The Vaughn of a New Day: January 2012

Monday, January 30, 2012

Hello Gotham City

This past weekend Z, M and I headed to New York to visit Nana and Poppy. It is wonderful to see them and amazing to see how busy and active they are. Very lucky. We laughed a lot, ate a lot and had an amazing weekend. And we are exhausted!

We headed into the city on Saturday and roamed the streets. We hit Greenwich, the East Village and almost made it to the lower east side. Mario Batali's market, Eataly was where we spent a good portion of the day visiting with Rusty on the 15th floor Biergarten.

EATALY was spectacular. Gelato, butcher shop, fish market, you name something delicious, they had it in spades.

After we left EATALY we strolled downtown and sauntered through Union Square and the East Village.
We stopped at an adorable sweets shop, BLACK HOUND,

This was our haul...please be aware these truffles made the trek from NYC to Dallas.
M played at a playground in Great Neck, that I played at as a child. It's amazing how things come full circle.

M and Z got to to visit with his cousin in Queens, while Nana and I went into the city to see Book of Mormon. Holy moly. What a show! If you have the opportunity to see it, GO!
Z's cousin has a baby only four months younger, so M had a play date!

The plane ride back seemed to take years, as we were stuck next to a screaming baby the whole time: ours.
Folks without kids...I cannot express how awful it is to be the parent of that screaming baby.

Love traveling, but also love getting home!

Location:NYC

Friday, January 20, 2012

Runners High.

Running has me hooked these days. It consumes every thought and I plan my days around the distance that must be done. I am signed up for two races, the first is the Will Run For Chocolate 15k and then I am entered to run the Rock and Roll Dallas Half Marathon. These will be my first two races since Marigny was born. To be frank I am a little terrified. I am easily a full minute, if not minute and half slower than I used to be.

Yard clean up is priority número uno these days and I have been tackling the backyard inch by inch. It will be a yard that begs to be played in, darn it! There is a very long way to go. Here is what it could look like according to the app iscape.

Landscaping is expensive and as such I must always work bit by bit. Small project by small project. It is very limiting and frustrating and I dearly wish that we had the where we could do everything in one fell swoop or for that matter hire someone else to do it! Anyone have any tips for gardening/landscaping when you are poor?

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Playground is where I spend most of my day.

We have been spending a lot of time on the weekends at playgrounds. Marigny is fearless and it is terrifying. Here are some images from the last few weekends.