travel

  • travel

    wedding weekend.

    This weekend my cousin Brad got married in Orlando. The wedding was perfect, and I hadn’t seen some of my extended family since before we moved overseas. We realized this is the first time all nine girl cousins have been together in as long as we can remember. We live in Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Canada, so times together are few and far between! I love these girls. Zach giving Tristan a quick photography lesson. Amie and Gavin. We didn’t get all the guy cousins together this time but it was fun hanging out with this crew (Zack on the far right is marrying my cousin Lindsey in…

  • the kids,  travel

    the great wolf lodge 2013.

    Last December we took the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte for a night and it was such a big hit that we did it again last week (has a whole year really passed?). If you aren’t familiar with this place, it’s a hotel that’s completely in character in a wolf/forest theme, with a water park inside. The whole place is completely over-the-top (there are multiple restaurants, an arcade, a spa, bowling alley, etc.) But it is truly a child’s dream. Our kids have been counting down the days for a couple months now and David confessed to a friend that the Wolf Lodge might overshadow Christmas in…

  • motherhood,  travel

    greenville.

    So my husband sent me to Greenville this week. On a mini-vacation. All by myself. Here’s how it happened: I was reading a novel, Joy For Beginners, in which a group of friends challenge one another to do something that scares them. Well, the young mom of the group gets challenged to take a trip all by herself. If you’ve been a young mom you understand why this prospect is terrifying. And also very liberating. The character ends up going to Venice and having a terrific time (albeit missing her family terribly). Obviously Venice is out of the question, but the idea still stuck in my mind and I told…

  • travel

    beach week.

    God provided us with a little vacation when we desperately needed it.  Some friends had a last-minute cancellation at their beach condo on Isle of Palms and we were able to snatch it up for a few days. Our week has consisted of long days, naps, plenty of time on the beach and in the pool, favorite restaurants, an afternoon out (for me and for David), bike rides, running, reading, and the Food Network.  Aside from David battling a bad case of poison oak (we still don’t know where he picked it up since he didn’t do any yard work before our trip), it’s been perfect. I’m noticing a theme…

  • travel

    home!

    This is the first road trip ever in which I’ve returned to my own home. It was a wonderful feeling. And this was the kids’ first road trip in which they returned to their very own light sabers. There were big smiles all around!

  • the kids,  travel

    a little trip to the e.r.

    Like I said Judah and Amie and I had differing degrees of colds and sinus trouble all week.  Yesterday Judah obviously wasn’t himself, a bit droopy and tired all day with an increasing cough.  In the evening he started wheezing, which I took note of, but it’s happened before when he has bronchitis. He grew more agitated throughout the evening, and said his chest hurt, but it still appeared more like discomfort than like anything urgent.  I gave him a steamy hot shower before bed, tried to put him down in his room, but he was whimpering and short of breath.  So he laid on the couch while Linda and…

  • travel

    saturday.

    Today was quiet and happy.  A trip to our favorite bakery in the morning (the photos were taken right before it started pouring rain and we had to run inside), a used book-and-furniture shop, an afternoon shopping and coffee date for Linda and me, then a little birthday celebration for Judah and Amie in the evening in which we all somehow ended up with gifts.  The kids and I have had colds the whole week which has been a bummer, but at the same time the slower pace has suited us.  And the weather.  It’s been truly amazing . . . 70’s and 80’s, breezy, almost no humidity.  After lots…