The 2009 Disney Trip with 2 Toddlers: Magic Kingdom

We are going to Disney World!!!! I am so excited!!! I dug back into the Xanga archives and found these photos from our first and only Disney World vacation. Well, first and only for Joshua, Caleb, and me anyway. Even though we may have appeared to be off our rockers to take two children that small to Disney, it wasn’t crazy at all. It was every bit as magical as they say. And cold. It was so cold the waterfall […]

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Cross-Country Road Trip 2016: Cali to Bama in a Pick-Up Truck

Next Stop: North Rim of the Grand Canyon!! And on the road again… Once you finish chuckling over their eye covers, check out the FOUR CORNERS behind them: You can be in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado all at the same time. Mesa Verde National Park Next Stop: Oklahoma City Oh yeah, and Alan also took them to Pops, a soda pop factory/store. (Thanks for all the ideas, Greg!) They brought back a cooler full of sodas too. I […]

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Cross Country Road Trip 2016: The Man Show

It’s purely a man show this time, y’all. Last time it was just Alan and me. This time it’s Alan, Joshua, and Caleb.They are crossing the country mostly on I-40 riding in a full cab pick-up truck with a camper-cover. Is that what you call those things? I don’t know.  It’s a truck with a hut built on it to keep your luggage dry. If you follow Alan on Facebook, then I have no news for you because Alan used […]

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Photos of 17 Mile Drive and the Carmel Mission

You may be tempted to think, “How can you live in California and not be utterly happy all the time from these incredibly beautiful surroundings?” Good question. The unfortunate thing is that I don’t actually live on the beach and see these sights every single day. In fact, I pretty much forget they are there until company comes and we show them around. Most destinations are too hazardous to take on with two pre-schoolers, seeing as how I’d like to […]

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42 Beautiful Photos of Monterey, California

Janet took these beautiful photos of Monterey for us. These include the aquarium, the beach, a hotel, a farmer’s market (where we met some parrots), and Cannery Row. Check back tomorrow! I’m planning to upload photos of 17 mile drive, a scenic route that hugs the coast from Pacific Grove to Carmel! Or maybe I’ll do the seal pup photos next…

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20 More Breathtaking Photos of Carmel Valley and Monterey, California

Right now Daniel is washing his hands after his hour-long worm hunt. All he found was a slug, which he tried to bring into my house. Joshua put a hard stop to that. What would I do without Joshua? JD is upstairs NOT napping. Caleb and Joshua are outside playing with a friend. I’m chugging coffee in a last ditch effort to hold on to wakefulness. A friend of mine is out walking, trying to coax her labor pains into a […]

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Field Trip Week: Rose Gardens and Santa Lucia Preserve

We declared last week “Field Trip Week”, and had ourselves a grand ol’ time. We visited the aquarium, a beautiful rose garden, a robotics show, and Santa Lucia Nature Preserve. The big boys practiced their lines for their upcoming end-of-year parent night, we squeezed in a few math lessons, read a few books, and welcomed Nonna and Aunt Janet to town. *************** Now for stop two on our Week of Adventures: Santa Lucia Preserve This place, located in Carmel Valley, […]

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The Christmas Miracle, Followed by My Great Christmas Crash

Almost two weeks ago, I set out with my four boys to fly from California to Georgia for Christmas. We managed to arrive in one piece, with all of our luggage, but that was not the miracle. Or maybe that was also a miracle. ha! As I shepherded the four of them, plus myself, our five back-packs, and countless electronic gadgets through the security machines, we followed the rules very nicely, and I counted the heads of my children 300 […]

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4 Powerful Lessons From My Very First Women’s Retreat

This weekend I have ridden a horse, eaten delicious food cooked by other people, and listened to an inspiring speaker, Denise Cunningham. I have grown closer to God and closer to other ladies from my church. Guess what! Our speaker this weekend has a blog too! I’ll give you a link at the bottom of this post. First, you have to read mine.  😉 This retreat was at Wolf Mountain, near Sacramento, California. I want to share a few lessons […]

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10 Reasons I Love to be the Hostess

We do something that is a little outside the norm. We love to host out-of-town guests. We practically beg people to come visit. We have hosted friends from high school, college, tons of family, work friends, church friends, and even new friends. We do it a lot less now that we live on the other side of the country from almost everyone we know. When we lived in the DC area, we had a constant stream of people stopping through. […]

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