fredericksburg

This summer instead of my traditional vacation I've stayed close to home. This might be the first summer I haven't been out of Texas that I can remember. Because I'm taking a big trip in December, I've decided (sort of) that I should probably just save my money and wait for the big Australia and New Zealand trip. So my second summer trip I took in Texas was south again. I went with 5 other girls to Fredericksburg. I've only been there once and I would really call it taking a trip o Fredericksburg to explore the cute little town and surrounding areas. I went for a pedicure the day before my brothers wedding. That was the closest place so that's where we went. We were there strictly for me to get my toes done and eat lunch. So my first real trip to Fredericksburg was a lot of fun. We stayed in a cute little cottage called the Abble House. It was perfectly located and within walking distance to everything except the wineries and nothing is within walking distance to the wineries. The food we ate was great! The wine was delicious! The atmosphere was just lovely! I came back a little heavier than I was when I left so I'd say the trip was a success :)

Here are a few pictures from our adventure.

Now to prepare for 5 glorious days in Austin with my gg's!  Can't wait! :)

baby k

Monday, July 16, 2012 my life was forever changed.  I became an aunt to the most precious chubby cheeked little girl :)  She's beautiful and I'm blessed that she is my first niece (assuming there will be more nieces or nephews along the way).  I knew her mommy (my sister in law) was going in Sunday night and being induced Monday morning.  I woke up to a string of texts and my mom asking if I was at the hospital.  Nope, I was still in bed.  I knew that I had time even after she was born because they would have to clean her up and such.  I didn't rush to get ready and actually took extra time because if I was going to be taking a picture with her, my hair needed to be fixed and I needed to have makeup on. She arrived a little before 1pm but we didn't get to hold her until around 5:30pm.  That was the longest wait ever.  They were able to reserve the only suite in the maternity area at the hospital and it's a good thing they did because there were a lot of us around and a normal sized room would have been packed otherwise.  After we got to meet baby K, we headed home to let the new parents get some rest.  I was back the next day though with my camera in my hand.  I took some pictures of the sweet girl and her parents.  I think hospital pictures are a must if you can get someone who knows what they are doing to come in.  I was honored that they let me intrude and get some pictures.  I am going over tomorrow to see that sweet chunky monkey and take her newborn photos.  I sure hope they turn out as good and actually even better than her hospital pictures.  I hope the lighting cooperates with me and the outdoor lighting will shine right in all their windows.  I'll post some of them in a few weeks but here are a few that I took at the hospital.

Love those cheeks!

Isn't she sweet?!?!

Aunt K with Baby K :)

Daddy's Little Girl

girls trip to nyc in 2004

Going back to my previous trips that I said I was going to blog about.....one of my favorites.....NYC during the holiday season.  It was wonderful!  Basically the timing was perfect.  We had been talking about going to NYC to see it at Christmastime.  It had been at least 6 years since I had been to NY and I don't think the others had been at all.  An airline was fighting to stay afloat at this time, and had a killer sale on tickets.  We got ROUNDTRIP tickets for like $85 a person.  That was a steal and there was no reason to think on it.  We booked the trip.  It was my first friends trip after college.  We had great luck on the way there.  We were supposed to have a connecting flight somewhere but they needed 4 people to get bumped.  We volunteered and ended up on a non-stop flight and a voucher for another airline ticket to use sometime during the next year.

Four girls in NYC was pretty exciting....they all wanted to shop, we all wanted to see a show on broadway and we did both.  We did the scary back room shopping in China town.  I'm pretty sure we all bought fake Coach purses that we just KNEW they were real, but when you put them right next to a real one you could tell they were fake.  It was all part of the experience though :)  We saw Wicked on Broadway which was incredible!  That was one cold winter for sure.  I wanted to go stand out and wait for The Today Show to start and make a sign to be seen on tv but no one would go with me.  I was ready to layer and layer and bring a blanket from the hotel, but I didn't want to go alone.  Oh well, we had a blast on the trip and I would love for all of us to go back again one day!  Here are some pictures from the trip.

