Fourth of July

I could not for the life of me find the Fourth of July decorations this year! I know we were in our new house last summer by then and I swear that I had them up. I had convinced myself that they were somewhere in the house, and not in the attic, because I had already used them. I looked everywhere. Twice. And could not find them. I did eventually find the Fourth of July decorations, but it was after we had already celebrated. Guess where?

The attic.

I'm pretty much positive that I may have this problem next year, too. I have these big plans to put different holiday-themed decor in coordinating boxes in one of the cabinets downstairs that is empty. But until I get those boxes, the decor could be anywhere! Wish me luck...

We had our usual celebrations for Independence Day. This year, the holiday fell in the middle of the week so it didn't seem to linger or anything. We always watch fireworks on the third in our hometown, a tradition that has continued since both Justin and I were kids ourselves, and one that has really evolved as the town grew. There are activities for the kids to do, though we usually just walk around and look at things. We did get some snow cones as it was pretty hot {always is}! By the time we eat and walk the crowds, the sun begins to set and so we head back to our spot to wait for the fireworks.

"Rainbow" Snow Cones

Janie has never been a fan of fireworks. She doesn't like how loud they are, which is ironic because she is by far the loudest thing that lives in our house. We chose an unfortunate spot to sit right next to a loud speaker, but the view was great and Janie just covered her ears the whole time. The fireworks were awesome and well-timed with the music played. The girls were really well behaved and had a fun time with family & friends!

Too loud!

Nora with Pops

The next day, for the actual holiday, we had family over to the house for a grilled meal and swimming. Everyone loved relaxing and celebrating together. It was a great couple of days!

Bomb pops of course!

We hope everyone had a great day celebrating their freedom! I love watching the fireworks and thinking about what it must have been like to hear and see that symbol of victory & independence way back when we didn't get to decide how our country was run and whom we trusted with its leadership. I am grateful for that opportunity & for our great country! Happy Fourth of July!

June Love

Sometimes things slow down in the summer months, but more often they actually get busier! There are definitely lulls between the things that you have to do, but we travel more, we go more places with the kids, and we make food more than usual since we're home so often. I usually begin the summer trying to figure out ways to fill our days and by the time summer is over, I'm hoping for just a few more days of nothingness.

June kept us busy but it sure is nice to be on our own schedule for awhile. It started off right away with my cousin's wedding in Illinois {link here}, followed by a week of VBS {link here}, and then a family beach trip to Port Aransas {link here}, all within 10 days. Additionally, I took a girls trip to Fredericksburg with my sister at the end of the month {link here}! Those all have their own special blog posts. Besides those big and fun things, we had about five birthday parties in the month of June that we were invited to. Two of those parties happened to fall on the weekend that I was out of town with my family. Justin was super-daddy and took Nora to a cute tea party themed birthday, which she loved.

We celebrated my sister's birthday! Nora showed off her winking abilities.

The girls started their summer dance classes at Dance Axiom. This was Janie's first time ever to take a class! She was very excited. Since the girls are so close in age, they fall into the same grouping for class, so they had to have a brief "talking to" about behavior after the first couple of classes. After that, I think all went well for the two tiny dancers! When we start back up in the fall they will be in different classes, which is probably for the best.

We had a few of our important doctor's visits including the dentist, which we do each June & December, and Janie's biannual ENT appointment. It was a big day for her as she officially has both of her ear tubes out! Her doctor had to take one of them out, but the other was already gone. Now, we hope that she can make it through the winter without ear infections so we don't have to go to round two. Assuming all is well, this is the last lingering thing from Janie's run of health-related occurrences from when she was an infant.

Teeth cleaning like a champ!

LEFT: two years ago {baby Janie!} when tubes went in

RIGHT: tubes are OUT

And just like that... June is over. It went by so fast! There is plenty more to look forward to in July!

Fredericksburg

Fredericksburg, Texas is a little town in the hill country that has grown in popularity for it's getaway possibilities and local wineries. I had never been to Fredericksburg, though it is a common place for a girls trip, bachelorette party, or couple's retreat, and many of my friends had been for various reasons. It was definitely somewhere I wanted to try out at some point.

One of my friends from college, who lives in Fredericksburg, recently purchased and refurbished a rental home in town. She has impeccable taste so I knew it would be gorgeous! She was looking for visitors for the first weekend the house would be ready and since both my sister and myself were conveniently free that weekend, we decided to make a girls weekend of it!

How cute is that pink door!?

Our theme for the weekend: cheese & wine.

The trip to Fredericksburg from the Dallas-Fort Worth area takes about five or so hours. We got to the rental home in the late afternoon, so we got dressed and walked to the main street for dinner. Afton recommended a place with a good cheese board, which was most definitely calling our name, and it did not disappoint. Vaudeville had one of the most amazing cheese boards ever!! The pairings with the cheese were excellent. Krista even took some of the cheese to go. We found another place recommended to us, Treaty House, for good cocktails {and was one of the few places open after 10 pm} and there was even someone singing & playing music live on the piano!

