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Watching her personality develop and change has been one of the biggest satisfactions in my life. She fits in with the usual girl norm. Pink and purples, princess dresses and singing Disney tunes. I’ve noticed a significant change in her though over the last couple years that sets her apart and she reminds me of someone that I didn’t expect. My dad.

My dad is someone who is always interested in the how and whys. Wherever we would go it was a learning lesson. The one we got the most was “How do you think that rock got so round?” It may seem silly, but it really makes you stop and think. Something as simple as a round rock we found in a stream or a green plant has so much to learn from and he always encouraged that no matter what we were doing. My friends would come over to play and inevitably it became a real life version of the Magic School Bus where we were being taught the life cycle of a lady bug by my dad. He has a wealth of information about so many things that any time spent with him, you are guaranteed to learn something new. Whether you want to or not. Being around someone who has such an interest in nature and life, it’s hard not to be drawn in. I see so much of that in Hayden. No matter where we go, she finds flowers or plants to pick. I find those said plants in EVERYTHING. The car, my dryer, her backpacks, my bed, her brother’s bed. The list goes on. There are holes throughout our yard where she’s planted who knows what. She captures butterflies and frogs, and catches bugs in the house to release back outside. Because their family is looking for them. Duh. She’s constantly finding rocks to add to her collection, and I notice all around the house where she has added her special touch and is keeping life around a little longer.

It no longer catches me off guard when we go from talking ice cream flavors to “So where does God live? I really want to meet him.” Or hearing a five year old say “Oooohhh, look at the color of that Geranium!” She believes in fairies and magic and lives by the understanding that anything is possible with make believe. She’s curious why cupcakes rise in the oven and still can’t quite figure out how cucumbers and pickles are actually the same vegetable. She is just as excited watching our garden grow as she is for a friend’s birthday party. Her desire to learn about all that is nature pushes me to learn more as well so that I can be able to answer her questions. Her large imagination reminds me of when I was little and takes me back to all the magical things my dad did for us to make life so exciting and adventurous. I can’t get enough of her curiosity and I will do my very best to feed and nurture that quality in her.

(This picture kills me. She went out late one night by herself and just wanted to “be quiet.”)

It’s a spirit I pray never dies in her and I can only hope she grows up to love and appreciate that quality in herself and see that it will take her places she can only dream of.  And very soon I feel the question will come about “Do you know how that rock got so round?”

One day I’ll travel the world and eat food. Explore and eat food. Maybe meet some new people and eat food. Overall, I really just want to eat food. Until that day comes, I’ll just be here, trying recipes that are filled with spices and flavors that are outside our usual.

 

I have great friends who are always willing to be guinea pigs for new recipes. This one didn’t disappoint and was the star of the night. Dried mint, cinnamon and cumin make this dish warm and earthy. It’s my favorite go to now since the spice mix makes enough for several small batches. So I’ll show you two ways to prepare the dish that surely won’t disappoint.

Our trio consists of potato, cauliflower and radishes. If you are able to, buy fresh radishes with the greens still attached. When I went shopping this week, the fresh batch looked mighty sad so I went with the radishes already prepped and packaged. Your actually going to eat the radish tops so make sure they are in good condition.

In a bowl combine your chopped veggies, slather them with olive oil and sprinkle in enough seasoning to coat. If you are doing an entire sheet tray, use all of your mixture.

Bake at 425 degrees for approx 15-20 mins, or until your veggies are tender and golden. If you serve this with dinner, top with a generous dollap of plain greek yogurt, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and the radish tops if you have them. If not, fresh mint with do. I made this along with Moroccan coucous and grilled chicken.

I will make an entire batch for myself and gorge shamelessly. They are that tasty. Which made me think that roasting them for breakfast and adding an egg on top would make me just as happy. I was right.

Omit the lemon and yogurt and instead top with an over easy egg. Then listen to the birds chirp outside and drown out the sounds of your bickering children because you are enjoying brunch. If that juice had champagne in it we would really be onto something. But I save my morning drinking for weekends. Or at least closer to the weekend. Tuesday is close right?

Moroccan Mint Roasted Vegetables

1 1/2 tsp dried mint

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

vegetable mixture of your choice

olive oil, lemon wedges and greek yogurt

optional: radish tops, freshly chopped mint

Combine all spices in a bowl or if you have a pestle and mortar grind your first 3 ingredients and add the rest and mix. Coat your veggies with olive oil and seasoning and bake in 425 degree oven for 15- 20 mins or until veggies are tender.

