Pey's First Trip to Boston

Last month, we finally made a trek back to my favorite city in the country. We moved away last May so it had been over a full year since we had been back...which is really just way, way too long.

Our flight out of Atlanta left a little after 10 PM on Wednesday night. We were really hoping Peyton would do us right and sleep the whole way there since this was already way past her bedtime. Man, were we wrong! She fell asleep for about 30 minutes in the car on the way to the airport and then proceeded to stay awake until 12:30... 15 minutes before our flight landed in Boston. She squirmed, screamed, and kicked for a solid two hours before finally giving in to sleep. We hated being "those people" on the plane, especially on such a late night flight, but there was literally nothing we could do to keep her calm. Needless to say, it was a pretty rough flight and the exact opposite of our flights to Miami a few weeks ago! On the flip side, she completely wore herself out during that flight, so when she finally did fall asleep, she was OUT. She didn't flinch during the landing, transporting her from our laps into the Baby Bjorn, on the bus ride over to the rental car lot, transporting her from the Bjorn to the car seat, and finally from the car seat into her pack n play for the night, not waking up until 10 the next morning! Phew!

We visited with Rachel and Chris for just a few minutes at 2:30 AM when we got to their house, but called it a night pretty early. On Thursday, we lounged around the house in the morning, venturing out at lunch time to a restaurant at a driving range, called.... The Range. After lunch, we spent an hour or so lounging outside at the driving range before heading back to the house to get ready for dinner! Rachel and James M. graciously offered to host our friends from LCC at their house for a good old fashioned pot-luck style dinner! It was so good to get to share a meal with these people again, introduce them all to Peyton, and get to meet their new additions, Noah and Braylon!

After dinner, we drove over to the Grant's house so that Wally, Kath, and Sarah could meet little P! Peyton was a little champ and stayed up playing with Kath and Sarah until around 10 pm!

Friday was spent wandering around Assembly Row with Rachel G., Rachel F., Chris, Ryan, and P. We did some shopping (Hello, LOFT!) and then some drinking at a local brewery! That evening, we went back to the Grant/Mirski house to grill out and put Peyton down for an earlier bedtime! We stayed up watching some gymnastics for a little while, but all crashed pretty early!

Saturday was the big day of the trip! I got up bright and early and headed over to Wally and Kathy's house to meet the rest of Rachel's bridesmaids and help set up for the shower! The shower went perfectly and everything was so beautiful! There is definitely something special about watching one of your best friends be completely covered in love and gifts from the people around her! We all love you, Rachel and Chris!!

Sunday morning, we unfortunately had to wake up before the butt crack of dawn to head back to Georgia. It was such a wonderful trip to Boston and the countdown has definitely begun for our next trip!!

Thanksgiving 2015

This Thanksgiving was definitely one for the books (or blog)! After a late change of plans, Ryan and I accompanied my parents, Jake, and my Grandma, who flew up to visit from Ft. Lauderdale, up to Hendersonville, NC to spend the holiday weekend with family! We left early Thursday morning and made the 3 hour drive, getting to the house with plenty of time to visit before sitting down to a Thanksgiving feast!

Guys, how special is this picture!! This is four generations of women on my mom's side! Bubby, Mimi, Peyton, and Mommy

Peyton, true to form, was an angel right up until it was time to pray and feast. Of course, homegirl wanted to eat her Thanksgiving dinner the same time as the rest of us. Once she was fed, she was back to being a happy girl and enjoyed spending time with all of her great aunts/uncles and my cousins!

The rest of Thanksgiving night was spent eating more food, playing Telestrations, watching football, and sitting by the fire pit outside. It was a wonderful way to spend Peyton's first Thanksgiving!

Hanging out with our wonderful hostess, Aunt Carol! 

On Friday, the girls and guys split up for most of the day. The guys went to play 18 holes of golf while the girls braved the Black Friday traffic to hit the outlet mall near Asheville.

The gang met back up early evening at the house and decided to walk to downtown Hendersonville to grab some dinner. Downtown had their lighting of the Christmas tree event and welcomed Santa to town, so it was packed. While waiting for a table to open up at the restaurant we walked around, showing Peyton all of the lights and the horse-drawn carriages trotting through town.

