summer vacay - part three - atlanta/nashville/illinois.

It's time to wrap up this long vacay. :)

After a full 5 eventful days in Florida we started to make our journey back home.  Thankfully we had planned to break up the drive home into three sections so we would not be facing another LONG travel day like we had from TN to FL - phew!  Obviously breaking it up means more $ for hotel stays - but it was well worth it!  It gave us the opportunity to see a little more on our roadtrip and made it feel like a roadtrip, not just endless hours getting from point A to point B.  I think in the future I will always side with the breaking up the driving more and doing more - seems more purposeful.  On that note...here was the scoop on the last little bit of our trip.

Day One:  We drove from Florida to Atlanta, GA.
I am SO glad we decided to stay in Atlanta, and it is definitely on the list of places to spend more time at next time.  I have traveled through Atlanta so many times and never stopped and enjoyed this city.  If you were like me and it's always been a passthrough - Stop!  Atlanta is a beautiful city.  In the little time we were there we had the chance to see different areas and I was amazed at how beautiful it was and SO many great unique restaurants - I need to prep better next time to take in the good food!

We arrived in Atlanta on Friday afternoon and settled into our Embassy Suites hotel in the Buckhead neighborhood.  Our suite was amazing with a gorgeous city view and the Buckhead neighborhood is very trendy and pretty.
When traveling I am a big fan of trying to only eat things you can't get at home and trying new restaurants.  I had planned on hitting up a fun Food Truck park for dinner but it was a little distance from us and lots of time in the car didn't seem like something I wanted to add, so we hit up a Shake Shack which we have never had before and was only a mile from our hotel.  Burgers, fries, shakes, we can all handle that. :)

Oh, my girl, she just seems so big.

Another great thing about Atlanta, we got to spend some time with one of Todd's closest friends from college, Jamie.  We love us some Jamie time.  We have been lucky to catch him both in Illinois and Georgia within a month.  Jamie joined us at the Shake Shack and took us on a little driving tour through the city as we made our way over to Piedmont Park.

Sidenote:  Overall Atlanta does not seem a city too difficult to navigate if you follow your natural sense of direction and ignore all the street names!  There are about a hundred different roads called PeachTree and another hundred called Piedmont - no joke.  I'm sure it makes sense to those that live there, but who came up with that idea?!?

We headed over to Piedmont Park and enjoyed a GORGEOUS evening playing in the park and on the playground near the uber sophisticated pool by the city, beautiful.  Thank you Jamie for hanging out with us!

We loved you Atlanta and will definitely be back.

A little video with some random from our travel home.



Day Two - We took our time in the morning and enjoyed our beautiful Atlanta hotel for a while before later heading out and traveling up to Nashville.
In Nashville we stopped and spent the rest of the day with Courtney (Todd's cousin's wife).  Unfortunately, we didn't get to catch Paul (Uncle Paul - they are Uncle Paul and Aunt Courtney to the girls) he was off on another music tour adventure.
There was swimming and hanging out and dinner with Courtney.  We loved that we were able to catch Courtney and spend time with her.  We just don't get to see them nearly enough.

When the girls were ready for bed we put them in their jammies and got back in the car for just a little more driving and headed to Paducah, KY (to keep our final day of driving a little less).  Our hotel - La Quinta Inn in Paducah was a great hotel, super clean, very modern, best hotel bathrooom!, and a huge room - we would recommend it.
The next day we just wanted to GET HOME!  So after breakfast we loaded up the van one final time and drove the last 6 hours home.
Highlight of the last day - Monical's Pizza - because it is so delicious.

Finally - we were home - and I was deadset on not getting back into the van for a while. :)
I love to travel, but I do love being home so much.

We had a fantastic and memorable trip, and are so grateful for a safe journey.
I'm so glad we broke it up on the way home.
The only thing that I would not want to do again was the number of times I had to keep repacking the suitcases, rearranging them - 8 times!  That was too tiring for a vacation. :)

We are home.
And our first two weeks home has teased us with Fall weather, and I couldn't be happier about it.
Bring on the Fall, oh I am so ready for it.

summer vacay - part two - florida.

After a week stay in the Great Smoky Mountains, we loaded back up into the van and while everyone else departed back to their homes we were only part of the way done with our journey.  We were on our way to Florida.  This day of driving was the longest day of driving ever, probably too long for our little family, but we pushed through.  We left about 7:45am and arrived about 9:30pm in The Villages, Florida...long day.
Thus started our next adventure - 3 days at Walt Disney World and 2 days in The Villages.

