Corolla Vacation 2017

SORRY! Life has been a whirlwind over the last two months.  I will try to recap what we have been up to this summer.  One of the most exciting trips we went on was Harrison's first family (minus D.J.) vacation to Corolla in the Outer Banks.  My family has been going there since my mom was pregnant with me, so it's a pretty big family tradition.  Over the years, the group has gotten smaller and smaller due to travel from Pennsylvania, everyone having their own lives and the family expanding tremendously.  This year though, we had THREE houses and over 30 people come which was SO much fun.  Four of my mom's six siblings where there with their spouses.  My first cousins that were there ranged from 40 to 27 and my second cousins that were there ranged from 18 to Harrison! He was the youngest.

We stay in Corolla Light - the best resort on the Outer Banks! So many great activities for the kids, adults and our all time favorite - BINGO. However, I remember bingo being a lot more fun as a child than WITH a child.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip....

Lots of beach days with cousins.

Our group ruled the beach!

Cousin love!

Gigi is the best.

Mom and her sister in law, Janice.

Surfin USA!

Every week the resort has a sand castle contest and Uncle Johnny is our family artist.  This year was a flamingo because thats what his granddaughter Emery asked for!

And as you can see, our daily routine was exhausting! So exhausting that Harrison fell asleep in the high chair!

As much fun as we had, it really stinks not having daddy on vacation with the family.  We can't wait to make an off season family getaway to make special memories with daddy!

Anniversary Trip: Update

Beware: Bummer alert ahead.

Remember when we were planning to go to San Diego for our anniversary? Yea well, baseball called and we ended up cancelling our trip.  I tried to reschedule but I couldn't get myself to spend the extra money to change the flights and additiona money the hotels were going to cost at the new time we were looking at going.  Our fall schedule was already sooo booked up so trying to reschedule was giving me a minor panic attack.  No, seriously, ask D.J, I was getting so flustered and it wasn't worth it.  I just wanted to be with D.J. for our anniverary and create another memory in a new city. 

Well lucky enough, we live in a pretty awesome area.  When we first went over to the Eastern Shore for Ansley & Chris' wedding, we fell in love with the area.  Cape Charles is such a hidden gem over there.  Beautiful beaches, quaint little town, and delicious sea food.  Although we were a little preoccupied the one weekened we were there, we both knew we wnted to go back at some point. 

Cue anniversary trip plan B.

I AM SO EXCITED TO BE HEADING OVER TO CAPE CHARLES, VA! The area is stunning and this time I am looking forward to taking in what the town has to offer.  Time to start doing my research on things to do! Be on the lookout in a few weeks with some of my favorite must-see's when we go on our mini vacation!

5 Ways to Pass the Time on a Road Trip

Linking up with Christina and Co. for today's 5 on Friday.

Over the next few months, my little Honda CRV is going to be getting a workout in.  As you all know (if you have been following along) my baseball hubby is in the Carolina League this season with the Carolina Mudcats.  Needless to say, the teams are all close so this is increasing my spending in the "gas" category on my monthly budget!! Even though the drives are not terribly far (less than 3 hours anywhere but one place), I find myself wishing they were shorter.  So here are my tips on how to pass the time!


one. listen to good music
Whether it's Pandora or old CD's, good music will really make the trip go by faster.  Lately I have been digging The Dixie Chicks Pandora station. I also found an old CD in my car with a bunch for John Mayer and DMB that have been great cruising songs.

two. take the time to catch up with friends
I always use the drives to chat with people I haven't talked to in a while.  Last trip down to NC, I talked to my grandlittle, Jenny and 30 minutes later I was already there! Unfortunately, I had to drive down last night so I had to pay attention more since it was dark out.

three. dont look at the map
Looking at the GPS the whole time and checking your arrival time is not going to make you get there faster.  If you know where you are going, avoid checking your arrival time before you leave.  It will only make it worse, I promise!

four. play a game
Counting license plates or finding words that being with certain letters are always my go to.  It's easy to do by yourself and fun to play with a friend.  I haven't had any road trip warriors with me on my drives yet, so its nice to have something to occupy my mind while I drive down the road.

five. drive during the day
Driving with the windows down and the music up is the best way to get past the boring-ness of the drive ahead of you.  I would always choose to wake up early and leave to get somewhere rather than leaving later and driving the the dark.  I think it's easier to pay attention and for some reason it seems to go by faster when you have more to look forward to during the day whenever you get to your final destination!

