Our 6th Anniversary

Kris and I celebrated our 6th anniversary this weekend. Our actual anniversary was last weekend, but Kris was in Brazil. We decided to do an overnight getaway instead of exchanging gifts. Our normal sitter kept the boys. We made a whole day of it! First we went to lunch, then headed to New Kent Winery for a wine tasting.

New Kent Winery is in a gorgeous area with rows and rows of grapes. The tasting room is awesome.

After New Kent, we went to James River Cellars, which is actually not on the James River and is in the middle of city. New Kent was much prettier, but we enjoyed the wine at James River more.

After our wine tasting, we headed to our hotel. We stayed at The Jefferson, which is probably the most beautiful hotel I've ever seen in my entire life. The room was smaller than the average hotel room (the hotel was built in 1895), but the service there is top-notch. The linens were amazing too.

 

We had dinner on Saturday night at Le Maire restaurant in the hotel. Once again, amazing food and amazing service.

While we were at dinner, the housekeeping staff did a turn-down service in our room. They laid out plush robes, straightened the room, filled the ice bucket, put out clean towels, etc. (See what I mean about the service?) When I came out of the bathroom, Kris had donned the robe and was trying to look quite sophisticated.

The next morning we went to the famous Jefferson champagne brunch. Supposedly this brunch sells out several weeks ahead of time and oh my gosh---the food! It is a "buffet" of sorts, but definitely high end. All the food was in the heaviest real silver buffet dishes I have ever seen. I mean I almost couldn't close the lid after opening them. And they had every kind of food you could imagine--breakfast food, omelet station, Belgian waffle station, seafood station, carving station, prime rib and various other types of meats, all sorts of sides, breads, AMAZING pastries, and of course, the best part, all you can drink champagne!

 

It was a wonderful, much needed weekend getaway for just the two of us. It's been a crazy year ( as they all have been--we definitely don't have a boring life!). So lucky to have spent the past 6 years married to this amazing man!

Vaca 2013

This year we decided to take a family vacation to Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach is just 120 miles from us, so it is not too far to drive. We have never done an "actual" family vacation, although we have stayed in hotels with the boys numerous times for various reasons. Since we have learned taking a trip with 2 small boys is not really a vacation, we decided to stay for 2 nights and 3 days. I have to say, it was about the perfect amount of time away. The boys had a great time, but were definitely ready to get back in routine by the time we got home. Kale said, "I want to go home," at least 100 times while we were away.

 

Both boys did very well in the car, especially Kale! He played with our new Ipad the entire time. I think he probably could have made a few more hours with the Ipad as entertainment.

The first thing we did when we arrived in Virginia Beach was hit the beach. We knew rain was coming and we wanted to get in as much beach time as possible. In my opinion, the waves at Virginia Beach are pretty rough--the boys loved it, but it sure scared their momma sometimes!

After playing at the beach, we headed to a nearby restaurant with a patio to have some good fried food!

After the beach, we checked into our hotel. The boys had to examine every square inch of the place and then we settled in for a late  nap---at least Kale did.

 

After naps, we decided to hit Towne Center, which was only 1/2 mile from our hotel, for dinner. Towne Center is a great area with back-to-back restaurants and shops.

I wanted to take pictures of Kale and Liam and Kale suggested that he should "hold" Liam. This was the result. Can you tell who is larger?

The picture taking quickly turned to wrestling.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and put Liam to bed. Both boys got to stay up later than usual. Kale really thought it was something special. After Liam went to bed, Dad took Kale to the hotel store and they raided it--coming back with enough ice-cream and candy for a week!

The next day, as luck would have it, it rained. We headed to the aquarium. This was the first time either of the boys have been to an aquarium. They loved it in the beginning, but within a few hours, tired of it and grew quite fussy.

 

After the aquarium we went to get pizza. It was not so great pizza, but the boys needed a distraction after the aquarium.

Lucky for us, our hotel had an indoor pool--perfect for the rainy conditions.

After a wonderful dinner on Friday night, we decided to take the boys out for their favorite thing--ice-cream!! Look at Kale's adorable shirt. (Made by my sweet friend Renee!)

