West Virginia Mountains - Part II

Wow took a whole month to get around to this, pretty sad. Well after the ceremony for Cam’s dad and grandmother we headed over to Pioneer Day and a family friend Lynette’s house. The house backed up to a beautiful creek that we ventured over to and tried to show Cole how to skip rocks. I wish we had spent more time at the creek it was so nice and refreshing, Cole got such a kick out of it all too especially loved the crawl fish broil. 

 

 

We headed back to Snowshoe in hopes both kids would nap so we could venture over to the inside pools. Thankfully both passed out right away! The pool had two slides, a small one that Cole could go down himself and a larger one that Cam took Cole down. This was hands down his favorite thing on the trip. He didn't want to leave and talked about it for days after.

 

 

It was a very long drive and not really an ideal situation with two young kids, but we survived and really enjoyed experiencing theses new adventures with Cole and Emery. It makes me very excited for our next family vacation to Cancun in December.       

West Virginia Mountains – Part 1

A couple weeks back we made a trip to West Virginia to honor the passing of both Cam’s dad Henry and his Grandmother Betty who had both passed in the last year. Cam’s dad had always wanted his ashes to be spread in both Cancun the place he love and in West Virginia the place he called home. There was a lovely ceremony for both Henry and Betty that was followed by the towns Pioneer Day. It was a special event that Henry always tried to make it back to West Virginia for, so it only seemed fitting we were there that weekend.

On our drive up the Mountain to Snowshoe

 

It was my first time experiencing the West Virginia Mountains. Is it country? Yes. Very different from Severna Park. But man is there something so beautiful about it. It’s so peaceful and laid back. Cole loved just about every second of the trip. He loved being able to see the mountains and experience new things. 

We stayed in a nearby resort down called Snowshoe that is very nice. I can only imagine what it’s like during the winter season when its alive and buzzing with tons of people. It was HOGS weekend when we were there so they had some activities going on that kept Cole very interested and we also got some great people watching in. 

 First day we walked around the Snowshoe town area, tons of restaurants, shops and bars.

 

Here they were doing some kind of jump thing and they also had zip lines going on above us. 

He stood there awhile watching it all

 

Such a Cole face

   

 We made are way around the town area and over to the trails where there was Mountain Bike trails and some truly dare devil guys that were brave enough to go down them. Very fun to watch.

 

About two seconds after this picture was taken a guy went right over the side with his bike. Cole was in amazement!

 

Little Ms Emery was a super baby, with little sleep she was happy and napped when she could. Could not have asked for anything better.

 

 

This was the view from our room. Emery stayed with us while Cole got to sleep in bunk beds. The top bunk while Grandma took the bottom one. This was very cool for him!

 

 

The first night there Vicki was kind enough to let Cam and Me go out to dinner and grab a drink sans the kiddos. 

 At Dinner, playing with the new lens I got...

 

 

We rested up for the next day’s events which included the ceremony, pioneer day and the indoor pool and watersides! (Part 2) 

To many pictures not to split this up into two blog posts.

Nice long weekend

The husband and me took off work today and tomorrow to make it a nice long weekend. We have lots of fun stuff planned like trips to Annapolis, finishing up Cole's big boy room, the park, a Ravens game and an early anniversary celebration. Were not only having dinner out to celebrate 4 awesome years we are also going to a concert!

As Cole goes down for his nap, I wanted to share a picture from this morning.

 

I can't wait to see him as big brother!

Vacation

We have been on vacation for a week now and have a few more days left to really enjoy the last bits of summer. The beach didn't go exactly as planned due to a pretty sick toddler but the few days we did have when he felt well was lots of fun! Cole is still fearless when it involves running into the ocean..which can be very challenging when the water is rough. Hubs had to keep running up and down the shoreline trying to keep up with him. So funny to watch but not very relaxing. Ha.We spent more time at the pool then the beach which was fine by me. We picked up one of those puddle jumper floats for Cole before we left and man was that thing god sent...he swam on his own for hours!
We headed back from the beach early due to Cole's nasty virus but we seem to finally be in the clear and the fun continues!

I haven't gone through all my pictures but this is by far my favorite one.

 



One Marvelous Monday

Like most people when Monday rolls around I dread having to go back to work, the weekend goes by way to fast and leaves me wishing for just a few more hours with my family. Yesterday was no exception, the weekend had just slipped away and Monday was here again. So as Hubs and me laid in bed talking about what we had in store for the day we just couldn’t let go of this weekend for some reason. And that is when Hubs came up with best idea…VACATION DAY!! We both called into work requesting a Vaca Day and waited for Cole to wake to share the exciting news. While I’m sure he had no idea it was a Monday he must have just felt the excitement we were feeling. From the moment he woke up till bed time he was all smiles. We had one marvelous Monday hanging out as a family. And since I was having so much fun yesterday I forgot to take any pictures but I did take a few from the weekend…
Cole tickling Daddy ....


Saturday we had a little rain so we had some playtime in the garage. My kid is obsessed with Ladder Ball.


Sunday Morning...notice the child proof lock on the ground. Yea the kid has it all figured out!

Beach Trip 2011

Last week we had a wonderful time in the Outer Banks, we stayed on the 4x4 beaches with two other families. It’s a stretch of beach where there are no roads, no restaurants and no shops. All vacation homes are reached only by 4x4 vehicles. It was our first Family Vacation. This term has a whole new meaning to me now. For now I’m a parent. We all knew there wasn’t going to be very much relaxing with each family having a child under 18 months, relaxing was something only done when the children were sleeping. Gone are the days of us sitting on the beach, reading a book and having a beer. My child does not sit still unless he is asleep or strapped into his car seat. So lounging on the beach was not his thing. From the first moment we put him down on the sand he was off…like a small crab moving along the shore line. In and out of the water and digging into the sand. I gave up quickly about worrying that he was eating sand, as long as it wasn’t handfuls he was fine! And for the most part all he wanted to do was dig. He did great but in short periods of time. Beach for an hour, pool for 30 min, eat then nap. It must have been a lot for him cause little man required 3 naps most days. Thankfully we had our own private pool at the house so we weren’t stuck inside when he was napping.
I found that the key to going on vacation with a small child is Team Work. Hubs and Me worked out a system that gave us both a little bit of free time on our own during the day. While it can be lots of work and pretty exhausting I wouldn’t trade it for a second. I loved being able to spend the whole week with Cole and watch him experience the beach, pool and spending time with his two buddies Connor and Austin. Seeing my Husband and Cole fall head over heels for The Geary Family’s dog Griffin ( No Dear, we are not getting a dog). I even managed to read a book and get some much needed sun. We had a few game nights with the Adults that were pretty Epic. I can’t count how many times I snorted while laughing during those nights! I love the memories that were made and I can’t wait to do it all over again next year. So now here is a crap load of pictures from our Family Vacation!

Connor, Austin and Cole chilling on the beach



The Geary Family
Court and Connor

Austin Rocking the Mohawk
My boys with Griffin




The Ervick Family
My Family :)