My Happy Place

SO we just got back from a two week vacation to Maryland to visit my family and we LOVED every minute of it! We didn't tell the girls about our trip till the Sunday before and they we're so surprised and excited it was pretty much the cutest thing ever.

One of the first things we did was take a family picture which was the only thing I requested we do mostly because the last time we'd taken one was the summer after Jacob and I got married. I can't wait to see how they turned out and to have a new picture of my family to hang up. Something else we did a few different times was to go and visit my grandma McCombs as a side note, Savannah actually had a blast being there, we took this picture right before we left and she was not happy to be leaving.

Something else we wanted to do was have Abby walk on grass, she was pretty hesitant and once we let go of her....

This happened, poor girl. The rest of the trip she refused to touch the grass and if I put her out on a blanket she'd stay on it the entire time. It was actually pretty nice to have her stay in one place since she rarely ever does that.

The girls loved getting to run around my parents yard and I loved laying in the grass, living in Arizona has really made me appreciate grass and I miss it on a daily basis.

The day Jacob left we took the girls bowling for the first time, my mom and youngest brother Mark also came with us and we had a blast. The girls slowly got the hang of bowling, it took Savannah a bit to understand that she needed to roll the ball instead of attempting to throw it down the lane and poor Olivia's ball would almost stop when it hit the pins because it was going so slow.

We also had fun just hanging out at my parents and letting the girls play and have some down time but in all honesty this was one of our busiest trips yet.

On our second Saturday in Maryland my mom had to work so my oldest younger brother Jordan took us to his apartment and the girls loved it, especially since he has a cat that they could try to play with. We also went to the local farmers market right behind his house and had so much fun spending time with him.

After the farmers market the girls and I spent the rest of the day outside waiting for my mom to get home. The girls had a blast playing with sidewalk chalk and having a Popsicle picnic.

Another day my mom and I took the girls to the Children's Museum at the National Harbor and it was really fun. The girls loved getting to dress up as firemen and they got to put on kimonos. They built things with giant blocks, made paper flowers, had car races, played store, and pizza parlor. Afterwards we walked around the outlets to try and miss rush hour traffic and to wear out the girls a little more for the drive back to my parents.

The day before we left my mom had a special surprise for the girls, she took them to get manicures and I got to have a pedicure. Savannah has been asking to get her nails done forever it feels like and she was beyond thrilled.

Olivia cracked me up because she almost refused to make eye contact with the guy doing her nails and wouldn't even crack a smile for him but then she'd peek at my mom or me and give us the biggest excited smile.

Both the girls loved getting to pick their own nail colors, Savannah of course chose pink and Olivia went with a dark purple. They even got a flower painted on a nail on each hand and we're so excited about it.

Afterwards we made our last trip up to visit my grandma and the girls ran around her backyard and Savannah found the best climbing tree. She was so excited because she LOVES climbing trees and doesn't get to very often.

We were lucky to have my mom fly home with us to help me on the plane and she got to meet up with one of her sisters who flew into Phoenix so they could have a mini vacation together up in Sedona.

Jacob came and picked us up at the airport and Savannah and Olivia ran to him as soon as they saw him which is one of my favorite things they do. Now we're getting back into the swing of things and we've started our summer of fun which I'll post about later.

Call Us the Busybodies

Oh my good gracious it feel like forever since I've written on our blog and we've been so busy I'm going to have to write a couple of posts because I have way too many pictures to post. Life has been good and we have been busy to say the least. I really do love it, it makes the time go faster and I'm happy with what we've been occupying out time with. To get back into blogging I'll start where we left off, the girls and I went to Maryland for 2 weeks the end of April thru the beginning of May. It was glorious and wonderful just like it always is.The girls were just as excited as they always get when they hear we're getting ready to go on an airplane and Olivia had quite the fun time trying to help me pack.

 I was pretty proud of myself for packing so lite for this trip because I am known to over pack.

 We had some beautiful days and some not so nice weather days so when it was nice outside we took full advantage of it. The girls love playing outside in my parents yard, Savannah and Olivia loved picking all the dandelions for my dad.

