We woke Jane up on the morning before her 6th birthday with a BIG surprise. Early in the morning, we snuck in and told her to get up: we’re going to the most magical place on earth today! She was half-asleep still and excitedly stumbled into the car on the way to the airport to fly down to Disney World for a long weekend adventure. This was her first trip to the park, and something that had been in the works for a long time (we had originally planned for this trip during May 2020 but the pandemic had other plans for us!). Finally getting to bring her here after that long wait made the trip even more special. read more

Last week we were hosted at Inn at Diamond Cove  for a fun, family-friendly Maine summer getaway trip! The Inn at Diamond Cove is located on Great Diamond Island, one of the many small islands in Casco Bay about 30-minutes by boat from downtown Portland, Maine. We took the ferry over and had a few days of good old fashioned summer fun, from time in the pool to beautiful al fresco dining overlooking the bay. read more

On the second leg of our Scotland trip we hopped on the Scotrail at Waverly Station and took a picturesque train ride from Edinburgh up to Inverness to explore the Scottish Highlands. We saw so much during our two-day stay, from castles to battlefields, coastlines to farmland, and of course the famous Loch Ness. I was in awe for most of the journey at how incredibly beautiful this area of Scotland is! read more

Scotland has been on my travel bucket list and it exceeded my expectations after our spring break family trip to Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands! Admittedly, it felt extra special just be traveling anywhere after a long adventure hiatus over the past two years. We started our trip in Edinburgh and explored for a few days before taking the Scotrail trains out to Inverness, and then ended our trip back in Edinburgh for one more day before heading home. In between we packed in lots of site seeing and some seriously delicious meals, all while soaking up some unseasonably perfect, sunny spring weather in beautiful Scotland.  

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A few weeks ago I was confiding in my mom about my secret guilt that I never made a baby book for Jane. I’m so type-A and generally obsessed with paper products so it’s strange I never started one. My mom reminded me though that I have a much more detailed account of Jane’s life than most people have of their kids — right here on the blog and on my instagram page. She was so very right! I do cherish looking back at old posts and seeing our travel adventures, and try to share funny anecdotes in my captions too. Last week we spent a nice stretch of time down on Cape Cod with our close friends and had the very best time — splashing in the ocean, eating all the fried seafood, and making memories. So this post is my summer vacation addition to the “baby book” full of all of the pictures I would have tucked inside! read more

A few weeks ago my husband and I were sitting on the couch and chatting about our weekend plans. We started throwing around the idea of going to the beach and after a few minutes we were deep down a rabbit hole discussing how the worst part of beach days is all of the lugging and hauling of our stuff to and from the car. Sometimes the idea of packing everything up almost deters us from doing the trip (and we live a 5-minute drive to the beach, so it’s not much of a trip at all!). We came to a determined agreement that we would refine our beach-packing process this summer and hone it down to only the essentials, the best of the best. After a very serious inventory of what we actually use at the beach we have a new system down, and I’m happy to report the last few beach visits have required much less schlepping. I thought I’d share a few of our refinements, and the favorite beach gear items we use again and again that made the beach bag cut! read more

Last week I took a foggy little ferry ride on the Hyline to Nantucket for the day, where I met up with a few other bloggers to tour the island with @ShopNantucket and check out some of the best shops and bites on the island. I was pumped because the rain cleared up as we pulled into the dock — and shopping is one of my favorite things to do in Nantucket with so many unique shops and brands to explore! After our fun day on the Grey Lady, I thought I’d round up a mini Nantucket Shopping Guide with a few of my favorites to keep in mind if you ever find yourself on the island for a day of retail therapy! read more

We spent this past weekend in Newport, RI for a little getaway to celebrate my birthday! The idea to head to Newport came up when Hotel Viking invited us to come stay at their beautiful property, and thanks to my wonderful in-laws that offered to watch Jane, we were able to jump at the opportunity and plan a little overnight excursion! With 24-hours of kid-free weekending ahead of us, we packed in lots of eating and drinking and window-shopping. Before we left I polled my instagram followers for recommendations and I received so many great ideas. I was worried that we might be challenged finding things to do there on a cold January weekend, but we had the best time — thought I’d share a few of our weekend highlights for anyone else venturing to Newport in the winter!  read more