A Hiking We Will Go

We went for another little hike through Nags Head Woods recently. This time Dada was invited and came along! Everyone had a great time. We are looking forward to more hikes when the weather finally decides to warm up for good. It is perfect for a whole family outting, as well as a great way to burn off some energy. And since we are "changing our naps" these days (which Kingston says every day and I have taken to mean he wants to skip his nap), I like to make sure he is good and tired and ready to go to bed earlier than usual.

Chase me!

The one-legged pose.

A great family shot, even if it does look like an advertisement for SmartWater! Too bad I'm too lazy to edit my photos. . .

Family shot, take 2. The lighting was better in the first, but the composition is better in this one, if you want to get technical about it.

Handsome hiker.

We hiked about a mile and that was a plenty this time. There are a few more trails that are longer that we will try later. We had to ease Dada into it!

And on a totally different note, we have less than 2 weeks until our Marathon. Zoinks! (I've been watching waaaay to much Scooby Doo recently.) I think we are ready but I'm not totally sure!

Odds and Ends

• Kingston and I recently went on a "hike" through Nags Head Woods with some friends. It was tons of fun and I look forward to doing it again soon when it permanently warms up.
• Nigel is in Jamaica for the week on a much-needed surf trip with some of his best guy friends. We miss him a lot and look forward to seeing him on Tuesday.
• While Nigel has been gone, Kingston has been sick. He didn't go to Mrs. Cindy's house either day he was supposed to this week since he had a fever and was out of sorts. I think he had the croup, which is no fun for anyone.
• I have had to get creative with my training this week (yeah, I'm training for a full marathon). Luckily, I'm only supposed to run 3 miles each weekday run this week and 15 miles on Sunday. I've got the Sunday run covered already but I had to do some thinking to get the other runs in. I refused to take a pitiful, sick kid to the Child Watch at the Y for a workout so I looked to family to save the day! Aunt Freda watched him for 30 minutes on Wednesday after we had haircuts in Manteo so that I could run. Then tonight my dad came over to stay with Kingston while I did a quick run. Tomorrow I'm going to attempt to take Kingston to the Y in the morning to get out of the house and complete my weekday runs.
• Mom, you are not allowed to leave town at the same time as Nigel ever again. Thanks for understanding.
• We switched to DIRECTV and now have a DVR. Oh, DVR, where have you been all my life? When Nigel returns he won't be able to complain about how much I'm on my computer. Now he will wonder if I will ever stop watching TV! I have recorded, watched, paused and re-watched too much TV in the last 2 days. Oops.
• I watch Jersey Shore. I'm sorry, but I do. And now I can DVR it.
• Able (the dog) ran away while the DIRECTV guy was installing. He came back, like he always does, but his time covered in poop. Great! So now I have a really annoying dog who misses Nigel, who sleeps in my bed and will not allow me to give him a bath or even wipe him down sufficiently, who smells bad. Really bad.
• I am proud of myself. I have inspired a few people, I think! Since running the 1/2 marathon in November, I have inspired my mom and aunt to walk a 1/2 marathon here in April. I have inspired my girls Lars and Ball to run a 1/2 marathon in Atlanta in March. I have inspired my dad to get back into running after years off and now he is running frequent races and is in great shape. And I have inspired myself to run a full marathon in Virginia Beach in March.
• That is that for now.

In the Meadow. . .

. . . we probably could have built a snowman, but that would have required me to actually put my hands in the cold, wet, white stuff. I don't really do snow. I'd be fine with it if it wasn't so cold and wet. I'm just sayin'. It may have a lot to do with the fact that I never have the appropriate clothing to wear in the snow. Neither does Kingston, but that didn't seem to get him down. Cotton gloves, denim pants, shoes, not boots. Oh, well. We tried.

Kingston enjoyed the snow. In fact, he loves it so much that he still has to stick his hand in the few remaining piles on the porch on the way to the car, every single time. And then tells me that his hand is cold. Exactly, Bud. That is why I don't touch the stuff.

