A Splash of Style 7.30

I'm having some issues not being able to buy clothes right now.

I know. I'm silly.

But since I can't buy all those cute clothes out there, I'm starting to  in a whole bunch of ideas that I find onto my fashion board. So I'm making a new series called "A Splash of Style"

I love the name. I didn't come up with it. My brain is too tired. But my friend came up with it before I even put the question mark on the question - ha!

So, here are some from my pinning today.

Relax 

A Day at the Park - Take 2 

A Casual Summer Day

Source

Since I'm on this mission to make myself fashionable after Baby C is born, please feel free to share your favorite fashion pins!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Today is my birthday.

I love birthdays. I make a big deal of birthdays. Of mine, of my husbands (even though he could care less) and of my girls' birthdays.

I don't care how old I'm turning. The number doesn't bother me. At all. Really. I think it's because I really try to live my life so that every year I can look back and go, "Man, that was a good year!" Of course some years have more sadness and trials than other years. But as a whole, there's not one year where I don't look back and say, "I had fun this year!"

Today I turned 32. 

It was a GREAT birthday.  Nothing special or no big trip. I have been known to be on vacation on my birthday, but not every year.

This year was just about being happy.

So I started my morning off with my run. I did about 3.5 miles. By myself. No kids. THAT was a great present in itself. haha.

Today, I'm 24 weeks. I think that translates into about 6 months? haha.  In my last post, I talked about my motivation for keeping fit during my pregnancy. And my birthday isn't an excuse to skip it that day. In fact, just the opposite. It's a great reason to work even harder!

After my run, the girls and I headed to the beach with some of our favorite people. Ron suggested that I go to the beach by myself without the girls, but honestly, I don't know if I know how to go to the beach without the girls anymore. haha. We were going with friends, so I thought it would be better to bring the girls.

It was SUCH a gorgeous day! I love being able to go to the beach on my birthday. It's usually where I end up when I'm home for my birthday. These are "our beach family." They live at the beach just like we do.

Yes, I'm in the water with my camera! I LOVE my water camera... BEST thing I ever bought myself. Here's my post on it, because of course I had to share how happy I was when I got it!

When we came home, Ron had a fun little card for me that he made all by himself. I'm not a big flowers kind of girl, but I do love flowers. The simple flowers are just great. Really, I love daisies. They're my favorite. But what I'm REALLY impressed with is the Cannoli card! haha!  That is my husband. He's got such a comedic side...which is good, when you're a fire fighter.   But love (more like, am impressed!) with all of the different fonts and colors he used.   And in the bag?? Some more Pandora charms for my bracelet. It's his "go-to" gift for any occasion. lol. 

BUT.

 I did go shopping for my birthday present to myself...

My first pair of real sunglasses- Oakley! ! And they are polarized, perfect for the beach and pool! Now, I just hope they don't get ruined by the two Destructo girls. lol It really is amazing the difference a pair of good sunglasses is compared to cheap ones... I've never had a pair of sunglasses. I feel like a grown up now lol. My husband asked how much I paid for them. I just walked away. haha!

Later that day, my cousin came over with her boys to watch the girls so Ron and I could go out for my birthday. We went out for dinner at one of my favorite places... The Mansion. It sound hoity-toity. But it's not...really. lol

I decided that I wanted to come home and have some cake and ice cream with everyone instead of doing anything else after dinner, since I normally don't have family in town during my birthday.  They just moved down, and I'm loving having them here. Not just because she came to babysit the girls for a few hours, but because I love being able to get together with family whenever! 

Anyway, she came baring a birthday cake that she made me! I love it! 

Even if it does say 31 instead of 32. That's ok. Better to go down than up, right!? ha! 

I LOVE having them here.  Too bad they're moving up north soon...like 1.5 hours north. 

But still. I'm selfish and don't want them to go already. lol.

So my birthday. I loved how I got to spend it.  I spent it doing things I love to do with people I love to be with.  I wouldn't want it any other way!

Staying Motivated!

Being on the road for 2 weeks, eating out almost EVERY meal, and not having time to exercise can really take a toll on one's body. As fun as it was traveling, I am a creature of habit and routine. (I'm still not done blogging about our trip, but you can check out what I have so far HERE)

So the first day back, I decided to get RIGHT back into the saddle! I had the girls home with me and Ron was on shift, so I couldn't really work out at home - they don't really let me work out with out adding more fun to the mix, if you know what I mean. So I decided it was a day for a run.  

