Snowshoe Wonderland

March 16, 2013 By 1 Comment

It was the vacation that almost never happened.  After driving up a mountain in a complete whiteout…and possibly hitching a ride from a complete stranger the last mile…we safely arrived at Snowshoe Mountain for a family ski trip with the Hawkins clan.  The next morning we woke up to these views from our condo -

Yeah, just a little bit of snow.  But after riding out the storm for another day, we were able to escape and enjoy all the snow.  While everyone hit the slopes, I hung back with the nugget.  I’m not exactly a fan of any sports where things are attached to you, let alone spending hours outside when it’s freezing (I know, I know, I’m from Michigan and I should be used to it…), so a play date with Juice was perfect.  We spent hours running up and down the halls of the lodge saying hello to everyone, looking out the windows at all the skiers, and playing with her new puzzle -

And Juice loved all the time she got to spend with her cousins -

When everyone wasn’t skiing, we headed to the pool -

Hit the snow tubing hill -

Hung out in the village -

And took Juice to enjoy her (hopefully) last snow of the season -

And while I’m probably permanently traumatized by the drive up and Brian will want to pump me full of Xanax and tranquilizers next time we travel, it was totally worth it in the end.

Filed Under: Family, Travel

Olivia vs. The Ocean

July 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

It’s official, Olivia’s a beach bum.  She had her first ocean encounter during our recent trip to Myrtle Beach, SC with the Hawkins clan, and it was love at first site.  The second we hit the sand she made a  b-line for the water and we spent the next couple days chasing her around the beach.  Between running around in the water, playing with her new beach toys , and discovering sand, she was one happy kid.  Here’s a tribute to Olivia and her new love of the ocean -

Until next time beach!

Filed Under: Life, Travel

Escape to the Eastern Shore

June 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Last weekend, Brian and I went on our first trip sans Juice as we took our pale little bodies on a journey to the Eastern Shore of VA.  The Eastern Shore is a little dangler of a peninsula that hangs down from Maryland and is accessible from VA by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.

In a nutshell, the Eastern Shore is old school.  You’re not going to find a Starbucks on every other corner (or one on the entire peninsula for that matter), oysters, clams, and scallops are the main ingredients in every dish, and everything shuts down by 10pm.  From top to bottom, the Eastern Shore only takes about an hour to drive so we made a couple stops along the way.

 

Our home base for the vaca was Chincoteague Island.  Chincoteague is a cute fishing/tourist town and is where you access Assateague Island.  The Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge is on Assateague Island and is where the beaches are.  Chincoteague is famous for its wild ponies and the annual pony swim where they round up all of the wild ponies on Assateague Island, swim them over to Chincoteague, parade them down Main Street, and then some of the horses are auctioned.  Chincoteague and Assateague are both pretty small so one day we rented bikes (and a kid cart for our booze food) and rode to Assateague Island for the day -

We went to the Assateague Island Lighthouse -

And around the island on the bike trails -

And then we headed to the beach the rest of the day -

Brian isn’t exactly a lay in the sun person so he spent most of our beach time in a little cocoon-

 

The next day we went kayaking between the two islands -

And got an up-close view of the horses on Assateague -

Although our trip was short, we still managed to eat…a lot.  Brian loved this little place called Woody’s Beach BBQ -

And I walked to this cute coffee shop to get my caffeine fix every morning -

And then there was the Island Creamery where we got ice cream every night -

We also squeezed in a game of putt putt where Brian some how managed to beat me (pretty sure he must have cheated) -

 Thanks Eastern Shore, we enjoyed your hospitality!

Filed Under: Life, Travel

Be A Man Week

June 5, 2012 By Leave a Comment

There are many benefits to being married to a CPA.  Obviously, the benefit of having my taxes done for free (and presumably correctly) every year is huge.  The downside is Brian being MIA for three months out of the year.  It wasn’t bad the first couple years, I just looked at it as an opportunity to get a little me time in.  But this past year, our first tax season with Juice, was miserable.  Brian couldn’t be much help at home and on many nights he missed seeing Baby O all together.  Well piece out public accounting, Brian recently got a new job in corporate tax!  Besides being very excited to start his new job, he’s looking forward to all the perks that come along with not working nonstop from February to April, like going skiing, being able to watch March Madness, and celebrating my birthday (okay, maybe I’m excited about that one…).  With the change, Brian took the opportunity to take a week off between jobs and dubbed it his “Be a Man Week”.  During this so called Be a Man Week, he worked on some projects around the house, got some quality time in with his guitars, and let let his vacation beard grow.  The big project of the week was cutting down a holly tree that’s been a thorn in our sides, or more literally, a thorn in our feet.  It was blocking the sun to our garden and dropping it’s lovely spiky leaves all over the ground.

