Clou Blog's 5th Anniversary!

Five years ago on the three-year anniversary of meeting Kevin, and shortly after getting married, I started this blog! A lot has happened since then! For the short version check out my year reviews below. This blog is definitely a labor of love. I really enjoy writing it, taking photos for it, and reading back on the old posts. Especially with a second baby now, it's so fun to look back and see if things were different with the first.

So many things have happened in five years it's hard to believe it's been such a short time. We lost my dad. We lost two very young friends Erik and Chris. We lost three grandparents. We had two beautiful children and our friends now have 36 more children among them (21 of them boys!). There have been another twenty-three friend-weddings in the last 5 years. My mother and Owen beat cancer! Kevin published his first book. Life is a rough ride and we're so lucky to have each other for it. All of us. That's why I've never changed the banner- because we're all in it together.

My year reviews since I began the blog:

2009: Second half of the year, starting from when we got married
2010: First half and second half (when we lost my dad)
2011: First half when James was born and second half
2012: First half and second half
2013: First half and second half

But of course, probably the best part of the blog has been Kevin's 41 posts so far. I'll try to get him to write more!

Us through the first five blog years:

Our Wedding, Cape Cod, June 2009


One-year Wedding Anniversary, Brooklyn, June 2010


Our son James is born!, Long Island, April 2011


James's First Birthday, Long Island, April 2012

Ta-da! Warwick, NY, June 2013


Our daughter Miranda is born!, Long Island, April 2014

Valentine's Day- A Retrospective

Happy Valentine's Day! This year is my 7th Valentines Day with Kevin, and my 2nd with James. Since I met them, love has rocked my world. Tonight I'm cooking a huge Cuban dinner for Kevin, and this weekend we're going to dinner and drinks in the Brooklyn neighborhood we lived in when we got married. And for your Valentine's Day gift, we're posting a Things My Wife Complains About this afternoon.

Our 1st Valentine's Day in 2007

Kevin and I had been dating about 6 and half months. He took me to the fancy Fellini's Restaurant in Charlottesville, VA for Valentine's Day dinner. Also got flowers the week before for our 6 month anniversary. I didn't take any pictures (what?) but I took him to my 2L Barristers Ball three days later and we took tons of photos.

6-month flowers

At Vivace restaurant before the dance, February 2007

Barristers Ball at the Omni Hotel 2007

Our 2nd Valentine's Day in 2008
Kevin and I had been engaged for 2 and half months, and we were living in Charlottesville together. I don't remember if we specifically did something for Valentines Day, but 4 days before Valentines we went to my 3L Barristers Ball. The following weekend, on the 16th, my parents hosted a little engagement party for me and Kevin in Charlottesville.

At our place before Barristers Ball

Dancing! 2/10

Dancing?

 

Our engagement party at our place in 2008, 2/16

Our 3rd Valentine's Day in 2009
Kevin and I were engaged and living together in Brooklyn, NY, with under 4 months until our wedding. Brady, James W. and I celebrated Kevin's Sunday birthday on the Saturday of Valentine's Day, with dinner at a Peruvian restaurant and drinks at Kevin's favorite Brooklyn bar. The four of us kept it sexy.

Brooklyn Heights Promenade, Valentine's Day 2009

Peruvian dinner at Coco Roco in Brooklyn

Brady, James W., and Kevin at the Brooklyn Inn

Our 4th Valentine's Day in 2010
Our first married Valentine's Day! I threw a huge multi-day celebration for Kevin's 30th birthday over the relevant weekend, so we celebrated Valentine's Day the next weekend. We were still living in Brooklyn, but we celebrated in Manhattan with Mexican restaurant El Centro for dinner and the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center.

Celebrating Kevin's 30th birthday, February 13th

Chelsea Market, February 15th

At the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center, February 19th

Our 5th Valentine's Day in 2011
By now, we had moved to Long Island and we were expecting our first baby in 2 months. We went out for dinner at Bob's Restaurant in Long Island when I was 31 weeks huge.