Except it was 1,000 degrees by 9:00. lol. Seriously. One of the hottest days so far. Whatever, I just trucked along, sweat pouring down all areas.  Kind of makes me feel better about it. lol

(can you see the bump?! I get a lot of looks when I go running..lol)

Yesterday, I was making my 2013 photo album (yes, I'm a slacker). And I came across THIS picture.

when I saw it, I was like, wow! You looked good, Jen! haha. Yes, I said that to myself. I really don't remember ever thinking that when I was IN that time, but looking back, I was kind of proud of myself. It's those kinds of pictures that I use as my motivation to keep going now, when I'm pregnant. I want it to be that much easier to lose it after Baby C is born.

So, my friends, find whatever keeps you motivated. You'll go through slumps, but you can always come back! And you'll have days that even when you look your best, you'll still feel like a bumpy, mushy. ugly blob. That's ok. We all have those days. But those are the days to make sure you work it out... and maybe even a little more that day. 

Ok, time to get changed and workout for the day!

Summer Road Trip Day 5

Day 5 was a late start. We were ALL exhausted. Even Brooklynn slept in until 7:30! That, my friends, is an event to mark on the calendar! 

We weren't really sure what we were going to do this day. Yes, I'm a planner, but only as far as making a list of things we could do while we were at our destinations. I don't really like to plan by the minute activities. Cape May was on our list of things to do and yesterday seemed like a good day for it!


But first, a little stop to get some breakfast...you can't deny a pregnant woman and two kids food to start the day, right? So we wandered around aimlessly, because let's face it, up here in Jersey, that's an easy thing to do!  We finally ended up in downtown Bradley Beach, which is a pretty town. We found a cafe and a parking spot...a spot you don't have to pay for!! woop, woop! The cafe we ate at was a cute little quaint restaurant called The Buttered Biscuit.

The food was pretty good, but once again, we were paying for it...more than what I wanted. I think maybe we'll be having Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast from now on! haha! And no... no donuts for us. I actually just posted a pictured of me on my IG with some DD coffee in hand. I will say that I've never had DD coffee before - I know, I'm weird, until this trip.  It's really good! I actually kind of want it in the mornings now...weird? Maybe. I don't know. 

Then we got into the car and headed for Cape May.

I don't really know what I was expecting. I was envisioning something completely different. 

But let me tell you. I L-O-V-E-D Cape May!! I was so beautiful!! 

My "plan" is to buy a house there and rent it out for vacationers. THEN, in a few years, we can start going up to Cape May for like a week at a time to vacation there.  Seriously. It could work.  I just have to find the money to buy said-vacation home to rent out!

But seriously, it was SO beautiful. It had harbors and a gorgeous beach (that you had to pay for, of course), beautiful beach houses, a cute downtown, and old Victorian houses. It reminded me of a much smaller St. Augustine. But up here, you are in New England area, which I love because there is an endless amount of things to do up here.  

Anyway, I couldn't take pictures of everything we saw, since we didn't get to fully explore it...but that's ok, we'll be back (wink, wink!)

My new favorite family photo. If only Brooklynn was smiling. 

This is where we had "lunch" at. It was around 3:00, so it was more like appetizers, but I had a brie and raspberry crostini that I now must make when I get home! yum!

Then we headed over to Wildwoods.

Apparently, a lot of my friends who are from Jersey have a very vivid and wonderful childhood memories of this place. I can totally see how this would be heaven for kids! Our girls were just a little too young for most of the things to do here, and I was not prepared for all that this place has to offer (like water parks!!), but they still had fun!

AND, as an adult, I could see here all day and just people watch! I've never seen so many different characters! It was pretty awesome to watch.  Do any of you follow Humans of New York on Facebook?? They take pictures of people around the city and post them on their page and then add a quote from that person. I think Wildwoods would be an awesome place for that!

Not only is there a long boardwalk filled with shops and food stores and games and anything and everything, but then there are countless piers with games and rides...and waterparks!

The girls were too small/young for a lot of the rides, and I didn't have suits for the water part (and I think they were too young anyway), but they got play some games and Autumn got to ride a ride.

Let's just say that after a long day of fun in the sun, the girls were ready to pass out for the ride back to the hotel.

Just the way I like it!

#rossvacaysummer2014

Summer Road Trip Day 4

Day 4.

Yes, I know I skipped Day 3, but that's because we spent most of the day driving from Charleston to D.C. That is going to be talked about in another post that I'm working on, so I don't need to really talk about it twice.

