Recently...

It's been quite a while since I've blogged. I've just been too busy, but in a good way! Here's what we've been up to:

*Brandon finished his finals and we enjoyed a glorious 10 day break! Mostly just doing normal family stuff like going to the playground, running errands, and spending time at home together. Normal family time is a luxury for us right now and we all thoroughly enjoyed it! Way too much for me to take a break from it for blogging! :-)

*We had a weekend getaway to Virginia Beach, just Brandon and I! I'd been looking forward to this for months! We knew we wanted to get out of town but didn't know where until the morning we left. We ended up finding a great deal on a hotel in Virginia Beach so we jumped in the car and were there in just a few short hours! Virginia Beach is an awesome place by the way! A little shady (I've never been to the Jersey Shore, nor have I watched the show, but for some reason VB reminded me of how I imagine Jersey to be) with some interesting people-watching, but totally family friendly and affordable. There was real sand (unlike the other east coast beaches we've been to), a fun boardwalk, and lots of stuff to do. I just enjoyed a blissful day of lying on the beach, feeling the sunshine on my skin, and reading. We tried not to talk about the kids too much but everywhere we went we'd point out something and say "Jack and Cullen would love this!" We enjoyed it so much that we want to go back sometime and take the boys with us!


*You're probably wondering who watched our kids while we were sunbathing all weekend, right? Don't worry, we didn't leave them home alone. Brandon's parents flew over for a week to visit us while Brandon was on his break from school. They watched the boys and all four of them loved every second of it! The boys got to eat ice cream, play in the new pool Grandma & Grandpa bought for them, eat bear pancakes with candy eyes for breakfast every day, and play at the park each night.

*Once Brandon and I got back from our weekend in Virginia Beach, we also enjoyed spending time with his parents. We love when family come to visit us! We mostly stayed at home (we can't all fit into our car) but one day when Brandon was at work the rest of us took a fun trip to the zoo. And I think it was the best zoo trip I've ever had! We went early in the morning before it was too hot, all the animals were out and the boys loved it! Some highlights were seeing the 6 lion cubs and watching an orangutang (or "wane-too-tane" as Jack calls it) walking on ropes 4 stories above our head! So cool!

*I turned 26 last Sunday! I'm officially over the hump and headed toward 30! Does 26 count as "late twenties?" Yikes!!

*This might seem random and unimportant but it's something I'm really excited about so I'll share anyways: we put up a clothesline last week! And I'm loving it! Not only are we saving electricity from running our dryer (which is from the 1970's and sucks up energy like nobody's business) but we'll also be able to run our air conditioner less now that the dryer isn't heating up the entire downstairs. Win-win! The only downside: about 5 minutes after I took this picture this morning, a rainstorm came out of nowhere and soaked the clothes again! But now it's sunny again and they're almost dry so no harm done. I still love my clothesline!

*And last, but not least, my best friend Renee got engaged last weekend! I was excited to be part of the big event by planning to get a birthday drink with her. But she was surprised to get to the bar and see Jens instead of me! Congratulations you guys! Renee let me go dress shopping with her and her mom yesterday (which was actually the first time in my entire life I've gone wedding dress shopping since I bought mine on the internet) and we had the best time! She's going to be such a beautiful bride! I'm so excited for the wedding!