Adventures of Evie

  Today is the first OFFICIAL day of our vacation. We originally planned it to be a low key beach type trip since COVID is still a thing and it was meant to be a last relaxing week before life gets hectic with school and the holidays. However, once we found out that Universal and Disney were less than two hours from our house there was no way weren't going to go. We started with Universal Studios.  It was a really magical day! We got to ride the Hogwarts Express into Hogsmeade and our first order of business when we arrived was an interactive wand. Evie had fun waving it at the windows in the shops to try to get the magic to happen. We all had a few goes at it as the day went on and even though it was hit or miss it was a lot of fun trying! We stayed in Hogsmeade for awhile and got butterbeers and some sweets from Honeydukes. Evie really wanted to go inside Hogwarts but she wasn't tall enough for the ride and she was not interested in the Hippogriff ride so after we finished s...

  First day of our summer vacation! Today we spent a little bit in Atlanta. Evie and I have both been in Atlanta before on several occasions but we've never explored the city much and today we didn't have a ton of time for exploring either but we did grab some breakfast and then see some of the sights downtown before we headed to our final destination (for a few days anyway) in Florida.  We also ended up with a flat tire before we headed out but luckily it was easily pumped up and patched and we got on our way without much of a delay. Since we're staying in a pool house we have our very own pool to use everyday and of course the first thing Evie wanted to do when we got there was jump right in! It's going to be a fun but jam packed trip! :)

  This year we are trying to do as many little weekend trips as we can squeeze in. Summer is hectic for us because once the pool and Kings Island open up we spend as much time between the two as we can manage! We also have her birthday, her dance recital, and our last big trip of the year coming up soon. So we decided to do a little weekend getaway before everything gets REALLY busy. We are currently working on filling in our 50 States map with photos and even though Evie has been to some of these states before, there aren't any photos of her in many of them so we're working our way around them again! So Michigan was the choice for this trip so we could get in our photo. I did some research to find a cute city in Michigan where we could have some fun, enjoy without much time, and somewhere none of us had been yet. We landed on Frankenmuth. It's a cute little German town that has some really cool scenery, a lot of history, and of course good food! Evie had fun riding the riv...

  Today was a bit of a slower day for us. We only had plans to do one thing and that was visit the Boston Tea Party Museum.  This is another one of those things that despite many trips to Boston I have never done before. I wouldn't really recommend it for smaller kids either. Even though Evie did enjoy throwing tea into the harbor and walking around the old ship there was a lot of role play and history that she just didn't find very thrilling. In addition they do also have a video which re-enacts parts of the war that were a little intense for her. Overall though it was a really fun activity for all of us.  At the end you can sample a flight of teas from the era of the Boston tea party. These are supposedly the exact blends that were thrown into the harbor all those years ago which is pretty cool. You can also order other drinks and snacks or even have a full on tea party with a pot of tea and scones. It was really fun and a nice way to get out of the morning cold. ...

  It's the first full day of vacation and we got up early this morning and in true east coast style grabbed some Dunkin' Donuts to eat while we headed for the train. Our apartment is a short walk to the bus (or train if we choose) and then right onto the T which is nice but we still ended up walking almost 7 miles today and Evie did about three of them like a champ! The rest she needed a lift for. lol... After a short train ride we took a scenic walk across the Charles River and then it was onto the Museum of Science. Although this is my fifth or sixth time in Boston in recent years I have never done the Museum of Science and it looked really exciting. While we were there we got to play with electricity, robotics, weather, mirrors and lights and a ton more. Evie really liked this interactive station where she could try to guess what the animals were based on their skulls and teeth. She did pretty well too!  We spent roughly four hours at the MOS and then we walked up to the tr...

  It's finally here! Vacation day! This week is Spring Break for my niece, so we decided to go on a family trip to one of our favorite places; Boston! Evie is a pretty seasoned traveler...she got her passport when she was six months old and has already visited eight countries and fifteen states...but it's been awhile since she's been on a plane thanks to COVID. She was really excited to carry her own backpack and carry on though. On the plane we had snacks and we played some games... ...and Evie got to go sit in the cockpit with the pilots at the end! I have to laugh because every time she gets on a plane they give her a set of wings and congratulate her on her first flight and in reality, she took her first flight at 9 months old! It's great that they are so nice though. Once we got into Boston we had a few bumps with transportation but we got it figured out and got into our apartment with just enough time to walk around Harvard for a bit before it started pouring! It ...

  Today we decided to go to the aquarium! I asked Evie earlier in the week if she wanted to do the aquarium or the museum and she really wanted to do the aquarium so off we went! We had a lot of fun looking at the fish and there is a play area in the middle she enjoys playing and sliding on. After the aqauarium we got some lunch at Tom+Chee and then we headed back home to get ready to go to Nana's.  Her cousin Katelyn was there and she was super excited to get to spend the evening with "KK" too because she loves to sing and dance with her. Mama got a much needed night off and I also got lots of videos and photos from Nana of how much fun the girls had together. It was a really nice evening and after we picked her up we all went home and blew some horns and popped some poppers and then settled in for bed. Evie didn't get to see the ball drop but she had a lot of fun ringing in the new year anyway!

  Today we had a nice chill day. We played games. We slept in. We had extra snuggles and watched TV. In the afternoon we went to IKEA just to check things out. I'm on the lookout for a new bed for Evie that is raised from the floor so we have some extra storage in her room. We didn't buy anything but we had fun looking around. We also didn't eat there which Evie was very disappointed about but we did bring home some meatballs for later! Our vacation is coming to an end and I'm both sad for it to be ending and also ready to get back to work. We have some fun things planned for tomorrow and Evie is really excited about spending the new year with her nana! :)

  This weekend we took a little mini vacation up to the Columbus Zoo .  I haven't been in a long time and I'm not sure Evie has ever been.  It's a big zoo but very interactive and she made it through most of it before she passed out.  We started with the petting zoo which she did NOT love at all. But she was a good sport while we petted the goats and lambs. We made our way around the lizards and she got to see polar bears and grizzly bears and even some reindeer which she thought was pretty cool.  Her favorite animal is the giraffes and she got to learn about the different kinds today. We only have Masai at our zoo but Columbus also has Reticulated giraffes so she got to see the difference in their spots. We got to see a baby elephant too! It's just eleven weeks old and so small and cute. We also saw some koalas and Tasmanian devils and other fun things our zoo doesn't have.  Toward the end of our zoo trip we headed out to Dino Island and we got to ri...

  This past weekend was our girls trip. We headed up to the lake to spend the weekend with my mom, nieces, and two of my aunts. We had a really cute little house which was right across from a little beach and just up from a playground. When we got in we spent some time playing and saying hello to the lake! Evie and her cousins had a lot of fun swimming and shell hunting together and even though we were there for almost three full days we only had one tiny sprinkle of rain the whole time. There were a lot of shells on our stretch of beach and since it was just ours we didn't have to worry about other people.  We also did a drive/walk through safari which was a lot of fun for everyone! On the drive through we fed some cows (like this one!), llamas, deer, moose, bison, and giraffes! The llamas seemed to be the most hungry but the bison came in a close second! Even though we've fed giraffes at the zoo before this was a really fun new experience. We also rode a camel and fed some b...