Florida-Day 2

Today we spent a full day at Daytina Beach.  It was a fun and relaxing day!

Shelby, Ryan and I started our morning with a three mile run on the beach.

After our run we had breakfast and headed to the beach.  I also brought my new selfie stick and we (I should say I)  had a great time taking selfies today.

My sister and I in our matching sunnies :)

Dad and I leaving to use the selfie stick. 

Vicki and I 

Ainsley and I 

Here are the boys taking their first selfie 

We went to a great place called Caribean Jacks.  It was fabulous!

After lunch we went to find our grandparents old house in South Daytona.  We visited this house a lot growing up and I have so many good memories there.  I am so glad we found it!

We also went to the Daytona farmers and flea market.  It was huge!  

After that we headed back to our hotel and we headed straight for the beach. 

We finished the night by having a little early 40th birthday party for me! I thought this cake was so cute.

We're headed to bed we are getting up bright and early to head to Epcot in the morning.

Xoxo

Florida-Day 1

Yesterday Brock and I flew to Florida to spend a week with my Dad, Vicki, and my sister Shelby and her family.  We were on the first plane out of Albany and we met my sister and her family in Orlano at 1030 am.

Shelby and her family flew in from Waco. We met them at the baggage claim.  Brock is so cute with his cousin Ainsley.

We stopped for a quick picture in front of the Disney Store at the airport.

After we left the airport we stopped for a quick lunch at Steak 'n Shake before heading to Daytona Beach.

After lunch we drove to Daytona to meet my Dad and Vicki.  It was a hot day so went spent the afternoon playing in the waves. 

After a little rest we got up and ready to go to New Year's Eve dinner.  We decided to have pizza.  It was delicious!

It was the perfect way to end our first day of vacation.

Today we are going to spend the day at the beach.

Xoxo

Thanksgiving week!!

Brock and I got home from Illinois yesterday.  We had a fun time but we were VERY tired yesterday!!  We had to get up at 4am yesterday to get to the airport on time to fly home. During our trip we did a lot of eating, and shopping.  We also watched two movies, The Christmas Carol (which was awful!!) and The Blind Side, which is one of the best movies that I have seen in a long time.

We joked that all of the pictures that we took were taken around a table because we were ALWAYS eating!  I probably gained at least 10 lbs from all of the eating that we did during our trip.  I also picked up a few little Christmas presents for Ava.  She LOVES opening presents so I got her a few things on our trip.  I also bought her Christmas dress which has a matching dress for her American Girl doll.  She will LOVE it!!  We are going to let her open it on Christmas Eve so she can wear it to church. 

Here are some pictures from our trip.  I forgot my camera so all of these are from my sister Shelby's facebook page (Thanks Shelby!!).  I am not sure why these pictures are so small, she also posted about our trip on her blog

Brock and I during one of our MANY meals out.  As you can see he is having a great time-ha ha!

My sister Shelby with her mother-in-law Linda.

Me feeding the animals carrots at an outdoor light display that we visited.  The light display is the largest in the country and has over 1 million lights!

My sister's husband Ryan and Brock at yet another meal out

Me at Hobby Lobby.  I LOVE that store and we don't have one were we live. 

My sister Shelby and me

We had a great time visiting with my family but we are glad to be home.  We spent the day today getting ready for the week ahead. 

Weekend recap!!

Ok I know it's Tuesday...but today is MY Monday because yesterday we were driving back from our Vermont weekend getaway. Graig, Brock, Ava and I had SUCH a wonderful time this weekend visiting with our friends Jim and Donna and their two kids at their cabin in Vermont.

I can sum up our trip in two words:
1. swimming
2. eating

We all took a little break from all of our electronic devices (cell phone, laptops, TV, ipods, game boys, etc) when we got to Vermont to enjoy time as a family. Since we NEVER do that it was really nice just to be together as a family, without all the everyday stuff that gets in the way of quality family time. OK I confess, I still checked my iphone in the morning and at night to catch up on my email, twitter and blogs but most of the time it was OFF-ha ha!

The cabin we stayed in was very woodsy (is that a word?) but it did have electricity and running water. I left ALL of my make-up and hair products at home, I didn't want to be bothered bringing all of that stuff with me since we were going to be in the woods all weekend, and I didn't think make-up was a necessary accessory.

