back to school

Emmy started 7th grade on Monday.  

We went out for ice cream after school to celebrate a great day.

Bryce started 10th grade on Tuesday.  

Bryce is trying something new this year.  He had his first volleyball scrimmage on Thursday and we had a great time watching something new. 

We have had the nicest weather this week so we've been outside as much as possible.  

One busy week down, lots more to go!

the last week of summer

It was a whirlwind of a week getting caught up from being in California and trying to get into the swing of school stuff as everything seemed to get started early. 

The cousins found themselves with lots of time together which they won't complain about.  Chase started driving this week, so he was a big help picking Bryce up from baseball camp and entertaining everyone while we helped with back-to-school stuff. 

Emmy was excited to have her gang back together at open house.  They all went back to one of the girl's house for a sleepover.  

Kelly and Dave gave the kids tickets to the Savannah Bananas for Christmas.  The game was Friday night and they had a great time.  

Next up, back to school!

 

California

We went to southern California this year to knock out three more baseball stadiums.  We packed in lots of fun along the way.  

We got to California around lunch time on Thursday and we hit the ground running.  We stopped for lunch and then headed to the La Brea tarpits.  This was a must do for Jason and everyone else enjoyed it too. 

Next, we rode up into the Hollywood Hills for some photos of the iconic sign.  

Jason's next thing on the list was the Griffith Observatory.  This proved very difficult to get to (but we somehow got lucky with prime-time parking) and wasn't exactly what we thought, but the views of the city were nice, and we caught the sunset. 

Day 2 was our anniversary.  We started the day on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and got our first ever acai bowls for breakfast.  

We left LA and headed down the Pacific Coast Highway.  We stopped along the way for a beachside lunch for our anniversary.  Everyone loved the restuarant Jason chose. 

After lunch we finished our drive to San Diego.  We knocked out stadium number 20 at the Padres game.  This was probably one of our favorite ballparks.  

Day 3 we went to the San Diego Zoo.  I personally feel as though it you've seen one zoo: you've seen them all.  I was willing to do another zoo because I had always heard this was the best. This zoo was very nice, but very large and hard to navigate.  We saw a lot, but we regret not starting the day with the double decker bus tour around the zoo.  

After the zoo, we headed to the desert to Joshua Tree.  We thought we had overbooked ourselves and weren't going to get to drive through, but it wall worked out.  

These three are more outgoing than me.  They explored the edge a little more than I was comfortable with. 

It was over 110 degrees in the desert. 

A Joshua Tree

Day 4 we left the desert and headed to Anaheim for an Angels game.  This was stadium 21.  This was a day game, so we enjoyed going back to hotel for some much-needed downtime for the rest of the night. 

Day 5 we stayed in Anaheim and went to Disneyland.  I honestly don't think the kids were looking forward to it, but I think it was one of our favorite days.

We enjoyed all of the Mickey shaped treats. 

From ice cream sandwiches to beignets.  

And a pretzel is always a must. 

We ended the night at California Adventure Park because Bryce wanted to see Carsland (Radiator Springs) lit up at night.  It was stunning.  

Day 6 we headed back to LA for the last leg of our trip.  

We were touristy and walked down Rodeo Drive and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

We had lunch and the kids swam before we headed to Dodger stadium for our last game of the summer.  This was stadium number 22.  We have 8 more to go. 

The scenic views from the stadium were nice.  Fun fact:  we felt an earthquake during the 7th inning stretch.  

Day 7 was a bonus day because our airline only flew on Thursday.  We slept in, went to UCLA, then spent the afternoon on the beach in Santa Monica.  

It was cooler at the coast, but comfortable.  The water was cool, but not as cold as we remembered and honestly not much colder than we experienced on the east coast this summer. 

After the beach, the kids picked up Chipotle for dinner and ate by the pool and Jason and I went out for our second date night of the trip.  Vacationing with older kids is so different, but so fun.  This was a long trip with lots of stops, but hopefully lots of memories were made!

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.