Thanksgiving, Boston and more.

I'm trying to wrap up the year of pics before the last few weeks get crazy.

 

Thanksgiving was wonderful. Although the day is a reminder that my brother has been gone for so long, I still love to spend time with family. What made this Thanksgiving even better this year was the amazing weather. Bob and I ran in our normal Thanksgiving day 6 mile race. We even ran it together since Bob biked with a group before the race started.

 

 

Our family pic. You can tell just how nice of a day it was. 

 

Shortly after Thanksgiving I headed to Boston for a long weekend. My best friend Marina moved there with her family last summer from Chicago. So instead of a 5 hours drive she is now like 19 hours away....so I flew of course. Our other BFF Kris came from Ohio and we had a girls weekend.

 

 

Marina took me to the beach (they live super close in the most adorable area outside of Boston). It was chilly but so pretty. 

 

A pretty view of Boston. 

 

A girls night in the city!

 

On Sunday the 3 of us went out to lunch, shopping and then Marina took me on a great tour of the city before I left. It was such a pretty day to take in the sights. I can't wait to go back next time with Bob and the kids.  

 

Last weekend I hosted a bunch of Mom's from the kids school for a Girls Night In holiday party. It was fun to hang out with all these ladies outside of the school...and unwind!

 

So in addition to traveling a bit, getting ready for the holidays, hosting parties, etc....I took on a major home project. Well maybe not major but very time consuming! I painted all 13 doors in the house and door frames and all the baseboards. It took a few months of off and on work but I am finally done.

 

I really wish I took more before and after pics. 

 

I also changed out the old brass doorknobs for nickel. They look so much better.

 

More home projects to come soon including more painting and hopefully a very needed new deck in the spring....the joys of being a homeowner.

 

Now it's time to get ready and enjoy the holidays which are going to be even more exciting this year!!!!

Fall happenings!

Fall has been super fun and has gone by so fast. I can't believe that the first half of the school year is almost over and Christmas is just around the corner!

 

 

 

Here is a picture from the beginning of the school year on picture day.

 They are looking so grown up as 3rd and 4th graders!

 

 

It was so cold when we went to the winery one day.

I was really glad to get this cute family picture though. 

 

Lucas had a great fall ball season with his new team. He is now currently in the off-season training program. He has training every Sunday and works on batting, infield, pitching and outfield. He loves it and we can already see improvements in just 4 weeks. 

 

I love how the kids Halloween costumes turned out this year.

Lucas was a zombie baseball player and Addison was a 50s waitress. We still have candy!!!

 

We just wrapped up another season of Girls on the Run.

We had such a fantastic group of girls that made every practice so much fun.

 

Here is a picture from the practice 5k.

 

And here is a picture of Addison and I on race day.

She doesn't really love to run but she still tries her best and that is all I can ask for. She ran probably 90% of the 5K and finished in about 37 minutes. Lucas and Bob ran it too and finished about 2 minutes before us.



 

It was a beautiful fall day a few weeks ago and we had a chance to go for a family bike ride and a hike.

 

This past weekend Bob's cousin Rick married a super great girl, Kim. Bob was honored to be a groomsmen...and I was happy to ride along on the party bus. It was such a fun day and the reception was such a great party!!!!

 

A cousin pic...minus a few!

I can't wait for December ...a lot of fun stuff coming up!

We've been busy!

Things have been kind of crazy lately....but I really can't complain because it is mostly all fun stuff...just at lot at one time.

 

 

Check out Lucas in his first game as a St. Louis Bears player. He is loving his new team, coaches and teammates. He is hitting every game, playing lots of positions and making some plays...and loving every second of it.

 

 

 

 

We celebrated my mother-in-law's (Pat) 60th birthday a few weekends ago. The adults went out for a nice dinner on a Friday night and then went floating on Saturday.

 



 

And then all of a sudden THIS happened....Addison turned 10!!!!!!!

 

 

The kids ditched school the Friday before labor day and we spent a nice long weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks at Bob's parents condo. The weather could not have been better and we had a nice and relaxing weekend.

 

I have a lot more pics but here are just a few from Addison's birthday party.

 It was an outdoor movie theme...and sleepover of course.

 

She is blessed with a really great group of friends from school.

 

I hardly got any sleep...but these girls are worth it! ;)

This past Saturday (the day after the exhausting sleepover party) we had Bob's cousins wedding (Drew and Martha). Bob was honored to be an usher.

I love our picture from after the ceremony.

 

But this picture was my favorite from the day! We have so many other fun ones too.

