July 5, 2010

Married!

We’ve been married for 1 terrific month!

Celebrating with family and friends in Cabo was the best decision we could have made, and we enjoyed every minute of it!  The weather was terrific, the company was fantastic, and we had such a fun and spirited wedding, complete with a pinata, fire dancers, sparklers and cupcakes!  Thanks to everyone who was there — you made it beyond memorable and we love you!  For those of you who couldn’t make it, we missed you and love you, too!

Wedding festivities officially began on Thursday, June 3rd.  Most guests arrived that day, and we celebrated with a welcome dinner on the beach that evening — Mexican themed, of course!

Shot of the resort:

The Burkes enjoying some Mexican food and drinks:

Some of my favorite girls!

The wedding took place the next night on June 4th.  It was perfect!

Here I am, finally ready to go!

One of the first posed photos:

Before the ceremony, reunited!

Photo with my family:

Love this shot of Kristin and me:

Kurt waiting for me to walk down the aisle:

During the ceremony, so happy!

Kiss!

The bridal party (minus Adrienne):

The Kolinskis:

Kristin, my matron-of-honor, giving her amazing toast!

Photo with my mama:

One of my favs:

Hola!

Yale girls!

Kurt and my dad having a lot of fun!

One of the amazing fire dancers from Lunas De Fuego:

My dad and me after a tequila shot:

Clearly I could go on and on with the wedding photos, so we’ll stop here until the professional ones arrive (!).

The next day we took a beautiful, but very windy, catamaran cruise:

No post would be complete without a new photo of my nephew!

OK, I’ll stop before this is truly the longest post ever in the history of the world.  Thanks again to everyone who made our day so special.  It was an amazingly fun wedding because of YOU!

Love,
The Kolinskis :)

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May 17, 2010

FREEDOM!

True to form, I’m posting to you on school break.  Only this time, it’s a special kind of break.  I’m off ALL summer after completing my SECOND year!  This is beyond amazing.  Since starting the program in August 2008, I’ve had a little time off here and there, but it was basically used as a catch up on this and that, and never really enough time to actually relax and rejuvenate.  Well people, I am FREE and ready to lounge around, drink lattés, go to yoga and meander around NYC.  I’m not quite sure I’ll be able to handle all this leisure time!  Kurt, in fact, doesn’t believe it at all; he thinks I’m going to to nuts!  We’ll see.

So let’s see, it’s been 2 1/2 months since my last post – not good, not good at all.  Here’s the run-down on Corminski happenings:

5-year anniversary in Vermont: awesome.  We stayed at the Woodstock Inn and had a fabulous time eating, drinking, tootling about town.  Seeing myself here in a winter coat and snow on the ground gives me a eye twitch (oh wait, that was already there!), but pretty nonetheless:

Look at this cute boy, who had champagne, cheese and chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us in the room:

Moving right along . . . In March, Adrienne and my other lovely San Francisco girls threw me a bridal shower at Adrienne’s place.  It was all so perfect!  They made what they called “Jenn greatest hits” for the food, and had everything in navy and fuchsia (the wedding colors).  To top it all off, they had Kurt video himself answering various questions about us and our life, and then Christina compiled all the little snippets into one long, game-show like, video. It was adorable. I would have to answer the question asked, and then we’d play Kurt’s response.  I will cherish that video forever!  To top it off, my mom and sister flew up from San Diego, and Kristin came into town from DC!  I’m a lucky, lucky girl!

Look at the beautiful table setting:

Here’s us watching the video of Kurt – so cute!

Opening presents :)

My mom found the baby (baby Nora):

After San Francisco, I took a quick flight down to San Diego, where we had gorgeous weather and took care of some wedding details.  I took my mom for lunch in La Jolla, and it was a perfect day outside! We sat on the patio at Brockton Villa, and despite the temperature being at least 70, a woman next to us asked the waiter if the outside heater could be turned on.  This wouldn’t have surprised me a few years ago, but hey, spend a couple years on the east coast, lady.

What S&S post would be complete without an adorable photo of my ridiculously cute nephew?  He loves to ham it up for the camera:

I also got to meet Kelli’s baby, Abeni!  She’s so little and sweet!

In extremely exciting news, we had an engagement photo shoot in NYC!  Seeing as I’ve already plastered these photos everywhere, here are just a few:

This posting wouldn’t be complete without a mention that my darling friend, Amanda, received a creative writing award! Not only was her piece beautifully written, her delivery as she read it on stage was jaw-dropping.  She’s incredibly talented, and I couldn’t be more proud!

Finally, guess who got a surprise party this past weekend?!  After a Friday night dinner, and a bit of bizarre behavior from Kurt, I came home to a surprise “Cabo” party organized by Amanda and Tanya.  Do I really have to state again how absurdly lucky I am? It really got us in the spirit for the upcoming trip! I’m still waiting for most of the photos from my girls, but here are a couple from my camera:

We took a whole collection of “Cabo” photos (of the girls at the party who are making the trip).  Here’s just one, but you’ve gotta see the one where everyone showed what they would do if someone tried to stop us at the alter, ha! BTW, amazing signage created by Kaitlin, second from right.

