Memorial Day With Brant, Susanne & Junior

I seriously had the craziest May, ever. Holy crap, I overbooked myself big time but, even with all I had going on, I was totally psyched to have Brant and Susanne finish off the month with a Memorial Day visit. They've come to visit me so many times and I'm totally blessed to have friends who make that kind of effort. This trip was especially meaningful for two reasons: 1) Susanne is just about four months pregnant and 2) it might be their last trip to see me while I still live here (holy moly, I can't even think about that!). As soon as they arrived, I just knew Susanne would look absolutely darling and she surely did. Apparently, she and Brant had joked about naming the baby something ridiculous like 'Junior' but now the name has affectionately stuck...and I love it. :)

Since Brant and Susanne have done mostly all of the touristy things here, this visit was far different than all the others. They decided they really wanted to be locals for a weekend and Upper East Side locals, at that. The only request Susanne had was a little shopping for a cute maternity dress or two. That was the only planned thing on our agenda other than a long bike ride I'd already had on the calendar. They'd actually gone to DC a couple of days before coming to NY so they ended up getting in on a pretty late train on Friday night. Come Saturday morning, I was off on the bike super early and they had a nice, relaxed morning in the 'hood. 65 miles and lots of sweat later, I was more than ready for a cold beer and to finally start our visit.

We had the absolute best weekend together and it was by far my favorite visit of theirs. We laughed, reminisced, talked about everything under the sun and really just relaxed. We took them to so many favorite local spots like Cilantro, Libertador, Gina's, Swig, Vero, Cafe D'Alsace...just all the places we love so much and go to on any given day. They got a real taste for life in the city on an average weekend which was so fun! We also had our fair share of shenanigans and I won't even get into explaining that, hahaha. It was just so nice having them here:

We're all quite excited to meet Junior come October and we're pretty psyched that NY has been the first trip he or she has been on. Mine and Brant's relationship has stood the test of time and a great deal of hardship so being where we all are now is such a joy. The years have been kind to us as a whole and we're all truly like family which is quite special. Junior is going to be welcomed into this world with lots of open arms and love, I can tell you that. Thank you for making the trip up yet again, Brant and Susanne; it means the world to me!