Dear Reid,

Just a few months shy of your second birthday and you are adorably walking the line between staying my baby boy and growing up. You try your best at telling us what you want and need but most of it is still words and sounds that I can’t quite make out. While you want to feed yourself and use regular cups, you struggle to do it correctly at times. Don’t feel bad, even when you grow up you’ll still manage to get food down the front of you, we all do. You don’t want to be coddled and when your ready for sleep you want to be laid down and left alone. Your excited to head out the door, with a wave and a goodbye. No more tears when you leave mama’s side. You follow the older kids and want so much to just run and play and have no boundaries. So I continue to warm your bed time bottle, and relish in the moments when you search frantically for your “ankie” and pacifier to settle in for a snooze. I want you to be independent, self sufficient and able to communicate clearly. All those wonderful things that make you a big boy. But I also want you to stay little and run to me when you fall down and get hurt. I want to follow you around aimlessly and watch you explore and learn. I want you to never grow out of your babble because your attempt at sounding things out is so incredibly cute. You very well might be my last baby so I want you to stay small and cuddly for as long as I can keep you because so quickly you’ll need me less and less. It’s for pure selfish reasons that I don’t want you to grow up.  I don’t mind changing your diapers, scouring the house for lost pacifiers, and washing bottles every day. Because you like to use a regular cup, and your eager to sit on the potty yourself and more often than not you come to me for comfort instead of looking for a pacifier. It’s moving quickly and I’m the one unprepared, not you. So bare with me a little while longer and let me hold onto the tiny version of you, because I’m doing my very best to embrace the boy you are becoming.

We have been serious landscapers lately. Yard work is so easy and fun and isn’t exhausting at all, said no one ever. If I take anything away from being a new home owner it’s buy a place that has an EXISTING lawn or your prepared to have a crew of people ready and willing to do it all at once. Doing it all yourselves is incredibly hard and tiring and while it’s satisfying to know your own sweat and tears created it, sometimes we imagine we just close our eyes and snap our fingers and all our projects are complete and we can kick back on our gorgeous lawn and simply enjoy the view. Almost there my friends.

But first, we started out all this by buying a new car. A new used car. Really the only complaint we had about the Jeep, was its size. By the time you loaded the kids and the dog, any bags and attempt at groceries it was jam packed. We took this opportunity to upgrade and buy something with more room and buy older and used so we could drive away without a car payment anymore. We did just that.

We bought new wheels for it and put on our tires from the Jeep we had just bought and our family ride is complete. I foresee lots of road trips and adventures in this puppy.

With that out of the way, we started the work. Our goal for this summer is to expand our lawn by taking out trees and the natural brush in both the front and the back and once that’s complete we plan on boxing in the playhouse and filling it with sand and a few more play structures. We have an incredible view of the inlet from our front yard but come summer the trees fill in and we start to lose that.

We cut down trees, so many trees. Ripped out bushes and brush. The roots you guys! There are so many roots, I swear we’ll never pull them all out. Trees were fallen, cut up, hauled off, stumps dug up and debris cleaned.  We still have more prep to do before we can bring in topsoil and seed it but we’ve made pretty good progress considering it’s been primarily Andy and I.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

(There is about 6 weeks difference with these comparisons but I forgot to take real before pictures so this will have to do.)

 The end result is to clear out the tall skinny birch trees and add more grass and evergreen trees to our yard. Which required us to actually get more trees. The beauty of living in Alaska. We loaded up the kids and some lunch and hit the trail down the road in search of those perfect bushy christmas worthy trees to plant.

In no time at all we had all that we could load up and travel with and headed back home to prep our spots and plant our new green additions.

By the end of each day we are all filthy and tired, and I can’t even begin to tell you how much of a disaster Reid always is. This kid lives to be outside and manages to be covered in dirt and mud from head to toe. Every single day. We know we’ve really worn them out when it’s 10 am and these guys are still fast asleep.

Summer is right around the corner and the days to come will be more digging and planting and watching our home become more and more like we envisioned it to be when we bought it. I’ll leave you with that and hopefully in a few months I’ll update you and show you just how far this little yard of ours has come.

