CROATIA: The Peeps

And by peeps I mean our peeps, you know, the fam bam, our loved ones :)

We were thankful that the Palmer/Neufangs flew over to spend some time with us first in Bratislava and then in Croatia.  We hadn't seen our little bubba nephew and his parents in a good ~seven months, so it was such a treat.

 These two went on a Father/Daughter beach walking date our first morning in Croatia.  Don't they make a super cute pair?  From what I hear, however, their date consisted of one of them being carried for quite some way due to tiny legs :)

That hubs of mine is a bona fide goober ;)

 If you're wondering what relaxing looks like, look no further.  This guy had it down pat.  He and Jas were hammock lounging masters.

 Nora and Grandma.  This day was somewhat cloudy, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the water.

Mostly Nora spent lots of quality time napping and rolling over in the tent.  She was mastering her rolling skills...see that look of pure determination?

 We also partook in a lot of ice cream (Snickers gelato, um yes, please, every. day. of. my. life.  SO good).  This girl knows how to down her fair share of the stuff too.  I think that last pic is one of my all time favorites...she's got the model wind-in-hair look down pat, don't ya think?

And there was some seafood-eating as well  (I didn't technically have any myself...but everyone else did :)  I mean, do you blame me!?  Look at that squishy thing!  I'll pass, thanks.

Strolling around the marina each evening was one of my favorite things.  The lighting was so beautiful and calming.

Seriously how cute is our nephew Bryce?  I can honestly say he's the cutest little boy I know :)  Loved getting to spend some time with him and his parents.

We so enjoyed this trip and spending time with family.  It was a blessing.  Can't wait to go back to Croatia!

CROATIA: The Views

I didn't realize just how beautiful this country was until I actually went there.  Sure, pictures are great, but it just doesn't quite do it justice.  You know how that goes.

But here's my feeble attempt at capturing what we saw in photography (actually, some of these were taken by the hubs too :)

We stayed on the island of Krk.  The beaches are rocky, the water is incredibly clear (we were stoked we could see the bottom!), and the sunsets are glorious.  Literally, glorious.  This water-loving girl was in beautiful beach heaven.

We rented a two-level flat that we found on airbnb.com (highly recommend that site...check it out).  The place we stayed was two flights of stairs away from the beach.  That made me just want to jump with joy.  LOVED being by the water.

Ok, finished with the words (for now ;)  How about those pictures?

I told ya.  Glorious.  What's more, each night we went to one of two small nearby towns where we enjoyed pizza, seafood, ice cream, etc. with family.  And since we're speaking of family, photos of them up next.

A Little Teaser...

Family time.  Traveling.  Croatia.  Sunsets.  Good food.  Beach.  Ice cream.  Cousins.  Water.  Driving.  Sun.  More traveling.  Prague.  Good friends.  Pictures.  Balcony talks.  Babies.  Germany.  Relationships.  Music.  Singing.  Dancing.  Talking.  Church family.  Meat and potatoes.  More driving.  Home.

Laundry.  No groceries.  Catching up.

So while the first set of words sums up the last couple of weeks for us, I'm currently faced with the second set of words. 

But I couldn't resist putting our pics from our travels lately on the computer last night, so I thought I'd share a little teaser photo with you...

Hold on to your seats, there's more where that came from ;)  Amazing, huh?  I could live at the beach, I'm convinced.  But while I dig myself out from these piles of laundry you'll just have to enjoy the beauty of that sunset.  Be back soon...

Current and Upcoming...

The blog will be feeling a little left out over the next couple of weeks as our schedule is about to get ca-ray-zeeeee (crazy), but no fear...we'll be back!

In the meantime we've been sharing smiles and good times with family...

 

Check back soon, we'll have more fun to share! :)

Nora Rose - 3 Months!

This little cutie is three whole months old.  And rockin' her tie-dye too :)

(something is off with the settings on our camera, so I need to sit down and figure it out.  Haven't had the chance yet, but I will soon!)

Some quick notes on our girl...

~ I'd say she weighs somewhere around 11 pounds, though we don't go back until the end of July.

~ She can roll over from her back to her belly and will do it pretty often!

~ She's giving out lots more smiles but it sure is hard to catch on camera.

~ She just started "talking" with coos and small little sounds.  Too cute.

~ Still sleeps from 10 pm until around 5 am every night and for that I couldn't be more thankful.

~ Doing a great job with nursing though she eats small meals and often throughout the day.  After this crazy busy travel month I think we'll start working towards getting her on some kind of schedule.

~ We can't imagine our family without her.  We think she's pretty swell :)

Love love that last winky pic.  We're big fans of our tiny girl!

Zebras in Bratislava?

Yes indeed there are!  And lions, tigers, and bears, too.

Oh my.

We loaded up last Saturday morning and took the girls to the local zoo.  It's a good zoo, but a good bit different from one you'd find in the states.  Particularly in the safety category.  There were giraffes and zebras just a few feet away from us and Elise could've easily (EASILY...see the first three pics) fallen in had we not been with her.

Kinda scary.  But still really fun.

That big girl there loved all the animals.  She was pretty enthralled the whole time (minus when she got scared by a crazy hormone-filled chimpanzee, poor guy).

And this little girl here, well, she just loved sleeping.  Though by the end of our trip she had decided to join us awake people :)

And I'll spare you all of our animal pictures but for my three favorite...

A fun family time it was.  And both girls conked out in the car on the way home...great way to wear 'em out for naptime (and mom too!)

This Is Them

I feel like these pictures perfectly represent our girls right now...

Pig-tailed Elise playing with her babies all while being dressed up as a butterfly in necklaces :) Sweet baby Nora just chilling, throwing out smiles here and there.  Ah, I love them.

There IS Still Time...

...for ART!!!

And that makes me happy.  Now let's be honest, it's not consistent chunks of time and projects take nearly double the time to complete...but, there is still time to be found for art-making :)

For instance, one early morning we decided to bust out the Crayolas.  Elise started practicing circles and I, on a whim, started drawing a sunflower (probably because the weather was drab for a June day and I was dreaming of the warm sun).

Well, E lasted all of ten minutes with her circle drawing, but I was pleased with where my flower was going.  So over the course of the next couple of naptimes and bedtimes, I continued adding color after color, layer after layer.

I finally deemed it finished.  And while I thoroughly enjoyed the process, I was reminded just how much I love my Prismacolors (colored pencils).  Crayons have far fewer blending capabilities and I couldn't get quite the detail I desired with my thicker crayons as I could have with the pointed colored pencils.

How's that for nerdy art talk!? :)

But I still think I'll find a place for it on our walls one day...

So there is still time after all for fitting in small art projects here and there...even when there's an active toddler and hungry baby to be fed ;)  Three cheers for art (and cute kiddos who keep us on our toes! :)