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…
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,…
Late last year, Mike and I planned a trip away for just the two of us. Call it a Five Year Anniversary trip, or a babymoon, or just a getaway. We did one when Caroline was 3 months old and again when she was 14 months old, but we hadn’t gotten away since Vivi arrived on the scene. We did manage to travel to Florida no fewer than NINE times in 2019, but our girls always came, too. Luckily, Kay…
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…
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…
After a whirlwind week celebrating our Birthday Girl, we headed down to Alpharetta, GA for a few days to celebrate Thanksgiving with Mike’s family. It was extra special because his parents joined us from Lowell, MA this year. They had had a rough year health-wise and while Mike had seen a lot of them this year, the girls and I had not seen Grandpa Harry and Nana since May. It was delightful to get to spend time with them. We…
I am incredibly lucky to have a wonderful group of friends…who just so happen to be scattered all over the globe. Picture 13 of the smartest, funniest, best ladies you can–and that’s my college rugby friend group. We’ve got some who are fitness fanatics, others who’d rather eat pizza and drink wine and watch Friends (that’s me). We have some who are world travelers, lawyers, professors, moms, single ladies, math superstars, authors, and illustrators. They are on the East Coast,…
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…
As soon as I realized the 4th of July was on a Thursday this year, Mike and I had a quick pow wow about where we should go and we both decided to head to Low Country! Our good friends Derek and Stacy had just finished a house on James Island and we were dying to see them, the house, their two sweet kids & niece, and have Vivi meet them all for the first time. We also wanted Suelen…