Oh the Adventures We Take!

OK, so I am very behind in updating this blog, but as usual life in the Hughes Household has been NUTS for the past few weeks. So here goes, an update on the super crazy last few weeks:

On the 18th of June the four of us packed up and headed North to Virginia to visit with family on the Vail side. Now, as a little background, the weekend before we headed North Katherine had been hospitalized with the croup, a double ear infection and other respiratory junk. She was thankfully all better before the trek, but Mom (me) was just in the worst part of the cold on Friday...and I have super sensitive ears while flying...a lovely combination. Anyway, the flight was very anticlimactic (Praise the LORD!) and Katherine was a perfect angel the entire trip. Caroline refused to nap and was pretty squirmy, but she is almost 1 and had no idea what the heck we were doing. All in all, the flight was pretty great, aside from the head splitting pain that occurred in my ears on descent into Richmond, but that, thankfully, subsided upon landing.

Once in Richmond we spent a day with the Hughes crew and even got invited to Uncle Cory's for a fabulous taco lunch prepared by Cory and Jen...definitely two thumbs up! We scurried back to CiCi and PaPa's house for a nap before we all headed out to P.F. Chang's for a wonderful dinner. Caroline made an absolute mess with the rice...so much so that Christopher left an extra tip for the waiter because we felt so bad for him. That girl can throw some food when she gets a mind to! :) Caroline also cut one of her top teeth on Saturday morning...and managed to nail the bridge of her nose on the bed frame when she tried to pull herself up on it and fell. So, she now had one front tooth and two black eyes...it was a lovely sight!

Sunday we were all up early, packed into 4 cars (yes we had 7 people and 4 cars...you don't travel lightly when you have two kids in tow!) and headed to the Rivah. The Vail family reunion was that afternoon and we wanted to get settled in at the rental house before all the festivities began. I had the privilege of driving CiCi's new car and I was scared to death to touch it. I would hate to be the one to get a scratch on it! It's beautiful and was a joy to drive. The girls especially loved having their car seats in the "Queen's Carriage." It's definitely fit for a queen! :) After unpacking the cars and getting things put away at the rental house, we all headed to Gran and Grandad's for some delicious bar-b-que and great time with family. Katherine was in HEAVEN. She had about 10 people all paying undivided attention to her and she could play in the sand and river all she wanted. Talk about spoiled! Caroline conked out for a nap immediately following lunch, so I was able to enjoy some time down by the water talking with everyone and catching up on everything. It was a splendid day for sure!

Monday we woke up to discover that the rental house was infested with none other than fleas?! WHAT?! So, after the morning nap, we packed up the food and necessary supplies for the day and headed to Gran and Grandad's while the house fumigated. What a bummer! Monday also happened to be our 7th wedding anniversary, but poor Christopher spent the entire day fumigating the house, airing it out and then cleaning up. He definitely got dad/husband of the year award that day!! After the house was declared "safe" by the boys, we all headed back over to get ready for a pizza dinner. We sent Chris out to pick up some pizzas since everyone was coming over to swim in the pool while we had dinner...yeah...apparently the pizza place in Mathews closed a while ago...so being the smart man that he is, he swung by Food Lion and picked up some frozen pizzas and called me to get the oven pre-heated. We managed to quickly cook up 6 frozen pizzas and serve the hungry crew before a rebellion broke out! :) Katherine was again in heaven as she has spent the entire day either in the water at the Rivah or in the pool. I swear she is part fish! :) And to top things off, Caroline also cut her second top tooth today...poor thing was miserable with those darn teeth coming through!

Tuesday, we were in the water from sun up to sun down basically. Katherine L-O-V-E-D it...and I swear she never wore out! Gran insisted that Christopher and I go out to eat for our anniversary, so we got all dressed up and headed out to find a restaurant in Mathews. We ended up eating a a very cute little restaurant that served everything from roast beef and mashed potatoes to stromboli's. It was very good and super friendly. We zipped back to Gran and Grandad's where the whole crew had gathered for one of Gran's famous spaghetti dinners just in time for Katherine to start her meltdown. We quickly ushered her to the car and back to the house for a bath and bed...she was exhausted!

