My weekend away in Instagram photos {York, PA. 2012}

I really wanted to have Ady’s birthday posted by now or even Halloween, but sadly I haven’t gotten to those pictures yet.  I am actually sitting in the car right now while we travel to San Antonio for Thanksgiving.  We are having a non traditional holiday and spending it at Sea World.  So I get to sit here and enjoy the drive and spend time on my computer.  Which is the ONLY reason I like road trips.  My husband loves them while I feel suffocated.  Somehow we make it work.  :)

My new favorite thing these days is Instagram.  The quality of the images are not the best, but the picture is done and a short story about our day is shared so quickly.  Right now that is working for me.  So those of you that follow me on Instagram have probably already seen these photos.  Sorry y’all.  I’ll make up for it later.

A few weeks ago I hopped on a plane all by myself and headed to Pennsylvania to visit my dearest friend.  I couldn’t wait!  We hadn’t seen each other in 10 months.  Both of us could not believe it had been that long.  We are used to seeing each other at least every 6 months.  Sometimes life gets too busy and time gets away from us.  Thank goodness for free air mileage and a husband who is more than willing to party it up with the kids while I am away. 

 

Even the airport with out kids is a vacation. 

Usually when you visit a place you have never been before you want to go out and explore everything you possibly can.  This time all I really wanted to do was hang out at home with Andrea and just be us.  Andrea’s home is my home away from home.  I feel like I am in the comfort of  my own home with out all of the hustle and bustle of my real life.  It was the perfect vacation.  That is when you know you have found a very best friend.  When you travel across the country and what makes you the happiest is spending time together at home.  Staying up late catching up, watching our favorite shows, sitting on the computer or playing with our phones side by side.  Yep, the simple things make us happy!

We did get out and go to the Eastern Market where they buy most of their produce.  Some produce that I haven’t even seen before.  And to the farm to buy fresh milk.  It was a really fun and different experience to see how parts of life in Pennsylvania are so different.  In a good way.  I saw the Amish working the market.  We stayed for lunch and had the best chicken pot pie.  It was a good day.

 

I was spoiled at home with yummy treats like homemade funnel cake. 

I had my own personal hair dresser.  Sweet Tessa!

 

My kids would call me to say goodnight.  They can’t get enough of face time!

I loved every second I spent with one of my favorite families.  We are blessed to be able to share in each others lives. 

  

Thank you for having me and thank you to my hubby for letting me go! 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

Cruisin’ {Part One}

I am dedicating this week to Cruise photos and March Happenings.  Lots of posts to come.  I am getting all caught up before Easter!  Before I know it Summer will be here.  I am feeling the pressure to get some things accomplished.  I have been waiting for this burst of motivation.  Hopefully it stays awhile…

A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to go on a  Caribbean cruise with another fabulous couple whom we love.  We left out of Galveston one Sunday morning.  We were away from the kiddos for 8 days and 7 nights.  I was nervous about that at first.  It was the first time we had ever been away for that long.  We missed them, BUT we thoroughly enjoyed our time away and just being a couple again!  It was an awesome vacation.  We had 3 excursion days so I thought I would break the cruise photos up into 3 posts by excursions.   I will throw random photos of our days on the ship in there too. 

Let’s get started!

This is proof I was a new cruiser.  Casey and I wore the  little stickers they passed out for awhile and then decided they were nerd dots, but of course I had to get a pic  before we threw them away. 

We enjoyed our days on the ship just as much as the excursions.  There was so much to do!  The first activity we did was rock climbing.  Well, Casey and Tony rock climbed.  Tami and I cheered them on below while reading our books.  We were on vacation!

Our first excursion was Cozumel.  Casey and I rented a scooter for the day and did our own little tour. 

We had fun driving around like we knew what we were doing.  Casey knew what he was doing.  I was just along for the ride.  He was nice enough to indulge me in some shopping.

He did his fair share of shopping too.  He is so funny!  He served a Spanish speaking mission in Mexico, so a piece of his heart is there.  He loves to be with the people and can talk to them forever.  Every single shop we would go in he would get into a detailed conversation with them.  Well, I guess I don’t really know how detailed it was since I couldn’t understand.  I just know that their faces would light up once they found out he spoke Spanish.  He was my lucky charm to shop with.  They REALLY wanted us to buy things once they discovered they could carry on a real conversation with him.  Then they would tease him and ask why he never taught me Spanish.  ‘Cause I’m a little set in my ways I suppose.

