Miami Getaway

Mike started traveling to Florida for work right before the holidays, so we thought it would be fun for me to fly out and meet him there to celebrate his birthday weekend.

We spent the majority of our weekend in Miami, and I was happy for the beautiful, warm weather, especially because it seems like we’ve had an extra cold winter in Texas.  It was an odd feeling to be walking in our bathing suits on the beach in the middle of January.  I had no idea Miami Beach would be so beautiful, and I was shocked to see how clean it’s kept.  We stayed at the Conrad in downtown Miami, which had an awesome view of the ocean.  It was amazing to look out and see all the lights from the different Florida Keys and see the giant cruise ships docked in the harbor.  I’ve never been on a cruise or seen a ship close up – they are pretty impressive.

On Sunday we drove to Key Biscayne and spent the day relaxing on the beach.  I can honestly say that walking on the beach is one of my favorite things to do in life. Combine that with being with my favorite person in the world; it was pretty much the best day of my life.  When we were walking, we realized there were giant sand bars about 50 to 100 feet out in the water.  You didn’t have to wade too deep to reach them and once you’re on them, it looks like you’re walking on water.  Mike and I agreed this particular experience was probably our favorite memory from the weekend.

The culinary scene is Miami is also quite impressive; we ate so many wonderful meals.  I made a point of ordering things that I can’t usually get in Dallas.  I love seafood, so Miami is a great place to go for seafood dishes.  My favorite dish was a mushroom-crusted grouper on top of a mushroom (I also LOVE mushrooms)turnip purée. . . I think I’m still dreaming about that meal.

My mom made our getaway weekend possible by flying out to watch the kids.  It worked out that my dad was able to fly out on Saturday and stay until I got back on Monday to help out.  Watching three little kids is not the easiest job in the world, but from the photos she sent me, I could tell they were really enjoying their time with their nana and papa.  I was happy to get back early enough on Monday to spend some time with my dad before his flight back.

Happy Holidays!

Mike and I on our way to his work Holiday party.

We had a fun holiday break.  The best part was that Mike took two weeks off, and we had him all to ourselves!  I was spoiled rotten by him cooking amazing meals every night; seriously, he hasn’t made food that is anything short of delicious.  It was extra nice to have him home since he recently started traveling for work again, so we all tried to maximize our family time.

We decided that with his two weeks off, we’d try and do a big house project.  We painted our office/guestroom that is located above the garage.  It was built to be a media room, so it was painted a dark green and didn’t have any windows – that have been fine if we used it as a media room, but that was not the case. 

I took Noah and Amelia to ICE! at the Gaylord Texas; the theme this year was The Nutcracker.  It was ice sculptures of different themes throughout the story and made with over two million pounds of ice.  It wasn’t quite what we were expecting but fun nonetheless.  We went back to the Gaylord once Mike was on was on Vacation so the kids could see Santa.

We had a giant storm the week after Thanksgiving that kept us homebound for a few days.  The kids loved it because school was cancelled for two days and they got to go sledding.

Our neighbors invited us over for a Christmas Eve party. It was great because the kids all played and it made Christmas Eve extra special.  I feel so lucky to have so many wonderful neighbors . . . the people in Texas definitely make up for some of the “down” sides to living here.

Christmas morning was a little interesting.  About 30 minutes into the kids opening their gifts, Mike got the worst bloody nose I’ve ever seen.  It was seriously gushing out of his nose.  After about 45 minutes of it not improving, he drove himself to the ER and was gone for the next few hours.  Thankfully, it finally stopped at the ER, but I felt so bad that he missed most of Christmas morning.  Then, poor Max and Amelia were both diagnosed with RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) on New Year’s Day and have spent most the week battling fevers and dealing with terrible congestion.  Max definitely had it the worst.  I’ve never seen him more miserable!  It’s horrible watching your children when they feel horrible, and I am so ready for Max to be back to his happy self.

Noah got a skateboard from Santa, and I bought Mike a longboard for Christmas.  We’ve had so much fun riding them around.  For anyone who loves to surf and snowboard but lives in a place where those two things aren’t possible, you have to buy a longboard!

I was able to attend both Noah and Amelia's class holiday party.  Which was nothing short of amazing because Noah's started 30 minutes after Amelia's; thankfully there schools are only a half mile apart!

Giving Thanks!

As all of you know this time of year is very busy, so I’m just going to try and hit the highlights since my last post. 

We flew to California for Thanksgiving, and it was so wonderful to get to spend so much time with family and friends out there. It was especially great that Maxwell got to meet his Great Grandma Sandy for the first time. We took Noah and Amelia to Disneyland for three days, two of which Max stayed home with Grandma Nancy so that she and Grandma Sandy had a chance to spend some one-on-one time with him.

We missed you Aunt Shelley!

Very thankful for amazing Great Grandma's!

Amelia made a new bestie, cousin Gabby!

Jack, Max and Noah on Thanksgiving.

Amelia has been talking about going to Disneyland for at least the last eight months, so you can imagine her excitement when she finally got there! I really believe ages three through five are the most fun to take kids. She got to meet five of the princesses including Princess Aurora, who is her favorite, on two separate days. She was beyond excited to meet Jack and Sally, from the Nightmare Before Christmas; we waited in line for over 45 minutes. Amelia told Jack that Oogie Boogie was mean and that she saw him in his house (the newly renovated Haunted Mansion). Her two other favorite characters were Woody from Toy Story and Genie from Aladdin.

We were so excited to see our friends, Chris and Katie Delgado and their two adorable kids!

Max had just started saying “Dada” before we left and while we were out there he added “Mama”, “dog”, and “cat” to his vocabulary. He has always loved Lucy, our pug dog, and since coming home he follows her around everywhere just saying “dog” over and over again. The week before we flew out Max came down with a temperature of almost 104 degrees, after 24 hours of it not going down we took him to the ER. He was very dehydrated and ended up getting two IV bags and antibiotics through an IV. They never figured out what was causing the fever but after seeing him go through that it really made me feel for those that have very sick children and what that must be like.

 

We call this Max's Klingon face.

Mike took two weeks off before he starts a new study and will be traveling again, something he hasn’t had to do in over two years. Unfortunately, one day into the second week Amelia started throwing up. We were hoping it was just something she ate, but, alas it has made its way to all of us except Max. 

Last, but not least, Noah got his braces put on today!