Hi! My name is Shannon Cocho and about four years ago I started a blog called Astori-A-Us about my adventures with my now husband Tom. He thought of the name because it sounded like the story of us and we lived in Astoria so it was the perfect way to describe our blog.
Why Start a Blog
A lot of people wonder why we started this blog. It was never for fame or to be an influencer, though, I myself was slightly influenced by some of my favorite Disney World YouTubers to start this, but the main reason was family. I had a lot of family members always asking me about our life in New York City. You see I was the first person in my family to move there (my brother followed shortly after me). I was Mary Tyler Moore to some of my Aunts. I couldn't always keep in touch aside from social media so I thought starting a blog would be the perfect way to share my adventures with all of them.
When Tom and I moved to Astoria together we thought we could use the blog to document some of our trips we take together and then it slowly grew into all of our adventures because each one was special to us in some way. In fact that's something we hope you take away from this blog; every moment, even the smallest ones, with the people you love are worth remembering.
Finding A Creative Outlet
I also found over time that I really love writing even though my grammar would tell you otherwise. It has become a creative outlet for me and a fun hobby. Having a hobby as an adult isn't always easy, but I find motivation in the interaction we get from followers and of course, family. I also thought it would be really cool to document "real life" adventures, not the stuff you see perfectly curated on Instagram. Though I have gotten pretty good at the whole Instagram thing.
When you visit our blog you will find posts about our vacations to places like Lake George, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., the Jersey Shore, Walt Disney World, Vermont, and Hawaii. You'll see adventures and food reviews from our time living in Astoria, Queens. You'll also find a lot of craft beer. We love going to new breweries and we cannot wait to continue to do that once we have our baby and the world is a bit more normal.
A Place Where Memories are Made
Back in November, we moved to Bridgewater to buy a house and to start a family. We never thought after a couple of months of living here our adventures would mainly be from our living room. Soon though, you will see what it's like to navigate a new town with a baby girl and it's going to be so much fun to go on these adventures. We want to try local breweries, have date nights, shop, and check out all the local events we can. We also want to plan really fun family vacations and get back to Disney World. This blog was away for us to look back on all the amazing times we have had together. Won't you come along with us!
