a trip to remember

traveling with three children can be stressful and beyond exhausting but it is always well worth the fun times and special memories. this holiday weekend, we traveled to florence to spend some time with wade's family.


and while we were there, we visited wade's alma mater. lo and behold, the mascots are smack dab in the middle of campus:


hello there Mister Mister:


and the Mrs:


I love her.


and lucy loves her granna and prefers to be held:


all the time!


don't you wish you knew what they were discussing? could be badonkadonks.


and always my sweet "helper":




see kids, go to college and then you can get a brick with your name in it:


his past and his present:


afterwards, we hit the pool at the hotel:



where we stole other kids' toys:


next up, splash pad behind the pool:


I'm now going to change emma's name to "ninja-ette" because she literally ran through this whole thing lots of times and not one strand of hair got wet. very bizarre. and very impressive.







and somebody else we know was a fan!


and let's just call him ninja too because he pretty much showed those silly water fountains who's boss!


so this was the girls' first hotel experience. the first words out of my mouth were, "emma, not every hotel is this fan-TA-BU-LOUS"


and this is where ALL five us slept - or not slept really!


HOWEVER, they did sleep anytime we were in the car so I obeyed all the laws because I couldn't agree more:


oh you know - there's always an attempt at a group photo. kids just LOVE these.


can you tell that wade's whole family pulls for a certain team? my whole family pulls for the exact opposite team. it can be very confusing to a five year old.


here's something we don't do everyday. frog hunting.



has anyone seen her mama?


and before we hit the road the next morning, we had one last stop:


our "driver" played us her favorite song, "soul sister". given the artist of that particular song, the irony was almost too much! And she also really likes lady gaga. Since she belongs to me, no one should be surprised.








and with one last glimpse of the dam, we were o.u.t. {and apparently the butterfly on the back of wade's shirt was hoping to catch a ride - so sorry Miss Butter - we're not really a bug kinda family!}