Baby Isabela 2017!

Isabela Josephine is here! Her parents, Michele and Brandon, and her two brothers, Miles and Izaac, are calling her Ela Jo. She's a lucky little baby as she gets a huge fabulous family that lives in the same area. Congratulations! I have to start planning my trip to Richmond!

Ela Jo is beautiful!

Michele Visits NYC 2016

Michele visited New York last weekend! Happiness! I met her in Karen in Chinatown where they were already 2/3rds way through a dumpling crawl. We went to Joe's Shanghai for a few soup dumplings.

Karen, Michele, me inside

Karen and Michele outside Joe's Shanghai

Then we decided to get foot massages, but there was a little bit of a wait so we went for a hot chocolate and coffee. There's not a lot of coffee shops in Chinatown so write down the location of this one!

Cheers at Little Canal cafe, 26 Canal Street

Finally, it was foot massage time! It was my first massage and Karen's foot massage. Why have we been waiting? Amazing. I didn't take photos inside but this is what it felt like:

Renew Day Spa, 42 Bowery

Seriously, they'd rub something on my feet and then it would start to feel like a pleasant burning. And then all the sudden I'd feel it on my ear lobe or something. Crazy.

Then it was time to head to Williamsburg to celebrate Karen's birthday! Michele and I got there a little early and had drinks at Sugarburg. Then we were risking being late so we ran to the restaurant. Everything at Mesa Coyocan was delicious and the drinks were amazing. Karen's friends from grad school and home were awesome and fun, and the whole evening was well worth it. 

David, Nate, Hannah, Nada, Sarah, Karen, Michele


We mixed and matched (the hard way)

Birthday desserts!

Happy birthday, Karen! 

Apple shooters!

Sunday, Michele and I met Ash for brunch at The Breslin in Midtown. Brunch was delicious, it was great to all be together, and I forced everyone to take many many photobooth photos which I haven't scanned yet but will update this post to include later. Perfect visit!

 

I saw these pretty pumpkins on the way- so selfie!

Ash and Michele at The Breslin

Michele + lamb burger + amazing fries + tea = happiness

Midtown selfie: me, Ash, Michele

Michele and Brandon's Wedding 2016

Brandon and Michele during their wedding ceremony

I wasn't able to go to Michele and Brandon's wedding- to my own great unhappiness- but I interrogated some of the guests to try to get some early pictures and I have multiple sources that say that it was the most beautiful and romantic wedding of all time. Thanks for rubbing it in, trusted sources! Let's back up for a moment, the wedding took place in Mexico, here:

This place is beautiful...


It's ridiculously beautiful.

There were welcome drinks before ceremony. Then they had a super intimate candlelit circle of people who love them so much. I can speak from experience on this as I also love them so much and know many of Michele's friends and family members. Then those amazing loving people gave personal blessings to Brandon and Michele.

I love this picture of the ceremony.

And I've talked about how much Brandon and Michele love each other before, but it's worth repeating: it's the sexy, affectionate, self-sacrificing kind of awesome delicious love that makes people better individually too.

Brandon and Michele loving each other and their wedding guests

There was a cocktail hour, which is always even better when the bride and groom attend. They did. Sources say the margaritas were especially amazing.

Michele's brothers: Matthew, Arthur, Alejandro


Michele with her brothers' great loves: Emily, Avery, and Sama

Michele with her grandmother

The picture above and below are also a good time to reflect on how beautiful the bride looked. Kevin said that a man considers a wedding successful if there's a beautiful bride and an open bar. Check and check.

Kendra, Michele, and Yael looking spectacular together

Watching Brandon watch Michele is like reading a Jane Austen book!

They had dinner in this gorgeous setting. And my trusted sources said dinner was super delicious. 

Splendid from this angle

Equally splendid from this angle

Even more romantic in the dark

The happy good-looking couple

Michele and Angela about to hit the dance floor.

TIME TO DANCE!

This is how Arthur breaks it down.

Brandon and Michele's boys having a great time!

Dancing with David

Kirsten breaks it down!

This happened: Arthur, Matthew, and Michele

This also happened.

At this point, you're probably thinking, well, that wedding couldn't possibly get any better. This is when weddings wind down usually... well you're wrong. So wrong. There was a mid-wedding pool party... and then more dancing.

