my birthday weekend

We started celebrating my birthday on Saturday night with dinner at my mom's.  After dinner we went for a golf cart ride and played pickleball.  

Sunday was my actual birthday, and I woke up at 5:30 so I could watch women's gymnastics.

Since I was up so early, I had time to walk, workout and eat a yummy breakfast before church. 

We all made it to church together since Bryce didn't have his game until 4.

Our church is doing an "at the movies" sermon series so we had popcorn during service. 

After church I met my bestie at the pool and she brough lunch and mimosas.  So good!

Such a treasured friendship.  

Icing on the cake when the pool has the coconut sorbet in stock.  They must have known it was my birthday.  

If you know me, you know I don't love the water.  I don't love getting in it and I especially don't love going under.  But, I was peer pressured by a three year old to go down the slide, ha!

Jason and Bryce had gone to northern VA for baseball and Emmy was at youth group so I picked up sushi on the way home from the pool and enjoyed a solo dinner. 

We went to Nana's tonight to celebrate with the whole family.  I requested a cookie dough cake and boy did these guys deliver.  My mom got the recipe and MeMa and the kids made it.  

It looked professional and tasted amazing.  

It was a great few days of being spoiled.

Duck, NC

We left Cleveland early Monday morning, came home for a little over an hour to unpack and repack and hit the road for a few days at the beach with friends.  This is our first time vacationing with friends and now we're ready to do it every year!  You could see the sound and beach from our house. 

After a long day of traveling, Bryce was ready for a swim.  

We made such good timing that we were able to join everyone for dinner on the first night.  These 8 kiddos had the best time and all got along so well.  

We headed out to the beach after dinner for a little dip in the COLD water. 

We hit the beach on Tuesday morning and stayed until a midday storm sent us packing.  

Beach volleyball was a big hit.  

Emmy absolutely loved having a friend to hang out with.  

These two buddies didn't mind the company either. 

The moms!  I'm not sure why I never got the dads.  

The Yonce, Parr, Whitlock boys.  Plus the girls. 

So fun that these friendships have lasted since high school.  

Once the rain passed after dinner on Tuesday it was back out to the beach for fishing and wiffle ball. 

From the pool, hot tub and games, the kids did so well together. 

Emmy and Avery had so much fun. 

We had quite a few rain showers on the trip, but we had plenty of beach and pool time and couldn't complain about the aftermath.  

The house had a putting green that kept the kids entertained for hours.  Lots of high stakes competition out there. 

A couple of days at the beach was just what we needed. 

Our friends the Yonces were gifted this trip to the beach for their son Gavin who went through bone cancer this past year.  This was such a celebration of what God has done in his life this year and healed his body.  We were lucky enough to celebrate with them, some of their extended family and some of our friends.  

We all agreed we must do this again. 

Cleveland

We took a road trip to Cleveland this past weekend to mark another ballpark off our list.  Jason had an opportunity to get free tickets to a game through his work, so it was a no brainer to make the Guardians our next team to mark off.  This is number 19 of 30 for us.   

We drove up on Saturday and enjoyed taking in the sights in the city.  We got up Sunday morning and did a little more exploring until game time.  

Bryce humored me for this picture and Emmy is a good sport about baseball games.

Jason likes to try signature dishes at ballparks.  Theirs was the slider dog.  Slider is their colorful mascot, hence the fruit loops on this hot dog also topped with pimento mac and cheese and bacon. 

Since it was an afternoon game, we had some time to do more exploring after the game.  This time we drove so we could get out of the city.  We made a stop by the famous house in A Christmas Story.

We did not tour the house but enjoyed walking around the gift shop and looking at all the themed merch.  

Cleveland sits on Lake Erie.  It was hard to get to the water from downtown, so we took a drive to a local park and then drove a little further for dinner on the water. 

It was a quick trip, but successful.  Next, we drive home for an hour pit stop and then go to the beach in North Carolina.  

baseball and treats

Bryce went to an Oriole's game with Avery's family this week. 

A player tossed Bryce a ball. 

I took Emmy for a slurplee on 7-11.  

We went to our favorite ice cream spot to get "Jawsome" for shark week.  Emmy and Jason have been enjoying watching it this week, so it was only fitting to get some themed ice cream (red velvet brownie with a gummy shark).

Bryce had a weekend of baseball.  It was super rainy at home Friday, but we were lucky enough to drive far enough west to get out of it.  VMI has a very nice, updated field/stadium.  We drove up Friday morning for an 11:00 game, went to lunch with the team after and then came home.  Bryce enjoyed playing first base for the first time.  

We drove back up Saturday afternoon for a 5:00 game.  After the game the boys swam in the hotel pool and the adults went out to dinner.  

We stayed the night since we had an 8:00 game this morning.  Bryce got to play third base for the first time.  After the game we headed home, and Bryce turned around and went to the beach for the week.

4th of July

Our pool puts on a great day on the 4th of July.  Bryce had plans, but Emmy, Jason and I went to the pool and had a great time.  Emmy won the goggle toss and got a $2 bill as a prize.

She came back from playing Bingo and said she got the worst prize ever.  Pork and beans!  Jason was thrilled!

Emmy and I made patriotic rice Krispie treats for a get together with our friends.  

Emmy also made a festive drink for the kids.  

We enjoyed backyard baseball, fireworks and sparklers. 

Bryce went to the river with friends for the weekend, so Emmy and I had a girl's day on Friday to keep her busy.  We saw Inside Out 2 (which was really good), went shopping and went out to dinner. 

Bryce was living his best life at the river.  

Tubing and fishing are always fun!

They ate good this weekend too!

We all enjoyed the long weekend.