Trip Three: Seaside

A long time ago I met this boy at college, emailed a high school friend to tell him I had met him and really liked him and her first response back was "now he has to meet all of your big brothers." See I don't have big brothers, just two younger, but my best guy friends from high school have always been like brothers to me. They teased me just like brothers, annoyed me like brothers and at the same time took care of me and we had a blast together. I was so nervous bringing Pat to meet them and the first time he did meet them I don't think he liked them very much. They acted like nothing had changed and didn't really give Pat the time of day. He was this new guy in a group that was so close. Over time Pat has gotten to know them and loves them too. I love that I can go so long without seeing them or talking to them and it's as if no time has passed when we all get together. I feel blessed to still call all of these guys friends and I absolutely have loved watching them fall in love and get married.

When Jay called to say he was getting married we knew we wouldn't miss it. When he told us it was going to be in Florida we really knew we wouldn't miss it! I ended up being the only girl from our group of friends to make it down there which everyone thought was funny because I was always close with all of the guys in high school. We were only in Seaside for 36 hours, which wasn't long enough at all. On Friday we had to change in the airport to make it to the rehearsal dinner in time. After the rehearsal dinner we went out to Bud & Alley's with Jay for a bit. You can't beat catching up with friends while the beach is right there. We still had not found the place we were staying and in typical Pat and Maya fashion drove around trying to find it. Turns out we could have walked there from the bar! Ha! It was right in the heart of everything.

We had most of Saturday to explore but first we slept in...till 9am! Wow I know. But that's kind of a big deal to us and to not have our boys asking us when we're making breakfast. We had breakfast at the Great Southern with some vanilla pancakes and fried green tomato benedict. Yum. Jay had told me that Pat and I would love Seaside because it was an art community and that there was an art fair in town that same weekend. When I hear this about beach towns I just think of those cheesy water scenes, over the top fish sculptures and the annoying beach shops filled with junk. But Jay was totally right...we loved it. There's no big brand stores like Tommy Bahama and the place is filled with locally owned shops, galleries and restaurants. For the first time we actually bought things to take home from a beach vacation.

Right after breakfast we saw a bookstore and record store (Sun Dog Books and Central Square Records) and headed there immediately. We ended up being there forever and the manager of the record store shared with us some new bands to listen to and showed us around. Pat ended up with a print that he got for his new office, we grabbed a record and some other things.

We then walked around the art fair, got some great ideas for an upcoming show Pat is in and found a couple of artists we really liked. We jumped in and out of local stores and found one store, Focus, that had Anthropologie-like clothes for a way lower price. The owner was awesome and I ended up walking away with two dresses for my Mother's Day gift from Pat but I could have bought the whole store. We then wanted to head to the beach so I jumped into Amavida Coffee to get a hot chai and walk on the beach.

It was super windy but we walked for awhile and just took in the fact that our feet were in the sand.

We worked up an appetite and decided to try some of the airstream food trailers lined up in Seaside.

Pat had a grass-fed, local beef hot dog at the Wild Bills Dogs airstream. I taste tested it and it was amazing.

I had a tomato, mozzarella, basil grilled cheese from The Meltdown. I would like another one right now please.

And then we napped on the beach.

We cleaned up and headed to the wedding. It was such a beautiful wedding underneath these giant trees. I kept trying to be sneaky to get some photos and not get in the photographer's way.

Emily and Jay! I looove Jay's smile in this...he's so happy.

We were all hanging out afterwards when Jay and Emily grabbed me to take a couple of photos on this big porch. I so wasn't ready so the photos have a touch of cloudiness from ocean spray that I hadn't wiped off my camera yet!

A photo of all of us high school buddies with Emily and Jay. Chad, Bryan, Emily, Jay, Clay and Jate.

Bryan and Jay were my two best friends in high school. We have so many photos like this so had to get one at Jay's wedding.

Hanging In There

I took a week off of personal blogging as we have been beyond swamped. We're trying to get The Blank Space ready as well as my new office there too. Plus we're trying to keep up with our businesses and family at the same time, which all are at their busiest right now. We had a refreshing weekend in Seaside, Florida for one of my best friend's weddings but on Mother's Day I started feeling sick and I'm totally down and out with a massive head cold. Trying to get some rest so I can at least keep up with sessions today.

All this to say...more coming soon on everything. A couple people contacted me last week to make sure everything was okay because I was so quiet on social media and on this blog. You all are very sweet...just trying to catch our breath over here. Plus we have to keep up with this crazy child of ours who is climbing up onto everything and causing some trouble!

April Family Self Portrait

Somehow we skipped the month of March in the family self portrait department. I'll go ahead and blame a lot of things for that but we managed to squeeze in our April one early in April. I just forgot to share it then! By now you've seen my mile long posts about our Cincinnati trip. Everyone has laughed when they have found out we were there for the Reds' Opening Game. They compared it to the Indy 500 here. Oops...oh well we still had fun minus the canceling of several things we had planned due to the game. Mental note to pay attention to sporting events next time.

