ADIOS, 2014!

It's been a long time since I've participated in any real partying for New Year's Eve [as defined in the traditional sense, that is]. I've thoroughly enjoyed and not-at-all regretted the past several years of laid back, under-the-radar celebrations, complete with a small circle of friends and/or family, and calling it a night.

But not this year. I am 30 after all. Why not?!
Rob and I as usual were on the same page with wanting to celebrate New Years in a big way: We are after all engaged, and depending on our settling a date, we might be sharing the same last name come this time 2015. That's still up for debate, but for the moment at hand, it was a matter of ushering in 2015 with great friends in Illinois.

I was off work today, which afforded me just enough time to run some last minute errands, clean the house and get everything packed up for a 5-day trip to IL. Rob worked until noon, and joined me to wrap up, stuff the car to the brim and load up the pups [yes, they came, too!] for the all-too-familiar 5-hour jaunt to Dillon's house.

We arrived with just enough time to unload the car, order a pizza [because classy, that's why....] & doll up to join Matt & Courtney down in STL for the night's festivities to really begin.

So we arrived at the hotel directly across the street from Harry's, where Courtney & Matt were waiting. We finished getting ready and made our final decent into the chaos that was NYE celebration on the other side of the street.

harry's | st. louis, mo 

And that being said,

HERE WE GO!

ready to get this started! 

The plan to do the night to the extreme:

yes, we had a table. [thanks, matt!] 

And there were photos galore...

rob. cori. matt

this guy ♥

matt & courtney [aw♥!]

The clock struck midnight and we officially welcomed in the start of a brand new year! I have zero complaints about the entire experience & am excited to see how 2015 dares top 2014! 

love, love, love you! ♥♥

See you on the other side! 

farewell, '14, & hello, '15! 

I hope you and yours have ushered in the new year safely and joyously! I know that for us, 2015 is going to have to step it up in big, big ways to top 2014, and I'm pretty excited to see where the next year takes us.

Love love & more love to you & yours - HAPPY 2015!!

xo | cmd

And On To The Next One [Christmas Destination, That Is!]

Rob had to work today, which is one of the reasons we didn't get moving north until the late afternoon. Sydni and I took advantage of the opportunity to finish up some last minute Christmas shopping, clean house and tackle some laundry before his return.

First order of business was breakfast!

breakfast date with my little ham! ♥♥

Sydni and I are the ultimate team; between the two of us, we managed to knock out the final gift shopping, clean the house up, paint a few pictures, play a card game, watch a movie, play with dolls, finish laundry, pack everything for the weekend and relax a little bit before it was finally time to load up and head north. Phew!

Oh, and we learned this today:

harry's

Looks like we'll be set for Harry's for NYE in St. Louis! More details on that a little later, but the list of things to look forward to is growing! :)

We made it Mt. Vernon safe and sound, and we're about to call it a night. Santa's making another stop here tonight for all of us, so off to bed it is, so the jolly man can do his work!

xo | cmd

Trading '13 for '14

*backdated, durr!*
First things first : HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!!!!!
Today of course was the last day of 2013; I'm once again floored by how quickly it went, and again I'm looking very much forward to what 2014 is going to bring us.

The daylight of December 31st really wasn't anything super magical; I made us all breakfast before we continued our mission of packing and cleaning Rob's house. Sydni was here this time, so of course she did her due diligence of unpacking every other box and playing with whatever was in it, but in spite of it all, we still made some pretty massive progress.

As the evening rolled around, we made our way down to Fairview to Dawne's....

coco playtime

2013 has been a rocky road [nothing like 2012, I'll say that much... but still.... ], but I'm looking back at it and making sure to identify some key individuals who made life a little better for us during our various transitions. Dawne is one of them, and tonight I was so grateful to spend a little time with her before the year ended. I probably would've collapsed into myself early on in '13 if it hadn't been for her helping hand and generosity to Syd & me. We sure do love her!

dawne: love. her.

From Dawne's, we headed back to Granite to Mike & Kelly's, where we started our New Year's Eve journey. Soon enough we had Jesse & Anna in tow, and the six of us rustled up some dinner plans. Before we left Jesse's, I made sure to capture Zepplin's New Years salutes; he. is. adorable.

zepplin says happy new year, too!

After dinner, it was off in search of a New Year's crowd. Nobody put an ounce of planning into the night, so it was essentially us flying by the seats of our pants for the evening. That meant a pit stop [a bust, really] at a local dive downtown STL before we pretty much crash landed at Lumiere a half hour before midnight.


None of us are prolific gamblers [which is probably a good thing], so we had to laugh at our BIG WINNINGS after feeding $5 to a slot machine and pocketing a buck-46 [which went right back in, haha].

yeah.. we party hard, ya dig... hahaha

Most importantly, we managed to get out of the car & the parking garage before the ball dropped, and in the company of some great friends, we welcomed the new year. I'm feeling pretty good about this one, and I certainly didn't mind bidding '13 a farewell in the midst of some pretty awesome people.

hello, 2014!!
♥ kelly. mike. cori. rob. jesse. anna ♥

last couple selfie of '13..
.. with the best thing this place has to offer ♥

Happy 2014, to you & yours!
Let's make this a great one!

xo | cmd

Eve Of a New Year

I'm getting old. So are my friends.

You know how I know that... besides the fact that this may be backdated? Haha...

.... Just about everyone I've talked to this year had formulated plans for New Year that included more "No idea" and "Mehh... I dunno..." than actual plans. Haha. Personally, I don't hate it. I really had no desire to go anywhere and find myself watching a ball drop surrounded by loud, drunk strangers. It didn't help that the weather started a nose dive into that wet, sticky snow that isn't fun even for play; as soon as you touch it, it turns to slush and soaks through all your clothes at what seems to be double the pace of regular water.

So.... as we finished up our half day at work [right???], Rob came up to meet us at work; Ali joined us and we trekked over to STL Bread Company for lunch before heading our separate ways. Rob & I kept it super exciting with some errands and miscellaneous things before I headed home to do more fun things like laundry, cleaning my house and washing dishes. Haha. Oh, and I managed to get another gorilla bread assembled in that time. I still need to pinch Nancy for giving me that recipe... haha.

Dinner? Red Lobster. We didn't take any pictures, but ironically my other Ali friend posted one just moments afterwards of the exact same dish one of the girls at our table ordered. Nobody's complaining; RL is a good choice if for no other reason than cheddar bay biscuits. Let's just be honest. (:



Festivities pertaining to the actual ringing in of 2013 boiled down to us relaxing with a group of Rob's friends at their house, around a table filled with more food [nooooooooo, lol] and some perfectly sober laughing to move us all from 2012 to 2013. I was a big fan.

We ended the night with Kelly and I watching Rob & Mike set off some fireworks from the yard... haha.. rowdy, I know. It was a competition with the neighbors across the street for a few minutes before we all called it a night. We're party rockers... for sure [pshhh.. haha].


2012 is over. Holy cow.
I'm excited for 2013.
I hope you are, too!

xo | cmd