Whether you were celebrating Easter, enjoying the weather, or doing absolutely nothing (power to you!), I hope you all had wonderful weekends! Here's a recap of five things that made me happy this weekend. Warning: photo-heavy post to follow...
1. Surprise!
If you’re following me on Instagram, it’s no surprise by now that I took a quick, cross-country trip this weekend to see my family. And it was absolutely, 100% worth it. My only regret is that I don’t have my mom’s reaction upon seeing me walk into the living room on Friday morning on video (thanks for nothing, Noah). I had an incredible weekend, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it.
2. Dunkin Donuts
…Need I say more? Actually, I probably do. For those of you who don’t know, Dunkin Donuts are notoriously absent from the West Coast, specifically from San Diego. In college at Penn State, next-morning Dunkin runs after a night out were a staple. And now? I’m lucky if I make it to the one DD location in SD once every six months. So, every time I return to the east coast, this is always one of the first stops I make. And the large vanilla latte I purchased upon landing at 6 am post red-eye-flight did NOT disappoint.
Hello, beautiful.
3. Our nation’s capital
For my dad’s birthday on Saturday, I suggested we take a family trip into the Washington D.C. to attend the Cherry Blossom Festival. Well apparently, cherry blossoms are pretty fickle… they bloom once a year for about two weeks, and time was not on our side this weekend. Most of the cherry blossom trees were still in the bud-phase (is that a tree term? I’m going to say yes), but we did find about six blooming trees in front of the Washington monument, so naturally we took a million pictures of them.
Since we were in the area, we also took the opportunity to visit almost every memorial on the National Mall, which I admittedly haven’t done in several years. I was particularly excited to check out the Martin Luther King Memorial, which was erected since I moved out to California almost four years ago. Here’s a sampling of D.C. pictures, but expect a full recap and tourist-guide post to come soon!
4. The decorations…
This weekend was kind of a double whammy in that it included both my Dad’s birthday AND Easter. And let me tell you guys… the decorations did not disappoint. My mom is a bit of a Pottery Barn shopaholic (“Isn’t this cute? It was on sale!”), but I gotta admit, she’s got an eye for interior design. All in all, it was fun to spend Easter with my family for the first time in who-knows how many years, and participate in all the little rituals we used to do growing up (including finding our Easter baskets, of course!)
I gotta say, the woman knows her way around a table-setting.
...What are these?
5. Family time
Hands down, the best part of this weekend was getting to spend so much time with my family. Normally, when I make a trip back east, there’s a lot of pressure to see old friends, fit in certain events and schedule coffee dates, which are all wonderful, but it is a bit stressful. Since I was home for such a short time and most everyone was spending time with their respective families as well, I felt comfortable just hanging out. No obligations, no expectations, just a little bit of unadulterated R and R. And of course, a heck of a lot of home-cooked food… More details on that to come!
Happy Easter! Not pictured: brother #3, Hunter.
So, what are you still smiling about from this weekend? How did you spend your Easter holiday?
Labels: 5 things, weekend
