Chincoteague Island

This past weekend my sister, her best friend (second sister to me) and I decided to take a quick beach trip.

I'm sure glad we did.

While everyone else was dealing with awful weather at home, we were suffering with gorgeous beach weather.

I'm talking perfect beach days people.

We went to Chincoteague Island, and it was was absolutely gorgeous.

We left at about 7am Saturday morning and got there at about 10:30am.

We thought, no problem, plenty of beach parking. This is a pretty popular beach.

Welp, we were wrong.

The sign told us : Beach Parking Lot Full.

The Park Attendant (for those of you who have never been the beach is inside a natural wildlife park) told us the beach parking lot was full.

Oh, and that they only had 300 parking spaces.

The 3 of us exchanged bewildered glances, a beach this popular with such little parking made no sense.

We decided to go in anyways, I mean how full could a beach be at 10:30 anyways?

Apparently, extremely.

The line to get into the parking lot was insane.

So, being the rebels that we are, we parked our car on the side of the road and walked to the beach.

Can't be missing out on precious beach time.

We stopped and asked the police officer what time he would recommend getting there the next morning to avoid the craziness.

Enjoying the sun; laughing at the people patiently waiting in line to park their car in the parking lot.

Our snoozies, which we picked up after dinner in a little beach shop to keep our feet warm...super cool i know

Sunday, we got up nice and early. I'm talking 730 people.

Went and had a nice little breakfast that was delicious.

Got to the beach at about 830, beat out any parking lines.

Took a nice nap on the beach til about 10:30

Peaceful morning at the beach before all the crazy families get there.

Pretty Wild Horses :)

All in all, it was a great weekend, we had wonderful weather and a great time.

I loved the beach and can't wait to go back there with Chris.

It's such a cute little beach town.

No boardwalk, which I loved.

And tons of cute little beachshops, which is always a plus.

It was definitely nice to get away from everything for the weekend.

I think I needed it to clear my head and get my mind clear.

Plus, I heard from Chris which always makes things a little better.

I love NYC

After work on Friday, my sister and I headed up to NYC for a short, but fun filled weekend in the worlds greatest city. The drive up there was pretty uneventful and we managed to escape without hitting too much beach traffic- lucky us :)
Saturday we drove out to Long Island to the beach, where we spent many of our childhood summers.  My mom grew up in Valley Stream which is located on Long Island and I remember taking many, many trips up there to visit our grandparents.  Each and every summer my mom would pack up the car and up to Long Island we would head.  During the summer, she would pack a cooler filled with snacks, pack the van filled to the brim with beach toys, boogie boards, beach towels and umbrellas and we would head to Long Beach for the day. It was magnificent. On our way to the beach, we took a quick little detour through Valley Stream and stopped by my grandparents old house.

The only thing that is different about the house, is that it used to have a white picket fence along the edge that was so adorable and a rose rush.  And my grandfather standing on the front porch waving at us of course :) But otherwise, it looks exactly the same.  It was so nice to see that whoever bought it has keep such good care of it. It's such a cute little house. My Pops would be so happy at how green and perfect his lawn looks.  He even used to let us have our own little garden in the backyard we would take of when we would come up.  Anyways, off to the beach we went.  Long Beach is a beautiful beach. I know, a beach in New York? But it's true, and it's gorgeous.  It was a beautiful day to just relax on the beach with a good book, which is exactly what we did.  Doesn't this just look perfect?

After the beach we grabbed dinner and headed over to quite possibly the best ice cream on earth, Itgen's.  Another childhood memory. We used to go here all the time when we were little.  It was every bit as fabulous as I remembered.  Across the street from Itgen's is a pizza place called Ancona's, which has the most delicious pizza I have ever tasted, and I've tasted a lot of pizza. My grandfather would always get it for us the day which we drove up to New York.  If you ever get a chance to visit Long Island, I would highly recommend visiting this two places.  They are well worth the drive up. How can you resist these absolutely huge, fantastic worth every calorie ice cream sundae? Delicious!

Sunday morning it was time for our 5K in YANKEE STADIUM! wahoooo!! We were excited to say the least! Now, this wasn't lets run around the warning track 12 times and call it a day type of 5k.  This was run through the entire stadium, including the basement, stairs, ramps, type of 5k.  Yes, we ran around the warning track twice but it was so much fun. I can't wait to go back and do it again next year.  It was such a blast! And, 100% of the proceeds that were raised went to cancer research, which was even more amazing. 

Before our race

Running our race

Wahooo! We made it :)

What a beautiful field

Amen to that.

