enjoying...

in a previous post, i talked about my dad retiring and his party held in honor of this. here are a few more pics from that night. i want to get everyone in, because i think this is the first time all of these people have been in the same room at the same time in years!!!...all to celebrate my hardworking dad. he so deserved this.

i seriously want to eat this little one up...so does peyton. this is baby evie, my sister's first baby.

my sister, auntie tawny...taryn's twin! yes, two sets of twins in our family. both sets identical!

heather rocks my world for planning and making the party happen!

mom, auntie elaina, my bro-peter, and evie!

gramps!!!

grandma polleti...from italy. just moved to michigan recently. my kids are a little scared of her!!!

because i can't get enough of this little one.

...and my grandma who i love so much. she rocks...like seriously, she is the best, most supportive person i have ever known. period. she has been sick lately and has not been herself. i have faith that she will feel better soon. i need to kick her butt in a mean game of poker (even though she is the best card player i know)!

tonight, a couple of my sisters, me and our husbands met up for thai food, the BEST thai food 5 years running by the city of detroit...bangkok 96, and although it sounds like a thai truckstop, it's not. they have the best thai food ever and i look forward to going each year.

then, we decided to go have a drink at kelly's irish pub (naples peeps: think the polar opposite of mercado's irish pub). it is a hole-in-the-wall little, smelly, old bar. it was perfect. just the right spot for elaina and heather to have a polka dance dance-off...in the parking lot...BEFORE we had our coctails. it was stomache-hurting funny and just what we all needed to catch up. before we left, we all said we would never to return to the smelly hole-in-the-wall, but secretly i was attracted to it's oldness. we don't have much of that in naples. i hope to go back soon!!!

a few days ago, i drove to lansing, mi and visted kelle's sister, carin and her sweet girls!

oh it was so much fun. her girls are LOVELY, lovely, sweet, sweet, girls. i love them so much and had so much fun hanging with them and other family and friends. i loved meeting people i had only heard of in conversation between kelle and carin and the blogging world. i had never been more excited to enter a room of realtively perfect strangers bc i knew i would be meeting really good women. i so did.

i loved listening to the cousins remember old family stories and memories. i would hear things like, "really? i didn't know that." or "aww. i miss grandma and grandpa so much." some tears, but all good stories.

we almost instantly started walking the 'runway!'

we sat and talked, took pictures, loved on the kids...it was so comfortable.

barb...are you real? i love u.

we sat in carin's anthropology-ish, funky, cool home.

it is so charming and i can't b how much carin has done in such a short time. she has an eye for this stuff.

next morning...

and shopping in downtown lansing. love it there with it's vibrant culture and flower lined streets...

i adore little streets like this with little shops with hand painted open or close signs in the windows and little colorful brick buildings. i truly could live on this street. carin took us to a store called october moon and it was a perfect little shop that sold french and vintage inspired treasures, and when i decided on a set of vintage abs cards for beckham...they wrapped my purchase with twine and lavendar. oh yeah, i am a sucker for this stuff. i admit it. if i had bought three things, i would have asked for three seperate bags just for the twine and lavendar!!!! it's how i roll.

finally, we visted a gallery...

and met honora...she rocks. she just wants to talk about art and process-i thought she was so cool.

it was such a fun day. a great experience to meet honora and see her studio, gallery, and art. chat with my friends...talking about life and babies and other little things in between. having such a great time, that i think over and over how much i don't want to leave.

thanks c & k

xoxo

we are having such a good time here!!! love seeing my family and watching peyton and beckham enjoy the special people who love them so much. jeff and i are headed on a trip upnorth this weekend. i can't wait to take pics and share all of the fun i know we will have.

g'night!

happy father's day, daddy!

(peyton wanted this on my blog, "put this picture of me on your blog, mama! daddy will see it!")

we love you, daddy! thank you for loving us the way you do and for teaching us to be really good people. we think you are the best daddy in the whole world.

we especially love when you teach us how to do things and for telling us we can be anything we want when we grow up. we hope you had a good daddy day and that you liked the pictures we took for you!!!

xoxo

love, peyton and beckham!

ps. happy father's day!!!... gido, g-pa, and papa.

home away from home.

we made it through ohio and onto michigan, and although i don't have many pictures to share (i forgot to charge my camera battery) but tha'ts okay...i know this trip has been well documented.

it was a little sad dropping kelle and lainey with her dad, as that marked the end of roadtrip 2009 but i knew we had family anxiously awating our arrival, so secured my hat, turned up the radio and listened to more fried chicken and headed north to see daddy, sito, and auntie hi-o!

here are a few pics i snapped in a small town in michigan...or maybe ohio!

kelle said this house is called a painted lady...i love it's charm.

hello...i really want to live in a small town that has a mill. could get over how sweet these streets were. i was looking for kids with lemonade stands and a handpainted sign that said free lemonade and homemade bisquits...it was that kind of quaint little place.

a page from out roadtrip journal...random little thoughts...

a big shoutout to lainey for being the BEST traveler ever. she amazed me and i can't stop talking about it. this little one never made a peep in the car. don't think she cried once, and tried to make her buddy, beckham feel better when he was upset by sharing her snacks with him.

we love you lainey bug.

