Five on Friday

I can't believe another week has come and gone... and this is the last weekend in April - WHAT!? I will say, I've been so busy with my full time job, trying to keep up with the Tone It Up Bikini Series and filling orders for my business, I'm pooped. I'm ready for some family time next week and then a few weeks with nothing in the books.

One
Speaking of family time, my little sister is graduating college next weekend!!! I can't believe it's finally here and I can't wait to celebrate her. She seriously balled out in college - she majored in industrial and manufacturing engineering with a physics minor, is the president of multiple engineering clubs/groups, did 4 years in her sorority, designed an amazing product for senior design, has a fantastic job lined up... seriously I could go on and on. She worked so hard! Anyways, she got her graduation pictures taken the other day and they turned out so pretty, I couldn't not share.

Two
I've mentioned it before but I've been into following the Tone It Up program and this past Monday I started the 8 week Bikini Series. I feel so much stronger and healthier since starting TIU in general and I can't wait to see where these 8 weeks take me in regards of my physical shape! Even though it's only 5 days in, I've been doing a good job keeping up with it! If you'd like to follow along on my journey, I've got another instagram account dedicated to my TIU fitness.

I stayed in a hotel for work on Monday night and I loved getting to use their gym Monday and Tuesday before heading back into the office

Three
I'm so excited because I can now offer monogrammed floppy hats through Premium Pineapple!! I knew at some point I needed to see if I could even do floppy hats and when my sorority sister asked if I would do some for her and her mom, it was time to try. I practiced on a hat I've had since high school and it was successful :) I ordered a few plain floppy hats and can't wait to do theirs tonight!

Four
I finally got around to blogging about our NYC trip this week! I shared days 1 and 2 and can't wait to share the rest next week!

Five
I'm not going to lie, I've run out of things to talk about and we're desperately wanting to get to bed early tonight (for once) so I'm going to go ahead and sign off. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!! I'm planning on finishing my orders, blogging the rest of our NYC trip and possibly convincing Stephen to go take floppy hat pictures at the beach - I haven't shared that one with him yet lol!

NYC | Day 2

Welcome back! I'm currently recapping our recent trip to NYC earlier this month. Check out our first day here which gives some back story into our trip along with our adventures in southern Manhattan.

Saturday, we were staying in NJ for Stephen's conference so we were up and at 'em to catch the early morning train. It was like the first day of school - Stephen stayed with me to make sure I bought my ticket and got on the train successfully. Public transportation is a foreign concept for these Floridians ;) It was actually about an hour train ride from Mahwah, NJ to Secacus, NJ where I switched trains and had a final 10 minute train ride into Penn Station. It really couldn't have worked out any better! 

After arriving at Penn Station, I needed to hop on the subway to get to my sister's friend's apt. I figured out which line I needed to be on but had no clue there were different directions and lines once I was in the subway. I found a nice girl who looked like a local and she got me on the right subway - let's say, my sister was shocked when I called her and told her I was in the lobby and not calling for help! The girls finished getting ready and we headed out for a local bagel shop - I got a cinnamon raisin bagel with fresh strawberry cream cheese.

It was delicious!

After bagels, we hoped on the subway and headed over to Central Park to see the Strawberry Fields. We had a nice walk through Central Park and ended up at the Plaza where we continued to go into the designer stores and wondered what those people did for a living that they could afford such nice things ;) We also spent a good amount of time in Tiffany's admiring all of the sparkle!

Side Note: It was so cold and I almost went into Forever21 to buy a jacket but Caroline's friend was so nice and gave me this one to keep! She had it but never used it - it was a lifesaver

This is actually Trump's ice rink! Funny story - it wasn't taken care of and such an eye sore from the Trump Tower, that he bought the rink, brought it back to life and continues to take care of it!

If only one day we can stay at the Plaza... or at least do tea ;)

We stopped in the Ralph Lauren store to check out Ralph's so we could get some instagrams and coffee for Caroline. Every time I've seen instagrams here from other bloggers, the place looks big and empty. We were bummed to find it was a fairly small area (super cute still) and it was packed! We weren't able to get a seat in the insta-worthy area - it was still a fun experience.

After coffee, we did the most magical eating ever... after waiting close to an hour, we got the perfect seat at Black Tap - if you go to NYC, this should be on your must list!! Caroline and I split the perfect turkey burger and then the 3 of us split the best milkshake! Go check out their insta, they have the coolest shakes ever - ours actually looked the most boring but it was so delicious. My mouth is currently watering.

That is an ice cream sandwich on the left side

We decided to walk off our delicious lunch so we headed uptown towards the MET. It was a beautiful walk and I loved seeing the pretty townhouses - we again wondered what those people did for a living lol We finished up at the MET before my sister and her friend took me back to Penn Station (I was so thankful because there was like 3 subway line transfers). I was able to get on an earlier train out and Stephen was able to swing by, pick me up real quick and drop me off at the hotel before heading to a dinner. I ended up ordering a Jimmy John's lettuce sandwich - I should've just gotten bread... I was literally asleep by 8:30 pm - I was SO tired!

It was a great first day with my sister and her friend! Linking up with Annie

NYC | Day 1

I am so excited to finally blog about our trip to NYC (3 weeks go...). We seriously had the best time and saw so much in our short time there. Before I get into it, I want to give you some back story. At Stephen's company, certain people are able to "put their names in" to go to conferences to represent the company. Since Stephen is constantly working, he hasn't been able to throw his name in; well, a NY opportunity presented itself in the form of an Astronomy conference and Stephen was finally able to request to go - and he got picked! Immediately, we talked about me tagging along and turning it into a NYC trip. Stephen's never had the desire to visit NYC, but I've been dying to go so in his mind, why not go when half the trip is paid for!? ;)

So with 2 weeks notice, we got to planning an actual vacation around his conference. It worked out that the conference was on a Saturday and Sunday but Stephen was uneasy with me going into the city alone. Cue my sister being the best sister ever and deciding to use her birthday gift from my parents as a plane ticket to spend the weekend with me so I could come into the city - and really stay with one of her good friends who lives in the city.

So overall, we flew in Friday morning and drove into the city, drove out to the conference location Friday afternoon, spent 2 days in New Jersey and then returned to the city Monday and Tuesday before flying out Wednesday morning. It was the perfect amount of time (although, I wouldn't complain about 1 more day there ;)) and we had so much fun exploring!

Now, I'm finally going to tell you about day 1 lol We were up at like 3:30 am in order to catch our early morning flight to JFK. Once we got there, Stephen needed a rental car for his work priorities so we decided to spend the day in southern Manhattan. I figured the driving should be easier (it wasn't bad!) and we could hit everything in the financial district at once. We parked right near the New One World Trade Center so we visited the memorial before grabbing lunch at a local Irish Pub - the food was alright.

It was sooo cold, windy and rainy - it was drizzling after lunch so we ran into a few stores before going out to explore. We saw the Trade Center memorials again and then explored Wall Street, Trinity Church, NYSE and Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty. We headed out that afternoon and drove out to the conference location and setup Stephen's booth. Afterwards, we decided to eat at Olive Garden because I had a gift card lol Afterwards we headed back to the hotel and crashed after an early morning.

I kept thinking of National Treasure with Trinity Church! I'm sure Stephen heard me say "Heree at the Wall" like 100 times

Inside of Tiffany's on Wall Street... little did I know this wasn't THE Tiffany's

Straight ahead, way in the distance, you can see the Statue of Liberty

And one last shot of NJ

Linking up with Jessi