A post of people I love....

In 2002, I spent 10 weeks in Santa Cruz, CA for the summer.  It was challenging and incredible and my roommates were the best.  We got together recently for the first time since summer project -- plus most of our kiddies!

Pizza my heart.

Just typical dinner time attire when daddy is out of town...

McBride's + Reid's // seven children

Everyone looking...

crying tears of laughter while looking at this picture. 

that time I kicked my baby in the head while trying to beat the camera self-timer...

Being with these people is good. And it's like family.  And it's fun and full and always chaos -- in the best way.  

Elise's first plane ride

Our sweet nephew Cole -- or "baby Cole" as the boys call him.

Isn't he adorable!?!!?

In Chicago, at the aquarium. 

Group picture

Silly group picture

Chicago date night! Thanks, Kate!

Just the man of my dreams, the love of my life...I'm a lucky girl!

A family getaway!

This past weekend we drove down to Dallas and spent the weekend at Great Wolf Lodge.  We all had a lot of fun and we were totally exhausted! This place is not for the weary when you have two little boys!!! 

I also learned a great lesson: Do NOT tell your four year old that you are going to Great Wolf Lodge a month before.  You will be asked several times DAILY when you're leaving.  I think Benjamin and I were equally excited for the day to come :) 

Some highlights: floating in the "lazy river", playing in the wave pool, Patrick pushing Andrew down the slide for the first time {which started a lot of Andrew sliding!!!}, racing Benjamin on the big slides -- he was so scared, but tried them and LOVED it!, story time at the clock, getting "wands", Benjamin extreme excitement -- constantly, Andrew being terrifed of the Rainforest Cafe, SO many laughs.

We also stopped by Legoland before we came home.  It was definitely not for little guys, so Andrew didn't have a lot to do -- but Benjamin LOVED it.  He was all over the place and had such a great time.  And for good measure, at my request, we stopped by Trader Joe's before it was all said and done.  I'm so glad these guys humor me and indulge me in my Trader Joe's obsession!!!

We really do love being together and it's always so hard when our vacation times are over.  God has blessed us so much.  I would spend every waking moment with Patrick and the boys -- and have so much fun! We are better together, as Jack Johnson would say {hee hee}, and trips like this are so good for all of our souls!!!

Bunk beds!

Both boys looking at the camera! What?!!?

typical.

So ready to head to the water park and NOT take pictures!

Lucky us! DFW was just in the distance outside our window.  This provided great entertainment for boy boys!

Andrew thinks there is a baby in his belly, too.

He also likes to have his picture taken.

Isn't he cute?

Two peas in a pod!

Family shot!

One last goodbye.

View of the small child pool and slides.

Wave pool in the back ground.

Main area with two bigger slides. 

Lego land!

With Yoda, of course.

He was not good at driving the cars....

But he was so proud and confident! Such a champ!

Andrew found his own entertainment.

Even sang me a little song.

Typical Benjamin face.

My small town life...

There are a lot of perks to living in a small town. I can walk anywhere, for one. My car was in the shop today for about seven hours, but it didn't stop Benjamin and I from getting things done! We walked home from the auto shop, stopped at Rite-Aid, hung around the house and cleaned a bit, walked to meet Patrick at the fair for lunch, stopped by the grocery store on the way home, came back home and started dinner, did some laundry and pureed carrots, then back to the auto shop. Whew! My legs hurt just writing that! :)

It's nice that I don't really need my car to get around. Plus, what a great example we're able to show Benjamin about supporting local businesses and using our resources wisely. We walk a lot - to the grocery store, to the post office, to the chiropractor, to church, to the farmers market, to get lunch and just to get out of the house.

More perks of small town living: seeing someone I know when I'm out, being able to talk to strangers, and not feeling weird when those strangers talk to my baby. I love that I can take leftovers or baked goodies to our neighbors and they will eat them. I love that I can be in my kitchen and hear my neighbor call for me, only walk outside to freshly homemade marinara sauce. I love that our walks take a little longer somedays because we can stop and talk to a friend -old or new!

Sure, there are things that are hard about small town life. But after a good, long look at the whole scheme of things not having a Target (or Chic-fil-a or Panera or GAP or Ann Taylor Loft) and dodging college students seems to fade away in my love for this little town. Plus, who could dislike a town where the county fair is the hottest thing of the summer and the little park near our house has concerts every Sunday? Not me!