So, Day 4. This was our day in D.C. 

I just LOVE D.C.

My love for it might stem from the fact that my aunt (who when I was a kid idolized, and still love her to this day!) went to college here, at Galudet. We came to visit her and I just love the memories from that trip, so to me, this is a happy place...  I have been here countless times, and every time I fall in love with it over again. The people are nice, all the museums are free, there's always something going on, and the weather is always so wonderful - well, minus the one year we came up in January and it was so cold and windy that we had to walk backwards half the time! haha!

Anyway, after we found a parking garage, and then spent about an hour trying to find a parking spot IN the parking garage (which, by the way, we just gave up and handed our car over to the valet IN the parking garage), we headed straight for the museums!

Last time we were here, they had two of the museums closed for whatever reasons, so we wanted to do those first.

The first one was the Air and Space Museum. 

This was pretty cool - you could spend all day in here and not read everything or see everything. 

What I really liked was there were stations for kids to do. This one was an experiment to check out which materials flew better (ding, ding, ding! Science fair project!)

The girls also got to do rubbings of the different airplanes.

Then we headed to the Natural History Museum. I'm going to be honest. This one was really crowded, tons of people. I wasn't a fan of all those people. Yes, I don't like being in crowds anyway (confined crowds), but when you have two small kids that want to get out of the stroller and look at everything? That just makes me nervous with so many people....and I'm talking summer camps and teenagers groups. 

BUT, I did like the museum, I would definitely go back.

For lunch, we found a cute cafe type place in a little passer-through park, I think the park was called the "Sculpture Garden." The food there was healthy and delicious! I little pricey, but at least we all ate healthy.

After lunch, we wandered around the city to get to the next monument, and took a break at the capitol building.

This is from Ron's camera, and I think his battery was dying, which is why the capitol building  is so white. But I just love this picture of us..and B's smile is just too much!

Here, here's a better picture that we begged a single tourist lady into taking for us.

We finally made our way up to the Lincoln Memorial. At this point, Brooklynn fell asleep, so she's not really in any pictures, and were stuck not going all the way to the top of the Lincoln Memorial as a family, but oh well.  We still had fun there.

Autumn loved running up and down the stairs (she was doing her "stadiums")

And then she would cheese for me when she got to the top again. Little goofer!

She really wanted to run up the stairs to the top, so away we went!

We made it!

We took the back trail back towards the mall area, and we came across a little pond with ducks. Autumn was looking around for little crumbs of bread so she could feed the ducks...she thought they were hungry and needed some food. 

Such the good Samaritan, right?

We got back to the monument and Autumn and I had some fun helping the monument stand back up, because it was totally falling over!

On the way to the White House, we took a little break in a park. It was just so pretty, and the grass is SO different than down in FL. It's soft, it's cool, it doesn't make you itch. I could sit in it all day!

AND we arrived.

After that, we headed for dinner... we wanted to go back to the place we ate last time we were here, Capitol City Brewery. They have the best food! Every thing we have ever gotten there is so good. Even the kids' food! Ron really likes the dipping sauce for the pretzels they give you as their bread. And last time we were here, I was able to get the sample "platter" of beers they brew. I definitely recommend them.

Then it was about to head out. We had a good 3-4 hour drive ahead of us to get to the next city. And with D.C. traffic?? Woa! We are not big city people...to live there, anyway. We love to visit!

We have also discovered that the tolls up here in all the New England area roads are cuh-ray-zee!! Seriously, when we were in Maryland, we paid about $16 just for three tolls! Let's not even go into what we've spent in tolls on Day 5. Lesson learned...next time, buy an EZ pass just for the up-north trips!

Well, that was D.C.   It was a whirl wind of fun, like the other days have been...and we still have so many more! Although tomorrow (which is day 6), we'll be spending the day with Ron's family, so it won't be TOO whirl-wind-ish...maybe...probably.

And just to end with one of my random thoughts I had while sitting in the D.C. traffic. Have you ever been in traffic in a big city and you look over to the car next to you and think "Who are you? Where are you going? Where did you come from?"  I think about that kind of stuff all the time! Am I sitting next to some big-shot government guy who is on his way to the White House to talk with the president? haha!

Another random thought... I feel the need to go home and watch Murder at 1600. or The American President. or National Treasure. or Enemy of the State! Ron says I say this every time we go there. I don't know. 

Shoulder shrug.

Maybe he's right. Who cares. I still want to watch them now.

#rossvacaysummer2014