Hooray for our annual trip to the Carousel Mall in Syracuse NY to celebrate Carrie's birthday ! It's around half way for myself and Mickie and Carrie to travel for the day and it's a fun way to start thinking about the holiday shopping while spending time together. I love the first time I get to see them after we cell each other to verify which door, or what store..etc. This time it was at Macy's and I can still see them turning the corner together passing all the watches and jewelry counters.
We hug hello and then dive immediately into Carrie's (always prepared) list of to do's and to get's. LOL.
She's so organized, I love it. I'm sure no one wants to hear about all our girl talk...so I'll just sum up our day.
We walked around the mall looking at this and that while telling stories to catch up on each others' lives. We eventually head out to find our planned restaurant to take Carrie for her special birthday lunch. Usually it's the Olive Garden ; their favorites..but this time, Mickie found a really cute Mexican place with awesome food. It was really really good.
Check out the crazy cake Mickie made; she's so creative !
I got Care the Oprah book; she is always commited to living her best life and no one teaches that better than Oprah ... and Carrie always passes on her wisdom to me and I have so much to be thankful for when she gives me her advice. I hope you had a wonderful day bud ... I loved spending every moment with you...and thank you both again for making the trip out to meet me half way.
Happy Birthday Carrie !















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Not long after this trip, I photographed Bob's Aunt and Uncle as a long overdue 50th Wedding Anniversary present. Matted and Framed it for their home and they love it.
:)

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Bob's Aunt and Uncle; Carm and Frank celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary a few years ago and lately realized they never had a picture taken of themselves from it. They asked if I would take a portrait for them; I was honored. They are incredibly sweet and it made me really happy to be able to do this for them.
Happy (belated) Anniversary Carm and Frank !

Bob and I had so much fun in the big city ...it was Bob's first time there so we checked out Times Square first ... I remember seeing his face fill with a smile as we got there surrounded by all the lights !

We had sushi the first night we were there...walked everywhere, had some cocktails, took lots of pictures and just enjoyed being together and having fun in such an exciting city.

(First bunch of pictures are from our first day/night walking around, having dinner and cocktails and taking in all the sights and sounds of the city)

































































(The next day we walked around all day taking in more sights ... Natural History Museum, FAO, Trump Tower, Macy's and the famous Christmas windows...dinner, and then DANE COOK ! (no pix of the show unfortunately)

























































































(Empire State Building elevators; 80 floors !)















Met up with my friend Scott from College too ! It was just like old times...so great to see him; he's doing really well living in the city and it made me so happy to hang out with him again. The night went so fast ...
:(
There's nothing like a visit from an old friend.
Take care Scott !







As we headed out the next morning by shuttle to the airport, we passed one last place I had to get a picture of through the bus window...
"Bob's Park" !! neat !

No WAY ! Amanda made this Elf greeting for myself Bob and Buddy ~ It's hillarious !!!
Thanks Manda !!! I can't stop watching it and have to share!

Enjoy everyone and turn up the sound !

click here to see us dance

Before I put up the NYC pictures, I want to put up a few from a few weekends before when my friends Mickie Carrie and Becky came to help me continue searching for a dress and to go to a bridal show with me too !
Thanks guys for making the trip !! It's been so fun having you with me through this planning process and I couldn't do it without your smiles next to me.
:)
This was one of the first dresses I tried on ... it's not what I'm looking for, but I liked it and started to relax the more I put on. Mickie has a picture of the first one that I got weepy in ...it looked really pretty on me and then the owner of the shop put a veil on my head and I got to see the whole thing together...it was very exciting.



We went out dancing later that night; back to Vinyl and danced the night away ... it was daylight savings time that night too so we got to stay an extra hour !

The next morning we went to a bridal show together at the
Genesee Country Village Museum
Sue met up with us there too; I was so happy to have them there with me . The girls were on a mission to get my entry into the drawing to win stuff... they rushed around to all the tables to get stuff signed for me by the end of the show ...thank you guys for trying ; we totally should have won something !! But I had the best bridesmaids there of anyone and I have all that I'll ever need.

We went on a horse drawn carriage ride around the village together; it was a beautiful fall day and I loved being able to show them another of my favorite places outside Rochester.








Thank you so much for coming out again dear friends; I'm the luckiest bride to be there is. Love with chocolate fondue on top, Sue


The weekend after, I photographed a wedding at
the Artisan Works and just wanted to share this picture of the flower girls...aren't they SO sweet ?

NYC bound !!
I dropped Buddy off at our friend Sue's house tonight; Buddy was very excited to have play time with his friend Baxter ! Thanks Sue and Kevin for taking care of our boy...we will miss him !

We just finished packing and charging all the gadgets for the trip and are starting to wind down; surfing online getting ideas for what we want to do...can't wait.

Here's the link to the show at Madison Square Garden:
Dane Cook at Madison Square

Here's where we're staying:
Affinia Manhattan

(the room even comes with a small kitchenette and there's gourmet ready to cook meals just down the street at the Macys deli so we could do that one night vs. two nights of expensive dining)

Anyways....just getting excited.
:)

We got our engagement pictures done a few weeks ago and they're online now too... here's the link if you wanna see them. I love you Bob !
click here - Mary Corcoran Photography

LOTS of NYC pix to show when we're back on Monday , stay tuned!