Friday, March 29, 2019

We had a day off of school for a teacher's workday, and it happened to be 70 degrees, so we gathered up some friends and headed to the North Carolina Zoo for the day! It may have been a little "slow" on the animal front, but luckily Ben got to see his favorite animal... the arctic fox!





 




Thursday, March 14, 2019

Skiing in Vermont

Our family trip this year with Nannie, Grandpa, Aunt Bridget, Uncle Kevin, Liam and Madelyn was a spring ski trip in Smuggler's Notch, Vermont! Dad grew up skiing there, and Abby tried once when she was 4, but otherwise it was all new to us! We definitely gave it a good try, and while skiing might not be our "favorite" activity, we still had a fun trip playing in the snow and hanging by the fireplace with everyone! Thank you Nannie & Grandpa!




The grownups loved that they could send us out to play in the snow and watch from the window!

                         

We had to stay in one day due to the storm because of the gale force winds, but Abby still ventured out to check it out... for about 30 seconds!





The kids all had two days of ski & snowboarding class, and even though Liam was the only one to make it through the two days, everyone tried!








Madelyn was definitely the one done first, and opted to sit with Mom and eat snow instead of ski!




Abby & Emily found their boards to be tricky to get the hang of, but they still did great!












Ben was the next to fall off the grid... literally... He couldn't get back up!


Our little group of ski school drop-outs... eating snow and loving every minute of it!



Drop-out buddies to the end!





It was always nice to go back to the warmth of the condo though!



Ben and Emily had a bunch of homework due to missing school, and one of them took the news better than the other...


We all perfected our artistic sides while we learned to draw while the grownups were busy skiing!



And answering questions was definitely a favorite activity of the week!









                                     Celebrating Madelyn's 4th birthday together was a blast!                                                 

                           

            

Heading to the outdoor pool in 10 degree weather was definitely an adventure!



It was hard to see everyone in the pool with all the steam, but with 10 degree temperatures and a 95 degree pool, we were happy to take the steam!



Nannie was definitely not standing outside to watch us swim!





The indoor pool was closed on the last day for some "technical problems", so we improvised by using Nannie & Grandpa's bathtub!


     

We LOVED taking the bumpy shuttle bus around the resort!


We had a fun afternoon playing games in the brewery when it was too cold to go outside!



   





This trip was EXHAUSTING!



Dad, Uncle Kevin & Abby took on the challenge of who could stand outside the longest in their bathing suits... Dad cheating by covering himself with body warmers, so Abby definitely won!




And Emily was the best snow angel maker!


Everyone got new Smugg's t-shirts!


  


    

Emily's was definitely the best...


Our condo was in the perfect place to see the fireworks from our warm living room!


Dad and Emily dyed their hair green to wrap up a fun trip!


And we're off...


      

Thank you for a fun trip everyone!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Years from some of the neighborhood ladies who rang in the new year together!  I was solo at the party this year because Brian cam...