Swainsboro, GA

I am so sorry that I am so far behind with doing blog posts. I promise to do a better job in the future. Here are some photos from our time spent in Swainsboro this summer with Chad's parents. The girls love it there. Getting to play with Reno, riding on the three-wheeler, and have just good old country fun.

Here are a few shots from Splash in the 'boro. And that is Statesboro, not Swainsboro. The girls had an absolute ball playing and swimming here.


Does it get anymore country than this. I love it!!! And so did the girls...

Lunch at the Coleman House. These girls (including me) sure no how to put back some friend chicken. Delicious!

NYC - Girls' Weekend

Chad's mom offered to watch the girls for me while I did a girl's weekend up in NYC. This was my first time to the Big Apple and I could hardly contain myself. I had been collecting a list of restaurants to try and shops to visit so I was ready. Laurie put together a fantastic itinerary. Laurie and I got in on Thursday along with my sister and her sister-in-law.

Laurie hooked us up with a discount at the Barclay Intercontinental. The hotel was old and beautiful and right in the middle of tons of shopping. I couldn't have picked a better location.

Laurie and I hitting our first restaurant, Phillipe. This is the place where Bethany, from the Real Housewives of NYC, has her signature drink the Skinny Girl Martini. Lunch was amazing.

After Kim and Kristie arrived we met up for dinner at MomoFuko. I had heard about this place from watching Martha Stewart. The steamed pork buns are fantastic.


The next day we were so excited for Kate's arrival. She came in from DC on the train. We shopped our little hearts out this day.

Lunch!
This is Takashimaya, which is a department store from Japan that I love. I have always wanted to visit the one in New York.


Trying to get a little culture in after shopping. We went to the Met.


Here we are toasting our friendship at the roof-top bar at the Met. There was the most beautiful view from up there.

This is a new park created near the Meat Packing District called the High Line. It was an old elevated railroad. We spotted the Statue of Liberty up there.


Kate and I could not pass up Magnolia Bakery's famous cupcakes. Boy were they good.


Our last night out. Dinner at Gamercy Tavern was the best meal of the trip.

Thanks Nancy and Rod for making this dream a reality.

Albany

Continuing on our trip across the United States our next stop was GA to visit Chad's parents. My mom drove us down to Atlanta and then Rod and Nancy swept us away to Albany for the night. Rod's family live there and near there. We stayed at a hotel that had a pool and Papa was such a great sport to get in and swim with the girls. Considering it was nearly 100 degrees there and over that if you factor the humidity, the pool was the perfect "stay cool" activity.



Aunt Betty Jo invited the whole family over for lunch on Sunday. We had a great time catching up with everyone.

Dollywood

As many times as I have visited my sister and her family in TN we have never made it to Dollywood. I was determined this time to go. We loaded Sarah, Lauren, Allie and Tori up and headed to Pigeon Forge for a fun filled day at Dollywood.



Lauren was SO brave and rode her first upside down roller coaster. She was awesome...although she said she didn't want to ride it again.

Nashiville, TN

With Nashville being only a three hour drive from Maryville. Lauren Gainy and I planned a trip there to meet for a night. Lauren lives in Memphis and her little girl Caroline and Allie are soul sisters. We got a reservation at the Opryland Hotel for one night. Once we got checked in the girls and I explores the massive hotel.


Here we re in search of the pool. It tooks us about 45 minutes to find it. Once Lauren and kids got there we played in the pool for a while. After that we headed to dinner.

The girls were very patient waiting on the table at the restaurant.


After dinner we went for ice cream and ran into this cowboy that "ropped" the kids. He was very talented. We got a kick out of watching him.

Lauren loved tryig to keep up with this cowgirl line dancing.

The next day after saying our goodbyes and checking out of the hotel we met Barb and Ray for lunch at the Loveless Cafe. I have wanted to try this place forever. It was delicious.

Cade's Cove TN

Kim took us to the most beautiful place in the Smokey Mountains called Cades Cove. We packed a picnic and loaded up with the girls and Nana. First we took a drive through the park where we saw deer and black bears. After our drive we stopped at a picnic area by a creek. The girls loved playing in the really cold water. We have a great lunch and enjoyed watching the cousins play together.

Here are Lauren and Allie finding rocks to collect. Nana is so good to humor them and keep them at her house.

Allie trying to convince Tori to get in the water. She wasn't budging.

Little Lexi enjoyed getting her feet wet!

Maryville, TN

For part of the summer the girls and I are going on a US tour to keep us busy while Chad is on deployment. Our first stop is to see my sister and her family as well as my mom. We arrived in Maryville, TN (clearing customs in Chicago) on June 9th. Lauren's last day of school was the 8th. It is wonderful staying at Kim's house b/c we are able to spread out, my mom takes the girls one at a time to spend the night at her house and there is a pool right in the back yard of my sisters. Fun!!!!

Celebrating our birthdays!


Thanks Nana for our new pjs.

The girls loved being able to swim every day.

My Birthday - The Ninja Restaurant

For my birthday, June 4th, I wanted the girls and I (Chad was busy working getting ready for deployment) to eat at the Ninja Restaurant in Tokyo. It came recommended from my friend Jennie who has lived here before. It is a themed restaurant and the theme is obviously Ninja. When you walk in you are escorted down through trap doors, small halls, and up and under stairs to get to your "room" where you eat. The menu is very inventive. The kids set was beautiful and all of my food was so delicious. All through dinner the girls insisted that we come back with Daddy. At the end of our dinner a magic Ninja came a did a magic trick performance. It was fantastic.