oh, memories…

Last week was our first (of hopefully many) Blair family Christmas vacations. That’s right, I said Christmas. We asked my parents if instead of getting gifts at Christmas time, we could take a family vacation. This year we decided on the beach.

It started out with a bang…and some smoke. Mark and I bought our first min-van one week before the vacation. About 2 hours into our trip the RPM’s started revving up and the engine started to smoke. Our transmission went out. That was fun.

3 hours later, we had been loaded into a tow truck (which Noah thought was AWESOME), towed to a service company, had a rental car and were back on the road. It was not the best way to start our trip, but at least we were on the road again.

Not long after, a friend of mine called and said “You know that Isaac is predicted to become a category II and is heading straight towards the gulf.” We knew it was a possibility, but we were really hoping the tropical strom would settle down and not cause us any trouble.

Well, Isaac turned out to only cause us a few problems. We made it to the beach everyday (even if for only 15 minutes), and it really only rained one day. Double red flags were up from Tuesday through Friday, so we could not get in the water, but we made the best of some sand time.

In the bottom left picture, you can see that the water made it almost all the way up to the stairs of the houses. 

And yes, the kids are in their PJ's.

The kids had fun, we were able to relax and enjoy the water, and the few days that the sun did come out we took full advantage. We even made time to go to a carnival and hit up the outlet mall. 

Now to decide what we should do next year…

Pleasantly surprised

Most of Mark’s family lives up in northern Ohio, thus we rarely get to spend time with them. Sometime last year, we drew up the idea to take a family vacation to the beach. Mark’s grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins live in New Smyrna Beach, Florida so this seemed like the logical place to go.

Noah has never been to the beach and Tay has not been since she was younger than 1. Mark’s parents generously offered to pay for the majority of a beach house, so we graciously accepted the opportunity to go :) Last Saturday, we packed up my parent’s minivan, headed out at midnight, and spent 11 hours in the car.

Enter “family vacation” week. I am not going to lie, at first, I was a little concerned. We were on vacation for ONE week with Mark’s entire family in ONE house. Don’t get me wrong, I love Mark’s family. But when you put 20 people in a house for one week, personalities are bound to collide, right?
However, I was pleasantly surprised.

We laughed, the kids played well together, we stayed up late, and the beach was amazing!

Memorable moments from our trip
• On the trip down, both kids were awake at 2:30am laughing hysterically at one another, slap happy?
• Noah loved the beach! He would run straight for it and laugh the entire way
• Tay on the other hand, not a huge fan. It “hurt her eyes”, so she stuck to building sand castles.
• Both kids are NOT afraid of the pool. We had to “rescue” both more than one time. Made me quite nervous
• Our 4th anniversary was Thursday, so we had a “date night” at one of the local restaurants
• Tay jumping in the pool yelling “cannonball”!
• Karaoke, need I say more?
• Nascar baby!! My father-in-law is a HUGE Nascar fan. We went to Daytona Speedway where he was able to ride in a race car.
• The quote of the week, “where’s Noah?”
• On the way home, Noah decided to pull an “all nighter”, meaning from midnight til we got home at 11am, he DID NOT SLEEP. Still recovering from that one.

Air brush t-shirts and mullets

Can you guess where we went this weekend by the title?
My ENTIRE side of the family got together in Gatlinburg for Easter weekend. I am talking aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, everyone! We had such a wonderful time. We ate good food, had great conversation, enjoyed carnival rides, and I was able to take advantage of all the "built in babysitters" and enjoy some shopping time with my sister-in-law.


My grandparents have been married for 59 years. I am beyond blessed to have such a wonderful example of a Christian marriage.
My grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s several years ago. To see the way that my granddad takes care of her is so amazing. I cannot explain the love that I see when I am with them. On Friday night, my granddad called a square dance (something he has done for years). After a square dance, he always plays the Tennessee Waltz and dances with my Grandma. I loved watching them that night.

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.
                                                      Matthew 28: 5-6

Happy Easter friends!