It’s been a while. For a few reasons. We were on vacation in Idaho and Washington for a couple weeks. Then on our drive home from the airport we ran into a problem. By problem I mean truck. We ran into a truck, literally.

 

Oye…..

 All of our thoughts and plans once we got back home came to a screeching halt. Pun intended. Tales of our trip got put on the back burner and our days have been filled with phone calls. Lots of phone calls. Countless trips to the auto body shop, insurance office and the chiropractor. While everyone is doing great and no major injuries, SO THANKFUL FOR THAT!, it’s just put a lot more on our plate than what you want right when you get home from vacation.

Lots of you have asked what happened and while I enjoy speaking with all of you, jotting it all down will make things so much simpler.

Our flight got in at 7 pm in Anchorage and we got the luggage and the kids loaded up in the Jeep and headed home. Having been gone for a while we had no basic essentials in the fridge so Andy dropped me off at the grocery store by our house to grab those and he went to get the mail. While we weren’t racing home, it was late ( 9 pm by that time), it was raining and we still needed to get our dog back from the neighbor. Everyone knows that feeling. Your tired, your ready to just be home and in your sweats sooo you cut corners. In our case it was passing someone. Two cars in front of us, a car was making a right hand turn. The woman in front of us slowed down, seeming as if she was also turning right as well. Andy made the decision to go around on the left and pass her. While in the other lane proceeding to pass her, she didn’t turn right, but instead pulled forward and started making a left hand turn. That left hand turn resulted in us hitting her, at 55 mph, and putting us in the ditch like you see above.

It’s one of those moments you relive constantly thinking about the what if’s. While she didn’t signal at all, it was our fault we chose to go around her rather than wait. It was a combination of unfortunate decisions and we were very lucky that no was seriously injured. It was a young woman driving and while she is fine, she was pretty shook up since this was her third wreck in a month. Yikes!

The kids did great. As great as you can hope for after an accident. Hayden didn’t understand what had happened and Reid probably just assumed Andy was taking the trail home again because he wasn’t phased a bit.  They’ve been checked out and are fine and while we have soreness and bruises, the Jeep took the heavy hits.

We were able to get our tires back, which we had just purchased, but that was all that we would get out it. There was to much damage to repair.

While getting a check cut to you and heading out to buy a new car seems fun, it’s really really not. To completely unload on you, we had JUST paid the Jeep off. Last month. Which is frustrating. But what has been the biggest bummer for me is saying goodbye to my Jeep. My first one. My dream one. I’m not usually sentimental about things. For that reason alone. They are just things. I would give up anything in the world for the safety and good health of my loved ones, especially my children and husband. As silly as it seems though, the Jeep was a part of our family. It was Andy and I’s first big purchase together. It was a first for the both of us to buy a brand new vehicle and get to see it through to pay it off. Hayden was a baby when we bought it and she grew up knowing summers meant we had the top off and on a good day we got to take the trail to the store instead of the pavement. It was packed full of our belongings when we moved into our first house. Reid was brought home from the hospital in it and loved to sit passenger side while Andy cruised the backyard. We picked up Sharky with it and he would never stay in the back, he constantly would climb over the small backseat and stick his big head up by us. We took countless road trips and the four years we had it have been filled with so many wonderful memories. It seems so ridiculous to be so sentimental over a vehicle but I think with anything in life, when your not ready to let go of something, it’s hard.

I have incredible in laws who were kind enough to loan us their car while they are out of town. So now we can relax and let the cards fall into place and find the next car that our family will make memories with. Thank you to all our family and friends who reached out to us and who helped in so many ways those first few hectic days. Something like this, whether big or small, can be overwhelming and stressful. To have such amazing people in our corner is a blessing. For us, it’s been a big reality check.Sometimes you need to slow life down a little bit. Take a deep breath and exhale, and let life take its course. Our frenzy and desire to speed things up could have resulted in a far worse fate. The last couple weeks have just been sleepy mornings, afternoons in the sunshine and BBQ’s and binge watching Netflix on the couch until we’re all cuddled up and asleep. It’s been heaven. I’ll get to the posts about all the exciting stuff we did on vacation, but for now I invite you to join me, and slow life down a little bit.

