What a weekend a.k.a. WE GOT ENGAGED!

What a weekend!

Saturday morning Lauren's mother, Nana, came to get Sierra for an over night sleepover (first time ever!) and Lauren and I were going for a night away alone (first time ever!) to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. We wanted to stay nearby so we went an hour or so North of Boston to Hampton, NH. Hampton is a small town with a long boardwalk full of restaurants, bars and arcades running along side a big beautiful beach. We had visited Hampton once before in the winter and have always wanted to see in it's summer season.

Packing

Leaving our lovely city.

We left Boston around noon and headed north for the night. We had a lovely drive listening to and singing along to the cheesiest music possible; Dashboard Confessional was in heavy rotation. Once arriving in New Hampshire we were both famished so we stopped at Good Karma Café, a delicious raw vegan gluten-free place in Exter. If you are heading through NH and have dietary restrictions (or even if you don't) I highly suggest you stop here - the food was wonderful!

Uplifting sign as you enter the restaurant. Thanks Good Karma Café!

After lunch we went to our hotel to drop off our things and take a quick dip in the pool and a nice relaxing lounge in the jacuzzi before heading up to our room to search for fun things to do (on our iPad. Thanks for the present Gramma!). Hampton is full of things to do, including tattoos and mini golf which is of course what we decided to do. We found a place that had great reviews and photos of their work just down the road from the hotel called Jim's Tattoos and decided to check it out. We both got quick little tattoos and love the way they came out! If you're ever in Hampton and in need of a tattoo i suggest Jim's HIGHLY! They do great work, it's affordable, friendly and FAST!

Our New Tattoos.

After that we went and played 16 holes of mini-golf and I kicked Lauren's ass (by two whole strokes). After my PGA quality game we rushed home, changed into fancier clothes and rushed out to dinner.

Dinner was amazing - seriously. Blue Moon Evolution is an awesome vegetarian & vegan friendly restaurant that is in situated in an old restored barn in Exeter, NH. It's dimly lit by candles and string lighting, has a great menu and the service was top notch. If you're vegan and in need of a good date spot in New Hampshire this is it - no contest. For an after dinner drink we went to 10 Water Street down the road on the river and Lauren even let me watch the 3rd period of the Hawks v. Kings game... THAT LATE GOAL RIGHT?! 

Blue Moon Evolution and 11 Water Street - both great spots!!

After our drink we headed to the Boardwalk back in Hampton and went for a lovely walk and even hit up an old school arcade to play skee ball. We grabbed one more drink nearby and headed to the beach to star gaze.

The arcade and our loot.

By this time it was nearing midnight, making it June 9th, officially our anniversary. I'll spare you the mushy details of my proposal but she said YES and thats all that matters!

We had a child first, then we moved in together and now we're getting married. Not the traditional order of events but it's worked for us. I feel incredibly lucky to be engaged to such a gorgeous, smart, caring and supportive woman who I have a beautiful daughter with and I couldn't be happier or be more lucky.

-Craig

Bringing your kids to the movies for the first time!

Last night was Friday, our "Family Movie Night", which usually means watching something at home on Netflix or iTunes. But this FMN we decided to bring Sierra to the movie theater for the first time ever!

She's 3 now and we thought it was a good time to give it a shot. We decided to go see Hotel Transylvania, I was a bit nervous about it being too scary for her but Lauren and I agreed if she couldn't handle it that we would just leave and try again another time. BUT she did did AWESOME! She was a perfect little angel the whole time. She was quiet, stayed in her seat and was basically awe struck the entire time.

Before the movie we discussed how the theater would be loud and dark but that it was going to be safe and lots of fun. We discussed the rules of the theater such as being quiet, staying in our seats, etc. She was so excited and adhered to all the rules so that she could go again another day. The only issue we had was her holding the seat down but we eventually (with the help of a booster seat that the movie theater provided) made it work. We had a BLAST and I can not wait for the next in-theater Family Movie Night!

Sierra enjoying (believe it or not) vegan movie popcorn! They use a soy butter dairy free alternative and canola oil. SO not healthy but also not made with cows milk so we were OK with it. What would a movie theater experience be without popcorn?!

The movie wasn't too scary and it was really funny! With voices from Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Andy Samberg and Steve Buscemi I'm not surprised. Plenty of funny slapstick stuff for the kids with some more adult jokes to keep the older crowd interested. Two thumbs up from Sierra and I!

The next morning Sierra was pretending to be "Mavis" from the movie.
So say hello to our little vampire!

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