THANK YOU, my east coast girls!!

Speaking of Cabo . . . here we come!!!  Kurt and I get married in 18 days!!! We’re still looking for an apartment in New York City, but school is done, and life is good!

xoxo

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March 2, 2010

Midterms, Spring Break, Exhaustion!

Ohhhh yes, spring break! As of Friday I’m free for a whole 2 weeks!  It’s been a rough road since I last posted to you in December (while on winter break, are you seeing a trend?).  Thank God for spring break . . . I seriously wouldn’t make it to May without this break.  My life has become a 15 hour+ workday, everyday, and in the words of my friend Kait, I’m O. ver. it.

So let’s see, what’s been happening?  Well, I neglected to share our Disney World trip with you that we took over Christmas!  It was such a fabulous break–from the weather, from New Haven, from school stress–and was a much needed vacation for Kurt and me to take together since we see so little of each other these days!

We started day #1 at the Magic Kingdom:

Thunder Mountain is the best ride ever (OK, Space Mountain rocks too):

Every day we’d come back to the hotel and go in the jacuzzi with a cocktail in hand – it was the best way to relax after walking around the parks all day.  We stayed at the Waldorf Astoria in Orlando, and their lobby was so festive!

The next day we went to Epcot.  Here we are in Morocco!

and then we popped over to a few other countries.  Can you see the Eiffel Tower in the background?

The detail they put into each “country” was impressive!  Kurt was even impressed, and he’s a hard sell.

Kurt jumped over to Germany for a little beer & bratwurst:

Christmas morning we slept in and then started the day with room service and more laziness.

Later we got to meet up with my friend, Brett, who used to live in San Diego but now lives in Florida. It was so fabulous to catch up – it had been way too long!

After Disney, we reluctantly came back to New Haven and had a quiet NYE celebration with dinner out and drinking in:

After New Year’s, Kari came into town, despite the freezing temps!  I no longer see her Facebook status updates that say, “it’s so hot in San Diego . . . I wish I could wear sweaters!”.  We had a great time in New Haven and NYC!

Here we are at one of my favorite pizza spots in New Haven, Kitchen Zinc, where we had my favorite thing on their menu: the portobello mushroom pizza!  It looks absolute gigantic in this photo, but I promise it was just the angle (although we did eat the whole thing!).

It was sunny, clear and absolutely freezing while she was here!  The week after she left the temps shot up 20 degrees, of course!

Here we are in Times Square being such dorks in our ear muffs:

Here we are in front of the Rockefeller tree (still freezing!):

Also while in NYC, we did some dress shopping, including the infamous Kleinfeld:

Kleinfeld was quite the scene.  They were filming that day for TLCs ‘Say Yes to the Dress’, but we didn’t see anyone.  The whole place is really so fake, and everyone that works there tells you absolutely anything they think you want to hear.  I’m not a fan, but I still think it was a randomly fun experience.

The following day, I was lucky enough to have Kristin AND Tanya join Kari and me in NYC for some more dress shopping at Pronovias. We had a great lunch, tried on some dresses, and then hit The Plaza for a drink, followed by dinner with Kurt that evening at a yummy restaurant in Tribeca.

I can’t believe you girls came into NYC just to see me try on some dresses!  I’m *so* lucky.

At the end of January, I helped to throw the annual Annie Goodrich Ball, and it was quite a success!

With Kait and Mo, two of my most favorite people:

and here’s my dear Katie, looking quite hot if I do say!

and darling Devon, looking positively adorable!

Finally, Kait took this shot – best self-taken group shot, ever?  I think so.

In other super exciting news – I received my Yale Diploma!

In more annoying news, we’ve had a crapload of snow (official measurement — you can check).  While it’s nice when you’re sitting at home all day, it’s maddening when you have to drive an hour north for clinical.  Here’s one of the more peaceful days, when I was studying in my sweats and snapped this from the warmth of my office:

That’s pretty much two months worth of updates!

Be on the lookout for another post soon, including photos from our anniversary in Vermont that we took last weekend!

Lots of love,
Jenn

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December 20, 2009

Halfway Through + Winter Break, YAY!

Oh wowie, wow.  I’m halfway through my program!!  The semester ended after my last final at noon on Friday, and it’s just so good to be done!  Over 5 days I took 5 finals, which was a brutal exercise in motivation, endurance and willing myself to stay sane.  Sadly, my break is only 3 weeks, and then the madness begins again.  There are two pieces of good news about the spring semester, however: 1) I get a 3-week spring break in the middle of the semester and am planning a trip to San Francisco (!) and 2) after the semester ends I get the entire summer off before completing my very last year (+ we’re moving to NYC)!  Can you say excited?