What do you do to pass the time on a road trip?


this weeks posts
#baseballwifelife vs. Potomac Nationals
It's the Little Things: Warmer Weather

Nashvegas # crazytown

A weekend full of live music, family and friends, and lacrosse.. what more could ya ask for?! Nashville continues to prove time and time again that it is one of the best cities on earth! Besides seeing beautiful houses, scenic parks, and a drumming rapper on the corner of Broadway Street, I spent probably half the time talking to Ryan and my mom how this "blogging thing works!" That sounds like a post for another time, but for now -  this blog post is for the both of you! 

Friday-- I headed off bright and early to head to Music City via a layover in Charlotte. (another city on my must-see list) When I landed in Nashville, Ryan came to pick me up and we went to her house. She has moved since the last time I was visiting and the new house she is in is brand new, beautiful, and perfect for her and her roommates.  My mom had already arrived by the time we got back to the house so after settling in, we decided to head to Radnor Lake to do some exercising and exploring! 

The weather was super cold, but with the sun shining it made it bearable.  We (obviously) took lots of pictures and stopped a few times because we were laughing so hard! We even saw some deer (which I accidentally called a horse... yep- that happened). 

The way these icicles were hitting the water made it look like they were flashing on and off

After we did the hike, we grabbed some lunch at McDougals then went back to Ryan's to take a nap.  We watched the Olympic Opening Ceremonies and then decided that we needed to make the most of every night! So around 9, we headed out to Soulshine Pizza for a late dinner and some drinks.  We decided to head home after dinner to save our energy for Saturday. 

Saturday-- We started our morning off by heading to the Hillsboro area right by Vanderbilt for some breakfast at Fido.  Seriously some of the best blueberry pancakes I have ever had! We walked around and went into some cute stores trying to walk off our breakfast. We had some time to kill before Bobby's game so we did a driving tour of downtown Nashville.  

UGA Lacrosse played Vandy on Saturday and unfortunately, they ended up losing.  It was great to see Bobby play though.

We decided to have mom take some "engagement photos" of us 

One of the kids on the team had us over for dinner at his house.  It was a delicious dinner and great dessert! We all decided to meet up at Legends Downtown a little later and make our ways through all the downtown bars! We ended up hitting up Legends, Tootsies, and Bootleggers (which was by far the worst because of the terrible singer who didn't know the word.  I was about to get up there and take the mic from him)

Sunday-- After a long night, we grabbed some hot chocolate and bagels before the next game.  Sunday's game was much more exciting with a final score of 16-2 vs. Wake Forest.  The boys were much more excited at the end of the game and I am glad they were able to go home on a good note.  They head out to California next weekend to take on a few teams out there.  Mom left to head back to Athens after the game and Ryan and I packed up my stuff, hit the mall, and grabbed some food at Panera and just chatted before I hit the air to head home.  The airport was a breeze.  Besides trying to check in at US Air for my United flight, everything went smoothly.  No delays, no checked bags, and I was even able to finish my Nicholas Sparks book (The Last Song). 

The weekend was so great and I am so glad I was able to make it work.  I totally ate way to much food and drank too much food. Luckily since my mom was there, I didn't spend too much money (thanks mom!) 

All in all- if you are reading this, you need to make a trip to Nashville in the near future!

No #baseballwifelife this weekend, so I will be working on one soon!

St Lucia- No Presha No Problem!

Clearly I am trying to get caught up with all the blogging I need to do since the wedding! Lets do a Flashback Friday to St. Lucia! D.J. and I headed down to the West Indies on October 22, 2013 and we were there for the entire week! Lets just go through it day by day!

Tuesday- We left The Brown's house around 3 a.m. to catch our flight to Miami before we headed to St. Lucia! We arrived in St. Lucia around 2 p.m. later that day.  Lucky for us there was not time difference! The airport there was a little different than Miami! We walked off our big plane onto the tarmac and got our bags inside the airport. There was no gates and we walked straight into customs.  They told us that about 3 planes fly in each day and that's its!  Shawn and Kori and the kids got us a helicopter ride from the airport to our hotel so we headed there next.  It cut out about a 1.5 hour drive from the airport to our hotel.  Instead we flew from the International Airport to the local airport on the other side of the island.  From there, we were taken in a private car to the resort! St. Lucia is 236 square miles and a map of the island is below. Our hotel was at Pigeon Island. 

After we got to the resort, we had our special check in area where they served us Rum Punch. We made our dinner reservations and then we ordered room service to the room since we were exhausted! The weather Tuesday was sort of crappy so we didn't make it to the pool that day.  For dinner that night, we went to Bayside for a quick bite to eat before we relaxed that night and watched The Voice!


Wednesday- Today we explored the resort, laid by the pool and did some games with the "playmakers".  These are the people that run all the resort games. They were all awesome and by the end of the week knew us by name!

