Dreamy August Days

August might be one of my favorite months. I love how lazy it gets right before school starts! I even love how hot it gets, like summer is having one last hurrah before fall takes over (which is one of my favorite seasons!). And my August has been PERFECT so far. 

The first day of this month I went to heaven. Basically. I went to the floral district! Seriously, it was the most dreamy floral wonderland. I could have spent all day there! Although, I actually can't as most of the shops in the floral district close at 10am. Because all the florists in the city get up bright and early to get their flowers, and then rush back to their shops to have the arrangements done for the day. If you love flowers, it is so worth the early morning to see them! We went at 8am, so we could have a few hours to enjoy the shops, but I'm already planning to return extra early so I can see everything in full swing!

^Just look at those ranunculus! My favorite flower in the whole world! (I just love spring flowers - daffodils, iris, tulips, ranunculus... so dreamy!)^

^Yes those are all real flowers. And yes I was in a total blissful daze - hence the awestruck expression^

^Just buckets and buckets of flowers lining the streets!^

^I loved this little bundle of flowers! They have such a country charm to them!^

^My cute friend Alex and I bough the most lovely garden roses! If only they lasted even longer!^

^Following our adventure in the floral district, we made our way to the Upper East Side for the famed macaroons at Laudree. Now I've only had one macaroon before, at Buchon Bakery (delicious), but even I could tell these were something special.^

^And they had the cutest shop!^

^The girls and our delicious treats!^

^I tried Salted Caramel, Rose Petal, and Pistachio - surprisingly Pistachio was my favorite! (I tend to love all things salted carmel, but I guess it's a flavor that doesn't translate as well to macaroon)^

^Alex got a darling box full of flavors - I also really liked the vanilla bean!^

^The Upper East Side is incredible. Look at this gorgeous garden we stumbled across! (It's for the Frick Museum)^

^My cute roses all arranged!^

^Then later that evening Camille & Justin, Lauren & Brian, Jani & James, and Clark & I all went to Broadway bites! They had a bunch of food stands featuring some popular local restaurants - we got some brick oven pizza and a crepe! But there were lots of other great things to try! (Oh and Camille and I snagged this picture because both our boys had to leave early)^

^The next day started out as such a bummer - I woke up early to wait in line for Les Mis rush tickets (Clark and I had been dying to go to a broadway show, but I hadn't had time to wait in the lines because of my temp jobs). Unfortunately, after waiting for 2 hours in the rain, they ran out of tickets. But at least I saw this cool Ferrari race!^

^Then Clark and I were going to join Richard & Mani for Shakespeare in the park - have a little picnic in line and then enjoy the show. Except I forgot they are SUPER lame about holding people's spots in line. So that plan was foiled as well. I was really bummed - I had wanted to take advantage of Clark's day off to plan something really great. Luckily he was so positive and suggested we move our picnic over to Belvedere Castle, enjoy a walk around Central Park, and dessert at Magnolia's Bakery. I'm so lucky to have him around to keep me positive!^ 

^And I was so happy Richard & Mani were so willing to have fun despite our plans falling through^

^During our adventure we saw a whole family of raccoons playing in the lake!^

^The next day Clark and I both had work. But that evening we went down to Battery Park City because we both haven't explored too much of Lower Manhattan! It was so fun! And just look at this view of Liberty & Ellis Islands!^

^On top of the Irish Hunger Memorial - It's a neat little piece of the Irish countryside, right smack dab in the middle of the city!^

^Gorgeous views from the walk along the tip of the island^

^After eating dinner in Tribeca, we made it all the way up to Washington Square Park where we enjoyed listening to some street performers! I had the best time just chatting with Clark and exploring this amazing city. Walking around with Clark makes me love it here even more!

^Then Camille and I made the trek out to Dough. OH my yummy! They have such tasty doughnuts! I got their salted caramel chocolate doughnut and it was very rich. I think next time I want to try their famous blood orange flavor (they weren't making any when we went)^

^Thanks for coming with me Camille! It was so fun to see a little bit more of Brooklyn!^

Friends in the City

Moving to/living in New York has given us some of our closest couples friends. Almost as soon as Clark knew he had an internship offer at CS he organized a big game night for all the other couples moving out to NYC. I was really nervous about forcing all these poor girls to be friends with me, but turns out we all get along so well! So before the internship last summer I had a huge group of amazing girls to hang out with while our husbands worked 24/7. 

