Travel

Beach Trip

September 2, 2013 by dailygnome 1 Comment

Summertime beach week with good friends. It was long overdue. We hadn’t hit the beach in over a year. And our feet didn’t even touch the sand last time. So this time we packed it all in:

sandcastles | tide pools {purple starfish!} | crabbing {followed by crab feasting} | s’more roasting | saltwater taffy making | candy eating | charades | antiquing | lightsaber wars | dance parties | beach combing | farmer’s market | campfire | beers | secret fort discovery |

And on the last day Carrie and I even managed to hand off the kiddos and squeeze in a relaxing afternoon of shopping and massages. Aaahh!

Cousins, Part I

August 24, 2012 by dailygnome 2 Comments

“Cousin to cousin we’ll always be, special friends from the same family tree.”

We recently spent a week with Jason’s family in Solvang, California. Carson and Hadley were treated to days filled with cousin bonding:

Five in the pen aka Bedtime Procrastination

Water play:

Leading the way:

Restaurant Story Hour with Nana:

Showing Calvin how it’s done:

A lesson in Legos 101 from Carson:

Besties, Chi-town + the Next Generation

May 4, 2012 by dailygnome 1 Comment

With Kel due with babe #2 in June, the clock was ticking to plan a trip to the Windy City and spend a weekend with my college besties and my favorite girl in tow.

First stop: The Kleins just outside of the city. Perfect BBQ weather and with Ryan manning the grill the meal did not disappoint. Deans whipped up a mad Brussels sprouts dish and I was reminded why I heart them all over again.

Best part of the trip by far: watching our kids effortlessly bond with one another…

Spent an afternoon at The Morton Arboretum, minutes from Dena’s front door. Needed another day {or two} to explore all the grounds. If not for naps Jack and Hads could have spent all day in The Children’s Garden.

Back to the city for an evening at The Roches!

Kel’s the ultimate hostess despite being seven months preggers.

We’re having guests? Let me see what I can throw together…white bean hummus, aged cheddar, brie, snap peas, cracked pepper crackers… a bottle of cab we picked up on our trip to Sonoma… Let’s hit the veranda to nosh on an appetizer!

Rooftop view of Wrigley Field did not disappoint.

Hit the Green City Market on Saturday morning. In off-season it’s held at The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. The always-resourceful Kel scored a museum pass card at the library so after the Market we spent the morning checking out exhibits free of charge.

Fav Market Finds:
Prairie Pure Cheese {heavenly grilled cheese sandwiches}
River Valley Ranch {handcrafted portabella salsa}

Getting a front row seat into a day in the life of butterflies:

And waiting {patiently} for one to land. Aside from the Butterfly Room the Bike Exhibit was quite spectacular.

Kel mentioned Athleta just opened shop a blocks away. Although my first instinct was to sprint out the door right then, I made it my mission to hit it before heading home. Scored some great summer dresses while justifying the 10% Chicago sales tax {ouch!} by not having to pay shipping.

One more Squeezie for the road!

Seabrook, Washington Family Vacation

April 4, 2012 by dailygnome 3 Comments

We spent a soggy spring break in Seabrook, Washington along the Olympic Peninsula. Although it rained nearly the entire time we found ways to make the most of it – caught up on good books, jigsaw puzzles, board games, and took advantage of short breaks in the weather.

Seabrook is set up similar to the other developments we’ve stayed at in Oregon – Olivia Beach and Bella Beach. I love these cottage communities: family friendly, walking trails, fire pits, parks, and convenient beach access. What makes Seabrook different is that it’s an actual town. Created from the ground up, complete with a town square. Although it’s more remote than its sister locales, it includes an on-site restaurant/pub, market, pottery studio, spa, indoor pool and many other businesses in the works.

We stayed at Ella’s Escape, which I learned is the beach house they’re giving away for an entire year! Want it to be yours? Enter here.

Post-swim and brief hot tub dip {sign stated only ages 6+ allowed}. For my little anti-rule breaker, it was living on the edge.

One afternoon we found respite from the rain at the cheery pottery studio. Walked away with garden gnomes, a princess bank and a custom hand-stamped pasta bowl:

We actually never set foot on the sand. How sad is that? But every time it stopped raining and we ventured down it was either high tide or high winds. But we spent time gazing at the horizon. And watching the waves crash. Which is what you do when you visit the coast in off-season.

The sun made an appearance the morning of our departure {of course!}.

Off season is nice, but I dream of returning come summer when temperatures warm, clouds break and sunny skies await. Swapping my wool hat for sunglasses and time spent bike riding, beach combing, building bonfires and kite flying. And catching up on my reading with toes in the sand.*