On a sad note, when I was in seventh grade, I had broken my wrist; my first break since I broke it in second grade (which unknown to me, this would not be my last break) my mom walked home from work one day with a box and gave it to me.  Inside the box was a tiny little kitten.  He was only a couple weeks ago, so small that we actually had to feed him with a bottle and keep in the box at night so he wouldn't get stuck under any furniture or get lost in the house. We quickly named him Tigger and I grew to love that little guy. He was a playful striped, short haired cat with a ton of personality.  While I moved out my father's house to go to college, Tigger stayed there and always loved on me whenever I went to my dad's house and grew rather attached to my father.  He was the friendliest little cat ever, he was a mush.  Such a mush in fact that he snuggled with my dad's American Eskimo dog, and by snuggle I literally mean cuddle buddies.  He would love on anyone and even people who don't love cats would love Tigger.  Well upon returning from New York last night, I learned that Tigger had been hit by a car and died Sunday morning.  This news hit me hard and deeply saddened me.  I hate the thought of my little Tigger dying such a terrible death, all alone in the road like that. He was such a good little cat and I really did love him with all my heart.  I know he's in kitty heaven, but it breaks my heart to think that he was all alone when he passed away instead of  with people who loved him.  But little Tig Tig, I love you and i hope you're in a peaceful place little guy.

Beach Weekend

This past weekend, Chris and I packed up our beach bags and headed up to New Jersey with my Dad and step mom, Cindy for a long weekend.  It was my stepsister's daughter's second birthday and we decided to tag along.  Since our honeymoon Chris and I have barely gotten to spend anytime together with his military schedule and with the upcoming deployment creeping up on us, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to seize the day and take a long weekend together.  Besides, who can turn down a weekend at the beach? Not this beach babe.  Although, Chris seems to think he tans much more easily than he really does and never listens to me when I tell him he might want to out on sunscreen and ends up getting burnt the very first day.  All in all though, we had a really great time and perfect weather.  We stayed with my stepsister Jessie and her new husband Justin and their two dogs, Jake and Riley.  It was good to spend a  little extra time with them because we rarely get the opportunity to visit with them. 

Friday they both had to work, so Chris, Dad,  Cindy and I packed up the car and headed to the beach bright and early to catch a few rays and soak up the beautiful sun.  It looked a little stormy outside but turned out to be a beautiful day.  Of course, it wouldn't be a day on vacation with me if I didn't push Chris' button's just a little with a photo shoot :)

Saturday was Maddy's birthday party at the beach club.  The party started at 400, but we headed over to the beach around noon to hang out with the family and hang out on the beach for the day.  It turned out to be another gorgeous beach day.  Chris and I had a really great time, I'm really glad we were able to go up there! And of course, the birthday girl had a fabulous time as well! She's a little princess; her daddy's in for a treat once she gets older!

Sunday morning Chris and I headed to Atlantic City to spend the day/night up there.  Dad and Cindy had booked us a room there as a surprise, which was very nice of them :) I have never been before, so that was really fun.  We had a great time.  We gambled a little bit, walked the boardwalk, walked through a bunch of the big name Casinos.  We went to Carmine's for dinner and then actually went and saw the naked circus, which was pretty entertaining.  They weren't actually naked, more like half dressed, but still entertaining.  All in all a very fun day!

In other news, Abby Baby has gotten her meow back and seems to be on the mend :) Wonderful news in the Price household! It's wonderful to hear her start to talk again after listening to her squeak pitifully around the house for over a month.  It also means that her tumor is not malignant! whewwww!!



4th of July!

This year for July 4th, Chris and I finally were able to make it down to my aunt and uncle's annual July 4th party! It was so much fun, we had a great time! The weather was perfect and it was a nice and relaxing vacation! Well, relaxing might not be the best word to describe the trip but it was a great family weekend trip. Sad to see it end, looking forward to it next year already!

My sister and I hanging out in the pool, early in the day before the volleyball games and drinking started, before it started getting craaaazy!

Clearly thrilled to be taking more pictures :)

Family shot :)

Cousins :)

This year, they started an annual competetion for the best IPOD playlist, everyone got an hour and half to play their playlist and katie won by a landslide, here she is accepting her award and ITUNES gift card, which we all know she can clearly use.

And of course it won't be fourth of July without some fireworks so t he Schmaltz boys set off some of their own fireworks which were pretty amazing if i do say so myself!

All in all it was an amazing weekend filled with lots of laughter, dancing, food and family.  A much needed family weekend for Chris and I. And of course, a day to remember to America's hero's, a day to remember why we are the land of the free, the home of the brave.  A day to take a quick minute to say a prayer for all the troops who put their lives of hold so we can go on with ours and enjoy all the freedoms that we do.  Obviously having a husband in the serivce makes me extremely proud of all our troops but also him and what he does on a daily basis.  Yes, it is hard and lonely for me when he is deployed but he makes me so proud that he is fighting for the good of our country, I can't help but love him just a little bit more.

xoxox