Florida Fun with the Cousin Crew Part 1

On our first full day, the 22nd, we jumped right into the water activities. Koen and Tavin are getting so good! 

These cuties make great spotters… 

This is Tavin on 2 skis…

Boating = cousin chat times in the boat.

This is Koen on two skis (but wait for it, he graduates to getting up on one ski!).

After lots of water skiing for most of the cousins (Penn & Jansen haven’t found their love for it yet) we headed to a late lunch via boat at Doc’s Oyster Bar. I love the opportunity to embrace the bayou lifestyle when we come here. Going to lunch via boat?! Yes, please!  After lunch we let the kids swing on a local rope swing. Just more water fun, are you surprised?

Not an uneventful first day! But after some chill time in the AC (it was 100 degrees this day!) several of us headed out on the sailboat for the locals Wednesday night fun race. I got to be Phil’s first mate, a job I really enjoy. I was at the helm under his instructions & we made a great team. We even got “best start” for the night!

The next day was my birthday! Phil & Leah had to work, so it was a little more low key which was fine by me. We had a lovely evening all together. Doug made me a delicious meal and I was showered with presents and sweet attention.

Pool time at sunset to top it all off!!

Ah, our photo bomber. Always ready to make us laugh.

I’ll stop here for now, but part 2 coming right up!!

Summer Solstice in the South

On June 21st, without even thinking about the perfection of it, we arrived at my brother’s in Florida. By some amazing randomness the sun sets directly behind the mast of my brother’s sailboat on this evening. It was a pretty beautiful start to our six day stay (which we need after blasting from NH to the Deep South in three days!).

Now, we can’t just skip the trip to get to Florida though, can we?! We left Chattanooga, Tennessee, briefly touched Georgia & then entered Alabama (& immediately had to sing its anthem of course).

We are all about trying to embrace the different tastes and traditions as we travel across the country. So we stopped for some fresh peaches (and immediately ate several!).

And shortly afterwards (after spending most of the morning in the passenger seat reading reviews and mapping out options) we visited the most charming, home in the wall, right off the highway, Southern lunch spot. Perhaps my best spur of the moment find ever. The boys got to try fried green tomatoes, fried chicken & catfish, not to mention sweet tea.

The hospitality was off the charts and quintessential for the South, the boys immediately noticed the accent and all the ma’am’s and sirs used by the staff. Not to mention there were Bible verses all over the place. Doug grabbed a picture of this one because it’s a favorite of mine.

After the satisfying (albeit greasier than our norm) we made the final push to Niceville, FL to be with my brother, Phil, and his family, AKA cousin time!!!! The kids wasted no time putting on swim trunks, goggles & jumping in the pool to play together. 

We are now amidst days of cousin time and birthday bashes with my birthday on the 23rd, Penn's on the 26th and Eleanor's in between on the 25th.  More pictures and videos and updates to come for sure.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

On Monday morning Jansen woke us up really early with a high fever. This kid cannot catch a break, but he is such a trooper just going with the flow. He hasn’t complained once that we are driving cross country while he’s feeling poorly. The early rise did give us a good jump on the long day though. First stop…Great Smoky Mountain National Park!

A little taste of how we pass the drive time…

We did change our park plan & rather than going into the middle of the park for the very popular highest point at Clingman’s Dome, we skirted around to the peaceful side of the park (NOT Gatlinburg, oh my goodness, what a tourist trap! We did not fall into it.). So instead we did the very short walk at Foot Rock for some phenomenal views from the top of a lookout tower.

From the top you could see the road we were supposed to be able to take up and down the mountain, but there was construction, so we had to take the ridiculously scary switchback locals road.

In the shot below you can see a forest fire burning in the distance.

And Jansen was pretty low on energy, so Doug carried him up and down the path. These two have my heart! My trooper & my man.

Then it was back to the van and on to Chattanooga for the night. And on the way when we crossed into Tennessee it was our 11th state!

A bit of a snaffoo at the hotel…their pool was closed! But the world’s sweetest manager had pity on us and got us into a pool at a hotel down the street. Saving grace because these boys needed to get out all that pent up energy!

