Indiana {March 2019}

Posted in Family, Travel by Kendra G.

To kick off spring break, we headed up to Indiana for a long weekend. The weekend was full of family, friends, and celebrations before heading back home.

We were so thankful to see so many family members in such a short time, most of which made the trip to visit us.

On Saint Patrick’s Day, we ran the Shamrock Beer Run 5k in downtown Indy. It was our first beer run and probably our coldest run to date. It was freezing! Thankfully the beer stops helped us warm up. Downtown Indianapolis was absolutely beautiful on the brisk day.

We ended the day celebrating Grandma Sue’s 80th birthday! We had a lovely dinner with family to celebrate our special lady.

We also got to visit with several old friends and meet new little friends while we were there! Again, we were so thankful that everyone made room for us during their busy weekends.

One major highlight of the long weekend was the snow! Yes…in March…during spring break…the kids saw snow for the first time! They loved playing outside as the big snowflakes fell to the ground. It didn’t last long, but it was memorable.

We made one more quick stop to visit the birthday girl before heading to the airport.

We had a great, long weekend which was action packed. Needless to say, it took a bit for all of us to recover.

13Mar2018

Indiana {March 2018}

Posted in Travel by Kendra G.

On Saturday morning, I watched the sun rise from an airplane on the way to Indianapolis. I landed around 8:30am and immediately got the day started!

My oldest friend is having a baby and I got to celebrate with her! It was so good to see Lisa, her family, and some friends from high school and IU.

After the shower, we headed back to my parents’ house to celebrate my grandma’s birthday! She didn’t know that I would be in town, so it was a fun surprise!

Michael brought some of his favorite beers and conducted a beer tasting class for us! We ended the night playing the horse racing game with some friends.

After losing an hour of sleep, we headed to Cafe Patachou for brunch, complete with pomegranate prosecco!

After brunch, we headed to Topgolf for an afternoon of golfing. We had so much fun!

We ended the day visiting with Celeste and Meghann! It was so good to see them and catch up!

I hopped on the 5:30am flight on Monday morning and headed back to Orlando. It was weird traveling alone, but it was nice to be able to bounce around the city for two days and see so many people, both friends and family! I am so happy to have been able to celebrate baby Richards and my grandma’s birthday.

Until next time, Indy! Thanks for the great weekend!

10Aug2017

Indiana {August 2017}

Posted in Travel by Kendra G.

The kids and I headed up to Indiana this past weekend. We had an action packed four days in my home state. Brace yourself, there are a lot of pictures!

We arrived on Saturday just in time to help set up for Maggi and Greg’s wedding shower! I am so thankful that we were able to be there to celebrate the happy couple. The theme was a fiesta in honor of their destination wedding. Everything about the shower was absolutely perfect. Abbi did such a great job with all of the little details that made the day so great. It was so good to see a lot of friends and family in one place too!

On Sunday, we got to see my grandparents, aunt, and uncle for lunch and fun around the fire. The kids got to spend some quality time with Arie and took turns taking her for walks. I think poor Arie was ready to be home after the long weekend.

We had a great lunch at BRU Burger on Monday, then headed to the Indianapolis Zoo. It had been so long since I had been there. The weather was absolutely perfect, and we drove by Victory Field so the kids could see where mommy and daddy met!

For dinner, we had a little pizza party with Celeste, Reese, Meghann, and Harper. It was so good to catch up with the girls, though it was short due to bedtimes for the littles.

The kids played at the park on Tuesday, we did a little back to school shoe shopping (what my mom and I do best!), and had lunch before heading to the airport.

I can’t believe how fast four days flew by! We had such a great time, but we were happy to get home to daddy too.

11Aug2016

4th of July weekend, continued.

Posted in Family, Travel by Kendra G.

I shared last month about our trip to Indiana over 4th of July weekend. Since then, I’ve finally gone through the pictures on my camera, so I wanted to be sure to post those too.

Maggi and Greg hosted the Lower clan for a fantastic brunch on Saturday. It was cooler than normal that weekend, but the kiddos still took advantage of the pool and water balloons. Kenley was so excited to see that Sami had the same swim suit as she did!

Family photos were a must since so many Lowers were in town from four different states!

On Sunday, the Faris crew came over for lunch after the Outrunning Autism 5K and 10K.

It was a great 4th of July weekend with family!

8Jul2016

4th of July weekend in Indiana

Posted in Family, Travel by Kendra G.

We headed up to Indiana on Friday for a long weekend. Greg and I were not convinced that we would actually make our flight on Friday judging by the insanely long lines at the Southwest counter when we arrived, but alas, we did and we landed in Indianapolis excited to get our busy weekend underway. Our first stop was Scotty’s Brewhouse for an early lunch or breakfast in our case. After lunch, we got settled at my parents’ new house before hitting the road.

We took the back roads up to Alexandria, for the last time in a long time, if not forever, to see the old house. We walked the empty halls and I said my goodbyes to the only house I have ever known. I was surprised that I didn’t cry considering I am getting misty eyed just writing about it now. I will forever treasure the great memories I have of that house.

We thoroughly enjoyed the chilly weather and the evening fires while we were there. We also made our way down to the lake to catch the sunset, which was at 9:30pm!

The kids thoroughly enjoyed playing with Arie!

On Saturday morning, we headed over to brunch with the Lower clan. Seven of the ten cousins were in town, so it was a party! The kids all had a great time playing with each other too!

