Life is good. I know it won’t always be like this. So I want to acknowledge it, appreciate it, and embrace it. These monthly recap posts have become a way to process my gratitude.

September 2016 brought new work opportunities (Miss America and iHeart Radio), time spent with family (game nights and puppy cuddling), explorations around New England (CT and Cape Cod), and several theatrical experiences in New York City. Those are some of my favorite things in life and I’m so grateful I get to spend my time this way. There were also simple pleasures to enjoy — the bliss of summer turning into fall, long walks around town listening to podcasts, baking favorite recipes, lighting candles, and planning for the future. Plus lots of photo editing and blog writing. And I finally watched Season 2 of both Bloodline and Broadchurch.

I’ll start by recapping the events and explorations I’ve already written about — for the first nine days of September, I was in Atlantic City working on Miss America.

I enjoyed the last of summer with a day trip to Washington Depot, CT with my sister (Milkcraft ice cream may have been involved).

And took my first-every trip to the expansive and amazing Book Barn in Niantic, CT.

I spent a long weekend on Cape Cod with my parents. We took a day trip to Woods Hole and visited the aquarium there. It was colorful and as usual I took too many photos.

We also poked around Falmouth and my parents cooked a delicious salmon dinner with a peach and corn salad.

And then I worked on iHeart Radio Music Festival in Vegas for five days, featuring acts like U2, Sting, Britney Spears, and the Backstreet Boys.

Now moving on to the parts of my month I haven’t already shared on here…

After paying an outrageous $8.60 for Starbucks in Vegas, I experimented with a homemade pumpkin spice latte recipe that turned out so-so, but then picked up a box of pumpkin chai tea latte concentrate which I warm up with almond milk in a sauce pan — it’s consistently delicious. AND I BOUGHT A NEW CAMERA LENS! That warrants all caps. I’m so excited to play with this new toy.

I bought two candles at the Bath & Body Works outlet — Mahogany Teakwood and Pumpkin Woods. Normally I wouldn’t consider this a blog-worthy purchase, but it’s been years since I’ve been somewhere long enough to buy a candle. They make me so happy! These will live at my parents’ house and I’ll enjoy them whenever I’m in town.

I also dug out a few favorite fall recipes — pumpkin chocolate chip oatmeal cookies (recipe at the bottom of this post) and homemade butternut squash soup.

I played Scrabble again with my dad. You may recall that last month I bragged about finally beating him. This month he got his revenge.

Of course I cuddled with this little girl as much as possible:

And more cuddles with this guy:

Candles, favorite recipes, game night, puppy cuddling… sometimes the little things are really the big things.

My sister and I met up for dinner on back-to-back evenings at her apartment in New Haven. The first night I brought pizza, the second night she made salmon and a bunch of side dishes.

My sister’s been using Blue Apron for well over a year now, and her cooking confidence has increased — she stopped at the grocery store to pick up ingredients and improvised this meal: salmon with a seafood stuffing, crispy kale, and beluga lentils with avocado and dressing. It turned out great.

I whipped up cinnamon s’mores bars for dessert — they’re just like rice crispy treats but made with Cinnamon Toast Crunch instead of Rice Crispies. Then I added chocolate chips to make it more s’mores-like. SO GOOD.

I took my mom out for a very belated Mother’s Day lunch. We went to Savin Rock Roasting Company in West Haven; the food was delicious.

Then we got Dunkin Donuts and walked along the boardwalk in West Haven.

A bunch of pretty boardwalk pictures… I’d never been here before!

And I made it to New York City a few times to see theater. (Full theater review post coming next week.)

Avocado pesto linguini at The Grey Dog in Manhattan (and I read Everything I Never Told You — good book):

Drinks with friends! It’s always fun to catch up with Ian, and it happened to be Adam’s birthday. Fun night.

Bea has a new fall drink that is essentially a cocktail equivalent to the pumpkin spice latte. Two thumbs up.

And one of my best friends was in NYC for work!!

Kelley and I got dinner at Tavola, one of my favorite Italian spots in the city.

A few more NYC food photos… I grabbed a quick lunch at Yum Yum in midtown before a matinee one afternoon. Their lunch special is such a good deal — something like three courses for $9.

I tried two new-to-me coffee spots in NYC this month — Culture Espresso on 38th St. / 6th Ave., and Frisson Espresso on 47th St. between 8th and 9th Ave. I’d return to both.

And finally, I spent some time planning for a trip I’m taking in October. More on that tomorrow!

In the mean time, here is that pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe (you’re welcome):

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:

2 c flour
1 c quick or old-fashioned oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon (I use pumpkin spice instead)
1/2 tsp salt
1 c (2 sticks) of butter
1 c firmly packed brown sugar
1 c sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 c canned pumpkin
1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips (use 2 c if skipping raisins)
1 c raisins

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients (flour through salt). Set aside.

Cream butter. Gradually add both sugars and cream until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.

Alternate additions of dry ingredients and pumpkin, mixing well after each addition. Stir in chocolate chips and raisins.

Drop by tablespoon onto baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes or until tops of cookies are dry and spring back when touched lightly. Remove from baking sheet and cool on racks.