ADVENTURING: WEST HURLEY, NEW YORK.

First things first, hello. It's me. I was wondering if after all these years, you'd like to meet, to go over everything...[insert expletive in Adele's voice].

Just kidding. The truth is, I updated my blog by going to a paid domain with a ton of bells and whistles, added photography services, published three or four blog posts, and then forgot about the whole blogging thing. Several months later, I'm due to renew my domain as well as the website service I'm using. And because I'm too busy/unmotivated/struggling (choose one of those three excuses reasons on any give day) to blog consistently, I decide it's not worth renewing. Fast forward another several months—to January 2017—when I feel the desire to be creative, write more, and pursue more personal projects for the first time in 18 months. That's a big deal, ya'll. The heaviness and burden attached to balancing a creative lifestyle while parenting is suddenly gone. Just like that. So I have to take it and run with it and see where it takes me. But I'm going to do it with the original platform, aka the free one, but also the O.G. one. The one that has a nine-year archive of my travels, my growth as an adult, my life as a newlywed, my pregnancy. It's basically an anthology of my 20s, and I can't just abandon it. So here I am...again. And I hope you'll join me...again. :)

Last year was the year of traveling for us. I could go way back to June, where we kickstarted our non-stop travels by camping at the beach in Montauk for our anniversary weekend. Then, we went to California a couple weeks later to surprise Mark's mom for her 60th birthday. Or I could begin with our road trip to Toronto in July, where we attended a friend's wedding. Or maybe the other trip to California a month later to reunite with some good friends. You get the point: we basically traveled every month of the year starting in June. And every trip was truly wonderful. But for the sake of time/space/not wanting to write a 5,000-word essay right now, I'll begin with one long weekend in September, five best friends, and a beautiful farmhouse in upstate New York.

I have the luxury of having two of my closest friends in NYC. They live just across the bridge in Manhattan and even though that's basically considered another state for New Yorkers, we've all done a really great job at making sure we see each other often. My other two closest friends, however, are on the other side of the country in California. Thankfully, I saw them a ton last year since we flew to California three times. But for one glorious long weekend, they flew to the east coast to just hang with us. You should've seen us the first night we all got together. It may have been a frightening sight for an outsider looking in. Actually, I believe one of the men observing us that night actually commented, "It's like they're speaking their own language." You see, we finish each other's sentences, laugh at unfinished jokes, tease each other, talk a mile a minute, and say a ton without saying much at all. Anyone have girlfriends like that? It's a beautiful thing, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

[I promise they like each other ;).]

Being able to get together despite our busy schedules, growing families, and changing careers is a feat I am incredibly proud of us for. No doubt it'll get harder as we get older, have more kids, enter new relationships, get busier—the list goes on—but it says a lot to know that with these ladies, I'm confident we'll make it happen. Until next time. :)