And then we met even more friends this past year at BYU and over this summer in NYC! I can't believe how lucky we are to have so many great friends in the city - here for internships, for training, for vacations, and for permanent jobs! I know it's cheesy, and maybe I've been watching too many F.R.I.E.N.D.S. episodes, but I really feel like we've become a little family out here in NY - all of us are always there for each other during these busy/crazy years. So here's some of the fun stuff we've all been up to recently:

^This cute girl turned 24!!! So on her birthday we went to the Brooklyn Flea market. We had such a blast looking through all the neat vintage items, cool local crafts, and eating sweet treats. Thanks for letting me take up your whole birthday afternoon Morgan!^

^We also took Morgan out to a birthday dinner at El Centro!^

^The following night we had a triple birthday party for Morgan, Mani, and Brian who all turned 24 within a few days of each other! It was so fun! And a huge thanks to the Clark's, who invited us all up to their rooftop for the party^

^Brian^

^Mani!^

^Morgan!^

^How's that for a birthday party "photo wall"^

^Darling and delicious cake Lauren made!^

^Singing happy birthday to these 24 year olds^

^Lots of great wishes happening in this pic^

^A few days later Clark and I finally got pictures to go on our front room wall! We only need to buy a TV and then we're totally moved in!^

^I stumbled across this beautiful shop during on of my walks around the neighborhood. This is totally my dream. I want a library like this someday!^

^The next weekend we got together with a bunch of our friends for a day at the beach! At first we were nervous our beach day was going to get rained out, but luckily the sun came out and our picnic was perfect! The only bad part about the day was it was our last time hanging out with Morgan and Adam - he finished his internship, and they had to go back to UT. But hopefully they'll join us permanently next year!^

^Coney island is so fun!^

^Oh and for those of you who wonder what I do during the day? I'm a temp! Meaning I have a very flexible schedule and do temporary secretary work for a bunch of different companies. It's a fun job. Perfect for the summer, because on my days off I get time to explore the city. However, come fall I think I'll be more interested in having a permanent schedule, so if you know of any public health jobs in NYC I'm your girl!^

^A few days later Lauren, Camille, Mani, and I explored Greenwich Village. We started off at Big Gay Ice Cream (yum) and then walked around the darling maze-like streets. I was DYING over all the apartments and brownstones. So many of them were covered in ivy just like this!^

^This was taken in the garden of St. Luke's Chapel. You can't even tell we're in the middle of the city!^

^Oh and thanks to Morgan's wonderful recommendation, we checked out this tasty shop - Sockerbit! It's a Swedish candy store and YUM they had some good stuff^

^you could say we had a "sweet" afternoon^

^The next day Whitney, Mani, and I walked around central park and got some cookies from Levains. YUM. haha I guess I really do just go eat sweets ;) ^

That evening a large part of our NYC crew met up at the World Trade Center memorial. Now last year we were able to go to the beautiful park and memorial they have set up where the towers used to be. This May they opened up the museum. It is the most emotionally powerful museum I have ever been to. They have so many artifacts from that horrible day. Tons of recordings from people who experienced the attacks and survived. And so many voicemails from people in the buildings/plane who called their loved ones to say good-bye. Those were horrible to listen to. But it was so wonderful to know that their loved ones have that to remember them by. The museum really makes you proud to be an American. And it's such a perfect way to honor those who lost their lives that day. Honestly, if you can only do one thing on your next visit to NYC, visit the museum. We only could spend an hour in the museum (because of our ticket time) but I hope we can go back soon and spend a whole day pouring over everything. 

^At the base of the building, where you enter the gallery portion of the museum. This is the retaining wall that holds back the Hudson River from flooding the Financial district.^

^They had a neat world map where you could write your feelings about 9/11 and they would be projected on the wall^

^Some of the original steel structure with the new freedom tower in the background^

^The memorial for the North tower^

^We are so grateful we got to go to the museum together. And although we didn't get a group shot, I am so glad we were able to share this neat experience with so many of our closest friends!^

^And to end on a much happier note, another NYC favorite is having friends/family come and visit me! So one of my best HS girlfriends, Alexis (& her darling family), my brother-in-law Matt (picture below), and cute Kelli (above) have come to visit us. If you have plans to visit the city, please let us know! I really love seeing familiar faces in this wonderful city!^

^With Matt!^