Spontaneity

Once you have kids spontaneity seems to come to halt. Prior to my children, I considered myself a spontaneous person and I loved it. This past weekend I decided enough was enough. At 11 am Saturday, with no plans, I asked my husband if he wanted to grab the kids and head to Cincinnati for the weekend. He agreed and within 2 hours we were on our first spur of the moment road trip. I felt free!

We knew we couldn't plan a lot of activities with our little ones so we kept it simple. Our plan was to hit Ikea on Saturday, have some dinner and get the kiddies back to the hotel and settled for the night. The next morning we were going to head to the Newport Aquarium have lunch and head home. The whole trip went off without a hitch! Okay so there was one hiccup... my dear daughter snores like an 80 year old man and my husband and I couldn't fall asleep. Thank goodness we stayed in a Homewood Suites* so there was a separate living room with a pullout couch. So as the princess slept in her bed (E stayed in his pack-n-play) we were sleeping on a pullout couch. All in all a good trip and a great way get a little change of scenery not far from home.

She is so excited about staying in a hotel. She loves hotels!

Someone was in need of a nap. Within minutes of taking he was looking at the back of his eyelids (this was his first time facing forward since turning 1 so it wasn't till we reached the south side of C-Bus that he finally feel asleep...too much to check out).

Having fun at the hotel.

The princess all set up in her kingdom.

The ugliest turtle I have laid eyes on!

Getting a shark on her face, a highlight for her trip (hotel was the big one).

Evan feeling the love from his sister.

A SUCCESSFUL TRIP HOME!!!

*The location of this hotel was quite comical. Glenn and I aren't very familiar with Cincy so we opted for a hotel close to Ikea however we wanted a Suite (as mentioned above, a good option for our family). The hotel was in an industrial park.

How romantic

Doesn't this look like a nice romantic thing to do? Then you're held hostage for an hour and half ride through some not-so-nice parts of town lit up like a Christmas tree!

Here I am...Rock ya like a hurricane

I think I've watched The Weather Channel too much. I have this whole ad campaign in my head with the Scorpions tune in the background and Jim Cantore standing in the pelting rain of the outer bands of a catergory 5 hurricane holding onto a palm tree. Yes, this is how my vacation was spent. I was on the up and up of my HURRICANE AUTHORITY (thanks twc)!

Glenn, the kids and I (plus my folks) went to Hilton Head labor day weekend for what was to be a relaxing 7 day trip of beach, sun & fun! Our days in HH were nice although we cut the trip short due to Tropical Storm Hanna. We made lemonade out of lemons & headed to Crozet, VA (minus my folks...they went home) to visit my sister's family.

What is that smell?

It's Lake Okeechobee on fire . We were down in Florida over the holiday weekend and boy did it smell like campfire. The winds have been coming from the west and my first morning in Port St. Lucie I was awoken to the smell of fire! I though the wing of our hotel was on fire. My eyes burned it was so bad. Other than the that our trip went well.

It was a quick trip and we had a good time. Ryleigh spent time in the hotel pool each day. We also found a nice park for her to run around every morning to get out some energy. Our niece, Katie, graduated high school while we were there so we were able to attend her hs grad party! It was at a pool and Ryleigh had a good time with her cousins.

Evan was good as gold! He slept through every night but one and he was great on his first plane trip. On our return we were able to have a seat for him. It was so nice. I would have held him for 3.5 hours had we not had the seat. It was a lifesaver.

Glenn & Evan (his first time in a pool)

Evan & Ryleigh