My Dad did send us two great weekend bags that arrived on Friday so we were able to use those for the trip! Thanks Dad perfect timing :)

All day Saturday and Sunday we were in the lake, it was so hot and a little humid so they were both PERFECT days to be in the water. We went swimming, kayaking, canoeing, and the boys went fishing while us girls floated around the lake on floats. It was wonderful. We packed lunches and ate by the lake and we had wonderful dinners in the cabin at night (Saturday night we had steak and Sunday night we had Chicken Cordon Blue)

I didn't take a single picture! Thank goodness my friend Donna took lots of pics, I will have to get some from her :)

Yesterday, we drove home and got a ton of stuff done around the house to get ready for the week ahead. I took Brock and Ava to the library to get books for the summer reading program and I got The American Wife for myself. It's loosely based on Laura Bush's life.




I am a little nervous today because Brock's middle school orientation is this morning. He is going to get his schedule, meet with his teachers, get his locker and school supply list and find out about fall sports. I will let you know how it went tomorrow!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

We're headed to Vermont!!

We are headed to Vermont this afternoon to spend a long weekend with our friends!! I am SO excited!! It will be so nice to get away and relax before the college students come back next week and work is crazy busy again. Our friends, Jim and Donna rent a cabin on a lake and go every summer for two weeks. They invited us to come up and hang out with them this weekend. I have never been to Vermont and I have heard it's beautiful and I can't wait to go and enjoy the weekend with them!

Their kids are close in age to Brock and Ava so they will all have a good time together. I am not taking my laptop to Vermont, so no blogging for me :( I am taking a stack of magazines that I haven't read yet and a few good books so I will have fun just hanging out by the lake. We are also going to go hiking and grill out. It will be a VERY outdoorsy weekend for us.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Weekend getaway!

This weekend we went on a little family vaca to visit our friends, Mary and Greg, who moved to PA two years ago. Greg was Graig's boss for two years when Graig worked as Dir. of Res. Life at Hartwick College. Mary and I went to the same church and taught Sunday School together. It was so fun to catch up with them!

They have 5 kids!! 4 girls and one boy, their oldest daughter starts College next month and their youngest daughter starts kindergarten next year. Their daughter Lucy was in the same class as Brock when they lived here. We got to visit with all their kids except for their son Zach, who was away at a soccer camp.

They live 5 minutes away from Hershey Park so they took us to Hershey Park on Friday. I took a ton of pictures at the park, here are some pictures from our time with them.
Greg and Graig


me and Mary


Bridget, Mary and Greg's youngest daughter
Clare, Brock and Lucy

Bridget and Ava on the Frogger Ride


Brock and Graig


Greg, Graig and all the kids


Friday night we went to a festival and Mary and Greg's church. We ate dinner there, they had music, kids games and BINGO!! We played Bingo for an hour it was so much fun. They also had a bounce house that Brock LOVED!! It was so funny because he was my far the oldest kid in the bounce house.

I took his picture because it will probably be the last time that he plays in one...since he's 12 :)




When we got to Mary and Greg's house after the festival we celebrated Brock's 12th birthday! Here is a picture of Brock with his birthday cake.


Saturday morning we got up early and drove to NYC so Graig and Brock could go to the Yankee Game. Brock LOVES the Yankees and he was so excited to go to the game with Graig. While they were at the game Ava and I went to the American Girl Doll store and shopped and had dinner. I will post our NYC pictures tomorrow.

Today we drove home and Graig took Brock and Ava to Grandma Jan's for the week. She is off from work this week and Graig and I have to work, I am sure they will have a blast!! She always plans lots of fun things for them to do. While they are gone we have a ton of things to get done around the house so Graig and I will be busy this week too!

Miss America

Ava and I have loved watching the USA gymnastics team compete this week! We were both so happy when the Nastia Liukin won gold and Shawn Johnson won silver. We stayed up and watched the beam and the uneven bars and then we were sooooo tired that we couldn't stay awake anymore. Thanks goodness they have showed it tonight earlier so we could watch it. How inspirational! Those girls are AMAZING.

Congrats Nastia and Shawn! Ava loves you both and she is your biggest fan.