Thursday- Thanks to SUNY Geneseo, today we went Zip Lining! It was pretty spectacular.  The drive there was about an hour.  We drove the the middle of the island in the rain forest.  The views on the way there were awesome.  We drove through Castries, the capital.  There was a lot going on down there since a cruise ship was in port.  Our tour guide for Zip Lining, George of the Jungle, told us that the port could hold up to 5 cruise ships at one time.  The roads are opposite from America and another strange thing we noticed was that cattle just graved the side of the street like it was no big deal! The ziplining adventure was beautiful.  We did 12 lines ranging from 100 feet to 800 feet and speeds from 15 mph-35mph.  We went through trees, over rivers, and hiked to the top of a mountain to do the longest zip of the course! We didn't see any wildlife on the zips but we did get to hold a boa constrictor when we got finished!

Here is a few from the drive to zip lining.  It was known as Lion's Head because the rock looks like the profile of a lion.  This is the Atlantic side of the island were there are not so many beaches, but lots of bluffs.

When we got back to the hotel after the zip lining, we grabbed some lunch and did a mini snorkeling adventure right off the beach by the resort! For dinner tonight we went to the Pub.  Their main specialty was fish and chips.  For appetizers we had crab dip with shrimp which was awesome! D.J. especially loved all dinners because it was unlimited and FREE already paid for!

Friday- Today we did another adventure thanks to The Campion Family.  We did Snuba! It is where you have the gear to scuba dive, but you don't have to hold the tank.  The tank floats on the top of the water in  a little raft.  You have breathing tubes attached to the tank and you can go down as far as 20 feet.  Where we were, that was perfect.  It was really awesome to get up close and personal with all the coral and the fish.  We saw lots of different fish on this adventure.  We saw some beautiful corals as well.  Unfortunately, we took pictures on a camera that we borrowed from D.J.'s sister and the battery died right when we got in the water.  We were able to get a few pictures, but we haven't gotten them from her yet since we gave the camera back when we got back to the States.  Hopefully we will have pictures to show you soon! When we got back from that, we went down to the pool for a little (obviously) and then we got ready for dinner.  By the way, I was reading the new Nicholas Sparks book The Best of Me and I could not put it down.  Everyday we always played a lot of games that the playmakers put on.  Later that night we went to dinner at the Italian restaurant and let me tell you-- it was delicious! I had Shrimp Alfredo and D.J. had to dinner meals!

Saturday-On Saturday, we really just hung out by the pool and played some pool volleyball.  We had to get ready early for dinner sine we were going to La Toc, one of the 2 other Sandals on the island.  They had the Japanese style restaurant at their hotel so we went over there.  I was really glad we decided to go with the Grande (our resort).  Lac Toc is the Sandals with a golf course so it is more spread out, more hills, and less beach.  It is also smaller than ours too. I really enjoy how our resort was in a little cove so the waves were not waves at all! Also, we were close to the National park, the Snuba, and the snorkeling! The other guest had to come to our resort to do any of the water sports!

Sunday- Sunday we started our day off with a hike to the top of the mountain in the Pigeon Peak National Park.  In pictures, it doesn't look like it would be a hard hike, but let me tell you, it was like rock climbing at some points.  But the views from the top were amazing.  Looking north you could see Martinique, the closest island to St. Lucia.  Looking south, we thought we could see the Piton's but we were wrong. Haha! 

Monday- On our last day we really just wanted to relax and take in as much sun as we could.  It was the nicest day we had so far and we stayed outside from about 10-6 p.m. For anyone that knows me, this was so great! We played corn hole, horseshoes, pool volleyball, beach Olympics, and just chatted with some friends we met! For dinner that night, they close down all the normal restaurants and have a street fair outside where all the local vendors come in and offer souvenirs for purchase! We got some magnets, a beautiful painting, and some post cards! There was also some awesome local dancers and fire blowers! D.J. and I both got up on the stage and did dancing with them before we had to limbo under the stick! For me, it was no problem but for D.J..... not so much. 

Cool pictures of our rings!

Pretty much my view every day! 

Tuesday- Unfortunately, we could not stay forever.  We had some breakfast, played morning trivia and then packed up our bags to head home.  We rode the van back to the airport and it was a rough ride.  D.J. almost got car sick and I had to hold on to the handle the entire time because of all the twists and turns! Anyways, we made it home safety and the in-laws picked us up from the airport around 12 a.m.  We are so thankful that they were willing to do this for us!! We got back to their house around 2 a.m. and slept in till 11 the next day! On Wednesday, it was back to Norfolk we went and back in the groove of work on Thursday!

Overall, the honeymoon was exactly what we wanted it to be! Beautiful island, delicious food, and great memories with each other! We cannot wait to go on our next vacation...whenever that may be!