The USA-Wisconsin & Minnesota

The later half of our trip to the states was spent traveling first to Wisconsin and then to Minnesota.  It was a wirlwind of weekend.  First we headed to Wisconsin to visit with Carrie and the cousins.  Mara was beside herself with excitement to get to play with them.  She adores hanging out with older kids and this was really the first visit where she was really "playing" with her cousins rather than being moreso around me.  She didn't stop talking about her time there for weeks.

Bast cousins

That evening we headed to our hotel for a fun pizza party and quick swim in the pool.  It was a short visit but so good for my heart.

From there we were off to Minnesota to see Josh's sister, parents and kids.  Here we had a bit of a slower pace as we really just hung around the house most of the time visiting.  I'm so thankful that everyone was in one spot and we could be together if only for a few days.

We watched the Packers win and enjoyed introducing Maddy to the rest of her family.

After a fun night of swimming

USA trip-Illinois

This post is WAY overdue!

In January we headed back to the states to enjoy a little break from Georgia and spend some much needed time with family.  The bulk of our stay was in Illinois with my family.  My parents love having the grandkids there and roll out the red carpet for them.

After a few early mornings the girls were somewhat on the time zone.  The time went fast but we managed to fit in a few things besides lots of family time with my folks.  We scheduled family pictures.  The McConvilles were amazing working with our jet lagged little girls and we got a lot of great shots from them.  We also took this time to have Maddy's one year photo done.

Love that I can take my business on the road!

We celebrated Maddy's birthday with all of our family and friends.  We had folks come in from all around to be with us and it was such a blessed day.  We had amazing cake from Kelsey's cake who did our wedding cake and Mara's first birthday cake.  The girls had my cousins wrapped around their fingers having them push them around and play with them.

Of course we did our traditional Taco Tuesday with my family.  Its always a fun night filled with great food, margaritas and LOTS of laughter.  It's a highlight of my trip home and I'm so glad my family makes it a priority when we're there.

Happy Birthday Maddy!

Josh and I stocked up on supplies.  Whenever we're in the states we take advantage of local grocery stores to grab our favorites that are not available in Georgia.  We purposefully packed extremely light this trip so that we could bring back a lot.  (On the return we had 1.5 bags of our 3 filled with goodies).

Riding the rides in the mall

I think the girls' favorite part was simply being with their grandparents.  Mara warmed up to my dad and of course had grandma and Aunt Mary around her fingers.  She loves playing with them and frequently took them away to play in the toy room or go down the slide.  I can't wait to bring the girls back this summer to spend some extended time with them again!

Family trips are always too fast but this one was especially being as we only had 10 days there.  Despite that I think we made the most of it!

Breakfast with Grandpa