Enjoying & Exploring | part two: The Franklin Institute

In every place I've lived we've always explored and known our area. It's fun to travel and vacation, but the majority of life is spent near home. Growing up in New Hampshire we took in so much of the beauty there. We loved regular visits to Boston, Maine and spots all over the beautiful granite state. When we were in DC for a year it was the same. We took in that area and loved every bit of it. Just simple days - together as a family, grabbing something to eat, spending most of the day in the car and seeing somewhere new - enjoying what was near to us. Not trying to get all cliche here - but it's so easy to forget the beauty, fun, history and places to explore just outside our doorsteps. We're in a great area to do this together! We're compiling a list of all the must see restaurants, historic sites and fun places we want to see in the Phialdelphia/Delaware/Lancaster/Lehigh Valley etc. areas. (if anyone has any suggestions/must-sees please send them our way!) 

Next up on the list is a trip today to The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia! Jackie's sister Becky works at the institute and has been offering us visits for a few months now and today we finally were all available (well, mostly. Adam had to work.) and Jackie's dad, Mr. Smith was able to come as well. We spent the afternoon together checking out some cool exhibits and learning a thing or two about the brain & heart & science. I'll be honest though - speaking for myself here - we mostly just ran around from thing to thing, playing dress up and watching all the kids faces in awe of every new thing. Mr. Smith also treated the whole crew to dinner afterwards. So all of today's fun is brought to you by the sweet Smith family. Here are a few pictures from our afternoon. :) 

Playoff baseball

This past week we've enjoyed some excellent little league playoff baseball. There's something great about the playoffs. Whether it's the red sox in the Fall or a bunch of kids in June - it's just the best. It's been so much fun to be able to enjoy this last year of little league baseball with our 12 year old brother (and awesome uncle) Grant. He's having such a cool year. My dad is the coaching the team. He's had 8 home runs. He's playing fantastically. He's always been a great player, but he's kind of the talk of the league this year and it's well earned. I'm proud of him. As a 12 year old I could see it being hard to remember that no one cares how good you are at baseball if you're cocky and not a nice guy - but he is so loved by all the other players, coaches & families. His actual biggest fans are actually these three toddlers you'll see in pictures below. :) I hope this isn't too obnoxious. He's just a genuinely nice kid and I'm his big sister so, I'm aloud to brag right? Also Abbie and Stephen were down for a last minute little visit! Here's a couple photos from the week.

Thank You Notes Series | part one: Our sister/aunt Sarah

A new blog series to thank people in our lives for many of the sweet ways that they make our life better. Since Bill and I got married there have been so many times that people have done generous, fun & just simply nice things that we want to publicly say thank-you for. I don't think we could ever adequately say it enough to cover everyone in all they do for us - but there are many specific little things done that could easily go by without being appropriately acknowledged so we thought it would be fun to start this mini-series. If I could go back these posts would range from the numerous people who made our wedding wonderful almost four years ago to fun little packages in the mail to our our favorite worker at Qdoba getting Jack a Christmas gift last year(the fact that this happened may speak to a greater burrito issue in our family... but that's not what we're talking about right now. ;))   

This first one goes out to our Sister (Bill's only sister!) affectionately(but seriously ;)) known as Crazy Aunt Sarah. Specifically for her love of buying quality toys for our boys. Every birthday, Christmas (and once in a while) non-occasion she'll see some toy or cool book and get it for Jack AND she has good taste. Anything wooden, classic, american made, educational (but still fun!) is usually what's on the radar. Also to note. See that elephant toy down there? She made that. Not just like bought a kit with an elephant you put on wheels - but actually created the elephant from scratch and made this fabulous (and functioning!) toy (I personally think she could have a future in toy-making. ;)) 

So, thanks Sarah for loving your nephews and getting cool stuff for them. They'll have these toys forever (only a few pictured below) and we're glad they're from you.  We love you. :)

Spring so far from the iPhone

Spring came and William was born and life just kicked into gear. It's been great. We were bracing ourselves for April as we knew Will was going to come and we'd be hitting the ground running. There were moments of worry. We'd usually talk about it in bed at the end of a tiring day and be like - "Today was exhausting. Imagine doing that with TWO kids!?" but every conversation ended with complete excitement, knowing that of course it'll be great. And I'm so happy to say it's been a really good transition. We've been so grateful. Sleep is happening most of the time and when you're rested life is far less scary. ;) I've shot three weddings and had other various shoots and my three guys have just done wonderfully. Life had been pleasantly full along with a solid handful of quiet days at home together. For many reasons I've never loved Bill more and I'm so proud watching him as a father. It was always true with Jack, I loved watching them together. And now, even more. He takes care of us and effortlessly knows what will make us most happy and the ways to make life lighter and does it. Love that guy. 

We're excited to pick up the blog again and hope maybe one or two people are reading. ;) If you're hear we'd love for you to comment and say hello! I enjoy this because I love to connect with new and old friends and faraway family members. It's fun to share life and although the internet and social media can sometimes take away from those relationships - we've personally loved what we've gained from the day to day little interactions with people who are in different places, doing different things and living full lives. We all know this is just a tiny little corner of life - one picture is just one single second in a day of 86,400 -  and still more meaningful & fun when shared. So hi! and here's 12 seconds from our Spring.

Enjoying & Exploring | part one: Hershey, PA

In every place I've lived we've always explored and known our area. It's fun to travel and vacation, but the majority of life is spent near home. Growing up in New Hampshire we took in so much of the beauty there. We loved regular visits to Boston, Maine and spots all over the beautiful granite state. When we were in DC for a year it was the same. We took in that area and loved every bit of it. Just simple days - together as a family, grabbing something to eat, spending most of the day in the car and seeing somewhere new - enjoying what was near to us. Not trying to get all cliche here - but it's so easy to forget the beauty, fun, history and places to explore just outside our doorsteps. We're in a great area to do this together! We're compiling a list of all the must see restaurants, historic sites and fun places we want to see in the Phialdelphia/Delaware/Lancaster/Lehigh Valley etc. areas. (if anyone has any suggestions/must-sees please send them our way!) 

To start off our list we spent Memorial day driving up to Hershey, Pa to lunch and tour Troegs Brewing Company - somewhere we've been talking about visiting for awhile. After which we took a quick stop at Chocolate World to get some dessert. I'd been to Hershey once before but didn't remember how much of a pretty little town it is. And to note, actually smells like chocolate. We had a very enjoyable afternoon at the brewery and did not regret our stop after for the most excellent reeses peanut butter cup sundae i've had. Here's some pictures from our afternoon. :)