Raleigh, NC

Last weekend we went to Raleigh, North Carolina to visit our friends, Robyn and Andrew Bywater and their two little guys: Sophia and Oliver. It was a fun road trip weekend and we were able to hang out with our friends.
We went to their volleyball tournament on Saturday (they took 1st place!) and ate all sort of our favorite foods (including the famous Bywater Caramel Corn). We went to NC state, where Andrew is going to school, to see the beautiful campus.
We also had all sorts of fun with Robyn’s new business: GraffitiCHIC. It is creative vinyl home decor. I’ll post some of the things I’ve done with the vinyl she made for me later, but you can check out her before and after photos on her website and blog. So creative and fun.
Owen and Oliver are only two weeks apart, and it was fun to watch the two of them scooting aroung together and getting into everything. Sophia loved to carry around Owen, who is about the LENGTH of Oliver, but has a bit more weight, so it looked pretty funny! So fun to watch kids together. Owen LOVES to play with other little people, and gets so excited!
Here are the pics of our trip. We tried out Nate’s new camera, so we need a bit more practice with that...some of the photos didn’t turn out as well as we’d like!

Washington

Okay, I am getting tired of doing kitchen entries for now...I’ll post more as we finish more projects. For now, I wanted to share about my trip out to Mount Vernon, Washington: my home town. Owen and I flew out to Washington from July 27-August 3. We were able to visit and enjoy my many family members there! My parents and 5 of my sisters (and their families) live in Washington. It is always so fun to see everyone, and we always end up wishing we didn’t live so far away, because it is hard to get out there very frequently. We were able to go to the park and play with the kids, have family dinners, anniversary and birthday celebrations, help my mom set up her OWN blog, meet the new babies, Rylee and Claire, play at grandma and grandpas house, go shopping, have sleep overs with cousins, get haircuts and, of course a bout with a stomach bug. While there I watched my sister, Karen’s children while they went away to Chicago! Here are some of the photos we took from that visit.

It is always fun to rediscover your home town with your “grown up” eyes and see things differently. Mount Vernon is a really lovely town, and for me, full of great memories. It was funny to drive by my old high school and see that it looks more like a college campus now! I also (as always) made a trip to See’s candies for some chocolate, and discovered a delicious new panini recipe (I’ll share that later...) from one of the grocery store delis there. So much fun, we wished we could visit more often.
I love my family.