Here they are wrapping up a couple of shark tooth necklaces (for the boys) with great care.  It was serious business.  They even made us one extra because they only had one and we needed two. 

Next up was the beach. 

Give me the beach and a book and I am one happy girl.

You know those questions, “Do you prefer a cozy cabin or a sunny beach?” 

I prefer a sunny beach all the way.  I am definitely more of a summer girl than a winter girl. 

The (top) book was a little juvenile for me, but an easy beach read. 

That’s it for now.  Back to the ship we went.

Catching up {Our Thanksgiving Trip}

First of all, I am sorry for abandoning the blogging world for over a month.  I can’t believe it has been that long!  Not only have I not posted, but I haven’t read one single blog.  I have a lot of catching up to do!  Second of all, I am sorry that I am posting about our Thanksgiving trip when it really is time for me to be posting about Christmas.  Sheesh!  What am I thinking!?  Well…it has been a crazy Christmas blur around here (as usual in December).  Blogging had to go for me.  I am ready to get back in the game now that my to-do’s are all done and I am feeling organized and put together, finally. :)  This post is for me.  I can’t move forward on my blog until I record Thanksgiving.  Otherwise the pictures will sit here on my computer until I scrapbook them.  Which will happen in…ohhhhh…3 years. Maybe.  That’s the rate I’m going. :)

Anyway, we took about 11 days off and went to Arizona over Thanksgiving to visit my side of the family.  We stayed with my brothers family.  They were awesome for hosting us for 9 days.  We are lucky they love us so much!  I have a lot of pictures to share, so I will get to the point.  Our trip started out with Ady and Beck getting to know one another…again.  They change so quickly that every time we get together they have to start over. 

They had to decide who the boss was.  They decided to take turns.  Most of the time. :) 

My brother in law (Nick) had a birthday.  We all got together at my parents house where we “surprised” him with a little party. 

The kids enjoyed playing with the bubble machine.

And Jake enjoyed teaching the little boys a thing or two about football.

He is such a good big cousin.  He is so patient with his little cousins and just loves hanging out with them.  It is really sweet.

I think the entire family would agree that our favorite thing was cooking dinner and roasting marshmallows by the fire.  Brandon and Beth’s house is set up perfectly for entertaining outside.  In Arizona this is the perfect time of year to take advantage of that, so we did.  Twice actually.  The kids had so much fun the first time, they begged us to do it again.  They didn’t have to twist our arm.  We loved sitting by the campfire too.

We cooked Cuban sandwiches and then roasted marshmallows.

Thanksgiving day came and the only picture we have of that day is the family photo Beth and I took for my parents.  My mom has been wanting a new family photo for awhile now, so we finally gave in and made it happen.  Neither one of us are big fans of doing extended family photos.  Not even for our own family!  It turned out cute though and my mom loves it.  This is my family. 

The day after Thanksgiving we started our Christmas by going to see the Zoo Lights.  The local zoo lights up the entire zoo.  Besides how busy and crowded it was, we had a lot of fun.  There were so many lights and the kids loved it.

On our way out we let them ride the carousel.

During our trip we had two mishaps.  We can’t take a vacation and not have something happen!  It must have been the second or third day we were there when Kaylee tripped on a piece of  hardwood floor in the kitchen that they were repairing.  She hurt her toe so bad.  The poor girl was in a lot of pain and down for a little while.  It isn’t hurting anymore, but her toenail is still black.  We are waiting for it to fall off.  Sick!  Ady, who looks like a monkey in this picture, sat by her sissy and kept her company. 

The other awful, huge and expensive mishap was this.

You can’t tell in this picture very much, but the window Jake is looking at is completely shattered.  Uggghhh…my boys broke their window!  Who would have thought that the little Arizona pebbles they put in landscaping would have shattered a window.  Not that the pebbles should have been thrown at the window after they were told not to throw them.  That was an expensive lesson to be learned.  Especially during the holidays.  Like I said earlier…we are glad they love us so much!