 Sidewalk chalk was another must do activity and the girls loved drawing pictures for my dad and brothers to see when they would come home.

 Also what trip would be complete if we didn't go to the park, we go to the same one every visit since its right down the street from my parents house. The girls always have so much fun, on this particular visit Olivia pretty much wanted to stay in the swings the entire time we were there, silly kid.

 One of Savannah's favorite things to do when we go to the park is walking along the wall surrounding the playground, she pretends she's on the balance beam.

 Something new we tried this trip was paining pottery with the girls. They loved it! Its just one of those local places where you can pick out the piece of pottery you'd like to paint and the colors you want to use and then you get to work. I helped Savannah while my mom helped Olivia, my mom had to use much more patience then I did. Savannah did so good at not mixing colors and making a design while Olivia was very abstract with her paining.

One the not so nice weather days we had fun hanging out at the house watching shows and playing with toys. The girls had fun playing with my brothers and dad when they were home and would always get so excited to see them after they'd been gone.

 

Having fun lying on Mark.

Having a yummy lunch after so much fun playing.

Something I always miss is seeing all the green, while we were there everything started blooming and it just got greener every day we were there.

While we were visiting I hit the 25 week mark, its crazy to see how fast time is flying by.

The morning we left my mom had minor knee surgery so while she and my dad were gone we made her a get well soon sign and the girls made her some pictures. They were able to make it back before we had to leave for the airport so we could say goodbye one last time.

We always have such a great time when we visit my family and I love that the girls are able to make so many fun memories each time we go back. Its always bitter-sweet going home for a visit because I love my time there but I'm always ready to come back to my own home. Maryland will always hold a special place in my heart and I hope it always will for my little family too.

Summer Vacation 2012

This post is long so be prepared and it has tons of pictures. You have now be warned and I will start.

Well we just got back from a wonderful 2 and a half weeks in Maryland, is sounds like we were there so long but it flew by as usual mostly because we did something pretty much every day we were there. Our adventure starts on the afternoon of June 6th, we didn't leave till about 3:00 which is a really late start when your flying back East. Our flight to Denver went well, Olivia even fell asleep for a bit which was a surprise and was very nice. The girls were pretty well behaved in my opinion and Jacob made this flight with us which was even nicer to have someone to help me. Things go interesting when we got to Denver, we had a 3 hour layover which is really long to have with 2 kids but Jacob was with us. I was really prepared and had a list of places we could eat and where they were in the airport so we could ride the train to different terminals and just walk around to take up time. When we got off the airplane our stroller hadn't been unloaded yet, I started to get a bit nervous because we were one of the last people off the plane. As the crew searched to find our stroller the captain was very nice and let Savannah sit in the cock-pit and look around, she thought this was fantastic! The captain was incredibly nice and thoughtful and checked up on us many more times before his next flight left. I was really impressed with how concerned he was for us. To make a long story short we never got our stroller in Denver. When they took it off the plane they ripped the tags off the stroller and it was sent to baggage claim and it took them 3 hours to get it back to our gate. Needless to say I was beyond pissed off and frustrated because we had to stay by our gate the entire time because we kept getting updated and had hopes that we would have our stroller. Finally I made Jacob take Savannah  to get us dinner before our flight left because we were all hungry and that did not help me have patience. Our flight from Denver to Baltimore was good, Olivia fell asleep the entire flight and Savannah happily watched movies on the iPad. All was going well till we started making our final decent into Baltimore, I notice Olivia was HOT! Like she had a fever, she woke up and was not happy, then she grabbed her blanket and held it to her mouth where she then threw up all over it and me. We got cleaned up before we landed and I kept hoping that Olivia wasn't sick even though I knew she was.We landed in Baltimore at 1am and got all our stuff. It was a long day but I was so happy to be home with my family. When we woke up it was confirmed that Olivia was sick, every time she'd drink anything she'd throw up and she had a temperature around 102. We had planned to stay at my parents that day to recover from our flights and I was glad we did. That night we got crabs for dinner, the girls didn't want any and all poor Olivia ate was popsicles because she could usually keep them down.

