a cousin’s wedding in nashville

A few weeks ago we met most of my immediate and extended family in Nashville for my cousin Kelley’s wedding. It was the first time my extended family got to meet Harper and my sister’s daughter Avery.

Our first stop was the Nashville zoo where we met my Aunt Lynn and cousin Sara and her kids. The girls loved it! Such a pretty and natural zoo.

Me and my cousin Sara are both due a few weeks apart!

My sister and her husband and daughter, Avery.

The girls are checking out the giraffes!

My dad and brother

Me and my niece

Grandpa and his granddaughters!

Checking out the camels

Needless to say, the girls were tuckered out!

The girls played on the playground for a while before we went to the rehearsal dinner.

The next day we walked around Centennial Park with the girls in matching shirts – oh the cuteness!

The girls with Gramoo Julie!

Later that evening we put on our dresses and went to the wedding! The girls had fun and were pretty well behaved – luckily the ceremony was short!

The gorgeous bride and her father (Uncle Jim)!

Then we took a few more pics before heading to the reception.

Harper was so excited to get dolled up in her dress, bracelet, necklace and sparkly shoes!

Lisa and her mini-me!

Then the real fun began – the girls tore up the dance floor!

We did some spinning and Avery and her daddy did some dancing too!

Where’s Avie?

Here I am!

OMG I’m having so much fun!!

The girls got to meet Great-Grandmother for the first time!

Here’s my dad with his six siblings and parents – the whole crew!

Cutting the cake

The next morning the whole family met for breakfast.

Grandpa and Gramoo graciously offered to rush through their dinner so they could take the girls back to the hotel for bed so we could stay and enjoy the reception. And when we left, we got back to the hotel and I realized I left my phone at the reception! I blame the pregnancy brain! Luckily, my Uncle Jim grabbed it and brought it to me the next morning!

It was a fantastic weekend seeing family I hadn’t seen in years! We had a late flight back that night and got home around 1am. The next day was Harper’s 2nd birthday! So we took the day off and had a fun family day – stay tuned for pictures!

fourth of july trip to missouri

We made our way back to Missouri again for the 4th of July this year to see lots of Drew’s family. We basically replicated our trip from last year – except this year Harper was running around and playing and swinging. Lots of swinging.

She swung with Great Grandma and ran around.

And we got to meet our nephew, Ulysses, for the first time! What a doll he is!

Harper loved playing at Uncle Don and Aunt Deb’s with Devyn and Audrey – 2 of the many second cousins that are closest to her age.

“No pictures! I’m too busy playing!”

Harper wanted to swing on her tummy just like Devyn.

The girls played in the cows’ water trough. The cows weren’t thrilled. 🙂

Exploring in Aunt Deb’s garden.

The girls loved jumping on the trampoline!

On the 4th, we went to a party at Drew’s cousin’s house where we had some awesome cousin-made barbeque! All Harper wanted to do the whole evening was swing, swing, swing.

She also loved playing the bags game.

Before we left, I grabbed some quick pics of my cutie patootie nephew!

Thanks for hosting us again this year, Great Grandpa and Great Grandma!

napa valley getaway

While we were in California, we left Harper with Aunt Kari and Uncle Brett for a night (her first night without both of us!) and headed up to Napa for a short wine tasting getaway. It was our first night away, just the two of us, since February 2012.

On the way to our B&B, we hit up Frog’s Leap and Conn Creek, grabbed lunch at Gott’s Roadside and ended the day with a tasting at Corsion.

After checking into our B&B, we headed to dinner at the Grill at Meadowood and had a fantastic(ly pricey) meal! Where we could eat as slow as we wanted! And not pick up forks and food off the floor!

The next morning, we tasted at Raymond, Cliff Lede and Clos Du Val, stopped for lunch at Bistro Jeanty and checked out the art at Hess Collection before heading back to Kari and Brett’s.

Until next time, Napa!

12 in 2014: May

Over Memorial Day weekend, we took a family trip to California to visit Aunt Kari and Uncle Brett and while we were there we brought Harper in to see Kari’s school and students and played in the park.

We also took Harper to Stanford University to get her on the waiting list for 2030 admissions.

Yippee!! She got in…based on cuteness alone!

Just kidding. Uncle Brett is about to graduate from Stanford School of Engineering! So he took us on a tour of the beautiful campus. I felt so smart just walking through it!

weekend getaway to texas wine country

After over two years living in Texas, we finally made it to Fredericksburg. We kept thinking, “why didn’t we do this before we had a baby?” But we brought the baby along and she had fun too! Oh, and we brought the cats too… It was a regular Griswold family vacation!

We stayed in a quaint, old cottage from the 1800’s. Maeby enjoyed exploring – knocking over plants, climbing onto window sills, and sitting in the claw foot tub. Margot enjoyed hiding under the bed.

We ate German food, walked around the shops downtown and hit up a few wineries. It was relaxing, scenic and even the weather was tolerable (much cooler than in Austin!) We had fun taking a few pictures of our girl.

harper’s first vacation

On Drew’s birthday, the day before the 4th of July, we boarded a plane for Harper’s first flight, first vacation, and first time meeting a lot of the extended family. She did pretty awesome on the flight – she slept the first leg (and holding her made my arm go numb) and charmed everyone. She even waved to another baby for the first time!

We stayed at Great Grandpa and Great Grandma’s house – which is a fun place to visit for a little one. Lots to do and very scenic. Harper loved all the new toys to play with, all the birds chirping, and all the new people from whom to get cheek kisses. She experienced a big puppy for the first time (their yellow lab was the most well behaved lab I’ve ever seen.) And ate homemade food from Great Grandma’s garden!

Kisses from Gram!

Hanging with Aunt Kari!