Kate, Michele, Kendra, and Kirsten in the pool

Post-swim dancing is fiercer.

Apologies to everyone reading all this for my overuse of every superlative, but I had to be accurate. Michele and Brandon, congratulations, and I hope that all your life together feels like this:

Love.

Michele Bachelorette Brunch 2016

We had so much fun during our weekend in Richmond celebrating Michele's bachelorette fun, that I had to separate it into multiple posts. I started counting all the fun things we did, and Friday through Saturday was #1-29: http://theclous.blogspot.com/2016/03/micheles-bachelorette-festivities-2016.html.

On Sunday, I got to sleep in again (very exciting for me, you guys). (#30) When I woke up I saw my wrist and thought- OH MY WHAT IS THAT? It was the bachelorette temporary tattoo from the night before. (#31) Haha. Ash, Angela, and I walked over to Captain Buzzy's Beanery so as not to wake Michele. (#32) Then we walked over to Libby Hill Park to check out the view and drink our coffees, or in Ash's case a dirty dirty chai. She'll never sleep again. (#33) When we came back Michele was up and ready so had group hug time. (#34) It was on the agenda even before we got there because she and Karen were recently passengers in a car accident and got concussions.

Going clockwise from bride: Michele, Tara, Kate, Susan, Angela, Ash, me, 

Hannah, Anne, Kristen, Karen, and Emily

For the highlight of Michele's bachelorette weekend we did the The Jefferson Hotel's Sunday Champagne Brunch. It's a Richmond tradition. (#35) It's an understatement to say I loved it. It's probably responsible for 2 of the 4 pounds I gained while I was in Richmond for 48 hours. Michele had wore a super cute outfit, which Hannah made even cuter with a little veil and boa.  (#36)

Emily, Michele, and Tara

Emily is Michele's sister-in-law and she told us the family tradition of telling fun little stories about the person who is having a big day. It was a great idea and helped us all get to know each other better. It's clear that Michele has super amazing friends (with exceptionally nice hair) and that they all love her like crazy. (#37)

Can we talk about the food for a second? The Sunday Brunch had buffet tables downstairs with breakfast, lunch, and dessert foods. There were: eggs benedict, sausage, bacon, Three Cheese Grits (you had me at grits- #38), Potatoes, french toast, an omelet station, and a waffle station. They also had smoked salmon, shrimp, oysters on the half shell and a bunch of meat dishes including some Indian food flavored pork thing. Obviously I only tried some of these things. Dessert was another story. I had all the desserts- well at least a few bites: chocolate truffle torte, chocolate cake, cheese cakes, tarts , toasted almond torte, pecan bourbon torte, creme brulee, and some mini cupcakes including red devil and peanut butter cupcakes. (#39)

Buffet tables and guest seating on lower level

Music by the Randall Pharr Trio (#40)

In addition to the food, there was bottomless champagne and orange juice which many of us used to create our own mimosas. (#41) Also, Ash I took a billion failed panoramic shots of the table-- this might be directly related to #41. (#42) 

8/12 people

7/12

10/12 and a very distorted Ash, panorama fail.

When brunch was over, Michele had little party gifts for those of us who couldn't come back for the rescheduled shower. (#43) We walked though the beautiful lobby of the hotel where they also do afternoon tea, and then we took some more pictures outside the hotel, because that's how we roll. (#44)

Susan, Kate, Hannah, Michele in the lobby

 

Michele and Kate outside the hotel

We got spoiled on beautiful Richmond on this trip. In addition to going to Libby Hill Park in the morning, Michele, Hannah, Ash, and I went for a walk through Jefferson Park in the afternoon. (#45) Obviously we took more pictures- made impossible and hilarious by high wind conditions. (#46)

Libby Hill Park in the morning

Me, Michele and Ash at Jefferson Park

We went to say goodbye to Arthur, Emily, and Avery before they left to go home. Did I mention how adorable and cute Avery is? (#47) Finally Michele dropped us off at the airport - we had more group hugs- and Michele went off to get her pending manicure from the day before. (#48) Despite the fact that Ash and I got to the airport ridiculously early, we went to charge my phone at another gate and almost missed our flight. But we didn't yay! (#49)

It was a great trip! We had so much fun!! But the BEST PART was that no one got a concussion!!! (#50)

Michele's Bachelorette Festivities 2016

Ash and I went to Richmond to see Michele and celebrate her bachelorette/sort-of-wedding-shower! We had SO much fun I decided to count how many fun things we did (like the birthday fun things game). I reserve the right to edit this post to add more fun things I forgot at the time of writing the post. Also because we had so much fun, I had to break this down into multiple posts! The fun started weeks in advance with Ash has been sending text pictures with signs since we bought our tickets (#1).

