Aboard the Odyssey

On April 22 Brett and I celebrate our 5th anniversary. We decided to celebrate early this year and take advantage of my parents babysitting while we were in Virginia. So Brett booked us for a dinner/dance riverboat cruise in Washington D.C. We sailed aboard the Odyssey along the Potomac River. We had such a wonderful time. It was awesome to get out with Brett and do something romantic.


We started by getting all dressed up and "prettified" and my sister Lyds did my hair all fancy and cut Bretts hair. Then we left for the city. We got there a little bit early and so we were able to walk around and enjoy the beauty of the cherry blossoms. The atmosphere of the boat was so fun. The food was good and the settings were beautiful. They kept the rolls coming (which was awesome) and I had my first lobster bisque ever.


When we weren't eating, we enjoyed walking around the boat and seeing the beautiful monuments all lit up and magnificent against the dark night.



We also enjoyed dancing. They had a live band which was pretty good and which played a fun mix of slow and fast favorites. At one point in the evening, the band announced all the birthdays and everyone on the boat sang happy birthday. Then they announced all the couples celebrating anniversaries. As each couple was called they got to walk to the dance floor. There were a ton of first anniversaries and everyone clapped really loudly for them. Then a couple celebrating their 4th anniversary was called and people clapped even louder. Then they called Brett and me with 5 years and people were even more loud. It was fun to walk up to the dance floor, holding Bretts hand, with the whole boat watching and clapping for us. After us there was a 10 year anniversary and a 27 year anniversary. It was kindof weird that we were the third longest couple celebrating on the boat and I feel like we are still so young. After all the couples were on the floor, they played a special slow song (unfortunately it was a song that I wasn't familiar with) and we got our own special dance.



All in all, it was a wonderful night and I am convinced that we will be doing it again and again throughout our lives!!!! Thank you Brett for the romantic evening and the memorable time celebrating our wonderful marriage!!

Daffodils and Darling Daughters

Virginia Vacation and a Happy Easter

We drove up to Virginia to celebrate Easter with my family from April 8-14th. Although it is a very long 12 hour drive, the girls did awesome and it really wasnt that bad. I bring all sorts of treats and let the girls watch their favorite movies.

We got to meet Lydias new boyfriend. He's a pretty nice fellow. (Perhaps, if things continue along as they currently are, we'll get to make the trip up to VA again next winter or spring for a wedding. . . hmmm, who knows. )

We had a fun time celebrating Easter. On Saturday Grandma, Em, and I went to the grocery store. As we walked in we were each given a raffle ticket. After we had been there for about 15 minutes, they drew Emmelines number and she won a free easter cake. She was soooo excited. It was all she could talk about throughout the week. While we were at the store, we also got to decorate free easter cookies. Emmeline loaded hers up with frosting. It was a great shopping trip.



The girls also had fun decorating Easter eggs that night. My mom had gotten a different dye then usual and the girls got to use actual paint brushes instead of just submerging their eggs in the dye bath. I think they loved using brushes and painting their eggs instead of dying their eggs.





Sunday morning, the girls enjoyed going through their easter baskets. They each got a new swimming suit, some books, candy and other little nic nacs. Grandma had gotten them these cute little bunny purses to put all their stuff in. After church and dinner, we had a family easter egg hunt. As always, this is a highlight for my daughters. Plus, grandma and grandpa have a big yard to hide eggs which made this particular hunt super fun.




All in all, we had a great holiday and a very happy Easter.

While we were there my parents also took us to "The Greatest Show on Earth" the Circus. We love the circus. And Mabel was enthralled. She was so focused and taking everything in. She became very attached to my sister Lucy and throughout the show she would keep crawling back and forth between Lucy and me, never taking her eyes off what was happening down on the stage. It was quite hilarious.

On Monday we went to my moms classroom. It was a teacher workday so her class wasn't there and Emmeline and Mabel loved exploring the room. They liked to play with the giant checkers, the stacking toys, stickers and of course to color on the whiteboards and chalkboards.

Mostly we just enjoyed hanging out. I think that the girls favorite parts involved jumping on the trampoline with Lucy and Leland, blowing giant bubbles--and watching the Hefalump movie over and over again. I loved talking, singing and laughing all week with my family.



On Tuesday we left early and got back to Birmingham around 4:30. Just enough time for Brett to get to his class and for me to get refocused to head into class at 5:30. We had a great vacation!!

April Babysitting Night

We took our turn babysitting on Friday April 3rd this month. It was perfect because it was just before Easter and the weather was awesome. So we had a couple of Easter eggs hunts of course. It was great to be able to let the kids run around outside instead of being stuck in the house all evening. And the one thing my girls can't seem to get enough of is hunting for those colored, plastic eggs. Mabel has to shake each one to see if its any good. She is all about quality. Emmeline on the other hand, could care less if there was anything inside the egg. She is all about quantity. hilarious!!