Vacay 2013



We spent a week in Williamsburg for our family vacation.  This was our first road trip in our new minivan (Honda Odyssey)!  My niece Abbey joined us and Matthew just adores his cousin Abbey.  Thank goodness for the rear entertainment system to keep the kids occupied! Matthew clearly loves it. 

We stayed at a very family friendly resort (thanks to the in-laws for allowing us to use their timeshare).  We had fun swimming in the pool, playing in the arcade, building bears, playing board games, watching movies and just relaxing!

 

 

 

We went to the Children's Museum in Portsmouth.  This is one of my favorite pictures below! I love how we're all in it.

 We spent one day in VA Beach.  My sister came down with her kids for a few days.  It was Matthew's first time at the beach and he had a blast playing in the sand.  My sweet boy walked up to me while playing and gave me a hug and said 'mommy best friend'.  Best mommy moment ever!  I hope he will always consider his momma as his best friend. 

 

Family fun time together!



Our last day was spent at Water Country.  So much fun! Matthew fell asleep before we even started the car to leave! 

 

It was a wonderful, fun and relaxing week.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to spend time with my family.

 

The BEST part of the vacation that made my heart swell and ache at the same time??....Matthew would randomly say 'mommy, I want baby sister'.  It was so sweet, yet it pulled at my heart.  Someday he will be a big brother.  I know it.  I believe it.  Someday. 

 

Chicago!

Matthew's first plane ride was to Chicago (July 15th - 18th), and it may be his last one for a very long time!

It was about a two hour flight and I thought he would nap since it was during his morning nap time.  Yeah, that didn't happen at all! He was everywhere and was SO fussy.  I felt so bad for the people around us.  Thankfully it was a quick plane ride.

Once we landed and I put him in his stroller, he was out before I even got to baggage claim!!

We met up with my best friend and her daughter.  Matthew loved playing with Macey (I think because she probably reminded him of his cousin Abbey).  Matthew had SO much fun 'swimming' at the hotel.  And of course, he loved pushing the elevator buttons!

It was hot, but we didn't let that stop us.  We had fun exploring and eating lots of good food.  Matthew was a trooper. 
Here we are at the Navy Pier.  Then having dinner at Bubba Gump. 

The Willis Tower was definitely on our list.  The line's weren't too bad because it was a weekday.  It was quite the view.  The Skydeck was a little scary for me at first.  I had my hand up against the wall and backed out onto the glass and couldn't look down at first.  Once I was realized that it really was safe, I was able to let go of the wall and walk out further onto it.  

Matthew was way braver than his momma! 

At first he looked down and rocked back and forth a little bit, then he just stood there.  I didn't let him stand there very long though! ha!

Here's our overpriced souvenir picture.



What's a trip to Chicago without deep dish pizza?!!

We heard the best in town was Gino's. It was good (a bit too cheesy for me) and the best part was there was no wait during lunch for a table!  The wait came nce you ordered your pizza, it takes 45 mins.  Luckily, Matthew fell asleep before we got there and slept through most of it!

 

 

Another big tourist attraction in Chicago....Cloud Gate, a.k.a. the Bean. 

Matthew under the bean.

Our last stop on our last day was Molly's Cupcakes. They were on the show cupcake wars.

My favorite was the Peach cobler cupcake. Devine!

Oh Em Gee! So delish!!!

I'm so grateful that Matthew and I were able to spend a few days together in Chicago with my wonderful BFF and her daughter.  It truly was relaxing and fun.  I can't wait for our next trip together, although it may be just the girls so Matthew will have to stay home with daddy.

Matthew did SO much better on the plane ride coming home.  I won't be flying solo with him anymore until he's at least 6 (maybe 8)!

Arizona - Sedona and Meeting a Blogger Friend



I think my favorite part of the whole trip was visiting Sedona and doing the pink jeep tour!

It was absolutely amazing!

We had a great tour guide/driver and we laughed so hard we were close to peeing in our pants. (It didn't help that the jeep tour was a VERY bumpy ride!)

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After our fun day in Sedona, I met up with a blogging friend, Jen from Do I Have to Be A DINK?

I have been following Jen's journey for a while so it was great to meet her in person. 

She is beautiful! 

I looked a mess because I had been out all day in the sun.

(My camera batter died so I had to use my cell phone).

It was awesome to put a face with a blog. 

Jen's getting ready to go to NYC later this week for vacation.  If you have any suggestions for things to do in the big apple, please hop on over to her blog and let her know!

Arizona was fun and I will definitely be back!

Lake Fun!

We went to Lake Gaston, NC a few weeks ago (Aug. 13 - 17) and I'm just now getting around to posting about it.  

