Happy New Year! I am wanderlust.

Wow, it has been a long time since I've felt like updating the blog.  This has been mostly due to the busy holiday season and traveling and a little bit of laziness.  Just sayin'.  Now that we have moved into 2014, I'm hoping to renew this blog and try to be around a little more.

This year is hopefully looking to be a year full of exciting travel.  So far we are looking forward to a big trip to Hawaii in the next few months. We will probably throw in a cruise and a few smaller trips to round out the year.  I am thinking this year's word will be:  Wanderlust.

I have a few projects planned for around the house: refresh the master bathroom and dining nook, finally (possibly?) hang some curtains in our family room, and possibly paint the kitchen cabinets, add a backsplash and a few new appliances/lighting.  I would also love to find or build the perfect island to add to the kitchen. I really need something with some drawer/cabinet storage for all of my baking supplies.  A shelf for cookbooks would be nice too.

If I get the time, I will try to post a few updates from the last couple of months of 2013.

Scenes from Fall

(All photos from our recent trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan)

Wordless Wednesday: Caramel Apple

 

Cincinnati 2013: Part 3

My 4th of July cutie:

Catching lightning bugs:

Date night:

Salem Gardens

 311 at Riverbend:

Reds baseball game:

Goodbye 1364.  Thank you for the years of wonderful memories.

Cincinnati 2013: Part 2

Skyline Chili for lunch:

Coney Island:

First visit to Sunlite pool (still the world's largest recirculating swimming pool):

First time off a diving board:

Coney Island fireworks:

Cincinnati 2013: Part 1

This post is bittersweet.  I spent all of my childhood summers in Cincinnati, OH visiting my paternal grandparents.  We usually spent a month there.  We had many friends, favorite places to eat, and traditional places to visit each summer.  This trip was on the sad side for me as it may be one of my last visits to a city I love so much.  We went to help clean out my grandparent's house to ready it for sale.  It was hard to watch as piece by piece, my grandparents' belongings were carried off in a stranger's hands at our estate sale.  When we weren't working hard, we tried out best to eat our favorite foods and make a few lasting memories of my childhood memories with our daughter.

Little California Woods:

Taylor with Frisch's Big Boy:

Big Boy burger with lots of tartar sauce:

Jungle Jims's:

The Krohn Conservatory: 

I have pics of her on this bench from 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2013:

Ohio River from Eden Park:

Sanibel 2013

We were fortunate to spend a long weekend on Sanibel Island again this year.  We enjoyed collecting shells on the beach with our dogs during a fabulous sunset, a little shopping, and lunch with local friends.  We were also celebrating my husband's birthday.

Turtle nesting tracks: