december

^ Waiting in line to see Santa.

^ Picking out Christmas trees, and partaking in community festivities on maybe the coldest night yet this season. 

^ Found a tree at a new stop very close to home.

^ We participate in a holiday #NaturePalExchange and made some new friends in Seattle in the process. Hoe wonderful is this nature package?! Such a great seasonal surprise! 

*Hoping to document our package that we sent out to them soon.

^ These vintage plastic nativity lawn decorations have been on my grandmother's porch for as long as I can remember. They bring comfort and joy, which in December feels just right.









**I 'm playing a catch-up of sorts in documenting our photos here in this space. I've been using Instagram as my number one tool for photos and documenting, but I want to store them here as well, sharing a little more in-depth for our electronic family scrapbook. I'll be chipping away at the archives in the next couple of weeks clearing out the  photo albums in my iPhone. I'm also hoping to pull my camera out more, or maybe even invest in a new one.  Here's to hopes and dreams!

back in june, when summer just began

We woke early Sunday morning before the sun had shown. With sleepy eyes kept open by excitement, we ventured north. Our first stop was in Boston where we spent the night in our favorite city. It rained about 90% of our trip but that didn't keep us from seeing this part of the city-- a part we have never been. We ate at a touristy restaurant called The Barking Crab located right on the harbor. We ordered chowder, crab leg clusters, and beer. We walked around the Harbor around parts we never explored. Scott's family is from Boston and his Grandmother still lives there. We visited her in the poshest nursing home maybe ever. She was delighted to see her grandson but even more excited to see Logan (her only great grand-daughter, and the only great grandchild she's had the pleasure of knowing.)  It has been a few years since our last visit, so to say we were overdue, would be an understatement. We didn't stay very long as our timing wasn't exactly pairing well with her schedule, but we did have a nice visit. I captured some of the sweetest moments between Logan and her great grandmother who absolutely adored her. Logan was very lovable replying nice and loud and presenting herself with the best manners-- making us look so good as parents ;) *A few weeks before Christmas, Scott's grandmother passed away. We are forever grateful for being able to see her smile before she left. Those memories and these photos are extra special now. 

After a not long enough 24 hours in Boston we headed North 2 hours to New Hampshire where we met cousins for a few days. We had no connection to the outside world in the house where we spent most of the time due to rain, but that didn't matter much because we kept busy eating, and drinking, and just being with each other. It was nice to be unplugged and forced into a pace where we were able to slow down and just be. Once the sun finally showed itself, we ventured out to a local lake-beach that was incredibly gorgeous. It had the prettiest green mountain backdrop and the clearest water. We bought tubes and floated about. The boys had so much fun wrestling through the water and swimming out to the furthest point, while logan collected rocks, swam in knee-high water,  and people watched while she waited for daddy to take her out far with her older cousins. Daddy took Logan on her first canoe ride and learned that she was in fact better at rowing than he was. She was so proud of herself, and loved everything about the experience until they came crashing in to the shore and she fell back off her bench landing on the wet bottom of the boat. It's safe to say that neither of them were quite the expert they thought themselves to be. ;)

We left for home after a four night stay. We left around noon and I was greatly surprised to find that traffic wasn't as bad as I imagined it to be. We stopped a few times to stretch our legs and to get some coffee, and ice-cream. It was a Cold Stone for lunch afternoon, providing smiles for everyone, even the freshly turned 13 year old boy in the back seat that kept asking "what state are we in now?" every.fifteen.minutes. But we survived, and got home safely, refreshed, and full of dreams for our next trip.