Easter Weekend with the Riggs

I was so thrilled when in the middle of March, I got a text from my friend, Becca, asking if they could spend Easter weekend with us.  Becca and her family are some of our very best friends, and we haven't seen them since they moved in New Hampshire at the beginning of 2010!  They recently moved to Chicago, and since that is only about a 7 hour drive from here, they were sweet enough to come spend some time with us.

Unfortunately for them, they were coming to Minnesota where it was still freezing Easter weekend.  On Saturday, we had an Easter egg hunt/brunch to go to, but it was so cold we were literally out of there as soon as our kids picked up some eggs out of the snow.  Brrrrr!!

We spent the rest of the day letting the kids play, shopping for Easter dinner, getting dinner at Chipotle and cupcakes for dessert, and busting out some awesome dance moves on the Kinect once the kids had gone to bed.  The Easter bunny paid a visit that night, and the kids were definitely thrilled to find their baskets when they woke up!

We got the kids dressed all matchy-matchy for church.....

....then when we got home we let the kids break into their crafts from the Easter Bunny, and dye eggs while we got dinner ready.

We had such a good dinner of ham, potatoes, sweet potatoes, rolls, and angel food cake for dessert.  I think its safe to safe the day wore the kids out, but we still managed to stay up late talking and dancing!

They had to leave the next morning, and we were so sad to see them go!  It was such a short visit, but we picked up right where we left off and had to much fun with their cute family!  Now it is our turn to go visit them in Chicago!

Spring Break in Florida - Days 7 and 8

Our last full day in Florida, we woke up to the best beach weather of the trip!  It was warm, sunny, and not very windy.  The ocean was very calm, and even had almost a little tide pool area that was perfect for Miley and Landon to run around in.  Miley had been kind of afraid of the ocean for the whole trip, and would hardly get close to the water, but she got right in to the little "river" area today and had a ball.  Landon did as well.  It definitely made for some sandy, messy kids but it was definitely worth it!

That afternoon we went to a really nice restaurant on the beach in walking distance of our house called the Sea Watch.  The food was soooo good!  It was just a really fun atmosphere, too.

Later on in the evening we drove north to Pompano Beach just to get one last look at the beach, and to walk out on the pier.  It was a beautiful little area, and we decided that next time we would have to hit that beach during the day!

Sadly, the next day we had to go home.  The trip went pretty well with kids again.  We had an almost 4 hour flight to Chicago, but both kids fell asleep for a little bit on that flight.  We then had a short layover in Chicago, and then about an hour flight back to Minneapolis.  Minnesota definitely snapped us out of our vacation dream with cold weather, and the kids were both kind of sick when we got home.

It felt good to be back, but we are still dreaming about sunshine and beaches!  Miley even still tells me that she wishes we were in warm Florida and not cold Minnesota!  Ha!  We had so much fun though, and loved getting to spend a week with my parents.  Hopefully we can start making this a more regular thing!

Spring Break in Florida - Days 5 and 6

Monday was the one day the whole time we were there that we didn't go to the beach.  It was a little cooler that day, and overcast and windy.  That morning my mom and I went and got pedicures, which is always fun.  In the afternoon, we decided to go on a boat cruise on the inter-coastal that shows you some of the incredible houses that are built along there.  The kids had a lot of fun on the boat, and there were definitely some interesting (and crazy expensive!!) homes and yachts along the way.  Steven Spielberg's $200 million yacht was even docked there.

We ate at a great little pizza place that night and crossed our fingers that the weather would look a little better the next day!

We weren't too sure about the weather on Tuesday morning, so we spent the morning walking around the downtown area of Lauderdale by the Sea.  While Landon had a nap that afternoon, my mom and I took Miley to get a pedicure, because she was sad she had missed out when we went the previous day.  

The weather got really nice in the afternoon, so we managed to be able to go to the beach for a couple of hours.  It turned out to be perfect beach weather.

We went to dinner at JoJo's Tacos that night, which is a tiny little restaurant, but had delicious tacos and guacamole!  I started to kind of get things packed up that night because we only had one more full day left, and I didn't want our last day to be consumed with packing.  I couldn't believe how fast our trip was going!  Fortunately, we still had plenty of time that night to play more games.  It was great getting to be able to stay up late and play games with my parents every night.  Definitely something we all love to do!!

Last Florida post next!