R&R Recap: Part 1 (Philadelphia)

I returned home from vacation today ready to get back to the swing of things. I definitely enjoyed the much needed week and a half of rest and relaxation, and now I’m re-energized to get back to work and my regularly scheduled blogging.

Throughout the trip, I kept my outfits very casual. I threw on another ode to my white jeans, and picked up the bracelet above from the same street vendor who sold me this bracelet. I love the versatility mixing metals adds to combining whatever-the-heck jewelry I feel like throwing on. I wore this to take The Little Guy for his second hair cut. The poor thing cried the entire time, which I hate watching. But I know he’s really fine, and a few snips of his hair won’t be causing any long term emotional damage (at least at this age).

We spent several days hanging out with family and friends we hadn’t seen in many months, as we don’t get back to Philadelphia as often as we’d like. We stayed with my in-laws, so The Little Guy got tons of great uncle and grandparent time the entire week (which he loved).

On Monday night, we had extended family over and made s’mores ~ a recent addition to my ‘major weakness’ list. I think I ate at least three. We enjoyed the s’mores as a family around a nice evening fire. We even scavenged the neighborhood for some skinny sticks to add an element of ‘authenticity’ to the campfire s’more situation. (In reality, we sat in Adirondack chairs on a back patio around a contemporary fire pit. None of us are all that outdoorsy, to say the least, so eating off of sticks provided enough connection to nature for us).

For our midweek adventure to Washington DC, I wore this shirt and shorts (a combination of this outfit and this outfit, both of which I wore being a tourist in Chicago a couple of weeks ago – keep on remixing!). We visited some of The Man’s family as well as my sister, both of whom live in the area. We just stayed for a night. The quick trip consisted of walking around the National Mall with a stop at the White House in scorching, par-for-the-course, DC summer humidity, followed by a visit to my little sister’s first apartment sans roommates. She picked a great place (four blocks from her work – I’m jealous) and she even bought me dinner (sweet!).

Back in Philadelphia, we visited Longwood Gardens, a beautiful and enormous outdoor horticulture museum (of sorts). It’s a few miles outside the city, but I would definitely recommend stopping in if you’re in the area. They update the flowers and plants seasonally and each pristine garden among the vast landscape captures so much beauty. I could snap photos here all day. Check out a few of my favorites:

Just as I focused the camera on this lovely yellow bloom, the little bee kindly posed for me.

The Little Guy walking the paths with Gram ~ so cute!

I aimed my camera at this beautiful butterfly hanging out on the bright yellow flower and just as I snapped the photo it flew to the next blossom. Not sure how often my luck will strike such that I capture a butterfly in flight and in focus.

Below, I loved how the water created a perfectly pure plane despite continuously running over the edges of the bath.

And The Little Guy, admiring the waterfall ~ he ran toward and was enamored by every waterfall, pond, and stream along the way.