weeks pregnant and had a nice but small baby bump. My brother is an amateur photographer who usually does (incredible) landscapes and is getting more into portraits. I wanted him to take maternity photos in the stunning Forsyth Park while we were in town together. As some of you know, we also had many of our wedding photos taken in this park back in 2014. 

We had a few props – two sets of baby shoes of mine, a baby book from our friend Sarah, and a small coconut cake that we always order when in town from the bakery that did our wedding cake, Savannah Rum Runners. I also knew hydrangeas were in bloom and since that’s my very favorite flower, I figured it would make a good backdrop. 😉

There are also several “outtakes”/behind-the-scenes photos at the end, so keep scrolling. I’m 32 weeks 5 days now, so bumpie will be here very soon! 🙂 Continue reading →

Baby Shower with OH and PA Family

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Sean and I ended up with family pretty near each other – less than 2 hours drive apart – up north. His mom’s side of the family including aunt and uncle, cousins and their families live north of Butler and have a beautiful farm. My family is in Warren, OH – mom, stepdad, dad, sister, aunt, cousins and family friends. We talked with our moms about having a joint family party/baby shower somewhere between both spots and it was so awesome that they decided to do this for us.  Continue reading →