April

Oh wow, April is going to be a hard month to top...so many planned and unplanned memories and fun :)

Starting off, look at this cute cuddle of kittens.  Rose starts everyday with some snuggles from her pack.

This is our big guy, Socks, he is by far the largest in the group and he'll climb right up on your lap for some love :)

Turtle, the tortise, has the silkiest fur and loves to be pet. 

Our little gal, Donut, is here in the middle. While she is the tinist she is also the naughtiest ;)

Rose is still hard at work cooking up dinner several nights of the week. I've been having some pretty late nights at work, so coming home to dinner has been great!

We were determined to get back to Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware this year. This was our first camping trip as a family and although we have returned many years, we haven't camped the last few because it is really hard to get a weekend reservation. So we went in early April this year and it was great! Camping in the off season is a whole different calm vibe and I think we love it :)

Rose and I also got to join the Middle School Theater group on a trip to Broadway to see The Outsiders. Rose and I both read the book to be prepared and were totally awe-struck by the wonderful production.

Rose has also been working hard with the jazz ensemble and her trombone playing is becoming very strong. 

April is also birthday month for 2/3 of my family (just not me!).

Although her face doesn't show it, she was really happy :)

Another wonderful year with our favorite girl!!

We celebrated with eating out at her favorite spot

And then presents and cake with Nana and Pop :)

BUT the real surprise was a spontaneous trip to Tampa for some sunshine and fun!! Rose kept saying she wanted to fly somewhere so Justin found some tickets and took us south for birthday weekend.

We had visited the Tampa Zoo about 5 years ago and decided this was our year to revisit some zoos since last month we made it back to the St. Lious Zoo too. 

We booked a behind the scence tour on their manatee rescue. We learned how they take care of injured manatees and try to return them to the wild. There was this adorable mom and calf in care....also they eat a lot of lettuce :)

Rose said she loved the flamigos because they were cackling and sounded just like chickens

I really loved the elephants

And Justin was happy that the next stop was beer :)

Not to disappoint we made it back to Cigar City

Beer, Legos, games, and food make for a happy guy...even if he wasn't smiling here ;)

We ended the beautiful day with some time at the beach

We had a cute little bungelow for the night

With palm trees right outside...Rose loves palm trees and we love Rose :)

And then our trip was done and we were tired!!

And to get a little more out of the weekend we saw a movie

And had cake for Justin at Nana and Pop's!

Justin got an early birthday present and all month has been printing us things, it's actually pretty useful!

Happy Birthday to my favorites :)

March and Spring Break

 March brought us a few more snow showers and finally some warm weather with the start of Spring!!

Rose was involved in her final Middle School Play "Annie" and chose to be stage crew this time around. Our whole family put in lots of time building sets and the show was fabulous!

The following weekend Justin and Rose had daddy-daughter date night to see the "Wizard of Oz" at the High School. 

Sometimes I get these cute pictures while I'm working...Justin is able to swing by school and pick up Rose so she doesn't have to ride the bus home, they even get treats!

And they are still the best dinner crew :) I love coming home to dinner ready to go!

Our kitten crew is still fabulous and growing fast!

They are also mischievious and and like carbs...

We got to cheer on Rose and the Middle School Jazz Band when they competed in a local festival and won several awards!

We also celebrated Easter the weekend before our trip with Rose going on a hunt for her basket 

and decorating some eggs :)

Spring Break Roadtrip 2026!!

We covered 13 states, with over 50 hours in the car driving 2,600 miles :) 

The first part was making it down to South Carolina, we started Friday night and drove a few hours before sleeping for the night. Our first stop was to load up on some snacks at Buc-ee's, Rose takes road trip snacks very serious :)

We were back at it Saturday morning with snacks and coffee.

We lunch stopped at Southern Tier outside of Charlotte, this was acutually our second time there and it was a great meal!

We made another snack stop at a Trader Joe's which unlike PA, sold wine!!

Mostly our hotels were pretty good, and we had lots of fun with luggage carts and requesting to stay on the highest floors possible :)

Our first adventure was Congaree National Park in South Carolina. We booked a kayak tour which was memorable for all of us :) About 15 minutes into the 3 hour tour Justin and Rose went for a swim, but still had a great time. 

Then we had our Trader Joes's food for a picnic in the park

and explored several trails in the park

Lucky for us at this time of year the mosquito's weren't around yet :)

Rose also completed the Jr Ranger book and received another badge

All that fresh air made us hungry and we found the nicest little brewery (Good Girl Brewery) for dinner before driving to Atlanta. 

Rose's request during the trip was to visit the Georgia Aquarium, which is the largest aquarium in the United States. We saw lots of animals and several shows. 

Our best moment of the day was putting on wetsuits to meet some sharks and rays!

We all loved this experience and learned so much about sharks and rays. Show sharks some love!! They are very important to the ecosystem and do not want to eat you :)

For dinner we visited a Chick Fil A Dwarf House which did not disappoint! We all agreed it was one of our favorite meals of the trip :) 

And we found the cute little dwarf!

From Atlanta it was our longest drive to head up to St Louis and visit family. 

We were fueled by coffee and Buc-ee's

We made a quick little stop in Paducah, Ky for some more beverages and to see some sites. 

There was the world's largest needle

And part of the Lewis and Clark trail

Then we kept going until we made it to Aunt Kate and her crew outside of St Louis. 

Rose and Aunt Kate go waaaay back and I know Rose has missed time with Aunt Kate. These two made us a yummy breakfast and look how tall Rose is!!

We went with everyone to a children's museum in St. Louis and had a wonderful time exploring.

We went out to a yummy brewery with the whole gang.

Rose and this little guy were best buds and she was ready to take him home with us :)

A fun surprise was that Kate now lives off of Rt 66

And has this giant catsup bottle down from her house! She loves it ;)

We also made a return visit to the St Louis Zoo. The penguins are still close enough to touch, but they won't let you..it's ok for the penguins to splash us though...

Some of the other animals we saw:

Rose just loved her Aunt Kate time :)

Uncle Justin was a hit with all the kids...especially because he had all the electronics :)

We headed out Friday morning, but before we left St Louis we made a return trip to the City Museum which is hard to describe, you just have to go!

We saw an axoltol 

spun in our favorite chairs

Went down 5 story twisty slides

Got lost in caves and tunnels

Enjoyed some old pinball games

And found the world's largest pencil and underpants!

Then it was time to make the journey home. We pit stopped in Ohio for a night before heading through Pennsylvania with a stop at a favorite brewery for some food before getting home. 

That's it!! Another epic road trip in the books with tons of memories to last forever :)