DATE NIGHT!!

It's been a crazy month with Disney, Roxbury, home improvement and back to school, so last night, we went on a date night. We went to Millworks, one of our absolute favorite restaurants. Seriously, we've never had something bad there. It is consistently amazing. Because there are just two of us and no distractions, dinner seemed to go by kind of quick, so we headed to do some mini golfing on City Island. (I was winning big-time, but I had a downward spiral in the back 9, so Seth took the game.) We got engaged on City Island...ON this mini golf course actually, so it's always super nostalgic! YAY for date night! 

Home improvement: deck repair nightmare

You know how they say that nothing's every easy in life? This project proved that. Repeatedly. When we moved in, the back deck was made of nice materials, but the previous owners had just chosen to use multiple different looks to complete the deck. It always drove us a bit crazy but we never got around to it. Well, the one side of the deck was really starting to sag a bit by a rotting board. So, this entire project began by us thinking we'd life up the deck boards and replace that beam. (Do you hear the same laughing in your head as we now hear in ours? Sigh...)

It turns out that the board was SO rotted that it literally crumbled in Seth's hands as he touched it....and it ran the entire length of that portion of the deck. The more we stood and stared, the more we realized it would just be easier and more aesthetically pleasing to just remove that whole side of the deck. 

 Well that turned into some serious hard work for Seth, and too much processing for me. :)

Seth had to build a new step, we had to fix the sides of the deck, and we had to de-rock the entire space, which was FILLED with small and medium sized rocks. Then, we had to get top soil, of course. And grass seed. And fertilizer. And mulch. And plants. (Remember, this was to be replacing one board. HAHA)

When all was said and done, it really looked a million times better. I don't have pictures of this just yet, but we also removed the railing the entire way around the deck, too, because it was majorly ugly and it is not necessary for PA code regulations. So...gone! (Edited on November 2: the grass is still not full grown from August 20. In fact, it looks so crappy that Scott's Lawn Care gave me my money back and we may need to wait until spring to re-seed. Can anything ever be easy?!)

First day of school (2nd and Kindergarten)

Another year is underway! Carter is off to second grade and Addison is off to Kindergarten. Both were super excited on the first day of school. Miss Addison was super independent and hardly even looked back as she confidently got on the bus and headed off. Praying you have a great year, my babies! 

Disney trip: last day

We had a BLAST over our 9-day trip. Aside from the heat, we had no real complaints! The trip home went fairly smoothly (aside from the insanity that is Orlando International Airport in the summer and the fact that, on descent into Baltimore, Carter looked at me and told me he might need to throw up...which he, thankfully, did not), and we got out of BWI with our sanity and luggage...woo hoo!! Within minutes of the drive home, we turned around and saw this: 

I think that's the sign of the perfect family vacation. :) 

Disney, day 7: Sea World

I know Sea World isn't part of Disney but it was part of our "Disney trip" so I'm counting it as day 7! I just love Sea World and I knew the kids would too. We went on July 28! We got there close to opening and got an awesome spot near the entrance. 

Most of "Antarctica" was empty yet so we hit up the fun penguin encounter ride and saw the penguins, which the kids got a kick out of. Boy are penguins hard to photograph when they swim so fast! 

The Atlantis ride had a 5 minute wait and the kids reallllly wanted to go on it, so Seth took them on while mama watched. I don't do big hills so much anymore, especially when it involves getting wet at 9:30 a.m. 

Throughout the day, we went to the dolphin show, saw the sharks and sea turtles, went to a sea turtle 3-D wrap around movie (and left because we felt nauseous), saw the manatees and many other animals. We also fed the sting rays some shrimp, which was part cool and part terrifying. 

The absolute highlight of our day was Dine with Shamu, a dining experience we had reserved months in advance. It's a private dining area near an orca tank. We had really great food (pork loin, beef, amazing pasta, all kinds of sides and desserts, and even a "kid's buffet!" We were impressed! After you have some time to eat, the trainers and whales do a special show for just for these guests. It was truly FRONT AND CENTER, as we were the table beside the glass, right in the middle of the tank. 

