murphy (summer vacation part 1)

We took a marathon three-week trip up the east coast this July-August, covering over 2900 miles, so we could take the boys to visit all of their grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Obviously this trip will take several posts to detail, so stay tuned for more! We made two important purchases before we left, this being one of them:
The second was a portable DVD player. Believe me, a steady stream of Curious George and Little Einsteins is a good antidote to looks like this (which are often accompanied by pleas of "OUT!")
Benjamin, fortunately, slept during a large portion of the driving, although only occasionally did he fall asleep with his fingers in the rings hanging from his carseat. Mike and I both became pros at reaching behind us to blindly replace the pacifier in his mouth. Really, though, they were both great travelers.
We began with a stop to visit our friends Holly and David and their adorable boys Matthew and Ethan in Winston-Salem. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take any pictures during our overnight stay! We did have a great time visiting with them, and Benjamin had probably his best night of sleep to date while borrowing Ethan's pack-n-play (I threatened to move in).

From there, we moved on to Raleigh where Mike was attending a conference. Not too many pictures from that part of the trip, but I did capture one of this notable first in Daniel's life - in our hotel in Raleigh, he got to sleep in a Murphy bed! Really, how many 2-year-olds can say they've done that?

mom's weekend out!

I am a lucky woman. I have the best husband in the world, one who is more than willing to let me go away for a weekend of rest and relaxation while he stays at home chasing after a very busy 18-month old. (Okay, the boys may have had a pretty good time too, but I'm still very lucky.)

I'm also lucky to have the best friend in the world, Holly, who I was fortunate enough to live next to our freshman year of college, over fourteen years ago (holy cow, can we possibly be that old?). Fortunately Holly has a pretty great husband too, so when I suggested that we leave our little boys at home with their dads and meet up for a girls' weekend, she was all for it! Holly is pregnant with her second baby too, so we figured it was a perfect time to get together and catch up before our lives get significantly more complicated again. Here we are with our pregnant bellies - can't wait for our new little ones to meet!

We had a fantastic time last weekend in Greenville, South Carolina, conveniently located halfway in between our homes - which was our prime reason for choosing it as a destination, although I think we were both pleasantly surprised at what a great little city it is. We went to the spa for massages, relaxed at our hotel, walked along the river, and just generally enjoyed spending time together. Such a great weekend!

friends and fun

We had a fabulous time last weekend visiting our dear friends Holly and David and their adorable little boy Matthew (who may also be the smartest 2-year-old I've ever met!). Daniel survived his longest car trip to date - 6 hours. Thank goodness for Cheerios, they got us through the last 30 minutes when he had finally had enough of sitting in the car! He had a great time playing with Matthew, who has lots of fun toys to get into. I'm not sure Matthew enjoyed the companionship of the pesky little toy-stealer quite so much, but I'm sure as they get older they will have lots of fun getting into trouble together - at least I hope so!
Holly and David's new house has a fabulous swingset in the backyard, and Matthew was kind enough to let Daniel have the baby swing, while Matthew took the big boy swing.
Matthew is such a handsome little kid!
Our friends Kristin and Sam and their baby boy, Brady, also came over for an afternoon while we were there. Holly and Kristin and I have been friends since our freshman year of college, when we all lived on the same hall - almost 14 years ago (yikes). I'm sure 14 years ago we never imagined that today we'd be sitting around a table together with our husbands and our little boys. As a side note, how did we all end up having 9+ pound babies? Was there something in the water?
Our lives now are a far cry from the nights we spent back then, studying calculus and chatting into the wee hours of the morning - now we're ready to drop by 10 pm. Those were some great times, but life just continues to get better.