Gettysburg

Last week we went on family vacation with Philip's Mom's side of the family (the Malpass'). The destination: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. For those of you who know me, you probably just laughed out loud. Because let's be honest, I don't exactly love history. ok ok, I don't even like history. HOWEVER, I do LOVE Philip's family and getting to spend time with them was such a treasure. 
We originally planned on flying, but there are no direct flights and we would have ended up spending at least 7 hours on a plane/in an airport. So we decided we might as well drive, where we have the option to set our own schedule and stop whenever we/Ainsley needed to. We drive through the night and god there early Friday morning. I drove the first half and let me tell you how not fun of a drive it was. Driving through those swerve WV mountain roads, with no street lights, with on and off rain… when Philip woke up from getting some sleep, I was gripping the steering wheel pushed forward as hard as I could, almost in panic mode. He politely offered to take his turn. I gladly let him take the wheel:) 

The first day was pretty uneventful for us , just hanging out and letting ainsley play. During nap time Philip did a car tour of the battlefield and really enjoyed that.  We went to a german restaurant for dinner and ainsley and I both got to try spaetzle for the first time. We both loved it. 

The next day we found a children's museum that Papa took Ainsley, Cameron and Mackenzie to. They LOVED IT. This lady had just taken an old house and turned it into a big hands on museum full of science projects, imaginary pioneer houses, a giant bubble, painting, and lots lots more. 

fun for adults too haha 

giant lite bright! 

That night we went to a nice dinner at the Dobbin's House. Thankfully we had a room all to ourselves. We even got serenaded! 

getting papas ear 

Papa wore her pearls through dinner 

The next day was Father's Day. Ainsley had packed a special present for her DaDa and gave it to him when she woke up:)  We walked around downtown and went out to lunch. Then Brian found a Go-Cart track so we went there and let Philip and Brian race a few times around :) 

 That night we went to a park, had a picnic and let the kids run around and play.

this is when ainsley started saying 'bubble'

The next day we went to a medical museum, which resulted in ainsley and I playing outside in the grass while the others toured the museum. Then we went to Appalachian Brewery for lunch and had a very tasty lunch. 

Overall the trip went by so fast and we had such a good time getting to see so many family members that we don't get to see very often. Ainsley fell in love with Papa all over again and her love for her Uncle Brian grew. We were both so sad to leave everyone. 

Thanks Papa and Grandma for such a wonderful family time. We are looking forward to seeing again, hopefully very soon. 

Here are some random pics from the trip : 

catch up! graduation/mother's day/racing

I know, I have been majorly slacking on my blog. but let's be real for a minute. my child, whom I love more than anything in this world, is BUSY. like look at my phone for two seconds and she is standing on top of the couch pouring my coffee on the floor kind of busy. (yes, that happened this week). We call her our little hurricane because honestly she is into EVERYTHING. so when she goes down for her afternoon nap, I have to just be still. or read. or do something monotonous that requires no brain cells. and after she goes to bed, i have cups to wash, animals to feed, laundry, toys to pick up that are all over the house, etc. I know it doesn't sound that much to some of you, but this is reality for me. she's learning and changing so much, and I am grateful to get to watch it all happen. but some days, when i hear her waking up on the monitor, I just want to pull the covers over my head and sleep.  FOR DAYS. :)  A lot has happened since I wrote last. Philip's brother Brian graduated from EKU and his family from MI came in to celebrate. We are all so proud of him and his hard work. Their grandparents stayed here with us and we loved having them here. It meant a lot to philip especially, to get to spend such good quality time with them. And ainsley fell in love with papa all over again. 

grandma taught her to sing "E-I-E-I-O" from old mcdonald 

We spent most of the graduation taking turns walking around with ainsley because she would not sit still to save her life:) 

the weekend wore this little one out 

That same weekend we celebrated Mother's Day :) That morning Ainsley woke up and I looked at the monitor and I was like what in the world does she have in her crib. And I woke Philip up and made him look at it and see what it was. He was like "I have no idea". it's hard to decipher when everything is black and white.  So I went to get her up and she had pulled a little present that was left on the crib ledge into her bed to play with :)

massage gift card, yes please!!! 

ThatS unday, I had everyone over to our house to grill out and visit. I didn't get any pics but this one of Nana and Ainsley. 

handmade 'everything' plaque of Ainsley's handprint signing I love you- thanks mom:) 

On the 22nd we celebrated Jackson's 4th birthday! He has had a tough transition to our new house. We had to implement an electric fence and it has taken him months to get used to it. He is finally starting to play outside like he used to, and run around the yard without being scared. So thankful for that. He got his annual birthday cake from Bluegrass Barkery, a toy and a treat. This years treat was a beef stick that was almost as tall as I am (from his daddy of course) 

Earlier this week, the fam took a little road trip to Mid-Ohio for a day of racing for P. We got there early enough wednesday night to hang out at a great hotel that had an indoor water park. Ainsley loved that. 

Hubs definitely tried to make up from our last racing trip:)  We had a few glitches though. We blew a trailer tire on the way down there. Thank goodness Ryan and Kim were behind us and able to help us change it on the side of the interstate.  The next morning, Kim and I got lost trying to get to the track to meet the boys. Let's just say I apparently don't know how to back up a truck with a trailer on it. and maybe I ended up driving through someones yard to 'turn around'. by the time we made it to the track we were a little frazzled. we got Jack out of his car seat, and a few minutes later Kim realized she had poop all over her arm and clothes. We had to give Jack a semi bath and change his and Kims clothes before we could officially start the day :)  Overall it was a good day at the track and we enjoyed being there as a family. But that 4.5 hour car ride was just too much for a 16 month old. and if she ain't happy, no one in the car is happy. shoo wee I think all 3 of us decided that the next trip Philip might have to go solo. 

my husband did pretty awesome. people kept telling me about it. 

So those are the  'big things' that have happened in my writing absence. Other than that, Ainsley has loved that the pools are open. she is such a water baby . 

Actually she just loves being outside, period. 

memorial day cook out at our friend Jordan's 

climbs on EVERYTHING 

Legend's Game playground 

ok so I think that catches things up with our family. Philip (and I heard Debbie too;)) are like why aren't you blogging! Well, you have thing wonderful busy little toddler to blame:) Good thing we love her more than anything:) 

Her 16 month blog might be a few days late… i'll work on it!