30A recap

hey there! look at me, I'm sharing a blog post, somebody pinch me, ha! it's been forever but I really want to document our April vacation to 30A where we had the best time! 

 let's rewind, originally we were suppose to be in the beautiful Cayman Islands this past April, then with the world situation that wasn't an option, so we rebooked to the Turks and although it wasn't what we (ahem, me) really wanted, we knew it would be so nice! then the US put the testing to come back into place and well, with our kids we just didn't want to chance it. So, that led us to a vacation in the good old US of A and we landed on 30A - we have friends who have been and I've seen several bloggers post about it forever and it always looked like a good place! 

 we booked for a week and stayed in the cutest townhouse right on the ocean in Seagrove. 30A has several cute communities throughout and we felt Seagrove was the perfect middle ground (and we still think that after staying there!) here's a map for those not familiar with 30A

while we were there we did tons of bike riding (so proud of how long the kids lasted) tons of eating, tons of beaching and a few activities

we did head to the Gulf View Marina one day to swim with the dolphins and wow that was awesome! Rick and I have done that before kids but it's been forever and of course it was the kids first time. they were a little nervous but did great.

              

            

We ventured to the beautiful Rosemary Beach, such a cute area!

One day the boys went golfing and us girls did a craft day 

We took a boat/snorkeling tour one day too but looking back I wish we would have stayed back at our beach house because this was what the water looked like....

STUNNING!!

but the boat tour was fun too! and that's saying something for someone who doesn't do well on boats, ha!

ohhh those sunsets! 

we LOVED having a golf cart! we rode it so much and the kids had a blast!

we also took professional family pics while there and we were blown away with them! i love family beach pictures!! here's just a sample - love this family of mine!! 

we are already wishing for the day we can get back to this area!!

Have you been to 30A? tell me some favorite spots or things to do for next time!

Ice Castles & Monster Trucks

How's that for a title? With all the sickness we've had around here, I never got around to recapping our super fun filled weekend! (a couple weekends back)

On Saturday we headed to Lake Geneva, WI to see the Ice Castles - these just started coming around here last year and we didn't make it then so we knew we wanted to see them this year! They were delayed in opening because we were having an unseasonably warm-ish winter but finally dates opened up. My mom, sister, brother in law, niece & nephew joined and it was a good old fashioned family fun day!

Now I'm not going to lie, my inner 10yr old self was totally thinking these would be some kind of Elsa-like ice castles and they weren't (wahhh) but, they were still sooooooo pretty and unique and something I've never seen before. Totally worth the experience! We stayed for over 2 hours exploring them, if that tells you anything!

  

  

Once we were done, we went into town for dinner and then drove home - we all went straight to bed as we were exhausted!


The next day was Monster Trucks with Ricks side of the family - I had never been, neither have the girls and some other family members, so we decided to all go together.  It was surprisingly really fun and enjoyable! and also really LOUD!!

ha Avery's face!

Monday the kids were off and we just relaxed after such a busy, fun weekend!

Christmas 2019 Recap

While Christmas is still fresh in my head, I need to recap it! We had such a nice Christmas and the kids truly were so happy and thankful for everything they got. They even said it was the best Christmas ever - umm, I'll take it!!

Christmas Eve the kids woke up to a goodbye letter from Twinkles, they were so sad he had to leave that night. It's crazy the magic of the elf, but again, I'll take it. It's so innocent and sweet.

We got our house all ready for my mom and sister's family to come over. We had such a nice time celebrating with them and the kids loved everything they got - the girls especially loved their new Barbie Camper!

 

 

My family left around 6 and while they were headed to my aunts house (we chose to stay home this year and start a new tradition) we feasted on our yummy dinner. It was our first time making prime rib and it was delish! After dinner, we let the kids open 1 present that was addressed to the entire family and it was matching pj's for all! This was the first year we did this and we all loved it!

Rick purchased a new tripod this year so we set up for a photo in front of the tree.

Then it was time to watch a Christmas movie,  Christmas Vacation was voted and I was not going to oblige since I love that movie and we hadn't watched it all month yet. After the movie, we set out milk & cookies & carrots then went outside to sprinkle the reindeer food on the lawn.

Rick read Twas the Night Before Christmas and the kids were off to sleep.


Earlier in the month I had already assembled the Barbie Dream House which was a combo gift for the girls from us and it was hiding in the garage. I was so happy I didn't leave that to do until Christmas Eve.  Rick on the other hand, had to assemble the ping pong table we got for Brayden #sucker 😜

We were up pretty late moving presents around making sure the kids were in fact asleep and I think we finally went to bed by midnight.

Christmas morning the kids were sleeping in actually! All but Ella, she's always the first one up. We actually had to wake Avery around 8am!  The best part of the morning is always sitting back with a cup of coffee watching the joy in the kids' faces. It really is the best!

 

 

After our slow morning, we had our homemade cinnamin rolls that the kids ask for every year and I love making. We headed to church around 1 then to my in-laws around 3. It was a fun-filled day and I love looking back and seeing all the happiness that was around!!

I'll be back next week to recap NYE which was also a great time!

xo,
Lizzie

Testing Testing - A life lately recap

Well, I guess me coming back from a blogging break didn't stick as here we are months later😞😞 Life just seems to get busier and blogging has taken a back seat to everything else. That's just how it has to be right now, but I do want to pop in at least sometimes to keep documenting our lives - that is the reason I started this blog in the first place!

Anyway, let's see, I guess we should start with summer - the kids all ended school and we were ready to have a super fun summer! Avery would be off to Kindergarten in the fall (which of course has already happened) and I wanted to make the most of it!

Probably the biggest thing that happened this summer was we got a pool!!!!!! It was an excited/stressful/pain in the butt process but in the end, totally worth it! Our June was pretty crummy so having the pool finished in early July was perfect timing! The weather turned gorgeous and we swam so so much!! We had friends over constantly and made some fabulous summer memories!


 

Brayden's first year with travel baseball came to an end and it was such an awesome experience!! we cannot wait for next season already!



We enjoyed the 4th of July over at Ricks brothers house - it ended up being a really nice day!

Brayden turned 9 and we had a fun party at the house with his friends - they played kickball, swam, ate tons of pizza and had gaterade chugging contests, boys!!

All 3 went to vacation bible camp this summer and had alot of fun! they had a cute little performance at the end of the week

We went to tons of shows at the library and hit up the local splash pads with friends!

Avery turned 5 and I still can't believe my BABY is 5!!! She is so darn cute and spunky, I could eat her up

We went on our annual family vacation to Traverse City, MI and had the best time! some great memories were made

When we got home, Avery had her friend birthday party - Little Mermaid theme of course because she is obsessed :)

 

and before you knew it, school was starting again!! first was for the bigs (kinder starts a week later at our school) - I was so emotional with them on their first day! I always offer to drive on the first day and they said yes, so off to school it was

 

Avery was so sad to see her siblings leave her!! 

 

and then it was Miss A's turn! I asked her if she wanted me to drive her like I always do for the others and she said nope, I want to ride the bus!!! she was so excited for that bus! As soon as she got on and left, I started bawling! It didn't last too long because I had a mom date with my other friends whose babies were also starting kinder!

We went to our towns Labor Day fest and parade and it was a great way to end Summer!

 

and then it was time for Ella to turn 7!!! crazy having all their birthdays in a row but also lots of fun! We had the cutest painting party which I hope to do a separate blog post on!

I will end it there before this post becomes way too long!! Our summer was pretty low key but also so fun and memorable at the same time. I really do consider myself so lucky that I get to be home. Of course it has it's challenges but I would not trade it for anything!!