We're Another Year Older

As you get older, birthdays aren't quite as big of a deal.  With that being said, we still try to make them special for us grown ups!  On Brad's birthday, the kids said we needed to get him balloons.  So we did that and got some cupcakes at Puffy Muffin.  And he had cards from all of us and some giftcards (including one for a massage)!  I'd take that anyday!

I think he's excited for his birthday, don't you?

We did get together with family to celebrate a day or two later.  I sure love this picture!  Daddy with his crazies - and his favorite kind of birthday cake! 

That weekend, we headed out to watch the Tennessee game just the two of us!  That's a good gift too - uninterrupted game watching!  And I'd like to think his date wasn't too shabby either :)

After the game we ended up going and having dinner at Tanja and Nick's!  She was making dinner and had enough for us to join them - so fun and delicious!

And a couple of months later, it was my turn!  We had dinner at Newks to celebrate my birthday and then all came back to my house for some cake!  Love all of these pictures!

On my actual birthday, I got to enjoy a run outside on my favorite trail.  I can't wait until it warms up enough to be able to get back out there and run!

And I got to get away for my girls' trip to the beach.  That's definitely an amazing gift!

We make such a big deal about the kiddos' birthdays that I wanted to do a separate post to show that we do treasure our birthdays as well :)

The Girls Hit 30A

We had been talking about taking a girls trip for a long time - and we finally did it!  I hadn't gone on a girls trip in years, so it was definitely time!  Once we compared all of our schedules, the weekend before Thanksgiving worked best -- and we actually headed out of town on my birthday!  Tanja and I left that evening, while Sina and Autumn joined us the next night!

The sight of the sugar sand beaches and turquoise waters is just peaceful and amazing to me.  I can feel my body fully relax once I am there...I just love it.

We spent a few hours at the beach and essentially had it to ourselves!

Prosecco and relaxation -- it doesn't get much better than that!

Once we got too cold, we headed out and made a run to the grocery store for the things we wanted for while we were down there.  After that and relaxing and showering, we headed back to the airport to get the other girls!  The best part of that was getting all of the luggage in the teeny trunk...ha!  I spared everyone and decided not to post the picture I have of the effort involved there :)  We picked up a giant pizza on the way back to the condo and it was perfect!

And a group selfie on the first night for all 4 of us to be together!

And I had to document that you actually can get sun in November! And as I was uploading pictures, I had a selfie from each day.  Ha!  I am not usually a selfie-a-day kind of person, so I thought it would be funny to post them...

Saturday we all got up and relaxed (and Autumn and I actually ran!) before heading to the beach for a bit!  It was a gorgeous day!

I was able to catch the sunset that evening before we got ready for dinner!  Gorgeous.

And a new restaurant had opened and we decided to give it a try!  I think it opened literally 48 hours before we ate there.  And it was delicious!  I would definitely go back.

And a group shot at dinner!

And that evening's selfie - ha!  I think I did it to document the fact that my hair was fixed!  That happens maybe twice a year :)

And a post-run selfie the next morning.  Clearly it was chilly...which meant no beach time on the Sunday of the trip!

We literally lounged around all day and watched football.  It was so nice to have nothing to have to do and no one needing me!  Once we did finally get cleaned up, we headed to my favorite....The Great Southern!  Here I am with my 30A staple - their Coconut Mojito!

And another group picture after dinner!

The Sunday evening selfie is brought to you by Milka...some of the best chocolate!  Good thing they had a chocolate stash at the condo!

And I got up and ran on the Monday of our trip - and took a little detour out to see the ocean while I was running!

Autumn and I met back up after we each ran and got coffee.  Tanja and Sina came and got us and we got a picture in from of the big Christmas tree in Alys Beach before heading to brunch!

After brunch we got ready for some beach time!  It was the best beach day for sure - it warmed up more and the water was beautiful!

This picture is probably my favorite one from the trip!  Need to get it printed and toss it in a frame :) 

And after maxing out our beach time, we headed back to shower, pack, and finish getting the condo ready for us to leave.  Then off to the airport we went!