I've decided the boys could care less what we do, the fact that we stay in a hotel is enough excitement for them. I'm glad we did a little mini-trip as our first with both boys. It prepared us for some future trips we'd like to do with them and Zane is begging to take Jude to see New York City so he can show him "what he couldn't see when he was in my belly." Somehow Zane has the city bug we have...love that.

Here we are huddled on the hotel bed and jumping on it...because that's what you do on hotel beds right?!

Your Best Next

I am so proud of one of my best friends, Megan. She has such a knack for decorating and rearranging homes to make them look so good that you wish you could figure that out for your house. She finally decided to start a company doing just that! Megan was asked to help out so many people in her neighborhood as they prepared for a baby's arrival and what that meant for their homes. Not only did she help arrange and decorate but she helped out with registry items and even packed hospital bags! Having had two boys she's been through it and has some great advice...she's kind of an expert. :)

If you know of anyone having a baby and needing some extra help send them to Megan at Your Best Nest and on she's on Faceook too! Megan, I am so proud of you!!! You are such a dear friend and I am so thankful for you in my life for this many years (way too many to name...makes me feel old!) Go get them and best of luck with what I know will be a success!

Megan came over one morning after dropping off her boys (our boys have the same wonderful babysitter) and we laughed a ton as she attempted to be normal in front of the camera. I kept some "bloopers" so she could share them with her husband Bill as I know he appreciates Megan's goofy side too!

Trip Two: Cincinnati Part 2

Here's Part 2 of our family spring break in Cincinnati.

After sleeping in a bit we started off with breakfast at Mokka and the boys entertained themselves with books and making the paper from straws into super hero traps. All they ended up eating from their waffle was the blueberries and whip cream but I took care of my creme brulee French toast.

It was then Newport Aquarium time. Can I be real honest here about this place? It was a little under whelming. It’s not exactly cheap to get in and then you funnel into an area that is super packed. It’s so fun to let the boys explore places like this and we couldn’t even move. We got to the first section where you can touch some starfish and crabs and I fought my way up to the front with Zane to give him a chance to touch them so we could get out of the crowded area. It cleared out slightly but it was so crowded the whole time and we only had pockets of time with room enough to move without hitting someone. It didn’t live up to the Atlanta Aquarium but Jude was in awe the entire time. We hung out in one of the tunnels for a long time and his neck had to hurt afterwards because he sat looking up for so long as the fish and sharks swam over us. The coolest part was seeing some of the workers diving in the tank. Zane thought that was really cool but decided he wouldn’t want to get in there.

Pat and I then had a surprise for Zane. He is such a boy and loves his arcade games. We saw one when we went to dinner the night before so took him to GameWorks to play a few games. This is when we realized that it was the opening game for the Cincinnati Reds. Oops! Poor planning on our part! I quickly realized some of the things I had planned for the rest of the day weren’t going to happen - like the Freedom Center, right next to the stadium or the Mexican restaurant in the heart of downtown. And it hit me why the hotel prices were so expensive during that time too.

After time playing some games we headed to Tom + Chee for a massive variety of grilled cheese sandwiches. It ended up being more eventful than planned as wind picked up the umbrella at our table and sent it launching into a window, bouncing back and almost hitting a lady in the head. The manager came out and was apologetic to everyone and of course Zane thought it was the coolest thing ever. Zane also didn't want any photos taken. He was done with that part of the trip. We took some quick photos of the skyline and headed back to the hotel for Jude’s nap time.

After a quick swim Zane wanted to do something else. Jude was in desperate need of a nap so I grabbed Zane, let Pat rest with Jude and we headed to Eden Park. He ran around with some new friends he made quickly and blew off some energy. We didn’t get to explore the park a ton because he was pretty tired after playing.

After picking up the other half of our family we headed to Findlay Market which I had heard such great things about. In my quick change of plans for the day, because of the game, I didn’t pay attention to the hours of the market. I forgot mornings/lunch time is the best time to visit so it was pretty deserted when we were there. We still grabbed some cookies and hung out for a bit. We really wanted to try Taste of Belgium and get some chicken and waffles but all of us had stomaches that were hurting. We don’t really eat out that much, let alone the kind of food we had been eating, so our bodies were not happy with us. We ended up back at the hotel with the boys snacking on raisins and whole wheat crackers I brought and I ended up in bed with stomach pains. Pat got some Sprite to soothe my stomach and it helped me sleep a bit better.

Our last morning in Cincinnati was filled with packing up the hotel room we had trashed or I should say Jude had trashed. He took everything out of our bags, put it in his pack and play, piled it up around the room and threw things in the bathroom. This is Jude...taking things out and putting them someplace else! We played for a bit, packed up and headed to IKEA for breakfast. Gotta love the IKEA breakfast. We checked out some things we are thinking about getting later, bought some replacement cooking pots and then headed to Jungle Jims. Talk about an overwhelming place! We had so much fun going through the produce aisles that were filled with an international section of unique fruits and vegetables. The main reason for hitting up this grocery store was the England section. There was some English junk food that Pat and I have been craving since having it before Zane was born in London. We stoked up, I grabbed some tea and we ended our trip by heading to the lake to be with Pat’s parents. We took the scenic route to the lake and actually really enjoyed our drive through the country of Ohio and Indiana.