Birthday Boy!

This is Kingston.

He is 3 years old now. He requested a birthday party with silly hats, balloons and cupcakes. Done. Except I guess the hats I bought (and paid nearly $5 for-ugh!) must not have been silly enough because he opened them but didn't want to wear them or pass them out. But we did have balloons and cupcakes and friends over to play.

Cupcakes. Thomas colors, since I was too lazy to figure out how to make a Thomas cake.

And friends. Liam is his best buddy from Mrs. Cindy's house. He kept saying to Nigel, "Dada. This is Liam. This is Liam, Dada."

We played outside for a few minutes before presents and cupcakes. I was totally impressed with Joseph's whiffleball skills! He made contact with the ball nearly every pitch. He has way better hand-eye coordination than I. And he only bonked the dog in the head with the ball or the bat twice! Success!

My favorite picture! (Except for the fact that the only part of Jo-Jo in the picture is his hand.) The reason this is my favorite picture is because of the look on Dallas' face and the fact that she has her hand over Kiran's mouth. He was trying to blow out the candle and got a little upset at the fact that it wasn't "Kee-kee's turn" to blow it out! Dallas was not having it, as you can tell. Classic!

And what is a birthday party that doesn't involve icing on your nose?

And Kingston got to open presents. Clearly his favorite part.

He had lot of help.

I wanted to take a picture of all of the boys (and Liam's sweet sister, Sophie). I knew better. I really did. But I wanted to try anyway. It was a lot like herding cats, as they say. This is the only picture that has at least a part of everyone in it. See that green elbow? That was Liam. He wasn't having it.

This was as close as we got. Oh, well. We had a fun time at Kingston's 3rd birthday party. He has a really sweet group of little buddies that are welcome to come over to play any time.


And then Monday was Kingston's actual birthday. I can't believe my big boy is 3! I surprised him with a birthday donut in bed!

We had a family birthday party in the evening that included, but was not limited to, hanging out without pants on, homemade pizzas, performing songs while strumming a guitar, opening lots of presents, and pooping on the floor.

But more on that another time once Nana emails me the pictures.

Happy birthday, Kingston Dylan Haynes! You are my favorite little boy in the whole, wide world. You amaze me every day with your wit, intelligence, peace and charm. I am so proud of you and I look forward to celebrating lots and lots more birthdays with you.

Hooded Bath Towels!

My mom and I have a new little side-hustle going on! We are making hooded bath towels for kids, and we are calling our business Seams Likely. My Nana was a wonderful seamstress and called her business Seams Likely lots of years ago. She has inspired us in a lot of ways.

The towels are super cute and a lot of fun to design and make. I have opened and etsy shop and will be listing items as we make them. Right now we have been taking special orders and making them to order and only have a few on hand to sell, but as soon as we get a little ahead of the game, we will post them.

We can pretty much get any color towel and have found some really cute ribbons for the details. I'll post more and much better pictures as we have time to take them. Email me by clicking the icon to the left of the post if you want to order one! Or just ask a question. Or make a suggestion. Or just say hi.

Come on, people. I'm trying to set my mom up to retire over here! Bring on the orders! I know you have someone special that needs a handmade Christmas present this year.

Core 4 in NYC!

A girls' weekend in The City was just what my friends and I needed last weekend. We had the best time. I arrived first. As usual. I'm always chomping at the bit to get places and sometimes get a little to excited when booking tickets/getting on the road and arrive way before I really need to. Case in point-I arrived in NYC at 8:20. An hour later, Lars and Ball arrived. An hour after that, Mere arrived.



We were so excited that Kers had sent a car to pick us up. Yes, we were very much the country girls gone to the city! Every little thing excited us, as you will see!

So here is Lars with the car that was waiting for us.

We chatted the entire way to Kers' apartment, texting her along the way, wondering if we should pay the driver or tip him in any way. She giggled at us. Said no.

Kers greeted us at the front door to her building.