 

There was a fountain nearby so we went to throw pennies in. The boys loved it!

Just before bedtime, Liam decided to go for a stroll in his birthday suit.

The next day we headed out to Williamsburg, the halfway point between Virginia Beach and Richmond. We stopped at Busch Gardens for a few hours. It was once again, raining, but we decided to chance it.

There is a 3 mile underwater tunnel you have to drive through to get from VA Beach to Richmond. There was an accident so the tunnel was blocked. We sat in traffic for 45 minutes.  

This is Kris' reaction to the blocked tunnel. We had no idea how long we would be sitting, but luckily 45 minutes wasn't too bad.

When we got to Busch Gardens, we actually knew the lay of the park this time, so it was much easier than last time.

Kale loved flying in the airplane--this is something he has been asking to do a lot. Lucky him, we will be flying to see Gram and Poppa in a few weeks.

You can tell both boys were getting tuckered out here.

Luckily we only got a few quick rain showers and managed to stay at the park about 3 hours.

Liam's favorite ride.

Both boys crashed  on the way home. We were all very tired and ready to get home to sleep in our own beds!

19 Months

This sweet man is 19 MONTHS OLD!! I just can't believe it--he is the age that Kale was when we had Liam. What were we thinking? No wonder it was so hard!!

 

By the way, I love the above picture!

 

But oh so worth it!

Kale and Liam are great buds, much of the time. They also fight like brothers ALOT! Some days I feel like the only thing they do is fight and whine.

Where did my baby go?

July 4th

We have enjoyed a great fourth of July weekend. Kris' last day of work this week was Wednesday, so it was nice to have dad home more than usual. On Thursday morning, we headed out to the neighborhood parade. It has nothing special...just a bunch of kids and parents dressed in red, white, and blue, riding decorated bikes in the parade. The boys enjoyed watching it though and getting a bit of candy.

 

Afterwards the ice-cream truck stopped by and boys dove into fudge bars. The ice-cream melted very quickly because it was hot...this meant that their outfits lasted approximately 30 minutes. (Thanks Gram, for the fun fourth of July outfits and presents!)

 

Liam loves some ice-cream and even attempted to eat the wooden stick.

 

Doesn't he look so big here?

 

 

We headed to the neighborhood pool for a swim. The boys love going to the pool, even though we go quite often. I figured they would tire of it by now, but they haven't. They are both so brave in the water.

Kale got a new kickboard and had a great time trying it out. He swallowed more than his share of water while trying to figure out how much weight the kickboard could hold.

The boys showing off their moves!

 

In the afternoon, we headed to a friends house for a cook-out. Liam loved their water table and tried to drink from it numerous times.

 

We had delicious food and some amazing smores bars that I plan to try to recreate this afternoon!

Our friends have a nice, big backyard--perfect for running!!

On July 5th, we went to a neighboring town to watch fireworks. The town of Powhatan has a fireworks display to raise money for Virginia Wounded Warriors. Tons of people show up and it is supposedly the "largest fireworks" show in Virginia. I have to say, we were impressed! We had a close-up seat and I can honestly say, I have never seen such a spectacular fireworks display. It was awesome!

We got kettle corn and let me say, Liam wasted no time letting everyone know who was in charge of the popcorn!

We have been having problems with our bag chairs breaking lately, so we ended up with only one adult bag chair--Kale tried commandeering it, but we made him give it up!

The boys did pretty well considering there wasn't much for children's entertainment there and we arrived a few hours before the display started. Not to mention, they were up about 3 hours PAST their bedtimes. I think we got in the car about 10 p.m. Liam has NEVER been up that late before.

Kale watched Curious George on his "phone" when he got bored.

Liam had dad to entertain him, so he was fine.

 

 

I wasn't sure how the boys would react to the fireworks. Since we were so close, it was very loud! But they both did great. Liam laid back on the blanket with Kris and didn't move a muscle. Kale sat on my lap. I could tell he was a little uncertain, but he watched the whole thing.

 

Happy Independence Day!!