Our house was just five blocks off of the main street of shopping & restaurants, so we were able to walk everywhere we went. We even walked to the wine tour pick up location in light rain! I wouldn't suggest heels to anyone going who plans to walk to their destinations, though. There is a wine shuttle that stops at 14 {I think??} wineries in the hill country. It really is a good deal. It's hop on, hop off for $25 for the whole day. You pay for tastings and such individually at each winery. We made it to about four wineries and had a blast! We finished our day with dinner at a pizza place and dancing at Crossroads.

FIRST STOP: Grape Creek Vineyards

We definitely liked this stop. The views were great and we enjoyed our tasting.

We had a tasting and then had a snack at the Trattoria. 

Our sommelier was very knowledgable, too!

They have a place to eat, if you have a tasting I believe. 

Our third cheese board of the trip!

The beautiful views. Too bad it was rainy!

SECOND STOP: Torre di Pietra Vineyards

The atmosphere was fun and we enjoyed ourselves.

We had a tasting but the wines were not our favorite here.

THIRD STOP: Becker Vineyards

We had so much fun here! We again did a tasting, which was on a coupon system.

Somehow we inherited extra tickets and so we may have had a few extra pours. 

We liked the lavender products and the seasoned olive oils, too!

So pretty!

Our last stop was Four Point Cellars, where we bought a bottle of wine on the patio and enjoyed the live music they had playing. We really enjoyed the music & atmosphere. It was more relaxed than a tasting. The weather also cleared up, which helped a bunch!

We had to head out of town on Sunday morning, so we didn't get to check out much more in Fredericksburg. We had a really fun girls weekend and loved the Josephine House, where we stayed. If anyone is looking for a place to stay in Fredericksburg, you should definitely check it out! And as I mentioned earlier, Afton has some great recommendations of places to go!

Port Aransas

The girls {Nora especially} have been asking about going to the beach for awhile now. We've never taken them to the beach, or anywhere actually, except to visit family out of town. The closest thing to a beach that we've been to are the sand dunes in Michigan when Nora was two years old. She hated the sand and refused to walk in it, even in her shoes, complaining of "icky feet" the entire time.

Well, it happened to be that a rental house in Port Aransas was available on a weekend that both our family and our good friends' family could get down there... so we booked it. Right after VBS was over on Friday, we loaded up two cars with 4 kids, lots of food & snacks, plenty of entertainment and started the 7-8 hour drive to the Gulf Coast. The trip down wasn't too bad! Of course, our girls didn't sleep at all the entire ride. The kids watched a couple movies and we stopped a few times to eat and/or use the restroom. We got to the house with just enough time to unload everything, attempt to get our kids to actually sleep a little, and rest up for the busy beach days ahead.

Our cuties at the Whatabeach House in Port Aransas, ready for some fun in the sun!

Photo by Leslie Eure Photography

Waking up & getting ready for a day at the beach!

When we first got to the beach in the morning, the girls were very excited and no one complained about the sand on their feet! Janie's first words were "it smells like poop!" but she didn't skip a beat and started playing in the water right away. Their favorite things to do on the beach were jump over the waves, attempt to build sandcastles, look for seashells & sand dollars, find those little clammy creatures under the sand, and of course, snacks and more snacks. See beach pictures below for the fun!

We made it!!

Snacking under the tent.

Playing in the sand.

Building sand castles with daddy.

A great first day! {Only one meltdown.}

Ready for a fun second day!

It was a Happy Fathers Day for these two all-star dads!

Picking up little clammy creatures.

The way the beach is set up at Port Aransas, you can drive right up to where you want to park for the day. It sounds a little intimidating with little kids, but it was oh-so-convenient for many reasons. 

1. The Wind

If we didn't have the two cars on either side of the tent, it would have blown away. We saw tons of broken tents along the road. The wind was very strong on our two days at the beach {yes, sand went everywhere} and the guys had to tie the tent to the cars to keep it stable. 

2. The Stuff

Another reason we loved the drive-up beach is that we could unload and reload soooo much easier. The snacks, drinks, chairs, towels, toys... it was all right there. Taking two families of four to the beach means there are LOTS of things to carry back and forth. This was crucial. 

3. The Kids

Whose kids fall asleep in the car? Well, not mine. But... if they do {and our friends' kids did} you can enjoy the beach while they nap, right next to you! Also, if your child has a major meltdown or needs to take a rest, you can just pop the back of the car open and there you have a nice place for someone to snooze with a beach view. We had to utilize that feature on day one!

The set up on the drive-up beach.

It was super windy all weekend - the kite basically flew itself!

{Nora was still nervous about the wind & kite flying experience in general.}

We had two full days in Port Aransas and spent both days at the beach through the late afternoon. At the house in the evenings, the kids played with the games at the house and rode around on their scooters outside. We cooked all of our meals at the house and spent the evenings watching the kids play, looking at the stars, and playing cards. When the kids got tired, they made their way to their shared room {double bunk beds!} to fall asleep, which worked a lot better after we deemed it the "quiet room" and let them go to bed when they were ready. Sometimes they outlasted some of the adults!

Snuggled up watching a show.

After our fun two days at the beach, we had to start the long trek home. We had such a fun time on our first beach trip! The girls took home some sea shells and pink cheeks as souvenirs. We can't wait to come back to the beach again soon!