with a pair of tickets to the bills game in hand (or saved to my phone using cyber space magic), i began preparing for my trek north for the big adventure. there was some debate about the entire family heading up for the weekend, but that would require missing school and a lot of logistical […]
vacation
bills v. dolphins, the playoffs.best ever makeup birthday gift.

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 […]
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 […]
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. cape lookout shenanigans.

as previously mentioned, the weather for most of our atlantic beach week was pretty windy. for this reason, the big epic adventure we had planned kept getting postponed. but, finally, on our second to last day, we received word that our adventure was ON! what adventure, you ask? well, two-ish years ago, during a trip […]
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 […]
new river gorge day four.grand view, castle rock trail, grist mill

if you’re reading these in real time as i publish them, i’m skipping to day four of our trip because we are still waiting on the professional photos of day three (white water rafting with anna). if not, ignore this disclaimer and maybe i’ll even take it down once i make the day three post. […]
new river gorge day two.cathedral falls, endless wall, the bridge.

for our second day in the new river gorge, we headed north to do some exploring. we had a few things planned around fayetteville, but we took the advice of an instagram friend who said the previous nights torrential downpours would fill up cathedral falls, and took a slight detour to check it out. slight […]
new river gorge day one.sandstone and kate’s falls

we have always wanted to visit new river gorge, but it’s so close that it’s one of those places you just keep putting off until another time. then it became an official national park, so we pushed it up the list, and finally made it happen this summer, basically the minute school ended for the […]