So let’s see . . .what’s else . . .Well, amidst all the chaos of finals, Christmas present shopping, planning our school’s Annie Goodrich Ball at the end of January, and wedding planning, this girl has become really good at the art of using every single damn second in the day.  Just for kicks, we (and when I say “we” I mean “me”) also planned our 5th Annual Christmas Party, which took place on the 12th, and was a lot of fun!

Here’s a few of us at our Christmas party (Kait, Phoebe, Moey, me and Katie):

The weekend before was Devon and Katie’s 2nd annual holiday extravaganza, and was a costume party (the creativity was just unbelievable!):

Pam, Mo, Casey, Kait, Katie and me:

Katie:

Andy and me:

OK, onto a touchy topic with me — the weather!  Even though it’s already snowed twice in New Haven, it had yet to stick until last night!  We didn’t get hit as hard as DC or Maryland, but we still got a good foot or so.  Here’s a view of the Green, just about an hour ago:

Alright friends, to finish off the post, here’s a recent photo of my nephew, who is the cutest little thing!

Merry Christmas and much love to you — we’re off to Disney World tomorrow!  xoxo

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December 2, 2009

Kait’s Birthday Bash

Last night we celebrated sweet Kait’s birthday at her adorable apartment.  It was the perfect night, filled with drinks-a-plenty, cupcakes by Jenn, and Guitar Hero (which um, I think might just be one of the greatest things ever!).

Here’s Katie, Kait (the birthday girl), and yours truly:

I knew that Kait loved these cupcakes, so I opted to make them instead of a cake:

Here she is, making a wish!

That’s right – it’s me on bass guitar!  I’m taking this very seriously.

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR KAIT! xoxo

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December 2, 2009

Christmas Tree Fun!

I can’t believe we have a Christmas tree.  The fact that it’s that time of year again is shocking!  However, Christmas tree picking out is fun, especially going to Jones Family Farm, which we did again this year.  It’s so festive, and this year we went on a weekend, so it was a bit chaotic, but fun with adorable children and their cute doggies everywhere.

Here’s Kurt with the miniature trees:

and then with the monster big trees (which cost just a bit more than a regular ol’ tree in San Francisco!):

of course, Kurt needed a Christmas cookie to go with our hot apple cider:

We opted for a smaller tree this year, so we looked in the 5-7′ range (opposed to the 8-9 feet trees we get every year!):

Here’s the pretty tree we picked out!

So in the past we’ve done a red & green tree, a red, white & blue tree, and a red & silver tree.  This year, we’ve gone eclectic.  It’s a mish mash of sail boats, Santa Clauses, retro colored ornaments, and as always, Kurt’s silver pig (because you know, nothing says Christmas like a pig ornament!).

I hope you have fun picking our and decorating your tree, too!  xoxo

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November 28, 2009

Weekend Happenings

Wow, so nice to have so many days off in a row, and with Kurt no less!  He got home Wednesday night, and I made a lovely, cozy dinner at home with filets, fingerling potatoes and broccolini coupled with a great bottle of vino.  It was the perfect kick-off to the weekend and we got to just sit in our toasty apartment and catch up on life!

Thursday morning we made a new pancake recipe (with sour cream, yum!) and leisured over breakfast before getting a coffee at Starbucks and planning the day.  I made a delicious cranberry upside-down cake, which will be posted to Dreamy Dish soon (and is unbelievably recommended)!  Thanksgiving evening we had a really great turkey dinner at Heirloom.  We started with a couple glasses of Prosecco, followed by a huge bowl of lobster bisque.  Then our turkey dinner arrived, and as I looked down at my plate and saw all the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, harticots verts, stuffing and cranberry sauce, I said aloud, “Whoa, this would have taken me 8 hours to cook!”.  What with all the delicious food, Prosecco, red wine and dessert, I may never cook a holiday meal again!

Here’s me in our lobby, headed to Heirloom (I’m looking quite Thanksgiving-y, no?):

and here’s us, at dinner!

We got home from Heirloom and was in such a food coma that literally at 7pm we were both ready to pass out!  In fact, I think Kurt did pass out for a spell.

Friday we actually hit the stores for Black Friday sales.  We intended to get up at 7am, but then thought better of it and went back to bed until 9.  Ahh, sleep.  We went to Target, which probably had the best sales of any, but all in all it was rather understated and disappointing.  We did get a few people checked off the list though, so hey, we’ll take progress where we can get it.

Speaking of progress, we came home from shopping yesterday and ordered our save-the-dates!  We love them and I can’t wait for them to arrive! We ordered them from Wedding Paper Divas – love that site!  After such a triumphant day, what with all the checking stuff off the wedding list and all, we ordered in Thai food and watched Christmas Vacation.  Perfect.

Since we’re obviously on a roll here, we decided to register at Crate & Barrel today, which was so fun!  Kurt of course was super excited about using the scanner.  Boys! ;)

Tomorrow we’re off to get our Christmas tree from Jones Family Farm!  We’re going to do a little decorating tonight, and then finish up tomorrow.  I adore Christmas.

Hope you’re enjoying your weekend, too!
xoxo j.

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