We did manage to get the girls to at least touch the crabs once which was pretty funny to watch. That night I slept with Olivia to make sure all went well that night and by the morning her temperature was down to 99. We decided to go to DC like we had planned because it was going to be one of the coolest days while Jacob was with us. Olivia got to ride in her stroller and we had plenty of water and sunscreen. Savannah really like going to DC, she LOVES riding the metro and asks when she can ride it even where we're at home. Usually when we go to DC we go to museums but this time we decided to see monuments which meant a lot of walking. We started at the Washington Monument which is still closed from the earthquake they had a while back. Then we went to the WWII memorial which was beautiful.

(Each star on this wall represents 100 lives lost during WWII, this is only about half of the display.)

Then we headed over to the Vietnam Memorial which is always amazing in its simplistic design, its one of the quietest places I think because its so moving. We then took the girls to the Lincoln Memorial and walked all around. Savannah wanted to sit on the steps so bad so Jacob sat with her, its a long drop and we were nervous she'd lean to far over and fall off. We then saw the White House and took one of many water breaks. We also let the girls walk around a bit and not be in their stroller which I know they loved. We headed back on the Metro so my mom could pick us up and on our way home we stopped at the Washington DC Temple.

Savannah loved going so much at Christmas that we really wanted to go back. The girls were pretty much done with our outing so this was a very short visit but still a fun one.

By the next day Olivia was back to her happy self and we were off to Adventure Park USA. Its a prefect little amusement park for kids. The girls loved riding on the airplanes and they had a tea cup ride and merry-go-round. They road around on everything multiple times!

Savannah was big enough to ride the water boats with Jacob and my brother Mark went with them too. They all go soaked and had a blast. We also road go-carts, played mini-golf, and played on the bounce houses.

Before Jacob left we also went to church on Kent Island which is an area that Jacob served in when he went on his mission. We had a wonderful time and then went to the home of the sweetest couple that Jacob had known while serving and still keeps in touch with. We headed back to my parents and literally as soon as I put the car in park in the driveway Savannah started throwing up in her car seat. She too was hit with the flu bug and we stayed home all day Monday. By Tuesday she was feeling MUCH better and we had a fun last day with Jacob, he was leaving Wednesday and his flight was at 6:15am.  On Thursday my brother Jordan joined us and we headed to the petting zoo near my parents house. The girl LOVED it! They had fun play areas and lots of animals. Savannah loved the pigs and Olivia had fun petting every animal she could. Savannah as usual was a bit more timid but she still really enjoyed herself. The highlight for Savannah was she got to ride a horse, she impressed me with how well she did. I mean she won't even pet the goats or sheep but she climbed right on the back of that horse and rode with confidence. I almost cried because I was so proud and she was beaming and talked about that horse for quite some time.

On Father's Day we went to church and then headed over to Sandy Spring State Park which is right next to the Bay Bridge. This was the girls first experience going to a beach. It was a HUGE success and Savannah asked to go back multiple times. Savannah once again surprised me with how brave she was, she'd go out into the water till it was to her chest and then run back to shore. Olivia would walk in to her caves and then be done. She enjoyed playing in the sand with my dad. Both girls had a really good time and I'm so excited that we got to go, taking them to the beach was the only thing I really wanted to do with them this trip.

Now the silly girl I am I really didn't take any more pictures of our trip and we still have a week left to cover. The rest of our time was filled with going to the pool, the new Nature Center near my parents house, shopping sprees thanks to my parents, visiting my grandma, going out to eat, and playing Rock Band. We had such a great time and as always were sad to leave. The girls once again did a fantastic job on the plane ride home, they both even fell asleep on our second flight out of Denver. I always love going to Maryland, I'm always happy when I'm there and love feeling like I've come home.

So now we're home and back to our busy lives which seem to be overwhelming me at the moment. Savannah has had 3 health issues since we've been back which has only been a week and I have two sister in laws moving this weekend. And a bit of info for any of you who have actually read this entire blog post but we're also preparing to move the beginning of August. Jacob's parents are coming home from their mission in Zimbabwe and we are currently looking for where we'll be living. Oh and did I mention we're looking for a place to live in Arizona? Cause we are.