Niagara Falls..

(part of the road driving up. we took back roads most of the way)

We had a great time in Niagara over the weekend. The drive wasn't as bad as we thought and it was so beautiful! We used the GPS (as in, Patrick's Christmas present) for the trip and it was so helpful!

We stopped at Outback Steakhouse in Buffalo, NY for dinner. I was starving and wanted a sweet potato and a salad (that's what a I crave. yum.). They had both! We enjoyed being out of the car for a bit and I thought Buffalo seemed like a great city - what you could see of it in the dark.

We rolled into Niagara Falls and checked into our hotel. We were SO blessed and surprised to find that Kent left us a gift certificate to help pay for the hotel (for an anniversary present!), that they couldn't change our rate (we booked at a higher price and the prices went down before we checked in, so they were suppose to give us the cheaper rate) so they upgraded us to a Junior Presidential Suite, and that we got a voucher for free room service! Score!!! It was so fun to have all of those surprises at once.

Our room was great and the view of the falls was even better! We pulled a couch in front of the window and watched the falls change colors (because of the lighting). We got a call to our room saying they were bringing something for us and when they arrived with a fruit and cheese platter (from Kent! Thanks, brother, for everything!), we were pretty excited. So, we sat on the couch watching the falls and eating cheese and grapes! Not to mention that they had fireworks over the falls... we watched those from the couch, too.(view from our room, in the morning)

Saturday was COLD, but fun. We drove over to the American side of the falls and enjoyed the view from there first. We walked around (to my dismay) and I took some pretty fun pictures. The big-ness of the falls is really fascinating. The water was deeper and ran much faster than I thought it would. It was quite fun being with a geologist because he knew a lot about what was going on, so I asked a lot of questions. The mist from the falls coated EVERYTHING in ice. It was incredible how such a fine little mist could turn so many things white and icy! Oh, the mist also froze the lens of my camera, which then broke. This was such a bummer.

We went to a visitors center to warm up and watched a movie about Niagara Falls. It was cheesy, but interesting. Patrick hated it and was so ticked off that we paid to see it. It wasn't what he thought it would be. The whole trip he would get started on how the movie was bad and such. It was actually pretty funny and we ended up making fun of it more than anything. Good times!

We walked around the Canadian side of the falls after lunch and then went back to the room to warm up and relax. It was nice to hang out and not feel like we had to to a thousand things while we were there. We made reservations for dinner at an Italian restaurant, Casa Mia, that was a little out of the way of tourism. It was incredible and small and the food was outstanding. Even Patrick LOVED his meal (he can be a food snob) and my was wonderful. My salad has this creamy garlic dressing that was so tasty. Dessert was so delicious. I love finding good restaurants!

Sunday we got up early, checked out and drove over to Niagara on the Lake. We did stop at Tim Horton's to grab some doughnuts. I have a friend from Canada that said we needed to stop here. They were pretty good. I don't really like doughnuts. We pulled into a park and ran down the Lake Ontario to touch the water (it's a thing we do, touch water in all the different places we go...). It was cold and I'm glad we weren't swimming in it. :)

We drove down the main street of Niagara on the Lake and we were sad to see that all of the shop were closed. The small town reminded us of St. Andrews, Scotland. It was quaint and quite, shops and cafes lined the streets. If we ever go back, we'll stay here. I recommend the same to you. It's only a 20 minute drive to the falls.

We left for home after our random detour and make it home in great time. It was nice to be home after driving so long! I love taking trips with Patrick. Each trip gets better as we know each other more and have learned to enjoy spending time together no matter where we are! This was a great anniversary trip!

Ice covered everything...

Like the ground and this little leaf.
We're cute in our snow hats, which people don't call toboggans around here. FYI

My favorite picture that I took before the camera stopped working.
Frozen berries and branches...
Me by a rock and the ice cold water. We were exploring and found this area. Beautiful! (Mom, these are the new jeans I got... do you like them?)My incredible husband! Isn't he handsome and rugged looking? I love that!

A little water fall that was on Three Sisters Island. The water was rapid like and so pretty.