friday favorites 11.09.18

Don't ya just love Fridays? What a happy sunshiny day! This week has been a frustrating one so I'm happy to see it end. Either the computer system was down, limiting access to patient charts OR we were short-staffed at the clinic. So it's been a rough week where even the simple things were unnecessarily difficult. 

But not to worry, there were still plenty of highlights to this week. 

Sunflower Fields Forever 

A weeks ago, we did an autumn family photo shoot in a sunflower field. And we finally got the photos back. I can't remember the last time we actually hired a photographer to take pictures of us. We travel so much that we normally capture great photos (thanks to our tripod) of us in front of the northern lights of Iceland, hiking through the desert in Phoenix, or trekking  a wonder of the world in Mexico. But we decided to do the sunflower fields with a professional photographer to capture both us and our pup and it was the best decision. 

Christmas has come to the City of Mermaids 
Ya'll, I adore Christmas. And I adore living in the city of mermaids with these identical, but unique statues all over the city. When I realized that the City of Norfolk places holiday wreaths on the mermaids-I lost it. I almost fell off my bike when I rode by and saw that Patina, my favorite mermaid who sits on the waterfront is all decked out for the holidays. 

I even biked back over the next day to see her at night too! 

Cuba Budget 
One last share on our recent trip though Cuba...our Budget. I'm a big believer of "living life well and traveling often and I do it all on a tiny grad school budget". Yes, I am quoting my own blog tagline, but it's true. We have started traveling more and more internationally together, but are actually managing to keep our international budgets on par or even lower than our travels within the states. 

All the Date Nights

Have I mentioned that I love where we live? This is the first time in our 10+ year relationship that Tom and I have had the chance to be settled. Living together like a real married couple has felt like a dream that finally came true. But where we live is just as essential. We love that we are right on the water downtown. 

It has allowed for so many impromptu dates cuddling by the fire pit on our roof, watching the sunset over the water during game night, bike rides along the waterfront and through downtown. 

It's been a long week, but a blessed one all the same. 

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