we survived our roadtrip madness, over 4000 miles in 9 days! i’ll post more on how we survived later, ha! now that we’re back, i am desperately {DESPERATELY} trying to get my groove back.

the best thing about vacation is definitely the people. the friends and family we haven’t seen in ages, reconnecting, catching up. all lovely, all wonderful.

the worst thing about vacation {besides leaving said friends behind. i miss you all already!} is finding time to sneak off and pound my thoughts out to you all and this crazy world wide web. i don’t realize just how much i almost need this time. this quiet time to sort out my thoughts, to share and connect on a completely different level with completely different people. the world is full of beautiful connections both real life and web life. genuine and true. i love both and i need both. road trips make me realize this more than ever.

so here i sit. alone. in a coffee shop. just me and my laptop and a cup of joe with more to tell you than i have time to type and you have time to read. so i’ll make it quick with lots of images, a few funny stories and a BIG hello! i’ve missed you. truly.

{picture in real time. the crazy eyeballs are free. me in a coffee shop. drinking coffee. blogging. if anyone, ANYONE is ever hiring for a coffee taste tester or coffee shop ambiance expert, please give me a ring. i could totally dig that. :)}

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can i first just tell you i finally got to meet my nephew. born in february, it was a LOOOOONG wait for this lady to get her hands on him, and boy, do i love him like crazy! have you ever seen a baby with such hair!

{i tried to convince them to let me keep him until Christmas, but it didn’t work. what kind of person passes up 6 months of free childcare?! weird.}

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and now i barrage you because there’s no better way. a mishmash of iphone pics and DSLR. ready? set? GO!

 {someone was a bit jealous of the love her brother was dishing out to his baby cousin :)}

to the wild…quite appropriate.

aquarium pictures are always so awesome. who wants a session at an aquarium?! book now! 🙂

 

 we found a town named with our last name. we stopped to dork out and take our picture. oh, yes. we did. ok…maybe i just dorked out and they got their picture taken 🙂 i particularly like that it says, *love us*

good friends are hard to find and hard to beat.

at the last minute, we decided to smash in a day at the mall of america. SO happy we did!

the boys were in heaven riding their first roller coasters ever. they insisted that they loved it {and i believed them}, and oh how i loved watching how terrified they looked during the ride only to hop off shouting, “that was AH.MA.ZING!!!” bunch of crazies 🙂

now that i’ve flooded your computer with images; if you waited for all the pictures to load and you’re still here with me, thank you! 🙂 i have so many more images and stories from our trip, but i’ll save them for another post. for now, it feels great to be back! as always, thank you for being here! i’ve missed you!

cheers friends!