 

I would like to believe that things are going to settle down soon...but I am not so sure of that. 

Friends visit!

So back in August we had a super fun weekend to end summer break. Just like last year, some of my best friends from Chicago came for a visit with their families. And just like last year, we had a wonderful time. Sure, it was kind of nuts having so many of us under one roof

(15) but the messy and loud house was worth it without a doubt.

 

 

We spent one day at my parents lake house. Here are all the kids on the tube...minus Parker who is only one and probably not quit ready for that. It was a perfect day on the lake with perfect lake weather.

 

After boating, the moms all snuck away for a quick retreat to the new winery right by the lake house. We probably only had 90 minutes but we enjoyed every second of our time!

 



 

Tree houses are even fun in our 30s.

The next day was our big bike ride on the Katy Trail...and of course we stopped at Augusta Brewery. Our day did not disappoint...it was full of adventure and fun times.

 

 

 

The boys



The girls

And wonderful friends!!!!!

 

Please come back next year...or at least the year after that!!!!

Summer break is over :(

 I probably have a hundred more pictures to document our summer break but here are just a few...from a really great summer. It rained most of June but the rest of the summer was pretty amazing.

 

 

 

Here is a picture from our annual Father's Day float trip. I can't even describe how much fun we have doing this every year.

 

 

Somehow I feel like Bob and I only had maybe 2 nights out together without the kids this summer. At least we got to get dressed up (charity dinner at The Ritz).

 

We spent the 4th at Bill and Linda's pool with all the family. It was a pretty perfect day.

 

We only went to Six Flags once this summer to the main park (we love to go in the Fall when the temps aren't brutal)  but we went to the water park twice and had so much fun.

 I still can't believe Lucas and I both went on that waterslide in the background. The drop at the beginning is CRAZY!

 

 

The kids each did a few camps this summer. Lucas did 2 soccer camps and a baseball camp. Addison did an all-girls camp in our subdivision with a bunch of her friends, a basketball camp and a soccer camp.

 

 

Here are the kids after British Soccer Camp. It was SO HOT that week!!!

 

We went to Chicago one weekend to visit friends. Two years ago we went to the Taylor Swift concert and we went again this July....our same sweet group. The girls were a little older...and a little more obsessed with Taylor. It was a great show and we all had such a fun night.

 

As much as we could we got down to my parents lake house (just an hour away at Goose Creek Lake). The kids go crazy for tubing...as you can see.

 

 

Then before I knew it....summer break was over.:(

 

 

Here are my 3rd and 4th graders...yes, I know they look taller and older. Time is going by way too fast.

 

I am super blessed for our time together this summer and everything that we got to experience...even our simple days at the subdivision pool. Our days now will be spent doing homework, soccer/baseball practices and games, and Girls on the Run will start soon (I will be coaching again). Here's to a good school year!!!

 

 

(I have another post from last weekend coming soon...from when we hosted 11 wonderful friends and had a terrific weekend).

Florida - Summer 2015

It seems like it has been forever since we went on our summer vacation to Florida. I guess because it was at the beginning of summer break and now we are at almost the end of it. This was probably our first vacation where the main focus was relaxing and not making big plans for every single minute. We love to be on the go a lot, but this was actually a nice change of pace.

 

We drove for 12 hours (which wasn't that bad) and we were blown away when we arrived to the most beautiful soft sand and crystal blue/green water. It was far better than I had ever imagined. We knew it was going to be nice, but not THIS nice. We have been to other beaches but this was the most beautiful. We stayed in Santa Rosa Beach, FL (off of 30A) which isn't too far from Destin (but far enough from the crowds). We vacationed with Bob's brother (Bill), wife (Linda) and their 2 girls.

 

 

Here is a picture of the kids on our first day.

 

 

We loved the beach at night.



 

The guys chartered a boat one day and went fishing. You can tell from this picture that it was a very successful trip. We got to enjoy a lot of fish eating during our trip and we still have some in our freezer.

 

 

We went into a nearby area called Seaside. It was so cute. We loved the food trucks. 

A few shots from one of our last nights.

 



 

A pic of our condo building. We couldn't get any closer to the beach. It was great. 

 

We spent most of our time just hanging out on the beach and playing in the water. We went into Destin one day and went snorkeling (we weren't totally impressed with the fish we saw) and shopping a little. We went to Red Bar one day (one of the few restaurants we went to) and it was amazing. I am pretty certain that we will be going back to Santa Rosa Beach!!! Highly recommend it!!!!!