We headed over to the beach club afterwards and the kids got in the water, which was freezing! It was way too cold for us Floridians, but the kids didn’t seem to mind. Kenley loved jumping off the diving board!

Sunday morning, the rain started and we headed out to the Outrunning Autism 5K/10K. The race was super small and I ended up getting 4th in my age group!

Majority of Sunday afternoon consisted of all of us sitting in the garage going through boxes and boxes of old pictures and keepsakes. It was definitely a highlight of the weekend, traveling down memory lane. Kenley also did some sparklers as we watched the rain continue to fall outside.

We woke up to a rainy 4th of July and packed our bags to head home.

We arrived back in Orlando and were greeted by the blazing temperatures which made us instantly miss the nice, cool weather in Indiana. After a quick, long weekend, we hauled our two kids, two car seats, two suitcases, and umbrella stroller back through the airport to our car. Needless to say, we skipped out on the fireworks and all went to bed early Monday night after an amazing long weekend.

30Dec2015

Christmas in Indiana {2015}

Posted in Family, Travel by Kendra G.

Last Wednesday, we hopped on a plane and headed up to Indiana for Christmas. Our flight was at 6:30am, which made for a very early morning, and, of course, with it being two days before Christmas, the airport was insane. There were definitely moments that we thought we were going to miss our flight, but we actually made it just in time for family boarding. The kids did a good job on the flight and enjoyed the snacks and iPad time. Once we arrived at the house, Kenley and Meemaw got right to work baking cookies for Santa! We relaxed the rest of the day while it rained before heading to the Mexican restaurant for dinner.

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On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed some family time and brunch! Bonus: there were Alex Bakery cookies there, which brought back so many memories from my childhood. They were just as I remembered them! The kids had such a great time playing together at GG’s house, too. It is always good to get them together every chance we get.

Christmas morning started at 6:00am! We got to see what Santa brought and took our time opening gifts. We spent the rest of the day playing with our new toys and playing games. The weather was warmer than usual (though, we still thought it was cold), so my dad built a fire and we took Arie for a walk a couple times.

On Saturday we actually got out of our pajamas and headed out for another Christmas with extended family. As it approached nap time, the kids started to meltdown, so it was a short stay. Thankfully, they slept the whole way home!

Sunday morning we packed and packed and packed. We decided to spend the afternoon at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis before we had to go to the airport. Our flight wasn’t until 10:00pm, so we had a while to play. The museum was awesome! I was very impressed with each of the exhibits we saw and we didn’t even get through them all. We will definitely be back in the future. After the museum, we met my grandparents for dinner. We boarded our flight around 9:30pm and were pushed away from the gate before schedule. The kids slept the entire flight and were only a little whiny when we were waiting for all of our luggage to come off the carousal. We were home and in bed around 1:00am on Sunday night/Monday morning and the kids slept in very late on Monday morning. Surprisingly, it didn’t take long to get them back on schedule, and have even been sleeping in this week since we’ve been home.

Traveling with kids can definitely be stressful, but overall, they did a great job and we had such a good time celebrating Christmas in Indiana!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

1Sep2014

my [long] weekend in photos

Posted in Travel by Kendra G.

she looks skeptical about what lies ahead. i feel ya sister.

we made it to indiana on friday with flying colors. i will note that the ergo is priceless and i love love love it and our jeep car seat bags (above) were so handy.

we have gotten into collecting license plates and my brother dug these out of my grandma’s house for us. i’m so excited to hang them. they are our first vintage ones (as old as i am!).

seriously, turn your head for one minute and this.

i was so excited to meet mia & cam and kenley was excited to hold the “girl baby”.

we definitely took advantage of the pool at meemaw & grandpa’s house.

my sweet friends met us for brunch this morning before we left indiana. it was so good catching up with them even for a short visit.

it’s september. the first pumpkin spice latte of the season!

yes. this happened. awesome.

and this guy slept on both flights this weekend. he also got a little beat up while we were in indiana.

***

we had an action-packed long weekend in indiana, but it was so fun!
i have gobs more photos to share this week, so stay tuned!

how was your long weekend?

16Apr2014

Indiana, continued.

Posted in Family, Travel by Kendra G.

I mentioned that I had more pictures to share from our weekend trip to Indiana this past weekend and I wasn’t kidding. Crosby and I got to see so many people in just a short amount of time. I packed as little as possible for weekend and I didn’t bring my good camera, so most of the pictures are from my phone. This was great for the quantity of pictures I was able to take, but not so much for the quality of the pictures. Really though, I just care about the people in the pictures and I’m so thankful to have them.

Unfortunately, the reason for our trip was unexpected. We celebrated the life of my uncle Scott on Saturday. However, it was so wonderful to see so many friends and family members in one place and for them to meet Crosby before we’re back up in Indiana this fall.

The second cousins… It’s weird to me that one of the boys in this picture belongs to me.

We were fortunate enough to have a great friend take some family photos for us throughout the day.
I hate that Greg and Kenley weren’t there!

Cousins, spouses, and kids, oh my! And this is only half of us!

Charlotte and Crosby are only 11 days apart! Hooray for October babies!

Before heading out of town, I met up with three of my sorority sisters down on Mass Ave.
It was so great to catch up with them and have them meet Crosby.
We all do a great job of keeping in touch, but it’s just different when you get to see each other in person.
It makes me so happy.

Even though the circumstances for the trip weren’t ideal, I am so thankful
that Crosby and I made the trip to be there. I came back with a full heart.