My Week In Review (otherwise known as WIR) posts are just that: a review of my past week. I post an update here every Tuesday sharing some tidbits of my previous week as well as an accompanying photo recap with selections from my Instagram. Here’s the buzz from my week:
Last week flew by in a blur as I scrambled to get all of my end of the week posts edited and scheduled in advance for yet another long weekend trip. We’ve been busy travelers this year! As you can see, my dog Winnie was not enthused when I started packing again. As much as I hated to leave my girl when we had just returned home from our weekend in St. Louis and she was still under the weather, we could not miss this family reunion. Luckily, she started to feel better by the time we had to go and left her in the care of her wonderfully attentive Aunt Julie. I came home to find her happy and healthy once again!
While Winnie might not be a fan of my new suitcase, I am definitely loving it! I tested out the Erin Condren Party Pops Luggage for this trip and must say I think I might be a “hard shell” suitcase convert. Not only is it too cute to boot, it is also super easy to pack and organize. I plan on sharing a proper review later on in July during my annual Travel Series on OLJ.
You can receive $10 off your first purchase when you sign up for the Erin Condren newsletter (which means you receive the occasional email on current promotions and new products from them) by clicking here.
We flew out to New York for a family reunion on Don’s father’s side of the family. Don and I finished listening to The Hobbit audio book on the way from the airport to Long Island, which we had started the previous weekend for our St. Louis road trip. I’ve been really enjoying knitting while I listen to audio books while poolside and during travel, so I decided to sign up for an Audible account. While I still prefer actually reading paper books, it’s nice to be able to “read” while I knit. I just started Tina Fey’s Bossypants, which definitely has me chuckling!
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Of course, Bean Bunny made the trip with us. I’m having so much fun posing him for cute Instagram shots whenever we travel. Already in his short time with us, he’s visited Utah, the Dominican Republic, St. Louis, and now Southampton, Long Island. We have many other fun adventures planned for the remainder of the year and I plan to keep up with his little photo travel journal. You can see all of his posts on Instagram with #BeanBunnyWorldTraveler if you’d like!
As for our weekend, we flew out on Thursday with Don’s folks, his sister, her husband, and their baby, Grace. That girl is such a good traveler! At 13 months old, Grace is very busy learning new things and discovering everything with awe! Watching a baby delight in things both big and small is a wonderful reminder to enjoy the present moment. She was in good company over the weekend with Don’s visiting cousins who also have growing families. There are now seven kids under the age of seven on this side of the family! We thoroughly enjoyed watching them play and interact, or “baby tv,” as we like to call it.
The extended family got together every night for dinner, leaving most of the day on Friday and Saturday for exploring and enjoying the absolutely stunning weather. I loved my morning runs to the beach and back to the Southampton Inn, where we have also stayed during previous visits. We window shopped around town and ate delicious meals out together. We also got some family beach time in on Saturday with much of the clan. My father-in-law joked that if we had brought one more sun tent they would have charged us for a residency permit! 😉
On Saturday night, Don’s father and his sister’s hosted a special party celebrating Don’s grandparent’s 65th wedding anniversary. It was the perfect evening to be outside eating good food and sharing stories and memories with family. On Sunday morning, we all gathered one last time for a farewell brunch before heading back to the airport to return home.
If you’d like to see more from my weekend, check out my vlog:
I feel so blessed to have married into this family. I only wish we all lived closer together so that we could see each other more often. I have so many fond memories from the past ten years of gathering with these lovely people and I look forward to many more! How often do you get to see your extended family? Do you have large gatherings every so often or smaller, more frequent ones? I’d love to know if you care to share!
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