in november, i was supposed to attend the bills-browns game for my birthday gift. then, a massive snowstorm struck the area the day before the game, and it was moved to detroit. we were issued a massive refund (140% of our original ticket prices), so when the bills first playoff game was scheduled for a […]
tales of vacations and travels
another batavia thanksgiving. not another bills game.
for the last few years, except for that stupid covid year, we have been heading up to western new york for thanksgiving. last year, derek and frankles and i were able to attend a bills game on the sunday before thanksgiving week. when we were up for jakes wedding last summer, and since the bills […]
attempts at favorite aunt status. thanksgiving cookie edition.
in a desperate bid to win the designation as holden’s favorite aunt, i packed an arsenal of cookie decorating supplies for our trip to batavia for thanksgiving. my mom babysits him every monday, so i hyped him up for a full day of baking and decorating and he was all in. my diabolical plan for […]
camping in the great smokies, sans family.
a long long time ago, derek booked us a long weekend at a campground in the smokies. during prime autumn leaf color season. it was to be our very first family tent camping trip since selling the rv. but then. isaac wanted to go to a homecoming football game. and anna had some sort of […]
august in western new york.
usually, we head up to western new york for our annual summer pilgrimage in june or maybe early july. but this year, my baby brother’s wedding was set to take place in august, so we planned our excursion around the wedding date. we arrived the weekend before the wedding, so we could get in some […]
atlantic beach week. minigolf day.
i’m not much of a minigolf person, but without much else to do with kids at the beach, and super fancy minigolf courses densely scattered all about area, one gets the urge to spend a million dollars to be really bad at hitting a ball with a stick into a tiny hole. so. that’s just […]
atlantic beach week. the aquarium.
our first non-beach excursion during our week at atlantic beach was a visit to the pine knoll shores aquarium. it’s the perfect size for a quick morning visit, leaving enough time for an afternoon in the sand. obviously, we took all the pictures in the photobooth type places… the ultraviolet room with all the jellyfish […]
atlantic beach week. the beachy times.
now that we no longer have an rv, we are forced to vacation like regular people again, staying in hotels and resorts and the like. for christmas last year, the grandlidboms gifted us with a week’s stay at own of their timeshare properties, so for our first such regular people vacation, we headed out to […]
giving thanks in batavia.not so much in buffalo.
when we put the older two kids in school, we knew it would mean that we would have to give up our vacation scheduling freedom, and that we would have to work around the school schedule. fortunately, for some reason, they had off the entire week of thanksgiving, so we didn’t have to cram in […]
quarantine in batavia.(quarantine with holden)
after my time in covid jail, we had the girls tested twice, four days apart. and even though both times were negative and we hadn’t had anyone show covid symptoms, anna was still required by her school to quarantine for another full week. we decided the best course of action was to take a spontaneous […]