The Keys - Day 3

Friday morning we all took a walk around the resort, heading over to the marina to see more views of the ocean and look at all the boats that were docked there for the night. There were some beautiful boats!

After going back to the villa to put Emery down for her morning nap, Grandma said she would babysit so we could head to the lagoon!  It was absolutely beautiful, my kind of ocean with no animals in it :)  I put together 3 pictures below so y'all can see the view!

We quickly turned our chair to lay out in the sun, man it was relaxing!

After we got word that Emery had woken up, we headed back to eat lunch and then take Emery to the kids pirate ship pool!  Here she is all decked out in her cover up :)

This pool was so fun and there was no one there! In a couple years Emery would really enjoy this with the slide, but for now she loved sitting under the palm trees that sprayed water and splashing.

Getting used to the water:

Em and Ky:

She was such a good sport about leaving on her hat and sunglasses the whole time!

Time to head back for her afternoon nap:

Mark and Blair's wedding was that night, and the setting was gorgeous.  Right on the water and I loved the khaki suits!

The kiss!

Before heading to the reception we decided to try to get some pictures of our family with the ocean in the background:

Nick, Mom and Dad:

Our Family (we missed you Dews!)

Kyle and I:

It was so fun visiting with my Uncle Johnny's family too!

We stayed at the reception for a couple hours then headed back so Emery could go to sleep.  The reception was held on a pool deck and we heard the last 2 hours were filled with the entire wedding party jumping in the pool!  INCLUDING Blair in her wedding dress!

Congratulations again Mark & Blair, we are so happy for y'all and Blair couldn't be a better fit for our family!

Robin & Tommy are married!

Last weekend, we came in town for Robin & Tommy's wedding in Chapel Hill!

Robin's dress was so elegant, loved it!

The ceremony and reception were perfect, and I had the best time catching up with their friends and extended family that I've known for years.

 

I also got a chance to visit with my family who we hadn't seen for over a month!

 And lastly I of course caught up with this lovely lady, the matron of honor!

No one should take pics of us when we're together...

Congratulations again Robin & Tommy, we are so happy for you.  And a huge hank you to Brenda and Don for watching Emery for us!

New Orleans trip!

On August 26th, we headed to New Orleans to celebrate our friends, Taylor and Courtney's wedding (Courtney is from Baton Rouge).  It was our first flight with Emery and our first time visiting New Orleans, so we were pretty nervous/excited!  We tried to plan as best we could with Emery's feeding/sleeping schedule so that she would be well behaved on the plane, and also bought some last minute covers for her stroller and car seat.  I would definitely recommend buying these to save your equipment from dirt and germs!  (Click here - except ours has wheels- and here to see what we bought from Babies R Us).  We actually checked every piece of luggage at curb side check in and then put Emery in the Baby Bjorn for security and for walking through the airport.  It worked out perfectly!

The flight took an hour and a half (compared to an 8 hour drive!) and Emery did so great on the way there, didn't even fuss!  We traveled with our friends, Chris and Kathleen, and it was so great to spend a whole weekend with them!

I ended up finding a Living Social Deal a while ago for a 3 day, 2 night stay at the Hilton in New Orleans for $49! PLUS when you check into the hotel they'll give you a $50 gift card... so basically they are paying you $1 to go on a free trip!  The only catch was that you had to go to a 90 minute presentation for a timeshare, which is not a huge deal since Kyle and I like to hear the latest things they offer (my parents had a timeshare growing up).

We checked into the hotel, showered and headed to the rehearsal dinner that was held in the House of Blues.  They had delicious food and we loved meeting all of Tay and Courtney's friends.  It started at 7:30 so before long it was way past Emery's bedtime.  I found a comfortable chair and she sacked out while we watched the slideshow and toasts.  Unfortunately this was the only picture taken the whole night, whoops!

Saturday morning we headed downstairs for breakfast and then out to the pool!  Kyle, Emery and I were the only ones there, score! (There was a Mechacon conference going on where everyone was dressed up like anime characters.. a little weird but very entertaining and let us have the pool all to ourselves so we're not complaining!)

It was hot and humid the whole weekend, so the the pool felt amazing.  I feel like Emery is so big, but when we can wrap a hand towel around her I remember that she's still very very tiny!

Our timeshare presentation was at 1:30 and lasted until 3:30 or so.  EUGH it was long and our lady was very offensive and annoying.  Oh well we got through it and successfully did not buy a time share.

Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for the reception (only family were invited to the wedding). Here are the pics from the night!

Their daughter Gracyn (in the middle) had the best time dancing in her fluffy dress:

Mikey, Chris and Ky

The gals: (Emery was SO tired poor thing)

Chris and Kathleen.  So excited to meet their little one arriving around Feb. 9th!  (They aren't finding out the sex!)

Em loved wearing her cousin, Natalie's dress!

View from the River Room:

Group shot:

Congratulations again Tay and Court, we are so happy for you.  You clearly make a great team already!

We took the trolly back to the hotel which was really fun.  Wished we had figured out to take it sooner!

 

 Fun night for sure!

Florida trip!

Two weekends ago, we packed Emery up and went to Florida for my cousin, Ben's wedding. She did great traveling once again and we had so much fun visiting with all my family.  This was my mom's whole side of the family, and unbelievable every single aunt, uncle, cousin and child made it except 1-- pretty impressive!

I was on baby duty for the wedding so I only took one picture of Ben and all his pink tied groomsmen.  Emery stayed awake the entire time but didn't let out a peep thank heavens!  My dad still is not able to sit with all the damage due to his sacrum from the cancer, so Van kept him company standing in the back.  Van was my dad's best man in mom and dad's wedding, so they were on cloud 9 being together again!

We stayed for family pictures afterwards and then headed to the reception!

We had so much fun and stayed until 10:30 or so!  We got to catch up with my cousin Sarah (Ben's sister) and her daughter Addyson.  They have a little boy on the way and they are about to move to Charlotte, so exciting!

Love getting to see my Aunt Debbie too!  Grandma and Debbie were the baby sitters all night so Kyle and I were able to dance a lot!

And of course I had to document the "boys".  Kyle has a blast anytime we hang out with the cousins, we are so lucky to all be around the same age!  (And yes these guys even make Kyle look like a shrimp at 6 foot 1!)

I'm sad we didn't even get a shot of our family together, but Kyle did snap one of Em and I:

  

Sunday we hung at the pool until it was time to check out.  The Nats had a blast at the pool, and even Em sported a terry cloth jumpsuit!

We then headed to my Uncle Johnny's house for a family BBQ.  Johnny and JoAnne rented a 17 foot blow up slide for their back yard... to say the kids loved it was a huge understatement.  Even Nick, Kyle and Jamie flew down that thing all afternoon!

Here is a picture of the whole family together!


And all the grandkids & great grandkids!


And all the cousins!

It's so neat to think all these people are here because of my Grandpa and Grandma.  We are truly blessed!

Sunday night we hung out with my family at their Disney resort!  Even though we were sad we weren't going to be spending the week there with everyone it was still fun to drive through that "welcome to disney gate"!  In a couple years we'll be back with Emery when she can truly enjoy it!