Our Epic Summer Road Trip, Part 2

     I am back with more on our "epic summer road trip".  Part 1 of our recap ended with us leaving Disney to head to our next destination.  Our first was in South Carolina to visit family.  

     After South Carolina, we headed to see one of my oldest friends, Stacey in Virginia.  I have known Stacey since I was 21. Stacey is another friend of mine that God has blessed me with that has children around my girls ages.  Have I ever mentioned that?  So many of my close friends were married and had kids before I started the foster to adopt process.  When God blessed me with my girls, it ended up that my girls were around the same ages as my friends' kids.  Pretty cool, huh?  Okay, back to my road trip...

     Since Stacey lives in Virginia Beach, we just had to go to the beach.  Our visit coincided with Chick Fil A Day, so of course we dressed as cows. 😄  Stacey and I went for our traditional seafood dinner (a must for every trip).  On our last day we had our bi-annual family photoshoot.  Stacey is an amazing photographer, check her out.  After our photoshoot, we headed out on a very hot day to go blueberry picking.  That was a first for us and so fun.  

This was a delicious seafood restaurant in an old church.

     We left Virginia and headed to NewYork.  Within the next week we would drive over SO many bridges.  😃  

I thought that Dallas traffic was crazy.  Nope!  Welcome to New York!!

We first headed to Staten Island to visit one of my sweet "interweb" friends, Jenny.  Jenny and I "met" on a Facebook group for women who love Disney and wanted encouragement in our weight loss journey.  We then officially became IRL (in real life) friends at the 2016 Wine and Dine Half Marathon.  I just love her and her family so much!  She had a real honest to goodness New York Pizza followed by true Italian Ices waiting for us!  Yum!  On Friday we took the Staten Island Ferry to the city.  Sometime during this past school year, Lyla's first grade teacher had talked about the Statue of Liberty with her class.  Lyla talked all year about wanting to see the Statue of Liberty.  We did it the free way.  😃  The girls loved it!  While in the city, we saw Battery Park, the 9/11 grounds, the Disney Store, the M&M Store and the girls had their first subway ride.  It was a very full and fun day.  We also got to meet up with another sweet friend from our Facebook group.  Once we got back to Staten Island, the girls and I headed toward Long Island to see my aunt and uncle that I haven't seen for YEARS!!!

This rainbow bagel was delicious!

     I was so excited to go visit my Uncle Tim and Aunt Donna in long Island.  My Uncle Tim was my mom's baby brother.  I loved hearing stories of our family and spending time with them.  This was the first time that they got to meet my girls too.  Going to Long Island was one of my favorite parts of our trip this summer.  They took us to the tip of Long Island, Mantauk.  We stopped for some yummy seafood, drove through the Hamptons, got to climb a light house and we went to the beach.  And some people say that all we ever do is go to Disney.  Ha!  😀

I even got to see another one of my sweet friends from my Facebook group.

     My Disney friends are everywhere!  😀  When we left New York, we made a quick stop in Delaware for some ice cream with my wonderful friend, Becky!!  After our sweet treat we headed to visit our friend Allison (yes, from my Facebook group) in Maryland.  We spent the night with Allison and her sweet family and had our last seafood meal with our beautiful friend Jes (3 Disney friends in one day, yay!).

Allison, Jes & I (with photobomber, Lyla)

     On Tuesday morning we got up and made a quick stop in North Carolina to see this sweet, beautiful friend, Shannon.  I loved being able to connect and visit my girlfriends so much this summer.  I love our friendships.  I love these women.  They are strong and amazing and so kind to open up their homes and hearts to me and my girls this summer.

     We had one more quick stop to make before we headed back to Disney (yes, we started and ended our road trip at Disney).  😊   Mia and my birthday were just around the corner, so we had a small celebration with family.

     On July 20th we made the drive back to Disney to celebrate my 45th and Mia's 8th birthday.  We had so much fun visiting friends and family in these two weeks.  My girls were troopers.  They never once complained.  They slept in cots that they had outgrown.  We were together and we were happy.  We are so blessed.

Stay tuned for more on the last part of our Epic Road Trip this summer.

Ann