We had just arrived and were waiting for a cab at the airport.  Yes, I am aware that I look ridiculous in the hat!  

This was on our evening cruise.  It was so cold outside!

They ready maps.....I follow unless forced to navigate.  

We had to take a picture with the tree.  

It started snowing so Jenn pulled out her umbrella.  

We took a carriage ride in Central Park.  It was frigid!

I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane!

trip to san antonio

I got back on Thursday from a short trip down to San Antonio.  The reason for the trip was for a CSCOPE education conference.  We drove down on Tuesday and checked in to our hotel right away and quickly went to the conference.  Because it started at 1:30 and we arrived at about that time to the convention center, we missed the first session but we had a chance to plan our attack for our other sessions.  The way it seemed as though it was going to work was that we were going to have to leave a few minutes early from sessions to make it to our next session or it would be full.  Thankfully we never got turned away from a session and were able to attend some really good sessions and learn so good stuff.  Our keynote speaker on Thursday was great!  Her name was Marcia Tate and she was very energetic and a wonderful speaker.  We ended up driving back midday on Thursday so we were only there for 2 nights.  Overall it was a good trip.  We ate some good food, saw some touristy sites and stayed in a nice hotel.  Here are a few pictures from the trip.

I had to get a picture in front of The Alamo.  The last picture I had taken in front of The Alamo was probably take 11 or 12 years ago.    

We went to Mi Tierra to try their food.  I highly recommend it!

selfless

I guess I've always been a daddy's girl, but I've only really seen it in the past 5 years or so.  My dad is one of the most caring, loving, thoughtful, and selfless men I know.  He is constantly doing things for me and making sure that I have everything I could possibly need.  If I tell him I'm looking for something, he will look for whatever it is and most of the time, he will find it and get it to me within a few days.  This can work to my advantage and I know how blessed I am to have a dad that goes above and beyond.  He's the one that remembers to water my yard....I don't remember.  He's the one that will make sure I am up to date on my oil changes.  I'm pretty sure that if he wasn't checking on those oil changes, I know I wouldn't remember.  He checks on my house when I'm out of town.  He's my ride to and from the airport whenever I go anywhere as long as he's in town.  He's always thinking about the kids in my classroom and if he sees something that they might like or that I might be able to use in my classroom, he gets it for me.  He is such a generous man.  I'm not sure what I would do without him in my life.  

People tell me I'm spoiled......I tell them, "At least I'm not spoiled rotten."  

This might be one of my favorite pictures of my dad and me.  I have heard stories about how my dad would stay up with me at night and we would watch movies so that my mom could sleep. 

This is another picture that was taken this past Christmas when I had my parents over for brunch on Christmas Day.   

And this last picture is one of his favorites that I added to the card I made him on Shutterfly for Father's Day.  He's not in it, but I do agree that it's pretty darn cute!  Oh, and in case you are wondering, yes my hair is red in the picture.  It was reddish and turned strawberry blonde and still has some red under the blonde.  

I will always be Daddy's Little Girl and I am eternally grateful for his love and all he has ever done for me!  

old photos from old trips

With a summer that is not filled with extensive travel, comes projects around the house.  With projects around the house such as cleaning and organizing, comes finding old nostalgic items.  With nostalgia, comes reminiscing about good ole times.

As I was cleaning out/organizing drawers in my home office, I came across CD's of pictures from trips that I have taken in the past 10 years.  During the past 10 years my love of travel has grown.  It's neat to look back on those trips and see the different places I have been and "forgotten" about.  Even though they aren't as extreme as Alaska or New Zealand, they are still part of my experiences.  Looking at the pictures brought back memories of things that I had forgotten that I had done/seen.

I thought since I find myself getting bored (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) throughout the weeks of summertime, I would blog about what I remember from these trips.  I know I won't get all the details correct or remember every single thing that I did on the trip, but pictures really are worth a thousand words.  These pictures are a great way for me to remember all the sweet times I had with my dear friends and family.

