Winter Wonderland

This has been our first Christmas here in PA and John and I tried to take in as many sights that we could around our area.
Our first stop was Longwood Gardens, to those that don't know, it is an old du Pont estate that has been turned into 1,000 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows with indoor conservatories and displays. It was very chilly, but we warmed up with some hot chocolate and took in the sights! Of course cameras never really do it justice!
 

Taken from where they normally have their fountain display

John for some reason LOVED this poinsettia tree! haha

Children's Tree Conservatory

Wreath made out of all herbs: Sage, Mint, Parsley, Rosemary, and Thyme!

 

Outdoor Railroad Display



Freezing, so we went inside to enjoy the Upper Darby High School Choir sing carols, they were AMAZING! (and I made John sit from row with me..lol)

The next night, John and I went to see the Kennett Square Symphony Children's Choir concert at West Chester University, it was so cute!

John got home from work on Christmas morning at 4am, so he slept for most of the morning and then we had a great Christmas day (opened presents, Nelson staple Christmas breakfast, dinner with Ham and all the fixings and lots of desserts!) Our close friends, Lori and Sam, kindly invited John and I over Christmas evening since they knew he was working and didn't want me to end up being by myself on Christmas. Luckily John was able to go over for about an hour and have dessert before heading back to work that night! Here are a few pics from the Kotzens/Griggs (Sam's parents were in town from England and they had a lot of English family traditions that we took part in..fun times!).

Lori's mom Sharon and Sam's dad Mel with John (Hats= one of the traditions...too cute!)

Griggs Family

 Lor enjoying our gift to Ellarose more than she did! haha

The end to a great Christmas Season! 

O' Baltimore O' Baltimore

Sorry for the lack of blogging but our computer has been tied up for 3 weeks with John's studying on the internet!! For the past say 7 years, I have been going to Baltimore, Maryland countless times for John's Coast Guard testing or Pilot training. Sometimes we are only there for an hour others times over 2 weeks.


Baltimore's old U.S Customs House where the Coast Guard now is and where we go for John's testing/Training.

During that time, I must entertain myself (so sad) for at times 8 hours out of the day in the city by myself. This past week, John had to take a two day test to receive his highest license yet, a Masters License, so I had two days to get my regular Baltimore fix in of a few of my favorite things.
This time we decided to try new lodging in the city and found a bed and breakfast (we are now obsessed with them, this probably being our 8th or so B & B all over the country), called the 1840 Carrollton Inn in the Little Italy section near the Inner Harbor. It was right near downtown but so relaxing and full of history.

Forgot to take a pic outside, so this one is from the internet.



Our Room..The Patriots Room

I seriously felt like I needed to get my Gone With The Wind dress on and my ladies in waiting. It was an amazing place that really catered to us (well they should of..we were the only guests since it was during the week and I got 40% off!). Breakfast was amazing! Room had a fireplace, four poster canapy bed and a HUGE soaking tub. And each person that has stayed in the room writes in the journal on the nightstand about why they are there, where they ate, and what they did! Loved it!

 

We of course ate our hearts out in Little Italy.. Margarita pizza for lunch at Isabellas Brick Oven Pizza. Dinner at Amiccis Italian and Cannolis at Vaccaros!!

Spent my days at my favorite places that I will share with you (its my routine now when I come to Baltimore, although John and I threw in a little tour at the top of the World Trade Center of Baltimore since we had never been).  Oh....and he PASSED! So I guess, it was a successful trip all around! haha



This is where I ALWAYS start my morning, LOVE this Barnes and Noble! I get my startbucks inside and catch up on my People Mag. and one other gossip magazine before I head out for the day!

This is my second stop of the day..Filene's basement..its almost like an organized Last Chance!
Then I just cruise the Inner Harbor which is one of our favorite places...

Can't skip The Gallery, the 5 story mall!