On the 4th, we went to Drew’s cousin’s house and hung out with a bunch of his cousins and their kids. Harper loved watching all the big kids scurry around.

Kisses from Great Grandma!

Hanging with Uncle Brett!

Watching Great Grandma pick vegetables from her garden.

Hanging out at Drew’s aunt and uncle’s – enjoying the nice weather!

Listening to all the birds chirp on the dock.

Snuggles with Great Grandpa.

Harper met Audrey (Drew’s cousin Annie’s daughter who is a month older)! We had our family baby shower together last summer!

Then we went swimming and Harper fell asleep on the way. At least that made it easier to lather her with sunscreen.

The family also threw a wedding shower for Kyle and Brittany and baby shower for Drew’s cousin Aaron and Chrissy. With this size family, there are showers of some kind every summer and it’s best to combine them! Harper got to meet some more aunts, uncles and cousins!

Hanging out with Grandpa!

Snuggles with Uncle Kyle!

Harper sharing her daddy’s lap with Audrey!

Harper has the best daddy!

o canada!

Our last stop on our northwest tour was Vancouver. My first time to Canada! We started out walking through town past the library to Gastown – a few quaint streets with shopping and pubs that look like London.

In Gastown there’s a steam clock. We were expecting some huge clock, but it’s just a small grandfather clock with steam rising out the top!

We walked out to Canada Place which is much like Navy Pier in Chicago.

Later that afternoon, we walked out to Lighthouse Park. It was a beautiful wooded area with large trees until you reach the water. We stood on a big rock and looked out at the lighthouse towards downtown Vancouver.

The next day was spent in the outdoors. Stanley Park is the large park on the west end of Vancouver. We were going to walk, but decided to rent bikes instead. I’m so glad we did – we rode around the entire perimeter of the park and were able to see a lot.

We saw a bunch of totem poles.

There was a beach too. We even saw people swimming in a public pool even though the temperature was maybe 68 degrees.

After lunch we drove out to Grouse Mountain and took a tram up the mountain.

The ride was about 7 minutes and at the top it was rather cool and there was still snow on the ground. So we grabbed some hot chocolates and walked around.

We caught the end of a bird demonstration where they were flying falcons and eagles back and forth.

On our last evening of the trip, we walked around Granville Island which is known for it’s shopping and restaurants. We ate at a nice brewery and were able to sit outside.

Alas, our northwest tour came to an end. Besides seeing the beautiful nature and eat delicious food, my favorite part was spending so much quality time with my sister!

a few days in seattle

We arrived in Seattle late afternoon with enough time to stroll through Olympic Sculpture Park before dinner. It had a great bike trail right on the water and a few interesting sculptures.

The next morning we went up to the top of the Space Needle for an aerial view and then to Pike Place to see some fish thrown through the air.

The Seattle Public Library is modern and geometric – pretty neat building in the middle of Seattle.

We found a park on a hill in the Queen Anne neighborhood that had a great view of downtown and Mt. Rainier. Finally – a glimpse of the peak!

On our last morning in Seattle, we took a ferry ride out into the Puget Sound.

The Space Needle was repainted the original colors to celebrate the World’s Fair anniversary.

Then it was off to Vancouver!

climb every mountain, search high and low

On our way between Portland and Seattle, we stopped through the Mt. Rainier National Park. We didn’t intend to hike – really we just wanted to get a close look and some pictures.

We pulled into the park and asked where a good lookout would be and drove for a while, up and up, until we got too high in the clouds to see it! But what we saw on the way was pretty enough.

After a few more hours in the car getting through the small towns, we pulled into Seattle for the 2nd leg of the trip.

the dream of the 90’s is alive in portland

Ever since our Boston trip in 2010 with my sister and her husband, we had planned to take another trip together to the northwest to see Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. We finally managed to make it happen a couple weeks ago after much planning. We spent the week of Memorial Day seeing the 3 cities and a little bit of the surrounding area. We were there for 10 days but there was still so much we didn’t get to see, particularly in the outskirts with all the national parks, ocean and wine country.

Drew and I arrived in town the night before Lisa and Branden, so we walked around the Portland Rose Gardens for a bit. We couldn’t get over how green and lush everything was, right within Portland’s city limits.

When Lisa and Branden arrived, we headed to a Portland Timbers vs. Vancouver Whitecaps soccer game. The MLS fans in the northwest are crazy – so it was really exciting. A rainstorm came through during halftime but swept through quickly and that was the worst weather we experience the whole time!

The next morning, after waiting in a long line, we got a major sugar high from doughnuts from Voodoo Doughnut – they were delicious. Lisa tried one topped with Captain Crunch cereal and Drew tried one topped with Fruit Loops. I stuck to good ol’ glazed.

They also tried a Bacon Maple doughnut with real bacon on top. Later, they bought the Bacon Maple Beer made by Rogue and it ended up tasting exactly like bacon.

Then we walked around the Portland Saturday Market, visited Powell’s Books and then grabbed some beers at Deschutes Brewery.

We ended the evening with a delicious dinner at Little Bird.

The next morning we drove out to Newburg and Dundee for a day at the wineries! Drew got to do all the tasting for us, so I relied on him to pick some good Pinot Noirs to bring home. Willamette Valley is such a beautiful setting for wine tasting – every winery had a view. We visited four that day, all known for their Pinot’s – Anderson Family, Lange Estate, Winderlea and Erath. Anderson Family was a small, family run vineyard that is all organic and sustainable. They need no air conditioning for their cellar since it stays perfectly cool all year round.

At Anderson Family Vineyard, the owner let us put our ear up to a barrell to hear the yeast bubbling.

The next day we made our way out of Portland and on to Seattle, but first with a stop at Mt. Rainier National Park!