So, I'll start with Hawaii but will be leaving out quite a few details and mainly just sharing some fun pictures.  We went in July 2004.  I will say this.....when I graduated from college in May 2003, my mom told me that we were going to go on a trip to Hawaii the next summer.  My exact words that I will never forget were "I wanna be skinny."  Her exact words that I will never forget were, "Well, you have a year to do it."  I never looked back.  My close friends and those that have been around for a while, have seen me before, and seen me after.  They saw the transformation.  People I have met recently or haven't known for at least 9 years would never guess that I used to be 70 pounds heavier.  It's hard for me to believe too, but it is true.  So I guess Hawaii brought on that transformation, that change.  Maybe I'll blog about that later, but for now I'll just blog about my traveling.  

Hawaii was my first cruise.  We took a non-stop flight to get there that was about 8 hours and left on the cruise only a few hours later.  I would never suggest flying to your embarkation destination on the same day that your cruise leaves.  If anything would have happened with our flight to delay it, we might have missed our ship.  However, it was our first cruise and we didn't know.  The cruise was a 10 day cruise on NCL.  We spent time island hopping and then took 2 sea days to get to Fanning Island and 2 sea days to get back from Fanning Island after only spending maybe 10 hours there (if that).  Hawaii is beautiful!  It was perfect.  My favorite island was Maui.  I learned how to surf in Maui and had a blast.  We also went to a luau in Maui.  I also remember going snorkeling in Kauai.  That was one of my favorite snorkeling adventures.  I hate to say it was the best because the snorkeling in Alaska was one of my favorites too but it was a different experience.  While we were in Kauai after we had lunch we got to taste Hawaiian shaved ice.  It's basically shaved ice with vanilla ice cream in the bottom of the cup.  It was really good.  Fanning Island was a neat experience.  The locals there were so glad to see us.  I wasn't sure what to expect but it was a neat experience.  Let's see.....I remember making several different types of leis on the ship on our sea days.  Some people don't like sea days but I do, because they force you to relax.  You can't be in a hurry to leave the ship because there isn't a port...just  a big ocean.  I don't remember much more from the trip so I'll leave you with these pictures.

After arriving in Hawaii after our 8 hour flight.  I do remember sleeping most of the time, which is what I like to do on long flights.  

Fanning Island

With my mom after making ribbon leis.  

Palm Frond Weaving Class

At Sea

This is after we snorkeled in Kauai.  

Before we surfed they gave us rash guards and water shoes.  

I have proof that I really did surf.  The camera died shortly after this picture.  However, I think I have some video footage somewhere.  

This is on the beach at Maui close to where we went to a luau.  

Other trips that I will be blogging about in the days ahead are the following: (in no particular order)

*NYC at Christmas with 3 of my best friends
*Charleston with one of my best friends
*Canada/New England Cruise with my mom and grandmother.
*Europe with my brother and another good friend
*Any other traveling photos I come across that I feel need their own blog post.

I hope you have enjoyed my Hawaii trip in a nutshell.  Hopefully one day I'll go back there.  It's on my list of places I'd like to visit again someday.

let the countdown begin

Each year seems to go faster and faster.  At the start of my school year, I said "It will be summer before we know it" and here it is.  The students have grown--they are older, wiser, smarter-- the temps are warmer and life goes on.  I truly am going to miss quite a few of my students this year.  I know they were handpicked for me and I am grateful that I got to care for and teach them this past year.  There parents trusted me with them each day, trusted that I would teach them, be sensitive to their needs, and nurture them.  I am thankful that I get the chance to be a role model to my students, to these sweet young inquisitive minds.  I will miss them but in a few months I will get new little children, new minds to mold and teach.

IN THE MEANTIME.....

I will be relaxing and traveling a little.  I must start a countdown to Fredericksburg and Austin.  I love friend time and spending time with them.  I was just reminiscing earlier today about college and those times that I met some of my dearest friends.  I have been out of college without those dear friends down the hall from me for almost 10 years.  It's hard to believe.  Those were some of the best years of my life and I wouldn't trade them for ANYTHING!  I can't wait to spend quality time with those dear friends that mean the world to me, that bring out the best in me.

So....let the countdown begin!