With our neighbor’s help (the tree is technically on their property), Brian was able to cut down all of the branches so now our back garden bed can get a full days worth of sunshine.  Unfortunately the chainsaw conked out at the end so the trunk will have to wait for another “man time”.

Project number two of BAM Week was to complete the gutter on our back porch.  The gutter itself was already there when we moved in, but the downspout was missing, creating a giant crater in the ground where all the rain poured out.  It helped when we put the rocks down for our patio border, but we still needed a permanent fix.  Here was our poor spout-less gutter -

And the new and improved gutter -

Another project we worked on was a baby gate for our newly walking little girl.  It involves an oddly shaped space, an old door, and a new sander.

   

More on that to come!  Finally, we squeezed in a couple road trips during BAM Week.  On Memorial Day, we headed to Lake Gaston, North Carolina where Brian’s parents have a lake house.  We took Olivia on her first boat trip and we can now call her Caption Juice!

After navigating the high seas, she was all tuckered out and proceeded to pass out for the rest of the trip -

Even Riley enjoyed the trip.  I think she’s the only lab out there that doesn’t like the water, but Brian managed to get her to go for a quick swim -

Most of the time she laid in the sun, barking at other dogs on land and every boat that passed -

To cap off Brian’s week of freedom, we dropped Juice off with Grandpa and Grandma Hawkins and headed out of town for a little adult time.  More on that to come too, but here’s a sneak peak -

And so concludes Brian’s Be a Man Week.  Riley, Olivia and I are all very excited to have more Brian time, congrats on your new job Love!

Filed Under: DIY, Family, Life, Outdoor Projects, Travel

Thanksgiving in the Big Mitten

November 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This year for Thanksgiving we packed our bags and headed up to Michigan where I grew up.  It was Olivia’s second road trip up there and we were very proud of our little munchkin for being so good on the ride up.  Look at her all decked out in her cold weather gear!

We headed up early so I could take Brian to his first Michigan State football game (we beat Indiana 55-3!).

While we were up there we got to spend a lot of QT with the family, including our nephews, Evan and Luke.  They love Riley, who they call Riley Puppy, and they played with Brian every second they could.

One Thanksgiving tradition that the boys helped with this year was making turkey cookies.  We use a Fudge Stripe cookie as the body, candy corns as the feathers, a Hershey Kiss as the beak, and Red Hots for the eyes.  We melt chocolate chips and use that as the glue for the feathers, beak, and eyes.

They  may be missing eyeballs, but they were made with 4 year old’s love!

On Thanksgiving day, we had a great meal that everyone chipped in to make.  Even Olivia was sleepy, taking her first post Thanksgiving meal nap.

It was a great trip, filled with lots of family time and beautiful Michigan weather.  It was good to be back home.

Filed Under: Family, Life, Travel

Apple Pickin Good

October 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Now that we have a little munchkin on board, our weekend activities have taken a turn to more “family friendly” fun.  This past weekend, we made a quick trip to Charlottesville, VA to go apple picking at Carter Mountain Orchard.  Just look at this view, it was beautiful!

We headed up early to beat the crowds, along with Brian’s parents, our nieces Mak and Abby, and nephew Austin.  Let me just tell you, getting out of the house with four kids under the age of 7 was quite entertaining.  Here’s the crew in action -

And how can you not love this little face?

After picking apples, we headed to the pumpkin patch and finished the day with a hay ride.  Check out Brian’s dad climbing a tree to get some apples.  Pretty sure this might be “frowned upon”…

We left with almost two bushels of apples, which have been turned into yummy apple sauce, a Schram family tradition.  With our first official adventure with Olivia a success, I think we might have to make this an annual event!

Filed Under: Family, Life, Travel