FRIDAY
Friday I finally got in on the action sending pictures of James, Miranda, and me wearing Mexican hats (#2) because Michele and Brandon will get married in Mexico in April! Ash and I had drinks at JFK with our hats (#3), and struck up a conversation with some people who offered to take our picture. It turned out that they're moving to Richmond soon so we tried to encourage them to join the Richmond Food Co-op. (#4)

Ash and I bought drinks on the plane and the attendant carded us in all seriousness. (#5) We greeted Michele and Brandon in RIC still wearing the hats.

Me, Michele, and Ash in our Meximond sombreros! (#6)

We went back to Michele and Brandon's and had some wine and cheese while catching up. (#7) Brandon also made us these amazing turmeric drinks. Yum. (#8) They showed us their awesome wedding rings! (#9)

Michi + Brando = Love

Because apparently turmeric is a happiness-inducing spice

SATURDAY
Saturday morning I slept in! (#10) Actually I still woke up first somehow, so I went to the store to buy wine and Girl Scout Cookies. Ash came with me, the walk was pleasant, and the tiny girl scout entrepreneur actually assured us that the thin mints go great with wine. (#11)

Brandon made us fresh scones! (#12) We ate them with honey made by Buddhist monks and wow- you could taste the delicious nirvana in them. Seriously. (#13)

So good this is a picture from my out-of-body scone experience

Michele went to Yoga, Ash went to see her cousin and I met up with Candice, Tim, and Cora. (More on my visit with them later.) (Separate but simultaneous #14)

I arrived at the spa, still super happy from my visit with Candice and as I walked in I remembered that I was scheduled for a couples massage with Ash. Let me just break that down for you a minute, I was already so happy, well-rested, and well-fed only to discover I was scheduled for MORE HAPPINESS. The massage was only my third ever (first was my prenatal one, second one was also with Ash) but it was the best ever. I tried to stay very focused on it and not let my mind wander during it. (#15) Michele and Angela met us there and we all had a group pedi together. (#16) And they gave us wine to sip! (#17)

At the spa getting pedicures

While we got our nails done, Michele had her massage. (#18) (She came back for her manicure Sunday, so she didn't miss out on anything.) There was so much unintentional comedy during the manicure that I laughed so hard I think I pulled some abs. (#19)

Then we met Brandon, Paul, Chris at Amour, the restaurant where Michele and Brandon first met! It's called Amour! Paul gave us very personalized wine recommendations so we loved what we were drinking. (#20) Then the boys headed out for part 1 of a very civilized bachelor celebration. (#21) We spotted them later eating dinner at a restaurant. I really wanted to take cute paparazzi photos of them but I restrained myself.

Ash, Michele, Brandon, Paul, Chris at Amour

KISS KISS- Michele and Brandon

Me and Angela had a lot of bonding time on this trip

We went to visit Emily and Avery at Michele's mom's house. Avery is Michele's niece and she's a little mini-Emily and is the cutest. The cutest. (#22) Michele not only showed us her wedding dress but put it on to model it. So gorgeous!! (#23)

Then we back to the house for out girls' night of pizza and wine! (#24) We also had our Girl Scout Cookies. They deserve their own number. (#25) Ash got us Bachelorette tattoos that said "Bride to Be" for Michele and "Bride's Tribe" for the rest of us, and she helped us apply them because she's the best. (#26) We wore the Mexican hats in honor of Meximond and their upcoming wedding in Mexico and took lots of fun pictures. (#27)

We played Dixit - a very pretty game- and we successfully battled the tricky Susan and Kate team. (#28) Michele also had a dress for some official document signing and she modeled that dress for us as well. (#29)

Cheers to Michi and Brandon's love!

Michele, Karen, and Susan showing their hats and tats

Kate, Angela, and me - more hats and tats

The original three amigas

Me and Michi

Dixit!

Things got really fancy on Sunday...