Aruba Recap

It. Was. Awesome.

And I just had to take a few minutes to jot everything down before all was lost in my mind! And let me preface this post by saying that I did NOT take my good cameras and only used my iphone to snap pictures. This was a device and social media free trip for us to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary (back in June) and I was going to soak up every kidless minute possible!

(click for a larger size)

We flew Southwest from Baltimore to Aruba direct and arrived in the early afternoon to the beach. It was perfectly sunny and we enjoyed our first afternoon doing nothing and watching a beautiful sunset. Derek set us up Hyatt credit cards last year and stayed at their hotels when he traveled to earn us Diamond Status for this trip. That meant breakfast, snacks and dinner were all free as well as bottled water, pops and coffees 24 hours a day as well as 4pm check out and the best views in the hotel! It was AMAZEBALLS.

90% of the trip was spent relaxing either in the shade or in the sun on the pristine white beaches. We did a sunset booze cruise and a snorkel pirate ship excursion but that was about it.

Except for on night 2, Derek had planned for a SUPER romantic 7-course diner in a private cabana by the ocean to watch the sunset. It was the most romantic dinner I've ever had and the food was absolutely amazing.

We spent each evening in the hot tubs, ventured to a couple souvenir shops near the Hyatt but that's about it. We walked the beaches every day and even laid on a dock one night to watch the stars. It was perfect.

The 2nd to last day we took a booze cruise on an old pirate ship to snorkel in 2 spots and jump off their rope swing. I was super hesitant due to my fear of sharks but knowing there hasn't been a single shark attack on Aruba ever, I felt fine. We saw a ship at one point about 60 feet down and tons of beautiful fish in the super blue waters.

Here are a couple videos of us doing the rope swing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ46K2oqQLk&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJmP8G-Q6NI&feature=youtu.be

And then, to end the trip right, we flew first class back to DC. This was my first class experience and it's going to be hard to every NOT fly that again. The leg room for my 5'10" self , the food, endless drinks, movies, warm wet towels and warm cookies were to die for. I felt like a queen already on this trip but this was the icing on the cake! So yes, I did what any normal blogger would do and snapped a picture of my dinner!

We did facetime the kiddos 2 times and sent them a couple quick videos, but other than that, there was no email or social media or game score checking while we were there. Just fruity drinks, sand and sun.

And it was heaven.

A HUUUUUGE thank you to Derek's parents for watching our kiddos while

Thanksgiving Recap

Only a week late but hey, better than never! So this year we drove from DC back to Cleveland, Ohio to meet my parents who drove up from KC and my brother who drove over from Detroit! It was a nice 4 days of eating, drinking and watching the kids play with their grandparents and uncle.

My brother got a mini drone and the boys were obsessed.... of course.

We are renting our house out during our stay here in DC so we opted for a Thanksgiving meal from Bob Evans which was quite tasty! And the 'no cooking' was the best part!

Then on Saturday we went to a local nursery where Santa arrived by firetruck and greeted all the kids. This was the only picture I got of the 2 of them all in their finest...

So we walked around a bit, watched Santa and I genuinely thought Ady would do just fine with Santa. She's super social to strangers (heaven help us) and is completely over stranger danger.

But then it happened....

The screaming and tears and annoyance that Derek and I had to jump in the $15 picture to get her to calm down.

Drew was a rockstar though and told Santa exactly what he wanted and really wasn't scared at all!

We walked around for a bit and a tree started talking to the kids. It was adorable but, yet again, their personalities came right through in these photos...

Ady; super excited wanted to crawl right over the fence to get to the tree...

Drew; nervous as hell backed right up to Poppa for protection and wouldn't even step up to the thing...

But then we got this GREAT family picture!

And another not-so-good one but one good enough for the blog...

It was a much needed mini-vacay back to Cleveland to spend time with family and eat good food! Hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving break! Now on to my favorite Holiday of the year!

3 Generation Pictures

Thanksgiving pictures will be up soon but I wanted to post our most recent 3 generation pictures for both the girls (my mom and I with Ady) and boys (Drew, Derek and Derek's dad)!