🙂

I love new recipes. I especially love it when there are recipes on blogs I follow. I love it even more when that recipe is a family recipe that has been passed down generations. Two of my most prized possessions are a cookbook my grandmother gave me of family recipes and one I started myself a couple years ago. If the house was burning down, I would grab them….probably.

I love how my grandmother wrote down little notes next to certain recipes telling me the story behind it. She put smiley face stickers on her favorite ones, yet almost every one has a sticker. I love seeing how her and my mother had the exact same handwriting. That my great grandmother said to always mix the batter for her pineapple upside down cake with a wooden spoon “because it just turns out better.” And that it came with a note telling me some of the recipes came from HER grandmother and that they loved sweets more than anything.

The recipe I’m going to share today is one that is as old as me. Summers were filled with weekend church pot lucks at the park and my mother always brought her “green bread.” Occasionally bible studies were held at our home and this was a guest favorite. We all got a kick out of new comers who always did a couple takes on it before trying.

It isn’t fancy and definitely isn’t healthy. But it’s simple and delicious and one that is special to me. That’s all a recipe ever really needs to be, right?

Can we take a moment and talk about how adorable these nesting doll measuring cups are?!?

It’s easy to have these ingredients on hand so that if you need a treat in a pinch, like for St. Patrick’s day perhaps, you can whip this up.

You’ll need :

1 yellow cake mix

small box of pistachio pudding

4 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup water

small container of plain yogurt or 6 oz

Mix all ingredients and pour into greased bundt cake pan. Bake in 350 degree oven for approx 40 mins or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool and sprinkle top with powdered sugar. 

I saw myself in Hayden when we mixed it all up and her face lit up to see our green creation come together. My hope is that these moments I have with my children in the kitchen will stay fresh in their minds for years to come and when they grow up they will be able to use my cookbook filled with torn and tattered recipes to cook and bake with their very own families and be able to say they are making a pineapple upside down cake using a recipe that dates back 70+ years.

I’ve gone and got all soft and sentimental on a food post, but the real question is, who’s ready for some Pistachio Pound Cake?!?!?

I don’t know about you, but when I turned thirty it seemed like the very next day my body ached and I seemed more tired than usual. It could have been a hangover, but I think it was my body just being an asshole and reminding me that I was getting older. In that same sense, it’s hitting me really hard that Hayden is five. In just a few months, she’ll start school. Our day to day is going to drastically change and she’s going to be completely immersed in a world that doesn’t involve me. I’m silently freaking out. But I’ll get to that in a minute. First up, her birthday! We started the day with sunshine and dancing to her girl, T Swift.

Dancing with these two is one of my very favorites. They both groove and shake it like nobody’s business and dance parties are the absolute BEST way to lift any mood. They happen often at our house.

We did the finishing touches with her party decor and I got the food prepped while Reid napped. Tip of the day: using a small fitted sheet as a tablecloth was GOLD! I bought a cute one at a thrift store for a couple bucks. It stayed on the table for two days while the kids ate, and spilled, drank tea and juice and spilled some more. They colored and glued and brushed out the hair on her new dolls, and at the end of it all, I shook it out and threw it in the wash. Whether or not it got destroyed I would have only been out a couple bucks and didn’t ruin a nice tablecloth.

Her friends showed up and we had tea and sandwiches. Cookies and cake. She had a blast pouring her friends tea, and all while they giggled and goofed and pretend played.

She opened presents and was spoiled with clothes and puzzles and nail polish. Dolls and Shopkins. Play D’oh and singing cards. They got goodie bags filled with bubbles, and crayons. Magic wands and sticky frogs. Suckers and stickers. They chased each other around and did puzzles. Ate more snacks and took silly pictures.

A few of the girls stayed for a sleepover and the night was filled with musical chairs, pizza, dress up, a Chipmunks movie, popcorn and candy and finally having friends to sleep in her teepee in the living room. I think I had just as much fun as she did.

