The Quarry

The Carrigan Farms Quarry is one of our new favorite places to go in the summer.  This natural spring fed granite quarry is beautiful and fun.  On this particular occasion we brought Nana and PopPop with us to enjoy the quarry—you’ll have to check out my June instagram posts for pictures of PopPop taking the leap of faith!

Last Day of School

In early June, Ella wrapped up 6th grade (her first year of middle school) and Jack said goodbye to 4th grade.  It was a straight-A year for both kids—all credit to them for being such good students.  Ella mastered managing her schedule in middle school, with classes split between A days and B days and therefore assignments and tests spread through the week.  It’s a little harder to see friends who aren’t on the same “team” but she loves the responsibility of middle school.  As electives, Ella took Art, Spanish, P.E., and Computers (where she learned typing skills—thank goodness!).  Jack seems like a nonchalant student, but he’s an excellent one (and maybe often boosted by natural test-taking skills).  Organization and neatness are not his strong suits—Ella developed these skills with a great 4th grader teacher while Jack had a 4th grade teacher who was nearly as disorganized as he is—but hopefully 5th grade will set him up to succeed in middle school.  He’s definitely looking forward to being big man on campus next year as a 5th grader.  For now, though, our focus is summer—bring it on!

{olive is always there to see the kids off in the morning and greet them in the afternoon.}

Instagrammin’ in May

May was awesome!  Jonathan and I had a getaway to Berlin and Prague, Nonni and Papa hung out with the kiddos while we were there (unfortunately I don’t have any pictures from their visit), and Aunt Jacqui, Uncle Randy, Harper, and Hudson came to see us over Memorial Day Weekend. 

kaiser wilhelm memorial church | ampelmännchen | victory column | brandenburg gate #itwassunny | berliner dom | communist tv tower | humboldt university | in 1820 heinrich heine wrote, “where they burn books, in the end they will also burn people.” | section of western berlin wall and death strip | memorial to the murdered jews of europe | trabi | french cathedral | hefeweizens #secondbiergartenoftheday | reichstag glass cupola | reichstag building | a happy man after finding ipa’s in prague | we may or may  not have had a beer an hour for our first 6 hours in prague. #beercapitalofeurope | charles bridge and prague castle | view from prague castle | so many different facades | astronomical clock | old town square | sunset over prague castle | feeling the romance in prague | the city of 100 golden spires | old town and the charles bridge | one last look of the charles bridge and prague caste. | one last look of tyn church and astronomical clock | dancing house | rapeseed fields view from train | longest intact section of berlin wall is now the longest outdoor art exhibit. | wrapping up our trip in berlin. | had to try the currywurst. #meh | guten nächte, berlin! #berlinerdom | soccer tryouts in the books and enjoying his gift from germany | charlotte eagles game with friends | fun at the game | happy birthday, aunt jacqui! | uncle jon and hudson | exploring uptown | firebird | aunt jacqui, harper, and hudson

Memorial Day Weekend

Aunt Jacqui and Uncle Randy brought their mini me’s up to visit us for Memorial Day Weekend!  Harper and Hudson were just shy of 16-months old over their visit and they are such little cuties.  It’s hard to believe Ella was this age when Jack was born—I thought she was so big!  Aunt Jacqui spent most of her birthday in the car driving up to see us so we had cake and candles ready.  Over the weekend we enjoyed one big adventure, first to SouthEnd to introduce Jacqui and Randy to Wooden Robot Brewery (the head brewer of Wooden Robot was an assistant and then shift brewer at a brewery we love in UF’s Gainesville, Swamp Head Brewery—Randy’s t-shirt lead to a conversations at Wooden Robot with a few employees).  After SouthEnd we tried to go to Futo Buta (they would’ve loved it) but unfortunately it was closed (on a holiday weekend!).  We instead hopped on the light rail for a fun train ride into uptown.  There we explored Romare Bearden Park with its fun fountains and music-making sculptures and then The Green.  Speed Street was going on in uptown at the time so the streets were hoppin’ and live music was coming from a nearby stage.  We enjoyed an al fresco dinner with some background music. 

The rest of our weekend we enjoyed some pool time, chalk on the driveway, and just time hanging out.  We’re so thankful this crew came up to see us! 

Prague – Flytographer

As another surprise on our trip, I booked a short session with a Flytographer in Prague for Jonathan and me.  This year, 2016, will also mark our 15-year anniversary so this seemed like a milestone worth documenting.  We are totally awkward in front of the camera, and I hate my profile but we look like prom pictures when we’re both looking at the camera, and I was fuh-reezing in the outfit I had brought, but, as uncomfortable as we were I LOVED this experience and I know I’ll treasure the images.  Our photographer brought us all throughout parts of New Town that were so interesting and cool—places we never would’ve noticed on our own like the upper floor of the train station, Lucerna Arcade, and the cutest little garden coffee shop where we enjoyed cappuccinos with her after (and kind of during) our photo shoot.  It was really nice to sit and talk with another local, like we’d had the chance to do on our beer tour the night before.  I would totally book another Flytographer, but probably next time when the whole family travels—I don’t know if Jonathan and I could take all of the attention again!  It is truly wonderful to have images of the two of us on this incredibly romantic trip we had the chance to take together. 

Prague – Day 2

On our second day in Prague we explored both sides of the river a few times, from New Town to Old Town to the Little Quarter and Castle Quarter across the bridges.  The well-preserved architecture and details from a variety of eras is remarkable in Prague.  We really just had a great day spending time together, walking the streets, taking lots of photographs of golden spires and Art Nouveau facades, exploring churches, getting lost (especially in the Jewish Quarter), enjoying some street food and a yummy lunch, and basically just having not much of a schedule.  The weather was quite a bit chillier than Berlin—and I admit I wasn’t really packed for that cold—and we had some rain early in the day before it cleared up to a beautiful, sunny evening.  We did spend most of the entire day outside, though—there’s just so much to see in Prague, and all in walking distance. 