Randoms

"Sometimes the things we can't change, end up changing us".

~ My Dear Valentine

My current motto.

And a few images from last week...

DC Stop #2

So last Saturday we decided to visit the DC zoo. I realize we'll be out here for another 16 months but the weather will be colder soon and we'll be doing more inside events then. It ended up being a bit chilly in the morning (around 40) but by afternoon it had warmed up a bit and the hats and gloves were able to come off. 

The zoo overall was great. It's a free zoo with several entrance points that you can walk right into which was odd. The animals were all fairly similar to most zoos except they had PANDA BEARS! The kiddos LOVED watching one eat the bamboo and that's what cause Ady's face in the 2nd picture below. And 2 pandas had a baby a few weeks ago that we will get to see come January! EEK! A baby panda!! 

Drew and I took a selfie with the black bear who was just hanging out on his rock soaking up the sun. It's hard to tell from the pic, but man it seems like a small enough moat that the bear could just jump right over.

We splurged on overpriced souvenirs stuffed animals for the kiddos and not less than 9 minutes after we bought them, Ady lost hers. I looked down in the stroller and she was no longer holding it. After backtracking our steps and checking lost and found, we decided that we had to get another.

It stayed out of her hands until we were home.

I'm sure this will be a zoo we frequent a lot in the coming year!

DC Stop #1

If you follow me on IG, you'll notice that we're using the hashtag K6doesDC. Since we all plan to visit most of the big sights together, I thought it would be fun to have a hashtag so that we can always pull up images from those times! So Saturday was our first trip downtown and we enjoyed the Washington Monument (going all the way to the top too!), the Reflecting Pool, Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial and Korean War Veterans Memorial.

I had to...

Drew did so awesome walking the entire day with the exception of a few piggy back rides. Ady enjoyed the trip mostly from her Beco but did get down to run around a few times! Our legs were so tired from all the walking, but it was the perfect inaugural tourist day!

And So It Begins...

Drew said something the other day about his tooth and how it was wiggling. I brushed him off and told him it was in his head because he wasn't even 5 yet.

Boy was I wrong.

He came home on Friday and told me his tooth was loose again and could wiggle all over. I took a look and sure enough, it was loose and there's an adult tooth about to pop through behind it!

I guess when you get teeth before you're even 4 months old, you're going to lose them early as well.

I figured we had a few days to a week before that sucker came out, but nope! I came home this morning from a session and it was already out. The stinker pulled it out this morning all on his own!

Hopefully the tooth fairy makes it to our house tonight! 

The Worm & Turkey

Love them.

Exploring

We're pretty much settled into our new city now and although there's still tons to do around the house, at least we're set up and there is food in the fridge. Drew started school today at a local preschool and the kids have adjusted awesome. Sleep wasn't really interrupted and Ady has enjoyed exploring EVERYTHING in the new house. We love the outdoor space we have in the house and can't wait to do some DC site-seeing this weekend! 

Bailey

Haven't posted pics in a while but she turned 8 back in August and is still the best dog ever. She's doing awesome out and around our Virginia house and we haven't even set up the shock collar because of that. The kids play outside with Mimi and Grandpa a lot and she's always out there with them.
Overall she's still a picky eater but knows to stalk Ady during meals in hopes of catching some falling food. She is starting to go grey around her nose more and more but really hasn't slowed down as far as with her physical side. She's still pretty slim and still doesn't have a mean bone in her body. Ady still is learning to pat gently and not pull her tail and she puts up with it all.
She generally can hold her pee until 8ish in the mornings and goes outside for the last time around 9pm at night. Although she needs a bit of melatonin on long car rides, she's a pretty good traveler.

So, to summarize, she better live to be 49.

Costume Pics (3 days late)

It's been a crazy 48 hours here in DC but had to document the kids costumes for Halloween 2015!

Drew, of course, is out of the "cute" costume phase and into superheroes. He chose Captain America for this year.

Although I'm a dog person, I thought this cat costume was freaking adorable for Ady!

Obligatory family pic...

 And the 'grandparents are in town' pic...