Wednesday, we spent the morning swimming and then Connie came over to play with Katherine at the pool. They had a blast, but I do believe that Katherine wore Connie out! I swear I have never seen anyone with as much energy as Katherine has. She would just keep going, and going, and going, and going. It wore me out just watching her! Connie and Allan joined us for dinner and we all had a great time...especially when we shared the chocolate ice cream from a local homemade ice cream shop in town...holy cow that stuff was the best ice cream we have ever tasted!

Thursday was one of those days that it just crazy. Caroline woke up with a fever of 99.5, so I gave her some Motrin and I noticed that she had a pretty thick green mucus coming from her nose...I immediately figured she had an ear infection since she was pulling on her ears...great...we have to fly back on Saturday! So off to the urgent care we go...which is in the next county over and 45 minutes away. We were at the urgent care from 10:45am until 2:15. Now, just imagine a sick baby, no morning nap and waiting in a waiting room with other sick people...it was ridiculous! The poor baby was in an absolute fit by the time the doctor actually saw us. Luckily her ears were clear as can be, and it was just a virus. So we headed back to the rental house. I was so relieved that her ears weren't infected I didn't know what to do. We were cleared to fly home! We got back in time to inhale some left over lunch and then get Caroline down for a much needed nap! That night Katherine, CiCi, PaPa and Cory went to dinner at the famous Sea Breeze while Caroline, Christopher and I stayed behind to a quiet dinner of leftover burritos from lunch. After a super long trek to the urgent care, I didn't think Caroline would survive dinner in a restaurant!

Friday, we all packed it up and headed back for Richmond. The fleas had returned in full force and I think we were all just done with not having real a/c (it was 105 degrees and the rental house only had window units) and ready to be home. So the girls (CiCi, Caroline, Katherine and I) hightailed it back to Midlothian while the boys stayed behind and cleaned up. Cleaning does not happen with Katherine and Caroline in the house, so we figured it best to get them out of dodge! We got home just in time for their afternoon naps. After naps, we all headed to Cracker Barrel for dinner and Katherine managed to score some big time loot from the store. She got a new "Princess dress" complete with a crown hat and diamond slippers. She was the royal princess for sure! CiCi and PaPa sure do know how to spoil a girl! She was on cloud nine for the rest of the night. I think she even slept in her new dress!

Saturday was the big travel day. Our flight didn't leave Richmond until 5:15pm, so we were packing and waiting around all day for our flight. It was finally time to go, so we headed to the airport and managed to grab a quick dinner at Applebee's with PaPa and Cory before we boarded the plane. Dinner was pretty entertaining as Katherine was trying to hang off of my neck while Caroline was trying to escape from the high chair onto me. So basically both kids were hanging off of me while I was also trying to eat my dinner..definitely makes for an interesting eating experience! :) Just as we were getting up from the table the overhead speakers come on and say that anyone on the flight to Orlando should be clearing security right now...great, we aren't even in line yet! So we rush over to get in line and get through security. We still had 30 minutes until flight time, so we didn't know what the rush was. We zipped down to our gate and I barely had time to get some juice for Caroline before we were boarding the plane. We managed to land in Orlando, gather our luggage and be on the interstate headed home before the time that we were originally planned to land! Talk about great! We headed home and I swear I have never been more excited in my entire life to be at home an in my own bed!

Vacation is a wonderful thing, but it's especially sweet when it makes you glad to leave and then glad to come home. :)

Pictures from our week will be posted on the shutterfly site soon, so if you need the address or password, just let me know!

Sweet Sisters

Say CHEESE!


My little "Cinderella" Katherine


I'm lookin at you...

Sweet sisters. :) The lighting isn't great, but it was such a sweet picture. :)

Now how can you resist a picture like that?!

Now that is what I call blue eyes!

My sweet little Caroline.

June Pictures

Katherine being silly


Yes, I'm standing and I'm looking for trouble...whatcha gonna do about it?



Ruh roh...Mommy is about to be VERY busy. :)

I have discovered the joy of cabinets!!! Lookout Mommy!

It's a bird, it's a plane...oh wait, It's SUPER Katherine flying through the air...Caroline thinks her sister may have lost her marbles.

I'm coming to get you!!!!

Katherine the ballerina, in her very first leotard, tights and ballet slippers. :) Man is she growing up fast!