CO/TX Trip

I'm still playing catch up trying to update our blog! There are A LOT of pictures because we were gone for more than two weeks. There is much to document! We went out to Colorado for a week to visit my parents, two brothers, and other family and friends. Oh how we both love it out West!!! This picture is taken right behind my parents house. It is so beautiful to hike around the canyon they live on. BUT.... watch out for snakes. We almost stepped on one. Ehhh!

We went up to the mountains to watch my brother do a triathlon. Camden was sporting his fireman pjs because my brother is a firefighter. That and we woke him up EARLY to get to the race. Iron Man coming up in September!! Go Sean!
After the race we did some other fun things in Estes. First, Camden and I smoked Justin on the slides.Next up, I beat Justin in go carts. While we drove these cars...Camden drove this car!We also spent some time in down town Denver.Best of all we spent time with FAMILY! Camden loves his great grandparents.He was in heaven with all the kids to play with. He has 27 nieces and nephews. That's right, 27! They were all so cute with him and wanted to take care of him.
After about a week in Colorado we all hoped on a plane and flew down to Austin to meet up with the rest of the Searle crew. My brothers picked us up from the airport and we drove straight to Galveston to stay on the beach. It was Camden's first time in the ocean. We had a blast playing in the waves. Justin and I got to ride a stand up jetski out in the ocean for the first time. SOO fun!!Before leaving Galveston to head to Austin we went to Rainforest Cafe, one of my favorite places in the world and officially one of Camden's!

Back in Austin we played just as hard!

We went parasailing

Bull riding
If you're wondering about my awesome boots, those belong to my brother. It's always an adventure with my family and I didn't know that we were going to go ride bulls so I was wearing work out clothes, not jeans and no boots. I actually tripped walking up the ramp to get on the bull and the cowboys laughed and asked if I was sure about this. To which I replied, no! But I did it anyway, and happy to say I made it 8 seconds. I'm not posting the video because while in my mind I was Lane on the movie 8 seconds watching it might look more like a little girl on a merry go round.
Swam in rivers and clearly got too much sun!
This is Justin going down one the "shoots".
Played beach volleyball while the kiddos played in the sand

Swam in my brother's pool

I LOVE my family and miss them like crazy!!!!!!!!

Girl's Trip!

I have the best girlfriends in the world. We lived together all through college and made some of the very best memories I have. Unfortunately, we are now spread out all over the U.S. LJ lives in San Diego, Britt is in Utah and I'm here in DC so we often have to do a girl's trip to reunite. I'm so lucky because they have come out to DC now many times! This time we decided to make a little trip out of a trip and head up to the Big Apple. We were only there two days but we definitely made the most of it by squeezing in as much as possible!
Right when we got there we got tickets to see Mamma Mia. Then headed to Central Park to have lunch on the rocks. I had never even seen the movie Mamma Mia. What a lucky choice because it was the perfect show for three girls!
The story (for anyone else who hasn't seen it) involves a mom and her two best friends doing a whole lot of singing in a whole lot of glitter. That's not the main idea of the show but you can see why I'm saying it was perfect for three girls. The disco outfits that the three girls wear in the play are hilarious. LJ, our little clothes designer and seamstress promised to make the outfits for Halloween this year if we promised to wear them. Guess you'll be seeing me sporting one of these beautiful ensemble in the near future...

Next we went to the famous Serendipity for dinner and of course the frozen hot chocolate.

We had a blast walking all over. There is something so electrifying about NY at night. I love all the lights and TONS of people. This is people watching at it's finest.

Along the way back to our hotel LJ somehow lost her shoe in this fountain. Maybe that's why you aren't supposed to climb/in her case "ride" the statues. Hmmmm

The next morning we attempted to go to the Today Show to be out on the plaza. However, I'm embarrassed to say we slept through it! Only a half a block from our hotel and we missed it. Sad but also really lovely.

We took the subway down to the financial district and walked and shopped our hearts out.

What would a girl's trip be without a little chocolate?!Of course our last stop before heading back to DC was some ice cream on the street.

After our NY adventure the girls stayed with us in DC for another week. I LOVED having them here!!!!

And so did this little man

See? He was pretty excited to be surrounded by ladies!

Father's Day

My boys on Father's Day. Camden is one lucky kid to have Justin as his dad! I don't think a little boy could be more loved. These two do everything together. Camden is already following in his dad's footsteps. He is obsessed with basketball. We have to keep one in the car that he can hold while we drive, one upstairs in his room (which he often sleeps with), and a couple downstairs. Every time Justin walks in the door Camden runs straight for his basketball and runs to Justin to pass it back and forth. I wonder sometimes if Justin sneaks in his room at night to whisper subliminal messages in his ear. Or is it really just coincidence that this kid also happens to love golf, baseball and anything else that he knows his dad likes?

Rock Climbing

This post is way overdue! A while ago we got to go rock climbing with some good friends of ours.
It was such a blast. I absolutely love rock climbing and hadn't gone since college so I was beyond excited! While we climbed this rock face.

Our kiddos climbed this rock

Or they just hung out in here

Thanks again Justin and Bethany!!!