When we left Dine with Shamu, we headed to pet the little sharks and do some kid rides. By now it was, wait for it, a BAZILLION degrees, so not waiting in any lines for the kiddie things was super nice. We, of course, had to get the munchkins some Dippin' Dots to cool down. :)

And then...onto the full whale show. We got there with just a few minutes to spare and seating was TIGHT. But the kids wanted to sit in the soak zone, so we headed down front and found 4 seats. And I'm going to give you a tiny little tip: when Sea World says "In the soak zone, you WILL get SOAKED," they do mean it. We assumed we'd get a little splash. But alas, when a killer whale "flicks his tail" in the water, you get drenched, even 10 rows up. When we got splashed, both kids had a brief moment of panic (disgust even?) and then BURST into laughter. We could not believe how soaked we got! The good news is it was one of the last things we were planning to do that day. And, when we came out of Shamu Stadium, it was beginning to storm (no rain, but serious lightening!) so we booked it to the car and made it just in time before the skies opened up for the 10 minute Florida rain. 

We had so much fun at Sea World. After we got back to the condo, we showered and relaxed and headed to a local rib/BBQ joint nearby. It was SO good, and we were actually a little bummed we didn't discover that place until our last night. Oh well! We had a delicious dinner and hit up the pool for our final night.

Disney, day 6: BREAK DAY!

Ah, break day. Sweet relief of chaos, walking, and heat. Thursday, July 26 was officially a break from the parks. All that was on the docket for the entire day was a character breakfast. We could even sleep in, but of course a little stinker found her way into our bed during the night. Good thing it was a king bed! 

Little Miss all ready for breakfast in her Elsa dress and (newly purchased) shoes, complete with the side braid, too!  

Our character breakfast was at the Cape May Cafe in the Beach Club Resort. This is the first place I stayed when I went to Disney when I was 5, and the first character breakfast I went to, so it was special. I could still remember what table we sat in when the dang Chip and Dale chipmunks stuffed my face so full of scrambled eggs I was signaling for my mom to make them stop. Ah, good times. We were a little early so we grabbed some pictures outside. The property is so stunningly beautiful. 

As soon as we walked in the door, the guard called out to Addison, "Princess!" He opened his jacket and pulled out an autograph book and asked if she would please sign his book. Disney is so magical when you have kids. I almost cried at the sweetness of it. She slowly and carefully signed her name and I'm pretty sure felt so very special. 

The breakfast was so good, and an awesome break from our cereal and toast breakfasts in our condo. They had lots of choices, but the kids went right for the Mickey waffles and the candy topping bar. Of course. :) Addison did eat about 15 scrambled eggs though...or at least it seemed. 

After breakfast, we wandered around their beautiful property, wishing we had brought our swimming stuff to sneak into their pool. HAHA. We managed to stand it for about 30 minutes before we were super hot and ready to head back to our pool for the day! 

And swim we did! We spent hours at the pool. We got a good spot under an umbrella and parked it for the day, not even leaving for lunch since they had a cute pool bar/restaurant right there. We (including Danielle) went down the slides a million times (SO. FUN!), and so did the kids. I'm certain they would have swam until they couldn't any longer, but a late afternoon storm drove us out. 

After an easy dinner in the condo, we were back at it, this time to the resort's mini golf course and surrey rental. Seth and I wanted to paddle boat but the kids heard there was a baby alligator in the pond and that was that. There was literally no way we could get them to step foot in the paddle boat. We had so much fun riding the surreys. Seth was steering so we ramped every speed bump on the property at a fairly intense speed, sending us airborne. We were all laughing hysterically the whole time. It was such a fun way to end a fun day! One last day of our trip before we head home...Sea World.