life lately and maastricht photos

Whew. It's been a crazy past three months, and unfortunately, this little blog fell to the bottom of the to-do list. Between returning to the U.S., spending time with family in Nashville, photographing and editing fall weddings and events, weekend trips to Nashville and the Carolina coast, finishing up the bambino's nursery, and Josh returning to North Carolina at the end of October, there hasn't been much free time. More on all of that later (as long as this little babe keeps on cookin')!

Before I left Europe, Josh and I had some photos taken by a fellow photographer and American expat in the Netherlands. Many thanks to Dario Endara for capturing these wonderful memories of such a crazy/exciting/chaotic time before our family of two expands! It's funny how at 28 weeks, when these photos were taken, the whole prospect of having a baby still seemed so surreal and now, he or she could be here literally any day! Even though they're also on my Facebook page, I thought I'd share just a few favorites here:

It's crazy to see how small that bump was only 10 weeks ago! With only 8 days 'til our due date, it definitely resembles more of a basketball now :) 

Maybe I'm just a little sentimental, but looking through these photos makes my heart swell with love for this guy. When we started dating 10 years ago, I could never have imagined that this would be our life today, and I'm forever grateful that it is. He's been such a good and understanding partner throughout this whole pregnancy, and I know that he'll be the best daddy to our little guy or gal. 

More updates coming soon!

adventures in london: part two

Welcome to the second half of my London recap! If you missed Part One, check it out here! 

We enjoyed Borough Market so much, that we headed there again for breakfast on Friday morning before walking over to the Tate Modern for a little culture. 

Our next stop was Chinatown - not nearly as impressive as San Francisco's - but still filled with plenty of great spots for lunch.

Our mission was Bone Daddies, at the recommendation of our hosts. Give me ramen all day, every day!

I also enjoyed this delightful little beverage - orange juice, passion fruit, and mint. So refreshing! I'll definitely be recreating a version of this at home.

We continued our walking tour of the city past the London Eye...

Big Ben...

Westminister Abbey...

... where Josh took this pic of me and the 25-week bump...

... and finally, Buckingham Palace, where I decided my poor feet were just too tired to go on. We grabbed some fish and chips for dinner and called it a day.

On Saturday, we had plans to go with Jas, Jennie, and some of their friends to a cricket match. We all decided that we had now been there, done that, and never have to do it again. haha! We were there for nearly *FOUR* hours and the game was only halfway through!

We took the train back to Aachen on Sunday and have finally recovered from the 20+ miles of walking. We LOVED London and can't wait to get back to see more of it!

adventures in london: part one

Last week, we finally took advantage of our close proximity to some bucket list destinations and hopped the train to the U.K. Josh's friend, Jas, had invited us to stay with he and his wife, and we used it as our excuse for one last big vacation before baby. Neither of us had ever been to London before, so we mostly just saw all the major sights, but we'll definitely be making a return trip to check out some more off-the-beaten-path locations.

We arrived Wednesday evening, got settled in, had an awesome dinner prepared by Jas's wife, Jennie, and turned in for an early bedtime so we could hit the ground running on Thursday.

We started off the day in Canary Wharf for breakfast, where we crossed over this really interesting footbridge seen above, to arrive at The Breakfast Club.

Josh had the English breakfast (as you do), and I had pancakes layered with ham, eggs, and cheese and topped with maple syrup. Delish.

The building the restaurant was in also had a really gorgeous greenhouse...

At Jennie's recommendation, we decided to head over to the Tower of London for the afternoon...

We took the tour, given by the Beefeaters, which was, in fact, really interesting. Ours was super animated and quite enjoyed picking on us Americans any chance he got. Who knew someone could make such a tragic and gory history lesson so entertaining?! At the Tower, we also got to see the Crown Jewels, but we weren't allowed to use cameras inside the building where they're kept.

You also got a really nice view of the city from the Tower walls...

Next, we crossed to Tower Bridge and headed to forage for some lunch...

It was already later in the afternoon, so we decided to just snack our way through Borough Market. 

We also stopped in Monmouth Coffee for a pick-me-up. Hallelujah for a great decaf latte!

Our last stop before heading back to meet our friends for dinner was to St. Paul's Cathedral. What a beautiful church... it's also probably the largest cathedral I've ever seen in my life. Simply stunning.

Stay tuned for Part Two of our London adventure coming soon!

All photos taken by yours truly using a Fuji X100 or by Josh via iPhone and edited in the VSCO app.