This fall Ava is going to be on the gymnastics team at the YMCA and next week she start gymnastics camp. This afternoon we were at Target and she saw this adorable red, white and blue leotard and warm up jacket. Doesn't she look so cute in her warm up jacket? On the back it says "gymnastics"

Miss America!!

This morning we are flying home to NY after a week with my Dad in Wyoming. We have had a great time but it will be so nice to be home. We bought so much stuff out here, I hope everything fits in our suitcases. Brock got 2 pairs of shoes and a few shirts today at the Nike outlet. Ava found two cute outfits (on sale!) at Gymboree, and I bought 7 new Christmas ornaments for our tree. I love getting ornaments from all the places we visit when we go on vacation so we can remember our trips. My Dad also gave me a suitcase full of pictures, cards, and other memories from my high school and college days. Since he is selling his ranch he wants to get rid of stuff. I seriously think I might have to pay extra $ $ to board the plane because I have so much stuff. I hope that we (and all of our stuff) make it home safely!

Buffalo, Burros, and Big Presidents

Yesterday we traveled about 200 miles from my Dad's ranch to visit Custer State Park and Mt.Rushmore! Brock and Ava had a great time seeing the Buffalo, they were so close to our car.

The Burros were so friendly they came right up to our car. Brock and Ava fed them carrots, which they loved. They were so cute and friendly.

Our last stop of the day was Mt. Rushmore

Brock and Ava near Mt. Rushmore

Four Great Presidents: Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln

Brock and Ava took about hour and filled out a workbook about Mt. Rushmore to become Junior Park Rangers. Here they are with their Junior Ranger badges, they are so proud of them. After we got back to the ranch, Ava and I stayed up late and watched the Olympics gymnastics~we are so excited for Nastia and Shawn! Go USA!

Wild West part 2

Today is our 5th day in Wyoming and we are having a great time seeing all the sights, eating great food, relaxing, and visiting with my Dad (Brock and Ava call him PaPa). Anyway we have visited 4 states~Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, and South Dakota! We are trying to see as much as possible when we are here because we aren't sure when we are going to be here again. My Dad is selling his ranch and moving back to Illinois. He already sold his animals and yesterday he got an offer on his ranch! I haven't had Internet since Sunday! My Dad lives in the middle of nowhere and he doesn't have Internet access. So, I was so excited when we got to our hotel tonight and I got to check in on everyone's blogs !

Welcome to Wyoming! PaPa with Brock and Ava in downtown Cheyenne

Ava with a Cowboy in CheyenneAva says "Welcome to my PaPa's ranch"

Out here, everyone brands their animals so they can tell who owns the animals. There are only certain brands and when you go to get a brand you have to take what they have available. When my Dad went he was lucky enough to get lazy B over A which are his initials! He was so excited about getting such a great brand that he had it put on his ranch sign.

The highlight of Brock's trip~shooting the b b gun!We have taken pictures like this at monuments in the 4 states that we have visited. My Dad loves history and he loves taking pictures of us in front of monuments!On Tuesday, we visited Scott's Bluff which is in Nebraska and has beautiful views of the surrounding area.

This is one of the gorgeous views from Scott's Bluff

Brock and Ava loved looking through these binoculars

Brock was hoping to see a rattlesnake! We didn't see one but our trip isn't over yet!Today we traveled to South Dakota to visit Hot Springs


We visited the Mammoth Site which is the world's largest Mammoth research center and active paleontology site. It was so interesting to go on the tour and learn more about these interesting, ancient creatures. There are so many bones they only dig during the month of July and they spend the rest of the year cleaning and cataloging all the bones. So far they have found over 150 mammoths at this site! Ava and I with a Mammoth jaw bone
Ava with a Mammoth femur bonePaPa, Brock and Ava in the Mammoth exhibit hallAfter we checked in to our hotel we went to Evan's plunge water park. It's the largest spring water pool in the world! We had so much fun going on the waterslides and swimming. Here is a picture of us at Evan's plunge

After a long day of sightseeing we are exhausted! We got a Kid's suite at the Holiday Inn express and the kids are tucked in to their beds ready for a good night's sleep. Tomorrow we are going to visit Mt. Rushmore