Life Lately {vol. 43}

My mom and grandma came up to Concord to visit me and go wedding dress shopping in Boston a few weeks ago! Aren't they beautiful?!

I'm so in love with Boston! Such a beautiful city!

We went to Beacon Hill for a wedding dress appointment. Isn't it a gorgeous area?!

Whatta cutie!

My grandma is the sweetest and most beautiful person I know! :)

After a rather stressful dress experience (for me, haha), we relaxed with some bubbly!

Before we left Boston, we had a delicious meal at Legal's Test Kitchen!

When I got back to Concord after our girl's weekend, I had to go right into studying for finals!

A few of my friends and I celebrated the end of finals with a trip to a winery!

Abby, Erica, and I got dolled up at a Mary Kay party!

I made French Toast from scratch a few weekends ago!

Sleepy Leif is so adorable! :)

I didn't work out a lot during finals week. I was exhausted and totally swamped between packing for my trip to Iowa and my actual finals. I still felt pretty though.

THIS CHOCOLATE THOUGH. TRY IT.

End of finals margaritas with Amanda and Erica! :) I loved seeing them before I had to leave, and Erica even drove me to the airport at 4:30AM. What a saint!

I flew with James (who was so well-behaved) and spent most of my trip listening to music and reading my bridal magazine!

Look at old man Winston! *heart eyes*

James loves being out of his cage and having the room to himself, though he may be a little lonely without Leif. :)

The neighbor's cat, Charlie, loves us! We've thought about taking her with us more than once, haha.

I'm obsessed with this vine wall on the side of the Iowa City Starbucks!

J and I headed to Oyama (aka my favorite sushi place EVER) and it was just as amazing as always! I've literally never had an average meal there - it's incredible!

My MVP foreverrr!

J and I found a new area by the lake to explore!

Goofballs forever (don't worry, we were stopped).

J wanted to check out his favorite record store, so we hung around there for a while!

I finally got a Fitbit and I'm loving it!

I finally got to see my bestie, Liz! She's such a beautiful soul!

J got me this card and some wine for being the mother of our kitties on Mother's Day! It was totally expected and SO sweet! :)

We finally watched "The Babadook" the other night, and I was SO nervous! I had wine, so I made it through and it ended up being a very interesting, thought-provoking movie that made me think for hours afterwards. I'd definitely recommend it!

J had to do some work on a paper and print some things, so I spent time at one of my favorite coffee shops/book stores in Iowa City: Prairie Lights Books!

-- TAKI QUEEN 4 EVER --

This morning, before J turned in his first final, we headed to Starbucks as an early celebratory treat! I love my handsome dude. :3

While J turned in his last final EVER, I worked on my 12x12 reading project again after about a month break! I'm on to my 7th book this year: The Princess Bride!

J and I went for two laps around the lake today (~4 miles), and then I finished out my 10,000 steps on the treadmill when we got home! He finally got a Fitbit yesterday, and he walked/ran over 15,000 steps today! I have no idea how, but I'm super impressed. And exhausted, haha!

Today has been SUCH a lovely day! I've mostly just been relaxing while I've been visiting J in Iowa since he's been stressed and finishing up his finals before graduation. Well today, he turned in his very last final ever! So we celebrating with Starbucks, relaxation at home, packing up all of his clothes, and then by walking/running about 5 miles, haha. I really wanted to hit 10,000 steps today since we're celebrating tonight with food and alcohol, and J was so relieved to be done that he actually wanted to run! After running, we stretched for a while and then made homemade pesto margarita pizza, which was absolutely delicious.

We still have a lot of packing to do before J's ready to move to New Hampshire with me next week, but I can't believe how fast this week has flown by. The next week's going to be even crazier, at least for me. We're going between Des Moines and Iowa City to pick up my parents, watch J graduate (!!!), celebrate my mom's birthday, try on more wedding dresses, look at wedding venues, meet with a wedding planner, and finally pack J's car for the Big Move! 

It's going to be stressful, but I'm so excited to see all of J's family who I don't get to see often, and to see my parents, who it never feels like I see enough of. I'm also excited to see if we can make some wedding decisions this week since it feels like we haven't decided that much yet! If we find "the" venue, then we can hopefully book it and have a set wedding date!

I hope you all are having an equally great week and day! :)