Now moving on to all those feelings. Hayden has been asking for months about going to school. She was unable to attend preschool this year, it’s a long story, so that meant she wouldn’t get to enjoy the school life until Kindergarten. Enrolling her in preschool this year would have meant that we could get her adjusted to a school schedule slowly. Waking up, brushing teeth, eating breakfast and getting dressed. All in a timely manner. Learning to focus a little better in a group setting. Being respectful and listening to her teacher when tasks are being asked of her. Not interrupting 47 times during a book reading. Just a couple things we are working on at home that are going to come into play once she starts school. But what scares me the most is her innocence. She is perfectly naive. She’s not interested in boys or having tons of friends. She has her own sense of style and isn’t phased about looking like everyone else. She’s goofy and silly and completely oblivious to kids thinking she’s dorky. She laughs at her own jokes and likes to eat her food in really strange combos. Ex: a blueberry bagel with peanut butter and Doritos on top

I notice it more now that all her neighborhood friends have started school. They talk differently and are interested in things that I personally feel aren’t appropriate for their age. She’s clueless to the fact that she’s unique and different and as a mother I am overwhelmingly scared that her personality is going to get eaten up by school kids. We’ve done our best in the past five years to teach her to be kind and generous. To be honest and respectful. Without “throwing your kid in the deep”, how do you teach resilience? How do you find the balance of teaching them to have strength and courage while shielding their little minds from the unjust in the world? I’m dreading the days of her coming home in tears because she was made fun of or because someone doesn’t want to be her friend. That she can’t read as well as the other kids or she doesn’t run as fast. Things that might seem so small, but to a five year old are a big deal and can be hard to understand. If I don’t handle the tiny hardships right, I’m faced with the fear I’ll set her up for failure when she comes to head with something that’s genuinely difficult. There isn’t anything I can do besides letting her go and allowing her to face the world and figure out a path of her own. I have to have faith that we’ve raised her to have a good head on her shoulders and make good choices. Allow myself to let go of the reigns and remain in the background to provide her with guidance, support and love when she needs it.

I can’t be there with her and her friends and tell them that they are saying things that are inappropriate. I can’t be there to comfort her when she gets her feelings hurt. I’m not going to be the one to calm her down when she doesn’t understand something and is disappointed and frustrated. I’m not there to remind her that we don’t lift up our dresses and show people our underwear because you didn’t have to wear leggings and your “legs are free today.” There were so many times I imagined when she would start school and I have would have all this free time again. Now all I want to do is spend all my time with her and keep her in a bubble with me to soak in everything that’s wonderful about her. The saying of , having a child is deciding to have your heart go walking around outside your body, has never felt more truer than now. This coming fall we will both be faced with a new challenge. Hayden will start a new chapter of growing up and I’ll be doing my best to not completely fall apart when she walks out that door. Some of you may read this and think I’m being dramatic and over reacting….. Andy. 🙂 But I’m just a mama who wants her sweet little girl to stay just that. A sweet little girl.

On a brighter note, it’s beginning to look a lot like spring around here! The snow and ice are melting and in just two short weeks we will be on a plane heading to Idaho to spend a couple weeks with our family and friends. The sunshine and the longer days have us all excited and for now, that’s all that really matters.

 

Hayden’s birthday is on Saturday, along with her party. In typical fashion, on top of party planning, I started fifteen more projects that I need done by Saturday as well. I’m not even completely sure how it happens. It’s like auto pilot and then I realize at some point that I’m in over my head.

In years past, we’ve done the family only party. The big party. The multiple parties. The parties where we go to a venue and have two hours to party, eat and open presents and rush to get out the door with ripped down decorations in our arms. This year she turns five, and I wanted something different. Her request was for a pool/pizza/tea party with her friends. So we compromised with a tea party at the house, Alice in Wonderland themed. Her and five of her favorite people friends are going to tea party it up, Mad Hatter style.

This week has been filled with making signs, and giant poms. Tassel garlands and goodie bags. Photo booth props and table decor. Cookies and cakes baked to decorate tomorrow night.

As said before, all this was being done along with swimming lessons, gym classes, working around Andy’s ever changing work schedule, a teething toddler, laundry, and attempts to keep the house somewhat clean. As if this wasn’t enough, I felt the need to paint a couple rooms too.

Hayden’s room being one of them, so it needed to of course be done in time for the festivities. I didn’t want her friends to sleep over in a half finished bedroom. Who needs that kind of judgement?

