New Kent & Easter!

One of the biggest perks of making Busch Gardens our mini spring break destination was getting to visit one of our favorite families, the Miles family! I'm not sure which was more fun- the amusement park, or time with Steve & Mava! Steve is my mom's cousin and we are so grateful to not live too far from them!

They are the most gracious and thoughtful hosts and fed us well Friday evening and Saturday morning. They even surprised the kiddos with the perfect egg hunt Saturday morning, followed by rides on Belle, the pony (complete with bunny ears!), and the little John Deere, which Ollie especially loved! It really was such a treat to spend time with them and the girls just adore their college-aged daughter, Madie, who came home for the visit and so patiently and sweetly humored them both. They have the coolest farm house that is so fun to explore, we always love our visits with them.

Here are pics from the Miles' home in New Kent, VA!

Going backwards a little bit for some more Easter activities!

A little egg hunt at Lilee's school.

Local event with egg hunt, Easter Bunny, and lots of other fun activities!

Obligatory egg dyeing!

Easter morning!

Little egg hunt along our pathway with the neighbors.

He really had the hang of it by now!

And since Easter fell on April Fool's Day this year, Steve, of course, had to have some fun with the eggs...

He filled a number of them with ketchup packets and Lilee thought it was hysterical!

Enjoying the Easter goodies from Nana & Pop-Pop!

Delicious dinner at The Carlyle.

Despite all the lighthearted fun, we continue to enjoy finding ways that even "secular" Easter activities like egg hunts, the Easter Bunny, and egg dyeing can be symbols to point us to the real meaning of Easter in Christ's resurrection. And that is what we are most grateful for each Easter season!

Birthday & Busch Gardens!

The last week of March had so much going on that I'm dedicating two posts to it! Within 5 days, I celebrated turning the final year in my 30s (how can that be???), and we spent 2 days at Busch Gardens! Spending the night at the beautiful home of some of our favorite people, the Miles family, was definitely a highlight of that trip, and then Easter was the same weekend!!! So as expected, I took WAY too many pictures, and will have a post dedicated to Easter and our time with Steve and Mava Miles to come soon, too!

My birthday started with breakfast with my mom and my girls (their spring break ended up being the week before Ollie's!), lunch at my pal's, ice cream cake with my whole fam, and then dinner with my favorite man. It was a great day!

Steve loves to make my birthdays extra special with little scavenger hunts and this year he hid 39 sweet memories around our home from this past year. Maelee and I had so much fun finding them all! Then the girls had the idea to decorate their room for our little "party," which ultimately ended up being quite complicated, but sure was a sweet thought. I felt very celebrated!

To top off the day, Steve and I went to a quaint little restaurant in the nearby neighborhood of Del Ray and had a delicious dinner!

Shortly after my big day, we spent two big days at Busch Gardens! It was the perfect quick spring break trip. The threat of rain sightly changed our initial plans, but had the added benefit of keeping others at bay as our first day there was practically empty! We caught just one quick rain shower that day, and it hit when we were leaving the park to get to the car! The overcast skies and cooler weather made for a perfectly comfortable day.

We were able to enjoy several rides all together, alternated a little, and soaked in the wide grins on our little trio's faces as we watched them living it up! They each had pretty brave moments over our 2-day visit, but Maelee decided she wasn't quite ready for thrill rides yet. She built up courage to go on Da Vinci's cradle, a boat like ride that circles up and around, pretty high into the air! At the first sensation of the tummy dropping, Maelee felt like she was going to lose it. I did my best to calm her and not panic myself (I had her sweatshirt at the ready as it was the only thing I could think of to use just in case!), but if felt like the longest few minutes I had experienced in a long time!

Thankfully, she did just fine in the end, and was quite proud of her accomplishment, but that ride would be it for her in terms of intensity! Both Ollie and Lilee braved a water log ride but neither were too fond of the steep drop at the end. Overall though, we ALL had a blast!

We were able to get a special promotion for unlimited visits through the summer so we are really hoping to make it down at least one more time before the fall! We can at least *try* to make roller coaster-lovers out of our kids!