On our last full day in town, we once again went to downtown Hendersonville to shop some more and watch the GT/UGA game. We spent the early afternoon in a sports bar watching our yellow jackets suck it up before heading over the Mast General Store to walk around. This store has been a family favorite over the years, and we can easily spend hours looking at all the cool toys, gadgets, clothes, kitchen accessories, and candies.

Itty Bitty in an itty bitty adirondack chair that fit her just right.  

Saturday night, we all gathered back at the house to eat a delicious stew made by Aunt Carol, polish off the rest of the Thanksgiving desserts, and play Rummy 500 and Presidents, our two favorite card games! 

We sadly said goodbye Saturday night and headed home Sunday morning, kicking off the Christmas season with the first of many adorable Christmas outfits for Peyton. I'm so excited to share and create new family traditions in Georgia as a family of three!  

Happy Hump Day, Ya'll! 

Seagrove Beach 2015

This past week, Ryan, Peyton, and I were lucky enough to accompany the rest of the Smith clan down to Seagrove Beach in Florida. This was our first vacation since Aruba in February and Peyton's first vacation ever! 

We left rainy Georgia after a weekend filled with a Marietta high school homecoming event, two GT alumni events, and two weddings. While we loved attending each event, we were more than ready for a little vacation! 

So great to see some of my besties from Marietta! 

Peyton #notimpressed during her first Ramblin' Wreck experience! 

At Charlie and Laurie's beautiful wedding! 

At Lauren and Ricky's beautiful wedding! 

Some photo booth fun from the wedding:

We got to the condo Monday evening, got unpacked, did some grocery shopping, and ate some delicious pizza from Pizza by the Sea before calling it an early night. Peyton, sensing she was on vacation, decided to sleep for 10 hours straight, so I woke up feeling pretty refreshed and ready for the day on Tuesday (and really needing to pump.) The first few days in town were pretty rainy, so we spent a lot of time indoors, driving around Seaside and down 30A to explore. When it wasn't raining, we did get out for some walks on the beach! Peyton fussed a lot going into her Baby Bjorn, but as soon as we started walking, she passed out hard and wouldn't wake up until we got back to the condo. 

Some highlights from the trip (other than Peyton giving us a few AWESOME nights sleep!): 

Around midweek, the sun came out and the ocean calmed down (it had been a double red flag the whole first half of our trip, meaning the beach was closed to swimmers.) Brandon and Rachel bought some kayaks for their condo and almost everyone had a good time taking them out into the water. On Friday, while we were hanging out on the beach, Susan noticed some dolphins jumping just off the coast. The kayaks were taken out immediately to scope everything out up close. Apparently, the dolphins were just as curious and the kayakers were and came about a paddles length away from the boats when Brandon and Rachel had them out. So cool! 

The best beach baby invention ever. Kept the sun and sand out while she played/napped. 

Cousin Smooches

On Thursday from 12-6 p.m., a local restaurant called the Marketplace Cafe, closed their doors and hosted a blow out party to celebrate 66 years of business for the community. It was free to attend and the restaurant handed out free food and drinks the entire time. We went around 4 and got loaded up with shrimp po-boys, grouper sandwiches, cheeseburgers, fries, and tons of beer from Grayton Brewery. It was quite the score! We will miss you Marketplace Cafe! 

Our last day of vacation was Halloween. The shops in downtown Seaside were hosting a Halloween event and passing out candy to trick-or-treaters. We dressed Peyton and Leah up and walked around Saturday night collecting candy! I felt kind of bad collecting candy on behalf of Peyton that she clearly wasn't going to eat... but obviously it didn't stop me. Parents deserve some halloween candy just as much as the kids! While Peyton slept through most of the experience (#notimpressed again), Leah seemed to enjoy herself and it was fun to see all the cuties dressed up in their Halloween best. Leah was an adorable scarecrow, and P was a little Ladybug! 

Nana and Pop with their girls! 

Thanks Smith family for another wonderful vacation!!