The boys would go to sleep together…

and wake up together.

I love these sleepy morning faces.  Luckily the big cousins would take care of the little ones in the morning.  Beth and I would stay up until 3:00 in the morning chatting and playing around on the computer.  We had to get our girl time in somehow.  We tried to sleep in a little bit.  I don’t know how we kept those hours with all of these kids.  Those nights are fun memories though. 

Other things we did: shopping, movies; Breaking Dawn, Muppets and Hugo. Visiting my uncle and his family, going to lunch with my Grandma and Beth taking my family photos.  I will share those soon.  

(Some pictures in this post taken by Beth).

Doesn’t this look like a fun place?

 

                                  Do you remember this?

Fredericksburg, Texas.

I mentioned a couple of posts back about stopping off in Fredericksburg on our way home from Arizona.  We were going to just drive through and enjoy the scenery BUT THEN , we drove past this swap meet looking thing and HAD to stop.  It seemed to me that we stumbled across it on just the right weekend.  This isn’t just a store, this is Fredericksburg Trade Days and it only happens one weekend a month.  All of these business come for the weekend and they have their shops set up in old buildings and corners and all sorts of things.  If you love digging for treasures or just looking at vintage things, this is the place to be.  Our van was already filled to the brim, so shopping was out of the question for me.  Instead I pulled out my camera and enjoyed everything vintage and wimsy.

 

While I was busy taking photos, Drew was enjoying pushing Ady in the stroller and resting in the shade any chance he got.  He was being such a good  big brother taking care of his little sister. 

       

Even Casey found something to do. 

We plan to go back and stay for a couple of days around Christmas.  Last year Casey drove through during the holidays and said the lights were amazing.  We must check them out.  It should be a fun trip and maybe a new holiday tradition for us while we live in Texas. 

 

{ Project 365 }

 

A Trip of Stories – Spending a day with my dad on his old stomping grounds. We visited the town that my mom and dad grew up in; a teeny, tiny town that you probably wouldn’t even notice as you drove through. Safford, Arizona.  The place that as a child I spent many, many summers making memories at my grandparents house (which they don’t live in anymore and doesn’t look even close to the same home).  My dad spent lots of his time in the cotton fields.  I will remember this trip as the “Story Trip”.  My dad and I told stories the whole drive home.  The kids LOVED it and couldn’t get enough of it.  It was really cute that they were sincerely interested in all of our old memories. 

Girls Day Out – What more do I have to say! :)

Late Nights – are the best!  I am a night owl as it is, but I loved sharing my late nights with my sister in law Beth while at my parents house.  We talked all things computer related; photography, blogs, photoshop.  Of course we girl talked and laughed until the early morning hours.  That just comes with the territory!  I felt like I was back in time at one of my late night scrapbook outings; talking about anything and everything while working on something I love.  It was sooooo much fun!  I am declaring that the girls on my side of the family (including you, mom) need to have an outing once a year.

My New Love –  The iphone.  I know it sounds pathetic.  If you have one – you know how I feel.  This baby goes everywhere with me and I wonder how I functioned with out it before!  Thank you to my husband who totally spoils me.  It’s only because of him that I even have one. :)  

Obsessed – Please don’t judge us.  This is NOT the best photo of me or Beth, but this is how we roll every now and then – for the name of photos that is.  We think in photos and talk in photos, we are obsessed and love it!  We did a cousin photo shoot and had to get out of the house in a hurry.  No time for makeup or anything else.  We were melting away in the Arizona heat and stopped to cool off at McDonalds afterwards.  We sat here while the kids played and enjoyed a little recap.  It was worth it! 

On the road again – We had so much fun on our trip, I honestly wouldn’t say we were ready to leave.  It was a little bitter sweet (for me anyway) to see the Texas sign, but this is home!  

Do you see what I see??? -  Junk or Treasures?  I would have to say treasures all the way!  On our way home we went through this cute little town called Fredericksburg.  Casey was kind enough to stop for me.  You already know I was in Heaven!  The question is - who wants a girls trip? ( I have another post planned just about Fredericksburg, stay tuned).