In town

Sunday we spent the day in town.
In the smaller town of Gardiner. Which consisted of an Antique Store and a diner. And a skydiving center. Center? Place? A place where you go to go skydiving. Yes one of those.

And after Gardiner we headed into New Paltz. Which is a mix of South Street, New Town & New Hope – for all you local friends. The boutiques were charming. The antique stores were quaint. And there was a Starbucks. So basically it rocked.

The secret to life is enjoying the passage of time.

I love that.
One more post about New Paltz coming tomorrow.
Just a couple favorite pictures.

My Sunny Saturday

Picking up where I left off in yesterday’s post…

On Saturday, after the brothers finally got outta bed we went to hike around the mountain that overlooks New Paltz. The cliffs are beautiful and are really popular for rock climbers?? – mountain climbers ?? So we saw a bunch of them too. Fortunately there were no accidents while we were walking!! Just a lot of people without shoes laying in the dirt. Or scaling the cliffs. And leashed dogs too.
The view from the trail was so gorgeous. All the leaves were starting to turn and the weather was perfect. The trail around the mountain was about five miles and the walk to the car was about a little under a mile each way. I have to admit at one point I really thought we were never going to make it all the way around, but I’m glad we did it. The two soccer players weren’t quite as thrilled :)

Afterwards, we came back to the house for cheese and crackers and, of course, a fire. Mark’s mom bought goat cheese to spread over date bread. It sounded totally gross but it was one of the best things I have ever eaten.
I couldn’t get enough of it!

Oh I want to go back SO bad…
We made a fire outside too – so the boys could make hotdogs. It was REALLY cold once the sun went down.
The boys lasted much longer than I did.

Mark had four hot dogs.  Four hot dogs with onions, mustard, and chilli. MMMMmmm.
No thank you. I’ll stick with my date bread and goat cheese :)

A Weekend Away…

This past weekend I was in New Paltz, NY for a weekend get-away with Mark’s family. It was such an amazing mini-vacation.  Feather pillows, fires, yummy food, hikes through the woods, and my favorite second family :)

Here are a few pictures from the first part of the weekend…

On Friday night we ate at a  pub called The Gilded Otter. It was SO SO loud inside, so we sat out on the heated porch. And of course the boys made us laugh the entire time and never stopped quoting Dumb and Dumber. After dinner we went to the house, sat in front of the fire until it died, and then fell asleep on feather pillow tops mattresses which huge duvets.
It was heavenly.

The next morning we sat in front of the fire reading and drinking coffee. The house was decorated SO beautifully. I drooled the whole weekend. Mark’s bedroom was my favorite. It’s messy in the picture, but the sage green/grey walls with the dark four-post bed and crisp white Pottery Barn linens was to-die-for. The bathroom was also divine. That bathtub… Like I said. I drooled.
And Mark was such a happy camper through all the pictures haha ;)

The best thing about this house was how calm and relaxing it was. The color scheme was cool and very neutral. The beds were amazing. The couch was comfortable. There was plenty of firewood to keep the fire lit whenever we were in the house. Everything just worked together so perfectly – and nothing seemed rushed. I decided after this weekend that having a mountain house is now on my life bucket list.

Having a house like this to go to every weekend to rejuvenate would be amazing.

More pictures to come this week!!