Early in the day we crossed Charles Bridge with the masses and headed up to Prague Castle.  Apparently, the day we were they were celebrating the 700th birthday of the Father of the Czech nation, Charles IV, at Prague Castle which drew a huge crowd.  We couldn’t even really get close to the castle but enjoyed the view of the city from on top of the hill.  After lunch (and a special excursion you’ll see in the next post) we decided to avoid the crowds a little bit and explore quieter parts of Prague.  We walked along Kampa Island and actually got some of our prettiest views of Castle Quarter and Old Town.  I think this relaxed time with Jonathan, strolling along the Vltava River at dusk is the time I’ll treasure the most in Prague.

The next day we took a train back to Berlin (a train we nearly missed—we fortunately figured out in time that we were at the wrong train station and were able to hop on the metro to the other train station, which was obviously different than the one at which we had arrived to Prague) and had one more half a day to enjoy Berlin.  It was a quiet Monday in Berlin due to the holiday Whit Monday so we nearly enjoyed the streets to ourselves.  We took a metro out to the largest piece of the Berlin Wall still intact, and now an art gallery, explored our favorite parts of Berlin again, tried currywurst, and then had a lovely vegetarian meal in an old chapel (couldn’t eat another sausage…).  Any images from that time ended up on Instagram.  Mid-May was just a lovely time of year to visit this part of Europe and it was wonderful to explore two cities I’d never had the opportunity to see in all of my previous European travels.         

{art nouveau facades, czech details, powder tower, and prague meridian used to tell time from 1652 to 1918.}

{old town square and tyn church.}

{old town square and waiting for a roasted trdelnik (not our favorite type of donut).}

{view of prague castle and charles bridge.}

{statues on charles bridge, a watch tower, and ornate buildings on the other side of the bridge in the little quarter.}

{church of st. nicholas in little quarter.}

{ornate details of little quarter and castle quarter and the view from the top of the hill at the prague castle.}

{views from charles bridge of old town prague.}

{back at old town square with the astronomical clock and tyn church.}

{the variety of the details and colors of the buidlings blew me away.}

{close to wenceslas square—art nouveau buildings, budweiser (the stolen name), sculpture of wenceslas riding an upside-down horse by artist David Černý.}

{dancing house (nicknamed “fred and ginger”) by architect frank gehry (of guggenheim fame) and lovely views from a quieter prague a few bridges up from the charles bridge.}

{our lovely late afternoon stroll along kampa island brought ust o some beautiful views of old town.}

{and back over the charles bridge one last time.}

Prague – Day 1

From Berlin, we took a train to Prague, enjoying the views of small German and Czech villages and vast fields of yellow rapeseed flowers and catching up on my Rick Steves Prague book.  That afternoon in Prague we explored a little bit, buying some handcrafted pairs of earrings for Ella and me at an open-air market and eating some street food, and also trying to get the lay of the land.  The Czech Republic apparently drinks the most beer per capita (and we love beer) but Jonathan was not looking forward to drinking pilsners all weekend (especially after drinking German beer for a week—he’s more of an IPA guy).  So, as a special surprise, I booked a “Craft Beer and Tapas Tour” around Prague.  We met our Charles University student tour guide, and group of about six others, at Wenceslas Square and hopped on the metro to head to a few brewpubs and breweries all around Prague. 

Our first stop was Vinohradský Pivovar (brewery) which was in this cool old brewery building from the late 19th century that had been updated to reopen as a brewery in 2014.  The walls were so thick and the ceilings and windows rounded, so the space kind of felt like a cave.  They offered unfiltered pilsners, an amber beer, and even an IPA (you can guess which one Jonathan tried).  I thought our tour would be a few tastings at each brewery and light “tapas” food as described on Viator when I booked the tour, but we got one or two full mugs of beer at each stop and platters of food (which was great because I know we never would’ve known what to order on our own to get a sample of good Czech food).  After the brewery, we headed to a beer hall in New Town that had the biggest selection of beers, including several IPAs.  We enjoyed a few beers here—this was Jonathan’s favorite spot for the IPAs and sausages.  Next stop was right outside Old Town, Restaurace U Pinkasů which is the original brewery that brought pilsners to Prague (pilsners are the style of beer originally from Pilsen, just like budweiser to Czechs means the style of beer from Budweis, a point of contention for Czechs).  We were a pretty rowdy crowd by now, as you can imagine after several large mugs of beer—but luckily we were doing quite a bit of walking to each new spot.  Our last stop was in Old Town at Pivovar U Dobřenských, a small brewery with herbal beers where we enjoyed beers and dessert to close out the night of gluttony. 

After our fun night of brewery hopping, we decided to walk off some of the beer and food by exploring the Old Town.  We headed to the Charles Bridge and then to Old Town Square.  I couldn’t believe how crowded the streets were at 11pm.  I had read that the Astronomical Clock of the Old Town Hall strikes on the hour until 9pm each day, but we just happened to catch it going at 11pm (which turned out to be crowded even at that time, but a lot less crowded than the daytime on the hour).  That was probably a sign that we were visiting in high season for Prague tourism.  Berlin was not nearly as crowded, but I guess Berlin also doesn’t have the small, cobbled streets you find in Old Town Prague. 


{watch tower and statues of charles bridge, view of the vltava river and prague castle, and klementinum (national library).}


{charles bridge, vltaka river, and prague castle; tyn church in old town square; old town hall; astronomical clock; and, the powder tower.}