January - We headed down to sunny warm(er) Florida. We spent our time at Sea World, Disney and with friends. Our time down there like always was too short
February - We survived the Blizzard of 2011 or better known as the Snowpocalypse
March - Colin finally become fully potty trained; yay for no more diapers for atleast a few hours.
April - Uncle Mark, Aunt Missy and Paulina came to Michigan. It was nice being able to see baby Paulina and Colin loved playing pool with Uncle Mark.
May - Mike and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary up north at the Inn at Bay Harbor.
June - June was spent being very pregnant. I didn't think June would end without a baby in my arms but oh it did!
July - Elias Graham finally arrived and we became a happy family of 4
August - Baby Elias was baptized; what a joyous day!
September - I had to go back to work :( The boys continued to grow closer
October - October was spent visiting ArtPrize, multiple Apple Picking trips, and Halloween parties.
November - The month we focus on our many many blessings.
December - December, like usual, was busy, busy, busy. Busy with holiday obligations, Christmas parties and just life.

I have so many pictures I want to post but here is a quick sampling of a handful of my faves.

Sweet Paulina!

Palm Springs, CA

La Jolla, CA

Uncle Mike and Paulina having a sweet little talk

Venice Beach

We are here and Mike was right. Everything is much better :)

The weather is great. We were able to spend some time yesterday meeting our newish niece.

We headed to Palm Springs this morning and it's beyond beautiful!! The resort , from the little I've seen, is gorgeous. Can't wait to see more of it.

Colin is doing wonderfully and has been quite a trooper. All of a sudden he has become such a big boy. He is really enjoying everything and is just making the trip even more enjoyable for Mike and I.

More later. Off to enjoy the sunshine.

After months - actually years - of planning a girl's weekend finally did happen. Did you know that Nashville, Tennessee happens to be pretty much in the dead middle of Grand Rapids, Michigan and Jacksonville, Florida? Nope? It is! So we each drove the l.o.n.g 9+ hour drive, twice, only to have two short days together but it was so worth it. We spent time doing some touristy things, seeing iconic Nashville things, eating some good grub, drinking some cool adult beverages,and just spending time together which is a rarity for us.

Customize a photo slideshow

Mike took me to Chicago to celebrate my 30th birthday. We decided to try something different and take the train. We drove part-way and then hopped the train. While the trip took a little longer it was a nice change of pace and we are both already thinking of new reasons to go back to Chicago. We arrived to steamy {heat index was nearing 100 degrees!} Chicago and walked several blocks {many unnecessary but unknown at the time} to get to the beautiful Renaissance hotel. Fittingly, we were assigned to the 20th floor! I joked in the elevator that he must not have been able to pull his usual strings since we weren't able to get us to the Club Floors but when we walked into the room, I saw this! An executive suite overlooking the River!! Living Room area Bedroom area Looking out the bedroom window. Looks like a postcard, huh?

We headed to a fabulous dinner at Wild Fire.

Wonderful dinner ended with a birthday dessert topped with a candle!

After dinner, we decided we needed to walk off our fully bellies and walked to the Riverboats. We were able to get on the last boat that toured the River and Lake Michigan.

After the boat tour, we just walked around the city taking in more sites.

We woke up Saturday to hear helicopters whizzing by. They were filming Transformers 3 right outside our hotel.

We headed outside to see more of the filming and the city.

I've mentioned this before but we take far less pictures when Colin isn't around but we had such a terrific time. Thanks babe for such a fantastic birthday!

As my birthday approaches, I'm going to focus on some high lights of my adult years on this earth.

I've been fortunate to have been able to do some travelling. A perk of getting a salaried management job {perhaps the only perk} at such a young age is it was afforded me the opportunity to see and experience the world.

Some of my more exciting tropical trips: Cancun, Spring Break to Panama City Beach, Australia, Fiji, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico. Other exciting trips: getting engaged in NYC, meeting Mike on a business trip in DC, dozens of trips down to Florida, long weekend in Boston, California, Texas.

I don't any pre-Colin pictures on this computer and can only find a few old (pre-Mike) pictures on CDs, so this will be a very short time period of pictures.

Mike and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary on May 20th. My parents and Tim graciously offered to watch Colin, so we were able to have some much needed time together. We headed back up to the Inn at Bay Harbor. Once again we were spoiled with a fantastic room, view, and VIP treatment. We had beautiful weather and walked around downtown Petoskey, rented bikes in Bay Harbor, did some gambling, ate some good food, and just relaxed at the resort. While we didn't go overboard with pictures (probably because there was no Colin), I still have too many favorites to chose, so slide show! Often times, the slide shows are off-center for some reason. If so, just click on the slide show and it should allow you to look at the pictures individually.

I'm completely behind in posting these pictures. We've been busy but also like usual we took quite a few pictures (although nothing crazy since we were so incredibly busy) and I know I'm going to have a hard time deciding. I just haven't wanted to take the time to decide what pictures to post. So I'm going to do it in stages. I'll start with a run down of the trip and add just one picture for each day (probably the same ones as my Project 365). I'll upload more pictures and an entire Disney post in the following days.

Flew into Orlando on Wednesday and drove down to Tampa. Nathan and Erika, Mike's friends, stopped by the hotel and we were able to spend some time together before C and I went up to our room. Mike, Nathan and Erika went out and celebrated St. Patrick's Day.
We had planned on going down to Clearwater on Thursday but cool weather quickly changed our plans. We started heading up with a stop in Lakeland where the Detroit Tigers have their Spring Training. Colin met Rick Porcello which he could have cared less about but we thought it was pretty cool. From Lakeland we finished our drive up to Jacksonville. We finished the night out (late especially for Colin (10.30!!)) hanging out with old friends in an old fave of mine, La Nop.
Friday's plan changed with Colin getting a craptastic night of sleep, so Mike graciously gave up golfing with the guys to watch Colin. I spent the morning and afternoon getting pampered and spending time with some great girls. Got back to the hotel in just enough time to rush to get ready to head to the church for the Rehearsal. Rehearsal was followed by a wonderful meal complete with a fire ... literally. We started in poor Cliff's dad's house!
Saturday was the big day. The entire reason for the trip - the Wedding Day!! The day was perfect. As cliche as it sounds, there is no other way to explain it other than perfect. Beautiful wedding, fabulous weather, great company.
Sunday we spent the morning in Jacksonville having a morning brunch and then went back to Angela and Cliff's house to open presents and just spend some time together. We headed back down to Orlando around naptime and checked into our 3rd and final hotel of the trip.
Monday was Disney! It was ridiculously more busy than we anticipated but had a magical time. Colin loved every minute of it and still talks about going to Mickey's House. And then gets pouty sad. "No more Mickey. No more Goofy. No more Donald Duck. No more Pluto...."
Tuesday we headed home.

In one week we took 4 flights, drove 900 miles, witnessed a beautiful wedding, danced a little, spent a magical day in Disney and spent countless hours with some of our closest friends. It was a great albeit busy hectic week and I'm grateful for every minute of it.

Downside to my camera is because of it's size I don't take it with me as often and miss out on some great photo ops. This trip was one of those times. We didn't take many pictures aside from when we were back at the hotel. I'll add a few more when I get pictures from Missy's camera. Colin taking in the view from our hotel room in downtown Chitown.
Missy says she was kissing C's head. Mike says she was yanking his head back. I just think it looks funny.
I'd love this if it was in focus.

"3 Plums Uncle Mark 3 Plums"
Bedtime books