I am so thankful for that time away with friends!

Though it was amazing to be gone for a few days, it was awesome to see these three crazies!  I'd say we all missed each other :)

Quick 48 in NOLA

Back in early November, Brad and I had a quick 48 hour trip to New Orleans!  We were headed to a wedding and had a little extra time to play tourist.  I had never been to NOLA before, so we had to hit up some of the hotspots!

We got up super early on the Saturday morning to fly out.  This is what tired but excited for a little time away looks like...

We arrived, took a taxi to the hotel, checked our luggage (because our room was obviously not ready at 10am), and headed out! We wanted to grab brunch, so we walked for a bit and made out way to Cochon Butcher!  And we got there just in time...as we were finishing up, it was packed!

Then we walked around some more and magically ended up at Café du Monde :) The weather was perfect and the line moved quickly!

Definitely glad I can mark that off my bucket list.  Yum!

And since a lot of NOLA is about food and drink, our next stop was Bourbon Street...and a table at Pat O'Brien's!  The hurricanes didn't disappoint and we were able to sit down and watch some football!

We headed back to the hotel and took a nap (since you can do that when you don't have kids around) and then got ready for the wedding!  It was at the House of Blues and was so much fun!  Here we are all cleaned up!

The next day we slept in a bit and got up for brunch.  We picked Red Slipper (thanks, Yelp!)...it was delicious (and I actually ate two meals, basically)!  And then it was time to be a tourist again.  I didn't plan ahead, unfortunately, and there weren't any tours available, so we did our own thing. 

We took a streetcar down to the Garden District and picked a random stop and walked around!  There were some gorgeous houses, and obviously the architecture is so beautiful!

We had made reservations for dinner that night, so we ended up walking back to our hotel (we had lots of steps that day!) to get cleaned up and ready for dinner.  We actually had time to kill, so we went to the Carousel Bar for a drink before dinner.  Dinner was delicious -- we opted to eat at Mr. B's Bistro!

After dinner we walked around and when in a few stores (don't you know Brad loved that!) and headed pack to get packed up. We got up super early Monday morning to fly home!

We got back in time for Brad to shower and get into work at a decent time, and I even took Jack to school!  Such a fun trip - and as always, it was nice to get away just the two of us!  I do wish we had had one extra day down there...Brad really wanted to go to the World War II Museum, but we just didn't have the time!  Next time we will plan ahead better :)

Fall Break Getaway: Fun on 30A

In early October, we packed up and headed south!  We hadn't told the kids we were going, so it was fun to pick them up from school early and tell them where we were headed that very day! 

Since we didn't leave until mid-afternoon, it also meant a late arrival to the house we rented!  Once we got everything unpacked and the kids down, I finally sat down and enjoyed some quiet before heading to bed!

Everyone woke up eager and ready to go the first day down there!  The house we rented was amazing - it was the first time we didn't stay right on the beach, but it was so nice!

We enjoyed the wraparound porch at the house!  It was perfect!

After getting bathing suits and sunscreen on, we headed to the beach!  It was gorgeous!  30-A is most definitely my favorite place...I can just feel the stress roll right off when I get a glimpse of the beaches!

This may be one of my favorite pictures from the trip...Katie loved wave jumping!  The spot where we set up each day had a big sand bar so we could walk our pretty far and it was only a few inches deep!

And a picture of us together!  Love this one!

And some other kids came to dig and play - of course my fourth child (Brad) was in the middle of it all playing too.  Love that!

And a family picture!  Love this!  Goodness...amazingly beautiful water!

The crazies had a big time digging holes and wave jumping!

Where do you think they learned how to wave jump? :)

After some quiet time (and nap for Rhino), we surprised the kids and showed them that the house came with a GOLF CART!  They couldn't wait to hop on and take a ride!

I'd say they liked it!  Here we are close to two months since the trip and Ryan still talks about the golf cart almost daily!  That night we went to Bruno's Pizza (one of our favorites) for dinner!

We were able to catch the end of the sunset too!