For some of you, probably my husband included, all the blood, sweat and tears going into a five year old’s party is over the top. Unnecessary and silly. And a bit dramatic. But perhaps what gets overlooked, is the fact that this is one of the FUN parts of being a parent. My day to day consists of tantrums and bad attitudes. Countless loads of laundry and picking up the same toys fifteen times a day. Meals and snacks ALL DAY LONG. Wiping booty after booty. Trips to the bathroom are never in solitude and more often than not, once I get a meal it gets picked apart by the tiny people who at that very moment are STARVING.

When the time comes that I get to be creative and be something a little more than someone’s mom, I thrive. I get to be a party planner. Baker. Decorator. Chef. Event Coordinator. Hostess. Crafter. I may pile on the projects and take on more than I can chew, but the end result is always worth it. Some of my most vivid memories as a kid was my room. Every time a new Disney movie came out, I become obsessed. My mother would spend countless hours repainting my room. Hanging wallpaper. Buying new bedding and throwing me themed parties. The Little Mermaid, Lion King, Pocahontas and Beauty and The Beast to name a few. When I think about it now, it was so much work for her but I remember it made me so incredibly happy. It fed my imagination and I played for hours living in this magical world she had made possible. It all makes sense now.

We can spoil our children with the newest toys. Phones, and tablets and the latest games. With expensive clothing and the trendiest shoes. While all these things make them happy, I find it’s short lived. I want to show my children with a little paint and hard work, your room can be transformed into something special. With patience and effort, you can create magic with something as simple as paper and glue. You can spend hundreds of dollars on a fancy party, or you can spend very little and use your imagination to turn your own living room into an entirely different world where you and your friends can be anything you want to be. All my energy and efforts and the curse words under my breath are so that when my daughter turns five she will have lasting memories where she dressed up like Alice and poured tea for her friends. Where she chased them around in a circle during musical chairs. Built secret hideouts. Where she watched movies and ate popcorn and got to giggle with her friends all through out the night when they slept over. I imagine she will get all sorts of exciting gifts from her friends, but I’m doing all this so that when she wakes up the next day, and hopefully the weeks to come, she will talk about her Alice birthday party. I do all this to create incredible memories, not only for her, but for me. Because to see this goofy happy face gives it all a beautiful purpose.

Since Andy and I have been together we’ve made date nights a priority. Even something as simple as lunch and errands without the kids. Most are low key. Dinner and a movie. Cocktails with friends. But on occasion we make them special, and longer than a few hours. While taking another amazing tropical vacation was out of the picture, a staycation to a nearby resort was very doable.

Alyeska is only a couple hour drive from the house and GORGEOUS. The drive there is one of my very favorites and even though the weather was very much not in our favor, it’s still a very spectacular place to visit.  

The resort runs a special each winter for a “winter romance” package, if you book during the week. It includes an overnight stay, a bottle of champagne and chocolates, and 2 tram tickets to ride up to the top of the mountain. With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, it seemed like a perfect idea for us to get out of town without the kids.

We had enjoyed the beautiful drive down and checked in before we headed to Double Musky Inn. A restaurant that’s been on our bucket list for years now. It’s a quaint little spot in the woods that serves cajun cuisine and was SO worth the wait. It had all sorts of crazy fun decor, delicious drinks, great service and we ate way more than we needed to.

Our original plan was to have dinner and head back to the hotel and catch the shuttle to go out for drinks on the town. On our way to dinner it started raining pretty hard and was an icy slick disaster out. We had treats, champagne and a killer pool back at the hotel so a relaxing night in was a better choice. To me, it feels like staying in a castle. It’s filled with stone and the rooms are rustic. It’s just fancy enough that you feel classy, but still has a comfort and coziness like being at home.

 It was relaxing and romantic and we chatted and laughed and ate our hearts content of chocolates and a brownie that was to die for!

Our morning plan ended up getting a makeover as well and the beautiful sunrise at the top of the tram didn’t happen because of weather. Murrrrr….

It’s always a blast to ride in the tram though, and there is still plenty to see even when it’s snowing.

A cup of coffee and some people watching at the top, we caught the tram back down for some last sight seeing before we hit the highway back home. Girdwood is small. No fast food or big grocery stores. The sidewalks are always filled with people walking to and from, regardless of weather. And most everything revolves around the mountain. Just driving around, taking it all in, makes it special every time we go.

Our trip was short and sweet and had everything we needed to make it feel like a real getaway. I’m hoping next time it will have a little less snow, and a lot more beach. Happy Valentine’s Day to all you lovers out there!