It was our fist time at this Lake.  We rented a house right on the Lake (thanks to a friend of mine who's plans fell through so she rented it out to us for half price!). 

View of the house from the dock.

View of the dock from the house.

We went with my brother and sister and their families.

The cousins all had fun playing together.

We went paddle boating and even rented a Pontoon boat.

On the day we rented the Pontoon boat, we went to Goat's Island (it really had goats there roaming around) and the kids played in the water.  It was Matthew's first time in the water.  I decided to join in on the fun and got in the water with Matthew.  As I was holding him, I lost my balance and we both went under! 

I dropped my baby in the water!!  I quickly swooped him up and the poor little guy was coughing and crying.  I felt SO bad!  He quickly recovered though and enjoyed the rest of water time with daddy. (I think I lost my 'mommy of the year' award!)

We had fun spending time together, but at times it was challeging trying to keep the kids entertained. There wasn't much to do in the area. Thank goodness they had Wii to keep them entertained. And Uncle Steve to help make smores!

This was our first time renting a lake house and while it's fun (especially if you actually own your own boat), we concluded that we are beach people versus lake people. There's SO much more to do at the beach than the lake. But we are grateful for the experience and the family time together!
Cherished memories.

Williamsburg Weekend

We took a long weekend and went to Williamsburg to meet up with some blogging friends (more on that later) and to relax.  Abbey was able to miss two days of school and she was excited about that.  Thanks to my in-laws, we were able to stay at their timeshare resort for the weekend. 

We had an absolutely wonderful, very relaxing time! 

We slept in, went shopping, ate out, and just spent quality time together.

Steve and Abbey trying on cowboy hats.

The resort had an indoor pool, arcade and activities to keep kids entertain.  While I was lunching with my blogging friends, Steve and Abbey were able to build a bear (really a monkey and a cat). 

Abbey making sure that her kitty cat had plenty of stuffing in it.

Here they are with their proud animals.  Abbey's cat is named Fuzzie. 

She asked Steve how to spell Dandelion and he didn't know how so he suggested she name it Fuzzie. 

Steve drew a hammer on his monkey's t-shirt and it says 'I Build' and on the back it has baby's initials. 

I love it!

Abbey was so happy that she had her own TV in her room.  She would wake up in the morning and just watch tv in her room or the living room until we got up.  One of her many favorite things, besides the tv and the arcade, was the indoor pool.  She loved swimming in the pool.  We loved it because it would tire her out and she would go down for a nap quicker (some days were better than others).

A trip to Williamsburg is not the same without dinner at Capt. George's. 

We went there on our last night and enjoyed great seafood!

   

 Yummy crabs!

One last picture before we hit the road to go home! 

We didn't go down town to Colonial Williamsburg because we felt like Abbey was still too young to really understand the history. And I don't think I would have lasted on a history walking tour.  I barely lasted when we went to the outlet mall.  My feet and back were killing me.  Baby was sucking all my energy. 

Through out the whole weekend, Abbey kept saying how much fun she was having.  Steve and I were just super relaxed because we didn't have a jammed packed agenda.  Isn't that the purpose of a vacation?!

Now that the fun is over, it's back to reality.  Catching up on work and cleaning my house to get ready for bookclub and apple picking with family this weekend.  I will do another post on meeting up with blogging friends later.

I am LOVING this fall weather!!! 

A Week of Pure Happiness!

Refelcting on my AMAZING Cruise!

• Cayman Islands - this was our first stop and since Steve's staph infection was still fresh, we took it easy and just did a semi submarine tour and did some shopping.
• Isla Roatan (Hondurus) - we did the Zip Line and it was awesome!  Scary at first, but after the third zip, the fear subsided and the fun really kicked in. 
• Beliz - Butts Up! That's what we would frequently here as we were cave tubing.  And if you didn't put your butt up when you heard that, well...you would feel violated by the rocks in the water as they scraped up your butt. I was a little bummed (no pun intended) that we couldn't take cameras with us on the tubing (water and cameras don't mix well together unless you had a water resistant camera).
• Cozumel - beach day!  We took a shuttle up the the northern part and relaxed on the beach, went jet skiing and snorkeling.  Since I don't know how to swim, I was holding on to Steve for dear life, but once I realized I wasn't going to drown (duh, life jackets) and I could breath through the snorkel gear, I was really enjoying it!

Every evening when we came back from dinner, there would be these little creatures waiting to great us in our room.

If you've ever thought about going on a cruise, I highly recommend it.  It is very relaxing and you do lose track of the 'real' world for a bit.  I was so grateful that we could go with our best friends in the world.  I can't remember the last time I had that much fun and was HAPPY!