What I Did on My Bloggy Vacation…iPhone Photo Dump

May 10, 2013 By
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Hey Y’all!

I hope you’ve had a great week!

I’m still trying to get back into the swing of things after taking some time off. Normally, since it’s Friday, I would post a “Happily Ever Before & After” feature here on the blog, but since I decided to unplug for the last couple weeks, I haven’t been able to come up with any rooms to feature! So, I thought I would switch things up a bit & just share some photos from my little bloggy vacation instead.

I had mentioned a couple weeks ago that we were going to take a little trip north to visit some family, including my little sis….that is how my break started. This was a picture I snapped in the car of the boys & I while we were still sitting in the driveway waiting to take off. I wanted to remember how happy & excited we were to be getting away for a few days, because I knew the look on our my face would be much different after a 5 hour car ride in the backseat with these two!

Overall the car ride their went pretty well. The boys were pretty content watching their movies & eating snacks, but the car ride home was a different story!

Our reason for making the trip north was to attend a wedding reception for my husband’s college friend.  My sister offered to keep the boys overnight for us, so it was just the hubby & I all dressed up for a night on the town. I decided to break out my coral striped dress for the occasion! I was so happy to have another reason to wear it! You can read more about the dress HERE.

We had such a great night out! It was fun catching up with old friends & dancing all evening. It was especially nice being able to sleep in the next morning….thank you Aunt Cortney for keeping the boys!! YOU ROCK!

This was a photo that my sister sent me that next morning…..

Eating donuts & drinking orange juice from coffee mugs….looks like a great morning to me! I think it’s safe to say that these two had a great time with their Aunt!

The next day, the weather was absolutely beautiful & we decided to take advantage with a family trip to the zoo!

We went to the Niabi Zoo near Moline, IL. It is such a nice zoo & the perfect size for little kids. We were able to get through the entire thing in about 2 hours & still got to see so much! Probably one of the favorite parts for the boys was being able to feed the ducks.

We also got to go through a petting zoo & feed goats as well. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of that because I was having to help Griffin quite a bit. He wasn’t too keen on the idea at first, but once I gave him the push he needed, he did great! He thought the goats were hilarious!

I did manage to snap a shot of one of the swans near the duck pond. She was busy guarding her eggs. Do you see the size of those things?! CRAZY!

We made our way through the zoo visiting the zebras, giraffes, and monkeys too.

The kids had fun posing as monkeys, checking their wing span & riding the train that went around the entire zoo. 
The next day, we made the trip home. We left in the morning, which looking back I think was a mistake. The boys had so much energy and were confined to their carseats. I would have much rather let them burn some of that energy in the morning by taking them to the park or something similar, and then traveled home in the afternoon with the hopes of them taking a nap. They were both so hyper & so LOUD the entire way home that I was feeling a bit like this……
Ready to pull out my hair and in desperate need of some Excedrin! Note to self….no more morning traveling! 
The next day I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather we were having in Southern Illinois & do some work outside. So, I made a trip to our local greenhouse to pick up flowers…..

This place is a little bit of heaven on earth. Seriously, if I could move in I would. 🙂 Every square inch covered in beautiful flowers.

I picked up some impatiens, vincas, and a gorgeous hanging basket full of wave petunias….all in different shades of pink! 🙂 I did a TON of work sprucing up the side of our house which I will be sharing in a separate post, probably next week! 
I also managed to squeeze in some reading during my time off.  I took the advice of my friend Jaime and picked up the 1st book of the Delirium triology back in December…..yeah 5 months ago! I had read a little bit of the book, but hadn’t really had time to dig into it. So I took advantage of my time off the computer & finally finished the first book of the trilogy. 
I also picked up the 2nd book just a couple days ago & I’m already really enjoying it! If you are looking for a new series to start, and you liked the Hunger Games trilogy, then I really think you would enjoy these books too! 
So, that’s a recap of my break! Even though we didn’t anything too exciting, it was still a great week! There is just something refreshing that comes when we unplug ourselves from the computer every now & then and just live life! Refreshing to take time to appreciate the little things that occur on a daily basis that we sometimes miss when we are consumed with the online world, ya know? 
Don’t forget that the “Inspire Me Please” Weekend Blog Hop is going on NOW! Be sure to stop by & link up your projects!! CLICK HERE. 

Thanks so much for visiting me today!! Have a great Friday & a wonderful weekend!

Got anything exciting planned?!

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Comments

  1. beforeduringandafterblog.com says:
    May 10, 2013 at 10:55 am

    1. The red and white dress is amazing.
    2. You have a gooorgeous smile.
    3. Thanks for the tip on the Inspire Me Please party!

  2. Susan says:
    May 10, 2013 at 12:55 pm

    Looks like a great trip, Tonya. Glad you could take a break with the fam. Good luck with the flower planting. I have a serious brown thumb, which I explain here: http://livingrichonless.com/10-random-things-about-this-blogger/

  3. Carrie says:
    May 10, 2013 at 2:05 pm

    I am glad you had a wonderful week off and a fun date night with your husband at the wedding! My husband and I have a date night set up for in August (LOL!) that we are excited about! Don’t worry, we’ll get some date nights in before then, too! I love the pic of the Momma swan and her eggs, just beautiful! Your kids look like that had a blast!

  4. Jennifer Mead says:
    May 10, 2013 at 2:30 pm

    It looks like ya’ll had a blast!! I love those flowers too…seriously need to get my butt in gear and plant some in my backyard. Hope you have a great weekend!
    xo, Jennifer

  5. Cassie @ Primitive & Proper says:
    May 10, 2013 at 6:18 pm

    looks like a lot of fun! and i need to look into that series!

  6. Christina says:
    May 10, 2013 at 7:27 pm

    sounds like a good break. I may need to take an unplugged vacation later this summer.

  7. Ronnell K says:
    May 16, 2013 at 9:19 am

    Love Lightfoots! Our Soph class had a plant sale with Mc Nitt’s this past Saturday and I got some nice plants there!

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