Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Happy New Year!

Wow! I can't believe it's 2016! I am excited for the new year but holding on tight to all of the wonderful memories of 2015 -- including our Christmas vacation!






As usual, we spent the holiday in Pennsylvania with my family. We stopped in Pittsburgh again on the way up. They have some awesome festivities downtown that helped to solidify our Christmas spirit.





We finished our last four hours of the trip on Christmas eve. We were excited to make it to our destination but disappointed that the unseasonable weather followed us. I have never experienced such a warm Christmas, but it was better than the 80 degree temperatures SC was having.

Lily was excited to be reunited with "Grammy" and "Pa"!



We were greeted with the most beautiful scenery as the moon started to rise.


Then there was Christmas morning! 


Lily's first gift was clothes and just like I would do, she immediately started to strip down to try on her new goods!





She only opened a few then headed to kitchen for breakfast. She is in the "I help?!" stage and I am loving it. I let her do as much as possible! She mixes her own eggs...


And helps make pies....



We got a selfie stick! We weren't the selfie type but I was so excited about it 
and we spent some time perfecting our skills.

We visited the nativity scene at a local church and the lights in the park; two things Pat and I have always done in the past.




There was no snow but there was quite a bit of rain so we went to the mall so Lily could get out some energy.

We have this exact same picture from last year.
Same facial expression and all!

And we discovered Lily can NOT steer. She drove this panda into every wall and kiosk in the mall!

We spent much of our time enjoying each other. Pat was more than happy to catch up on snuggling with his babe!



The Frozen obsession is real! As I mentioned before, we recently introduced this movie and it caught on like wildfire!


Then, it finally started to snow!!!

Look at that face! It's the 'unhappy kid in too many layers of clothes' look! Hahaha!


I'm not sure where she got this idea but she kept trying to catch it on her tongue!




We didn't have any accumulation at the house so we drove north, as we often do, to Ellicottville, NY. We walked around downtown and Lily fell in love with the snow. We let her play in the snow on the street sides and she provided entertainment to everyone passing by. 



Next, we drove to the ski resort for a bigger area to play in. She fell asleep on the way so we let her sleep as we watched inch after inch of snow accumulate on the car!

We rolled down the window the second she woke up and she looked outside and said, "Frozle!" (that's Frozen, she has some crazy interpretations of words)

The pouty phase has also started!

Due to the lack of snow, only a few slopes were open which meant there were very few people at the resort. We basically had the place to ourselves, it was great! And the snow kept coming!!!







And just like that the holidays were over and it was time to go home. We stopped and stayed at the Natural Bridge in Virginia. Pat thought it would be fun to go through the cavern.... with a 2 year old. It was neat at first but after her third verse of 'The Wheels on the Bus' she (and I'm sure everyone else) was over it. "No more tunnel. Don't want tunnel." We made it through the 45 minute tour and took away another lesson on the limits of a toddler.






This cool chick is ready for a new year!