After everyone got cleaned up, we found some puzzles at the house.  Katie and Brad really got into the puzzles!  We ended up doing two different puzzles on the trip - and actually Jack got into it too!

The following morning, these three finished the first puzzle after breakfast!

Then it was time to hit the beach again!

I got my picture of the three kiddos facing the ocean! 

It was at this point in the trip that it got intense.  After taking the picture of the three gazing out at the ocean, we couldn't find Jack.  It was the scariest bit of time (felt like an eternity, but in reality it was at most a minute or two).  I went one way yelling his name and Brad went the other way (I was carrying Ryan and Katie stayed at our towel set up area).  Finally we saw him walking toward us from down the beach.  Good grief.  I was so relieved to see him and waited until bedtime to ask him what he was doing.  He definitely is our wild man, but he stays close at the beach.  He said he looked up and saw a man in a orange shirt (like Brad) and a bunch of toys that were red, yellow, blue, and green (just like ours), so he went down that way thinking it was our stuff.  He also said a mom asked him where his parents are (thanks to that lady!), so I think that made him realize he wasn't finding us and encouraged him to turn around.  Thankful was quickly alright!  He was back to wave jumping in no time!

Ryan was happy for a little while.  After that he was just crying and miserable.  Brad ended up taking him back to the house to give him Tylenol (he had a canine tooth come in) and he fell asleep in his arms.  So Brad watched the Auburn game and was keeping me in the loop on football scores while I was at the beach with the big two.

It is unusual to see a lot of seaweed, but there was a fair amount this day.  It certainly didn't stop the kiddos from playing though!

Me and the big two crazies! I love this picture!

Brad and Ryan came to get us and we hung out at the house for a while - hello, Tennessee football - before heading out to find somewhere for some dinner.  We ended up at Whiskey Bravo on the rooftop to eat and kept watching the UT game.  I am not sure we will go back there for a while - it seems like it would be more enjoyable without kids!  Or at least with older kids.  But the rooftop was great!

And we caught another sunset!  We actually made it down to the beach to see this one!

Here is the kiddo crew heading down to splash for a minute!

And we got a family picture in front of the ocean too!

And a girl picture!

And it was time for another puzzle to begin!

And then it was time to head to the beach on the last day.  I think we developed a pretty basic routine down there!  Breakfast, puzzle, beach, lunch, quiet time, play, dinner, sunset, puzzle, shower, bed. Ha!

And as long as Ryan had snacks he was good.  He was happy some of the time and then started hurting again!

Brad checked on him and thought it was sun in his eyes or that he was hot or something...

And then he fell asleep in Brad's lap again.  Dumb teething.  Sweet Daddy though!

And day three of wave jumping!  Love that they were wanting to do it together!

When Ryan woke up, we were digging a big ditch and made a waterfall.  Ryan loved it when Katie and Jack poured water in there and splashed us.

I just need to document this.  Sweet brothers.  Cute buns.  And good GRIEF Jack was tan!  We called him our little Oreo!

That afternoon I went to visit sweet friends from college!  They were down for the weekend and I'm so glad I got to visit with them (even though it wasn't nearly long enough)!

I raced back so we could head to dinner...we went to my favorite spot, The Great Southern!  We got there and had a wait, but the kids had so much fun playing in the amphitheater!

Katie took a pretty good picture of me and Brad!

And once again...my four kids running around :)

Then we walked around and had to stop for a picture of the kids with the big duck in Seaside!

Goodness.  It doesn't get much better than this.  Grits A Yaya and Coconut Mojito.  This meal is one of my favorites EVER!

Monday morning we got up, packed up, and took the golf cart for one more ride to see the ocean before we loaded up to head home!

Had to get one more beautiful ocean picture :)

And I love this cute pic of the kids sitting on the front porch of the house we rented!

And the house!  We would definitely stay there again.  It was three bedroom with one of them having a bunk bed...the big kids loved having that!

Yay for slowly catching up!  That trip was great...I could've stayed for a couple extra days, but alas...we do not get a full week for fall break around here.  I will take any bit of beach time I can get though!