Dataw Island 2011

This past weekend our family made the annual trip down to Beaufort, South Carolina, for the reunion my grandmother holds every year at the marina on her island. During this visit we get to visit with the family of my late step-grandfather whom we rarely see any other time during the year. The boys always have a blast playing on the enormous playground located near the marina, and they love getting to walk down the dock to check out the boats docked there by residents of Dataw Island. We had a great time catching up with family, and the weather was absolutely fantastic!

Another reason this trip is always so much fun is because we get to visit Hunting Island Beach. We LOVE this beach and highly recommend you go if you've never been! It's part of a national park, and it is nowhere near as crowded as Garden City or Myrtle Beach. We love visiting Hunting Island, and, once again, this year it didn't disappoint!

New York City!

I'm going to take a slight detour from my usual topic of conversation (the boys) and talk about someone different this time (ME!). This past weekend I got the opportunity to travel to New York City with my mom, grandmother, and sister. It was a much-needed break from the craziness that comes along with being a stay-at-home-mom, especially since Patrick is gone so much lately with work and grad school. We crammed a lot of fun into our short, three-day trip, and it was truly a vacation that I will never forget! I also need to give a BIG shout-out to my wonderful hubby who did a great job taking care of the boys by himself all weekend -he's the best!

Rather than going into a long narrative about our trip, I figure I will just post lots of pictures and explain when needed! Enjoy!

Friday

No cabs for us! We rode to the hotel in style :)

The reflection of the New Years Eve ball from our hotel window

Times Square

Our transportation through the beautiful Central Park

St. Patrick's Cathedral
Our view of the Empire State Building from the top of Rockefeller Center
The Chrysler Building from Top of the Rock
Kimbo, Grandmama, and me on Top of the Rock
The ferris wheel inside the Toys R' Us at Times Square. Our hotel was on the same block as the store!

Saturday
On Saturday, we ventured out on the NYC subway!
Ground Zero
St. Paul's Chapel - It's across the street from Ground Zero and now serves as a memorial to all those who died and volunteered on 9/11
One of the many memorials displayed in St. Paul's
A picture of St. Paul's following the 9/11 attacks
If you haven't been to St. Paul's before and get the chance to go I HIGHLY recommend it!
The SINGLE picture I got while in Chinatown. Definitely NOT my favorite part of the trip!
Grand Central Station
We ate lunch at Ellen's Stardust Diner where the servers sing during the meal.
Southern girls taking NYC by storm!
We saw "Wicked" on Broadway. It was absolutely incredible! Again, I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it!
Kimbo and me after the show

Sunday
We enjoyed lunch at Sardi's
This restaurant is known for the caricatures of all the famous people who have dined there. They are displayed all over the restaurant!
We hit up THE Macy's and then caught our flight back home!

We had such a memorable trip, and I am already dreaming about my next trip to the Big Apple (whenever that may be)! I finally got to see so many things that I have heard about or seen in movies and got to experience a city and culture that is SO different than what I am used to here at home in SC. Thanks for allowing me to depart from my usual subject matter and giving me the opportunity to share some of the fun things I got to do while away. I hope you enjoy the pictures, and check back soon for a posting about our family's recent trip to Beaufort, SC!

Tweetsie Railroad

We finally got to take our first family "amusement park" trip with the boys, and we decided to go to Tweetsie Railroad in Blowing Rock, NC. As I'm sure you all know by now, Kaden and Noah absolutely adore trains, so we thought this would be a fun and memorable trip to take them on. We only went to the park for one day, but we spent the ENTIRE day there and the boys got their fair share of train rides and fun.

Tweetsie is designed to be like an old Western town. When you enter the park, you are on Main Street where they have some shops and restaurants. This is also where you board the train. We got to the park right after it opened, so we hopped on board the first train ride of the day! Luckily, the weather started off beautifully, so we got to enjoy Tweetsie primarily while the sun was shining.

After that first train ride, we headed up the hill to the Country Fair which is where they have the arcade and lots of rides for the little kids (cars, ferris wheel, carousel). The boys were mostly interested in the arcade, but I was able to get Kaden to ride the little vintage cars with me one time.

We had the option of riding the chair lift up to Miner's Mountain, but decided instead to take the bus - something about two wiggly little boys and high heights just didn't sit right with me :) Up on Miner's Mountain we got to ride some more rides, visit the petting zoo, and go to the mountain overlook (which was very high but VERY worth it)! There was also a playground where the boys played for a little bit before we moved on to other things.

We rode the train THREE times and had a blast each time! During the train ride there was also a "show" going on with cowboys and Indians. The train would get taken over, or we would get caught up in the middle of a shoot-out. I was afraid the boys might get scared, but they loved each and every minute of it, and we have not been able to get Kaden out of his cowboy boots since we've been home!

Even though it was a short trip, we had a great time making memories that the boys are still talking about (a month and a half later)! Kaden asks us almost every day when we are going back to Tweetsie, and I know that it will definitely be soon. I totally recommend Tweetsie as a vacation destination for anyone with kids.