Off to Disney!
We stayed on grounds at the All Star Sports Resort.
We did an evening at Downtown Disney, one day was a morning of Magic Kingdom (breakfast with the princesses) and afternoon at Hollywood Studios, the next day was a full day of the Magic Kingdom.
Our sweet girls ready for some magic. :)  This is Andie's first trip and Quinn's second.

Each picking out a Disney souvenir.

Princess Aurora (aka - Sleeping Beauty) - Quinn's FAVORITE.  And in all our dancing Quinn will say that Sleeping Beauty danced with her the longest!  and she did. :)

Quinn's reaction with Elsa was just priceless and it's my favorite part of the dance video.

It rained on us a little the morning of the first day, but we will take that.  We got lucky and the first day was almost a record low temp for Florida in August.  Our second day was hot but not horrible, it was just a really busy crowd that day.

Disney Highlights:

Quinn's Favorite Princesses - Princess Aurora and Princess Elsa

Quinn's Favorite Ride - Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (Splash Mountain was second choice)

Quinn's Favorite Show - Disney Junior Show

Andie's Favorite Characters - Mickey and Princess Ana

Andie's Favorite Ride - Ariel's Undersea Adventure

Andie's Favorite Show - Fantasmic

We took Quinn when she was two and we loved that, taking her at age 4 was so much fun.  Each trip at different ages is so different and wonderful.

Quinn age two Disney Trip - click here.

Andie was fantastic at Disney, she is a trooper and she was a little princess. :)

We rented a double stroller that we had delivered to our resort, it worked out perfectly and provided lots of shade and both girls took naps in it too.

After 3 nights at Disney, we headed up to Grandpa and Grandma's in the Villages.

Quinn was able to participate in one of the Camp Villages activities - Decorating Cupcakes.

She was very precise and thoughtful in her decorating, I think we may have a future baker.

Time at the pool.

Thank you so much to Grandpa and Grandma for our time with them in Florida and our amazing days at Disney World!

I've already posted this, but I'll post it again so it's with our Disney portion - Our Disney Dance video!
All of the princesses and characters that joined the fun and danced with us. :)



Up next - our roadtrip home.

summer vacay - part one - tennessee.

On Friday July 24th we set off on a long roadtrip adventure.  We would have stops in Louisville KY, Gatlinburg TN, The Villages FL, Walt Disney World, Atlanta GA, Nashville TN...Home.

After a one night stop in Louisville, Kentucky we headed to Gatlinburg TN for a full week with the Harvey side of our family (my mom's side).  Tennessee was somewhat of a central location for everyone spread out over 6 states. There were 21 of us in a big 8 bed/8 bath cabin.  It worked out wonderfully.  It was a full week of activities, time together, many nights of games and laughs.  Each night a different team prepared dinner - dinner was always delicious!

Todd organized a day at the lake - it was so fun!  We had pontoon boats, jet skis and a tube.  Quinn's first time on a jet ski and tube.  Quinn and I each took turns riding the jet ski with daddy.  Daddy could jet ski all day long - one day we will have to get one (or two) at our future lakehouse. :)

Andie was not a fan of her lifejacket at all!  Can you blame her? look at how uncomfortable she is in it (this was before the tears started)

We went to a Tennessee Smokies baseball game.
Don't let these smiles fool you - it was HOT - like not enjoyable at all hot.
Two little kids to tote around makes it about 20 degrees hotter - so that's about 122 degrees.

We spent a morning at the Aquarium of the Smokies.  My little camera was set on the wrong setting that day. oops.  We had to get a pic with Megalodon jaws.

All four of us in one room (with a one year old) went pretty smoothly.  Quinn had to contain herself when she went to bed.  Usually she puts on a whole set of songs and lots of talking when she goes to bed on her own in her own room - so it was hard to try to stay quiet for Andie. :)

First week of vacation was great!
We loaded back into the van and kept heading south...

disney dance video.

We have returned from a 17 day long vacation.
About a week before we left I started to question why we would choose to stay away from our own beds for that long of a duration (with a one year old in tow!) - but things went pretty smoothly.  It was a long road trip in the car for all of us, and I felt so bad keeping the girls in their car seats so long.  We made stops in Louisville, KY - Gatlinburg, TN - The Villages, FL - Walt Disney World - Atlanta, GA - Nashville, TN & Paducah, KY.
60 hours of travel time, later....and many new memories to cherish forever.

There are lots of pictures to post, and it will take me some time to catch-up.

For now, one of the highlights - our 2015 Disney Dance Video.
We decided to do something a little different than just posing for pictures with our favorite characters and princesses, we asked them to dance...and dance they did. :)

Turn on your volume - enjoy!