We put our things down, made sure we all had on our boots that we were convinced you had to wear in NYC, and headed out to our first food stop of the day. We had lunch at Recipe, a delicious place with local, fresh ingredients and wonderful. . . water.

We toasted our small glasses of tap water to being in NYC with the Core 4 + Kers!

After lunch we headed back to Kers' apartment (via Levain Bakery and Central Park, both of which are dangerously close to Kers' place) to get cleaned up and get ready for drinks and dinner.

The GIANT oatmeal raisin cookie. We also shared a chocolate, chocolate chip and chocolate peanut butter chip. Yum!

When we got back to Kers' we looked in the street one more time for Lars' lost cell phone. No such luck.

We got all dolled up (in our boots, of course) and headed out.

We took the subway.

We had reservations for drinks at Milk & Honey. Awesome. Kers rang the bell (to the wrong door, we realized later when someone stepped in front of us and rang the correct bell) and then knocked on the dull gray door that simply said "M&H" in stick-on letters. We had read that you aren't allowed to take pictures in there, so I was very careful to sneak a few of the nondescript door.

Drinks were made based on what kind of "spirits" we felt like drinking that night. They used only fresh ingredients, had pellet ice, and were each served in a different shaped glass. They were pricey and we only stayed for one drink, but it was worth it. So fun!

After drinks we ate dinner at A Casa Fox then called it a night.

It was like 5th grade slumber party in Kers' living room!

Saturday morning, after a run around the Reservoir in Central Park with Ball, we headed by subway to Brooklyn. I will forever have an image in my mind of Lars getting the train doors shut on her, while Ball and Mere clutched at each other and screamed when they thought they wouldn't be able to get off before the train started moving again! You had to be there. Man, that was funny!

We had brunch reservations at Buttermilk Channel in Brooklyn. Awesome.

My friend Lee, who lives in Brooklyn, met us for brunch and a walk. So fun to see a friend from home when you are on a trip somewhere!

We wandered through Brooklyn, looking for the Brooklyn Flea. Along the way we found things like really cool boots that none of us could bear to drop the money on, really cool jewelry, lots of random stores, and life-changing underwear. I swear! That's what Mere was told before purchasing the $18.00 panties! We're still waiting to hear the results.

We found the Brooklyn Flea. I wish we hadn't just eaten brunch. There were lots of stands selling delicious smelling eats. I splurged and got a mini red velvet cupcake for $1.00! Julie sampled the locally grown garlic.

On the subway ride back to Manhattan we decided to get off the train in Times Square. We all had to pee so we went into Kers' office, which is right in the middle of things. We were impressed again by Kers' city life. We were even excited about the elevators.

And we made Kers pose for a picture in the lobby of her office. In this picture, Kers is explaining to her husband how corny we are. Please note the circular thing to Kers' left. It is supposed to be a really expensive fan. We couldn't figure out how to turn it on. See? We could never survive in the city!

"Franchise" sitting at her desk. We were impressed. Her office had a window with a view. Kers is big-time!

We shopped at Anthropology in Times Square and Lars and Mere bought new headbands that we all agreed were super cute!

We stopped for a glass of wine and snacks at a random little place that we walked by. We had great conversations. We laughed, we cried, we connected on such a great level. It was my favorite part of the trip, I think. But the real highlight of our trip night was a visit to the Shake Shack. We giggled out way through the line-literally. I have never giggled quite so much while ordering a cheeseburger, fries and a shake. Then we walked back to Kers' place, eating fries along the way. We had to look pretty funny, each with a bag of food and a milkshake, while shovelling fries in our faces! Pretty typical Core 4 behavior.

Sunday morning we all had to go home. Well except for Kers, since she lives there, of course. We had the best visit. We really could have been in Omaha, NE or Topeka, KS and had just as good of a time. I love my friends. I am so lucky and blessed to have them in my life. Ball said it best when she said that she was so happy to know that we could all live different places and have different lives but still come together and have a great weekend talking about things other than just our college memories. I totally agree.

The weekend in the city was just what I needed.