Here are some of our pictures from 26 stories up in the World Trade Center Baltimore



Back to the Desert

If you have been wondering if John and I disappeared from the blogging world and you were deprived of our 'Oh so facinating blogs,' you were WRONG! Well sorta. I went to Phoenix, Arizona for a little over 2 weeks and recently just returned! Unable to get my blogging down while there and you know John's blogging discipline was not there...we were in a lull! But we are backkk!

I went out to Phoenix early before Thanksgiving to help with my mom post surgery (Attempted to play Nurse Lori for 2 weeks). We weren't able to do too much since I was mostly watching her sleep and getting her medicine and food ready, but I had a great time just being with family that I dont get to see nearly enough! There were a lot of visitors, so that was always entertaining and my sister in law, Sabina, was a great hostess for us and made some FABULOUS dinners (and Mike too!) I loved spending that quality time with my 3 year old nephew Simon who although he says "No Auntie Lori" quite a bit, I know he loves me and we had a fun time! Even when we were eating dinner and he broke out from the couch with, "Celebrate Good times..come on!" LOL Where do they get this stuff?!

Towards the end of the trip, my mom was feeling better, and I was able to sneak in a few dinners with some old friends and do a little Last Chance Shoppping! (although they switched up the purse procedure again..so missed out on the good ones! UGH..next time I will be seasoned and ready!)

Love, love, love to see everyone and wish I could do so more often! There is just something special about your friends and family that you grew up with and they know you better than most..there is always a lot of laughing, reminiscing, and just catching up on life (which goes way too fast)!!

Poor John had to work Thanksgiving but he did an awesome job holding down the fort here at home and only managed to shrink one load of shirts!

Here are a few pics of Simon that I thought were so cute! And one pic of me out with the Rios sisters...our usual Thanksgiving get together.
Enjoy!
                                 
                                             

       

       

At Last...

After 4 years of waiting, John and I finally took our Honeymoon! (John started his 3 year training program only a week after we got married). Hence why I have not been blogging recently- we were sipping pina coladas and basking in the sun! We decided instead of going to an island or a cruise, we would return to one of our favorite places...Clearwater/Siesta Key, Florida. John and I had been to this area about 5 years ago and fell in love with their beaches and the clear blue water! Would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a short getaway- very laid back, good food, and amazing beaches!

Here are a few pics from our trip...

Our view from 14th floor balcony at Hyatt Regency of Clearwater-awesome hotel, highly recommended! 

Hotel has pool and restaurant/bar on 8th floor overlooking ocean..we spent alot of time up here relaxing and drinking their signature drink that tasted exactly like those orange push pops we used to eat as a kid!

Our daily occurrence.

John of course went out much further than me, but yes I did go out far with him a few days to the sandbar until I saw a dark shadow in the water and he claims 'something rubbery knocked into his leg!" Last time I went out there! We saw plenty of fish, sting rays, sand dollars, etc..

The water is SOO clear..hence Clearwater!

View of hotel from water

Sunsets from our balcony were unreal and if you are at a restaurant for sunset its a ritual to clap at the last second before its gone!

Our Anniversary Dinner at Island Way Grill (owned by two former Tampa Bay Buccaneers- I guess one of them was there but we didn't know who he was?lol) but amazing food with outdoor deck/bar overlooking bay area.

Made sure I never missed a sunset!

Back to the beach!

Notice how shiny we are in most pics...we went through 5 bottles of sunscreen!! John is a stickler when it comes to not getting burned..we put 45 on twice a day! Needless to say..we also did not get tan either! LOL

Sunday Brunch

Siesta Key Beach...softest sand ever!

We went to Busch Gardens Tampa for the day..its a theme park with rollercoasters/safari animals. They have this tiger encounter area where you are basically in a plastic tube that you can get right up in their surroundings..very cool!

One came and laid on top of our heads in the plastic thing...scary! lol

whoa!

John's best bud...they seriously played this hide/seek type game for 20 minutes!

Our last night...beautiful!

We had such a fun time and we were sad to leave but until next time!