Baby Nick!

The same day as Aunt Emily's birthday...my friend, Sara, gave birth to her second little boy! Nicholas Smithers was born right around lunch time. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to the hospital for the birth but I was there within a few hours. I even changed the very first poopy diaper.

Baby Nick came home from the hospital on Saturday so I took the girls over to meet him. 

Addy was way more into him than Ava. Ha! 

But we love him so!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Emily!

And Aunt Emily has turned the big 3-7! This loves her birthday more than I love cake. It's true. I swear. We celebrated at El Camino with family! We had a wonderful time and even better company!

Hope your birthday was amazing, Emmer Doo Doo!!

Breakfast with a Loved One

Ava's school recently hosted this fun event! The "conveniently" run the book fair during this time, but it's also just a fun time to see everyone in our community. And this year, Nana joined us!

And someone's little sister enjoyed the jelly donut!

Apple Umpkin Festival!

For the second year in a row, Aunt Liz invited us to Kapnick Orchards in Adrian for their annual Apple Umpkin festival. Jolie, Leilani, Quinn, Gia, Andrew, Megan, and PYRO joined us. I think Ava's favorite was Pyro. She absolutely loves this dog!

She held his leash the whole time and just kept giving him kisses. So sweet! 

We had a great time, eating yummy food, drinking apple cider, and going on a hayride! 

We marked quite a few things off of our fall bucket list!

And did I mention how gorgeous the weather was? Perfection. 

Towel Animals

Ok, one more cruise post...

Every night while you are at dinner, your room steward comes in for turn down service. But the cooler part is they leave a towel animal on your bed. I couldn't wait to get a picture of them each night to show the girls!

Cruise - Day 5 and 6 {At Sea and Travel Home}

Our last day on the ship was an At Sea day. We had a nice relaxing end to the trip. We started packing and getting ready to home. We stayed out of the sun because we both had some nice red shoulders. Ha! I did enjoy one last indulgence before we headed home though.

We had one more amazing dinner in the dining room. I have to shoutout to Carnival on the food! Wow! One of my most favorite things was the chilled bisque. There was strawberry, cherry, and mango (pictured below). I have already googled recipes so I can make them at home. 

The next thing was the chocolate melting cake. Wow. Again, have a similar recipe. Funny story: The waiter always brought me two sides of ice cream. And every night when he placed it in front of me, he would say "Oh, Mickey Mouse!" 

 And every night, I would giggle like a school girl! I'm not sure why it was funny. Five nights in a row. Ha! 

We were up early the next morning and off the ship within an hour. The easiest debarkation I've done. And Uncle Nate was waiting by the door. It was awesome! We went for a late breakfast, early lunch before he took us to the airport. I'm bummed we didn't get to spend more time with him but I was ready to get home to my to my girls. Plus, he may be visiting soon. 

Both of our flights were on time, thankfully. I had to snap this picture. I love the whole Atlantic coast of Florida. West Palm down to Miami, South Beach. Oh, how I miss visiting there. 

We landed in Detroit and were greeted at baggage claim by a super excited Ava Kate and a super shy Addy Grace! It took her a few to come around but once she did, neither girl left my side for very long. 

It was a wonderful trip. It truly was. I didn't realize how much I needed a vacation until I was there. John and I had an absolute blast and I completely remember why I married him! 

Cruise - Day 4 {Amber Cove, Dominican Republic}

When I originally booked this cruise I wanted to be sure we stopped at ports where we had never been before. Well, I did a good job on this port. Because we received a letter in our stateroom the night before that we were the first ever cruise ship to port here. So not only had we never been there, but no one had! Ha! We got up in the morning and had breakfast, late risers, of course. We had booked an excursion at this port at an all inclusive, secluded beach. We had a short walk to our tour bus but there was entertainment along the way.

We took a short ride to the resort where we would be spending the day. When we arrived we were greeted with mimosa's. Not a bad start. The beach was wonderful. We had our own little beach bed, along with basically our own server. They were overstaffed which was a great benefit for us. 

We spent the day resting, drinking rum punch, and eating great food! We headed back to the ship after 5 hours. We were sun tired. Ha! 

What a wonderful stop! I would definitely recommend this excursion to anyone.