At the end of August, Mike and I were thinking we were crazy. Life in NoVA was so simple. Predictable. We knew all the parks, playgrounds, restaurants, and neighbors. We loved our life–truly. The only thing missing was close family. We said “are we sure we really should do this??” a thousand times. Each time, we’d come back around to yes, yes, and yes. Now is the time, or it will never happen. Time is something you can’t make more…
We started out August back in Virginia, settling back into our life there except now trying to pack up our entire house and put in place lots of other details that arise when you’ve decided to move your entire family 900 miles. Good thing I was still on maternity leave because otherwise, this would have been impossible. While this was a hectic time, it was still really sweet, and in many ways, felt like the final chapter in our ‘Life…
Still committed to making lemonade out of COVID by deciding to uproot and move to Florida, we continued from June into July at the Betancourt Resort. Among all of the adults, we planned out for the month who did Kiddie Dinner Prep, Adult Dinner Prep, Kiddie Bedtime Detail, Dish Duty (always Pa) and Happy Hour/Bar Service, hoping to spread out the responsibilities so everyone got a turn doing something delightful and dreadful. Matt was almost always on Drink Duty but…
Well. This summer was one FOR THE BOOKS. Neither Mike nor I would have ever guessed in one million years the crazy twisty turning road this year has been. I know the entire globe is feeling that way. What I can also say is that the Spead family decided to ‘lean into’ the crazy and do what Mike says best: made COVID lemonade. We saw a window of opportunity and pushed ourselves through it. After losing Mike’s mom this year,…
We left a fantastic Kearney Christmas weekend midday on Sunday and arrived around dinnertime to Matt & Tommie’s house in St. Pete Beach. I rode with my parents and both little ladies in their new Explorer (with a car seat borrowed from Louis–thanks Louis! I am #momoftheyear and totally forgot Caroline would need a seat for the drive. Welp. Can’t think of it all, all the time!) Louis drove Mike and Matt had his family in the Lincoln. It was…
The Big 4-0 was looming…all year, it felt like it was there hiding, waiting for me. And then suddenly, here it was. Four decades…that’s a long time! I was excited for it (I am one of those weird people who loves my birthday) and also at the same time, I do not feel 40. I felt more like a solid 28. Except do feel like I have gotten 40 wonderful years of experiences under my belt—travels, building friendships, growing family,…
Christmas was wonderful and magical and relaxed this year. Turns out that traveling with a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old isn’t too bad when you go places that already have everything you need for them, haha! Also, we broke it up into a few little segments…we flew into Orlando early Friday morning (December 20) and spent a half day walking around Disney Springs, then headed to Vero Beach for Kearney Christmas. On Sunday (December 22), we packed up and drove to…
Happy Birthday, Vivienne Kathleen! How are you already ONE?!? I feel both like this year flew by and like you’ve been in our family all along. We celebrated our special little lady all week. Kay Kay and Pa flew into town to join in the festivities. We hosted the Betancourts for a special birthday dinner and Vivi got to try actual cake (carrot) on the big day. Surprising no one, she loved it! We spent her actual birthday at an…
Super early Halloween morning–which also happened to be the day after the Washington Nationals won the World Series, whooo hoo!–Mike, Caroline, Vivi, and I flew down to St. Pete Beach. We were so excited to meet our family’s newest arrival Baby Bryce, to go trick-or-treating with our family, and to enjoy all things Florida for the weekend. We packed two suitcases: one for our regular clothes, and another for our costumes. Bird costumes take up a lot of space! Caroline…
We spent an unprecedented Labor Day Weekend in St. Pete Beach with the best blend of both the Betancourts and the Kearneys, since part of the reason for our visit was celebrating Matt and Tommie’s soon-to-arrive baby boy with a beautiful baby shower. We were at first not all all worried about Hurricane Dorian, then we were really worried, then we went back to not being worried again. It was quite the yo-yo but worked out in our favor in…