(a little scaredy in this pic bc her mama was honking the horn...lainey wasn't into it.)

and most improved traveler award goes to...

peyton mae!!! she really pulled it together for our last day.

and my bubby's did well too! he was happy as long as he had a different snack and new movie to watch.

and kelle...

you crack me up.

love ya.

once home...

we had to quickly get dressed and go to celebrate my dad. he is retiring next week after more than 30 years of hardwork. we are so proud of him and he is so deserving of a night dedicated to making him feel good. what a huge accomplishment. my dad IS the hardest working man that i personally know...i'm so happy that after wednesday he can relax and just enjoy his clean slate of a day.

we spent the night with all of our family at a party, my sister, heather, planned for him. it was lovely having my whole family in one room together! very special.

look at my little neice...evie!!!

i couldn't wait to get my hands on her. she's such a little happy peanut...

will post more pics later!

where troubles melt like lemondrops...kinda

disclaimer:
i am so tired that my eyes are begging me to sleep. this post will be small with random photos throughout the day. i actually can not b that i am awake right now. kelle is too...i can hear the the keystrokes on her computer, her thinking out loud about song choice and such. my post...short and sweet. mama needs to sleep!

day3:

we started out singing in the car to fried chicken (thank you, marcia!) we made it through the mountains in tennessee and arrived in kentucky (peyton and beckham called it, ducky. "are we still in ducky, mommy?") early afternoon. driving into kentucky may have been one of the prettiest sites i have ever seen. the trees looked like big green cotton balls. they look soft and comfy...

many times i told kelle i wanted to sprout wings, so i could fly like a bird over the vast mountains. it was breathtaking. it was even more breathtaking when kelle spotted a state park called indian mountain! we drove within the winding confines of the cutest little town where the barber shop and hospital sat next to one another. the signs were old and charming...begging to photographed...even though i didn't. i kind expected laura ingalls to come walking down the street in a long prairie dress and welcome us in.

it was...unique. the park sat beside a river on one side and train tracks on the other. kelle wanted to do train track photos and i wanted to do river photos. seemed innocent enough, right?

it was scenic from the inside of the car where we were safe from bugs, humidity, and heat...once we ventured out, it was a tad harder to take pictures in. ....BUT SO WORTH IT!

we let the kids take their shoes off and play in the water, open fields, and chase butterflies. it was so beautiful. it was perfect until i wanted that perfect pic...then it got ugly. many days of being on my own with the kids...without jeff have caught up with me...i need a break. a big one.

the three kids ran free...laughing and exploring. it was so wonderful! (until a nice guy in a pick-up truck told us to be careful of snakes...!)

with that said...i could not have dreamt up a more picturesque place to play with my kids and make memories in.

we oshkoshed our kids...

lainey lovin's

after our shoot...we had a quick lunch, collected our kentucky spoons, and headed away from the tornado and into ohio.

we stopped in Cincinnati...SOOOOOO exciting. so beautiful. so energetic. we decided we wanted to stay over in downtown Cincinnati. we drove around the downtown streets filled with beautiful old buildings and dirty sidewalks...would have a made a great photoshoot stop, but we promised the kids ice cream first.

we looked for a hotel and couldn't find one-mama b jones got us lost a few times (navigation), so after a long while we decided to drive further north which is where we are now. we were a tad sad not to be in the big city...but it all worked out and we did try our best. either way...it was a fab day. seriously good stuff.

we took the kids to have dinner in their pajamas...which they loved, and then we shared chocolate milkshakes way past bedtime...it was sooooo much fun and so on track with the theme of this trip. we really have no timeline and nowhere to be...so we really do what we want and it feels so good.

i can not even begin to explain tonight how much fun and how special today was for me and for kelle. it was a spectacular day. a day where i thank god for making such a beautiful place for us to live and enjoy. a day so touching and sweet that kelle and i could not stop talking about how lucky we are to have husbands that allow us to be us. a huge thank you to our hubby's who were happy to foot the bill and let us be us. a couple of chicks who wanted to roadtrip it from naples, fl to michigan. take pics, stay at hotels, eat out, buy spoons, and listen to our stories throughout the day. xoxoxoxoxo to jeff and brett.

it's not over yet, but i am out...i need sleep. this girl has a KICK BUTT post. her pics are amazing. she is so passionate. she rocks.

i know i skipped over a lot of goods, but hopefully you get the picture...

this has been the best experience for the kids and i. so much quality time and learning, laughing, and even crying-the good kind.

with that said...

JEFF WE ARE COMING HOME!!!!!

we will see you around noon today!

xoxoxo

more roadtrip to come tho!

and more videos to make you smile...

fried chicken...take 2

kelle's darkroom!