Merry Christmas Eve

Everyone is tucked in and anxiously awaiting tomorrow morning! We had a great day with family!


























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Atlanta Trip

A few weeks ago we loaded up and headed to Atlanta with some of our best friends for an all girls trip! It was so much fun to get away with just Ryleigh and friends. The main reason for the trip was the American Girl Doll store.

I'll be honest, I was just along for the fun. We don't have an AG doll and I didn't think we needed one! Ryleigh doesn't play with dolls. She never has and I knew an AG doll wouldn't be any different. Well of course I get sucked in. SUCKED IN!!!



3 hours later and an amount of money that I'm too ashamed to admit, we were done. They just have so many accessories!! Oh my at all the accessories!! AG in my opinion is no different than any other 18" doll you could buy anywhere else. They get you on the experience though. You just get wrapped up and can't help yourself! Well played, AG, well played.


Thank goodness Bridget's Yukon was in the shop and she had this mini van as a rental. There's no way everything would have fit in either one of our Yukons. There is so much space in mini vans!


We did a lot of shopping and playing all weekend. We went to a children's museum and some other touristy Atlanta things. My favorite was the American Girl Doll lunch. The food was delicious!! Which it should be since it cost as much as a doll!


I'm thankful for these 4 sweet girls and the friendship they have!


Oh and in case you're wondering, Ryleigh hasn't played with her doll since we got home.

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New York

This is mostly just pictures so I'll have them on here but some friends and I went to New York a few weeks ago and had the BEST time!!!! When people say there is no place like it they aren't kidding! It's absolutely amazing!! We stayed right in Times Square so we could walk anywhere we wanted to go. You could look outside at 3 pm or 3 am and it would look exactly the same. It truly is the city that never sleeps!

The first night there we saw Wicked. I wasn't really expecting much but it was amazing!!! It was one of my favorite things we did.



My first Subway ride. It's not scary or creepy like I was expecting.


My absolute favorite thing we did was China Town!! It was AWESOME!! We actually went twice. This is everything we got on the first day.


We saw the Rockettes Christmas Show and it was pretty good. Nothing like Wicked but still good.


We went to the Today Show and froze! It was fun to see how they put it all together and Lady A put on an outdoor concert.





Central Park was absolutely beautiful!


We rented these bicycle things that take you all along the whole park. It was well worth it and another one of my favorite things. I really enjoyed Central Park! Made me wish we lived there and could spend Sunday afternoons just hanging out in the park.








We went to the 9/11 memorial and it was breathtaking and so sad.











We were there almost 6 days so we literally did almost everything!

I can't wait to go back! I promised Ryleigh we would go for her 10th birthday...which is also my 30th!

Mountain Fun

We have been the king and queen of last minute vacations this year. Or just vacations in general. We have never traveled as much as we have this year. Last week we decided to head to the mountains for Thanksgiving. We invited all my loser cousins but of course no one could go :(
We missed them but had a good time anyway!

We drove up Thursday afternoon after lunch and got there late that night. We just stayed in a hotel right on the main strip. That was fun because we didn't have to get in all that crazy traffic.

Friday morning we were up early to go ziplining. I was nervous that the kids were going to be cold therefore making the experience miserable. They weren't though! We bundled them up really good with lots of layers and they had a blast! By far the best part of our whole trip. They LOVED it!!! It was so fun ziplining through the mountains in the early morning. It had snowed the day before so there was still snow everywhere.









After that we headed to the aquarium and grabbed some Mexican at No Way Jose.

That afternoon we just hung around downtown until it was time to head to Pigeon Forge for the Dixie Stampede. Ryleigh and I talked Ryan into going to the outlets on the way though. We had to get at least a little Black Friday shopping in!


Saturday morning we got up and headed to Ober Gatlinburg. We went snow tubing that morning.





We debated back and forth about going skiing but we don't want them to hate it the first time they try it and they probably would there. Since it's all fake snow right now it's like crunched up ice. You fall on that and you won't want to get back up.

I see a trip to Colorado in our near future, hint hint Ryan! Who am
I kidding, he looks for reasons to spend money. I need to talk myself into it! We have a Presidents Club trip with work every year and I suggested Colorado this year. Maybe they'll take my hint and we can go for free!! :)

















They loved playing in the snow! It was absolutely gorgeous the whole time we were there!


I didn't ice skate. The last thing I need to do is break my leg in December, my busiest time of the year with work.






I forgot to take pictures but Saturday afternoon we went to a friend of ours cabin and watched Bama lose in their theater room. It was fun to hang out with friends and all their kids but not fun to lose. I think total there were 8 kids there. So the kids had a blast.

That night we took the kids to their first Melting Pot experience. The restaurant was right by our hotel and we had been telling them we would take them. I'll let you guess which one of them absolutely loved it! Hint-it was our die hard sweet eater who someone manages to only weigh 36 pounds, even though her favorite food group is sweets.

Now we are headed home and it feels like we will never arrive!

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