 Kevin's 31st birthday in Manhattan, 30-31 weeks pregnant with James

31 weeks along on February 14, 2011

Our 6th Valentine's Day in 2012
Our first Valentine's Day as parents! Which means, you have to figure out who wants to spend their Valentines Day babysitting for you if you want to go out together. Michele very generously came over to watch James. Kevin and I went out for dinner at Sushi Ya in Long Island for Valentine's Day, because  sushi is one of my favorites.  James was particularly happy about Michele's visit because he loves her, and she was his first ever Valentine's Day date.

James's first Valentine's Day at 9 almost 10 months!

Getting James ready for bed before leaving for our date


James and Michele ❤

David and Melanie in Hoboken 2012

We've been overdue for an outing with David and Melanie for a long time, and they both graduated from college this spring, so we went out to dinner to celebrate. David passed his Series 7 exam and is working in financial planning. Melanie is gearing up to take optometry exams this fall. The two of them are smart, awesome, and adorable in no particular order.

We passed this random Cuba sign and decided the picture should be here!

We went to a nice BYOB Italian family restaurant in Hoboken. I don't think I've been out in Hoboken since I was in college so probably twelve years ago! It's cuter than I remember it, and it's no mystery why so many people from my hometown move there when they move out on their own.

Aren't they the cutest?

Summer Olympics- London 2012

Last week, the Summer Olympics started in London, and everyone I know has Olympic fever! I think it has to do with how much everyone is on social online communities now. There are constant reminders that exciting international games are happening.

I was excited about the Opening Ceremonies on Friday, and I was really happy that Sarah and Lukas wanted to come over to watch with us. Left to our own devices, Kevin and I might not have made it to the end, and then I would have been sad about it the next day. We have a DVR, but it's just not the same when it's an "event." (For that reason, and because James never slept, James and I watched the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton at 4-6 a.m. last year.)

Opening Ceremony of 2012 Summer Olympics in London (photo of my television)

I think it's remarkable that even after years of watching the Olympics, I didn't remember that the opening ceremony was so ridiculously long! Was it longer this year? Maybe it just felt longer because it was kind of awful and nonsensical.

I also thought it was funny that the terrifying opening ceremony from the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing was still fresh in everyone's mind. Kevin and I left for my bar trip in Peru a few days after the 2008 Olympics started so we watched most of what we watched on tiny hotel television sets. I took this picture in Cusco, while we watched Phelps win his 8th gold medal.

Watching Phelps win his 8th gold medal, 2008 Summer Olympics 

On the other hand, I have almost entirely forgotten everything about the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.  The only thing I remember is that we watched the opening ceremony the weekend we were celebrating Kevin's 30th birthday. Andrew, Jim, Lisa, Briggs, Jon, and James W were at our apartment in Brooklyn, and we all thought it was hilarious that they had trouble lighting the torch. That's it. That's what I have in the memory banks for posterity.

Opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver

Olympic hilarity 

Here's a fun fact, Kevin was born during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. The "Miracle on Ice" happened a week after he was born. Obviously, I don't remember this historic sports event because I was 11 months old at the time, but growing up we visited Lake Placid a lot, and throughout the 90's, that town still lived in the 1980 Winter Olympics (and to a lesser extent, the 1932 Winter Olympics). Besides that, I don't actually remember much about the Winter Olympics growing up.

The first Summer Olympics I remember were the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. Maybe I remember it because that one was held a little on the later side in September and I was in school. it was probably discussed a lot in class. I also remember a ton of commercial tie-ins to the Olympic rings on every possible product. It was also a huge deal that South Korea was hosting the Olympics during the Cold War, the significance of which was cloudy but not completely lost on our 4th grade class.

What our kids are probably going to think is really weird is that when we were growing up the Summer and Winter Olympics took place in the same year.  We had 6 weeks of Olympics every 4 years? That seems extreme. The last time it happened in the same year was 1992. That was also the first post-Cold-War Olympics year. The Winter Olympics that year saw a unified Germany team, and the Summer Olympics that year were the first with no boycotts since the Cold War. Kevin and I were both in middle school. After that, the Winter and Summer Olympics were split up into different years. That, and the lack of cell phone in our youth, will make our children think we're ancient.

Which Olympics do you remember from your past?