I can count on one hand the number of summers I haven't camped at Gulf State Park -- I took classes one summer during college, I only got to visit the girls for a weekend when I had a huge project to finish at work, and that time we had a global pandemic. We went back and forth about whether to travel last summer and even though much of our family went ahead, Josh and I just didn't feel good about it. We went to Disney in the spring (gosh, I need to share that trip with you here!) and as wonderful as it was, it was not the beach. The girls have been beside themselves about going and Polly's face below just about sums it up. We had the best two weeks together in our favorite place and I hope we never have to miss a summer again. Most of the pictures in this post are my sister's. I ...
travel
New York City Snapshots | Part Four
In case you missed it, you can you can see all of our NYC recap posts here: part one | part two | part three | part four I promised I would wrap up our New York trip back in January and I almost made it. Ella and I both ended up sick and it's been a rough few weeks. I swear, every time I think I have it all together, I'm reminded that I don't. The Statue of Liberty Lady Liberty was first on our list for the last day of our trip. I had tried and tried to get tickets to the crown, but they sell out months in advance and since our trip was very last minute, I wasn't able to get them. We did get to go inside the statue, which Josh and I had never done, and the girls didn't seem to mind that we weren't able to go all the way up. The girls were so surprised by both how large and how ...
New York City Snapshots | Part Three
In case you missed it, you can you can see all of our NYC recap posts here: part one | part two | part three | part four When last we left off, I was sharing photos from our second day in NYC. This was, by far, my favorite day of the trip and this group of pictures perfectly explains why. After we tackled the Empire State Building and delivered all of our cold weather gear at the hotel, we set out on foot with a very loose agenda. We planned to visit The Vessel, The High Line, and the original Shake Shack location (we had a few other areas of town mapped out in case we had extra time), but we weren't on a schedule and had no times or tickets we had to adhere to. The Vessel is near Hudson Yards and the northern entrance to the High Line. It wasn't there the last time we were ...
New York City Snapshots | Part 2
In case you missed it, you can you can see all of our NYC recap posts here: part one | part two | part three | part four Day two is going to have to come to you in multiple parts, because we took so many pictures. We all agreed that it was our very favorite day and that's mostly because we weren't overly scheduled. We had a few things that were time sensitive, but for the part we wandered around the city and tried our best to check things off of our list. Also, I left my camera at the hotel (because I didn't want to cart it around all day), so all of these are iPhone snaps. I might regret that one day, but the memories outweigh the photographs, so I just tried not to think about it too much. We had breakfast at Pershing Square, which is just across the street from Grand ...
New York City Snapshots | Part 1
In case you missed it, you can you can see all of our NYC recap posts here: part one | part two | part three | part four Several months ago, Josh asked me what I wanted to do for my fortieth birthday. I reminded him that we hadn't done anything big to celebrate his birthday in January and he reminded me that he hates to be the center of attention (can you say opposites attract?). I was still thinking he meant a birthday party or dinner with friends, but he surprised me on a random work day by asking if I wanted to head to NYC for the weekend. We quickly threw together some travel plans (in addition to ridiculously expensive Hamilton tickets!!) and prepared to tell the girls we were going without them. The day we were booking flights, I felt the biggest pit in my stomach about leaving ...
Rivers + Roads | Part One
Today is our fifteenth wedding anniversary, so it seems fitting that I dive right into the mini-vacay we took last week to celebrate! There are way too many photos to share, so I'm planning to break our adventure into several posts. Have you ever had a song that you loved, that once played on a trip or at a defining moment, became your unofficial anthem? Josh and I joked that although we've listened to the three albums by The Head and the Heart for years and years, those songs will forever remind us of this trip. We were so excited to get to the show on Wednesday, that we listened to them in the car that entire day. Then after the show, we were so giddy that we continued playing them on repeat all week. On Monday afternoon, when I got home from work, Josh had that same Spotify ...
Our Annual Beach Trip | Part Three
The weather might have been touch and go for a few days, but I'm so glad we decided to tough it out. Our last two days in the sand were so beautiful and there wasn't a complaint heard either day! Because of the storm ruining our mid-week plans, Jen and Allen decided to extend their trip by a few days and got to join us on the beach again for the weekend. There is nothing better than having plenty of kids to play with and the company was pretty much perfect. Josh and I joked on the way home that the only way to know if they really enjoyed the week was if they decide to coordinate our trips again next summer. Ha! These four kids played so well together on the beach all weekend. Jud is obsessed with Ella, so he was pretty much holding her hand at all times. Aside from reapplying ...
Travel Diary | Disneyland
You can catch up with our California trip here: Carlsbad | San Diego Zoo | USS Midway Museum | Hollywood + San Clemente, but keep reading for details on our adventures in Disneyland! Alternately titled: the one with alternate titles (or even more appropriately: the one with forty-seven photos) When we started talking about this California trip, way back last summer, Ella brought up going to Disneyland. I'll admit that it wasn't even on my radar and Josh kind of rolled his eyes at the mention. Not that we aren't both huge Disney fans, but he wasn't sure about spending a day of our west coast adventure on an amusement park. We had already nixed Seaworld and LegoLand for these very reasons -- there was just so much we wanted to see! Ultimately, we decided that we might never be in Los ...