Finished the night with a frustratingly late pizza order (I don’t recommend Uber Eats in Chattanooga). But we passed the time with reading up on the history of the parks we’ve visited thus far and some family viewing of Antiques Roadshow. Yep, that’s right, we’re fans.

That's "it" for Monday.  Tomorrow it's on to the cousins!!

Shenandoah Shenanigans

Couldn’t resist that alliteration opportunity. Today we headed south for our first national park of the trip, Shenandoah. We decided we would buy a sticker for the car top carrier in each park, Doug put the first one on today. Very exciting!!

We drove Skyline Drive through the park stopping promptly for a picnic…

Then we stopped about halfway through for a very popular hike to Dark Hollow Falls.

Then we bee-lined through the rest of the park to pick up a prescription for Jansen by 5pm. The update is that he has a tick bite that looks like the tick was carrying Lyme, so a ten day treatment is necessary. Poor kid. He’s been such a trooper.

Finally it was time to celebrate Doug a little for Father’s Day with a dinner out, his choice. Of course he chose a brewery, but it was very fitting of its surroundings with horses grazing & farmland all around. 

Finishing off the day with the boys playing loudly in the hotel pool burning off all that coupled up energy.

Going Cross Country…Reviving the Blog

Well, it’s been six years almost to the day since I last wrote a blog post. And although the reason for stopping, a full life & little time to blog, is still the case, this platform seemed helpful for journaling and sharing during what will be our biggest family trip undertaking ever. We are going cross country…for seven weeks…in the minivan…with four boys…stopping to see family, friends and hopefully about a dozen national parks. 

So…Day 1! After an eventful departure day with a very sick Jansen. We made it to our destination in eastern Pennsylvania at 12:30am! Obviously straight to bed.

But woke up to being here in this picturesque place…

Then we spent most of the day at Nana’s reconnecting with Doug’s family (& the dogs!).

We got a chance to visit the U.S. Army Heritage & Education Center where the boys got to check out trenches, bunkers, weapons, barracks, helicopters, tanks & more.

Jansen obviously not 100% so piggy-backed a bit. It’s not easy being the youngest or sick on vacation!

We headed back to the house which we are borrowing from amazing friends that are like family. Not only did they lend us the house, but they brought dinner and we had a blast hanging out, letting the kids play on the property and catching up as adults. 

That’s a wrap on the first day!

Look for Me on Instagram!

So, I'm new to Instagram (like haven't posted a picture there yet).  But I did come up with two different handles to help you track with what we are up to going forward.

1.  Find me and my efforts at settling us in, making our house a home and getting situated in NH: @followmehome_amy.

2. For all our upcoming family adventures find us @melderfamilyblogcontinues.  We may be changing location, but we will be the same busy, fun-loving, adventure-seeking family we've always been!

Thanks again to all my faithful blog followers.  I hope you will stay in touch through this new venue.  I'm excited to figure it out.  And for the fact it takes less time keep up with everyone this way!

PS - remember, have yet to post anything, but promise, I will.

Sappy Goodbye Post

Well, here it is.  This thing I started just so I would have a better way to share videos with loved ones and that has turned into a way to journal about and catalog the happenings in our lives is coming to an end.  It's been almost 6 and 1/2 years of blogging, 1,850 posts and almost 140,000 pageviews.  

But mostly, it's been a great outlet for me.  There's so much to being a mom and I've found that it's fun to share it, to savor it, to save it.  These are the moments I will look back on that passed like a flash.  And I will have the blog to view to bring it all back (sometimes very, very vividly and specifically thanks to my verbosity).  

Shutting down the blog is in a way a relief.  It's a lot of work to stay up on writing about and posting pictures of this busy, wonderful life we lead.  It's become very difficult this past year to find the time to do so.  And I never wanted this therapeutic thing to become something that added stress.  

But saying goodbye to this blog, is also a way of saying goodbye to this season, just as we are saying goodbye to Pittsburgh.  This is the place where I had my babies.  This is the blog where I shared that with you.  This is where I made all my friends.  And where the Lord blessed us with family when we had none within reach.  This is where our kids started their lives, their relationships, their schools.  There's a lot wrapped up here.  And this timing of moving on and therefore also a good time to say goodbye to the blog, is oh so much greater than just that little virtual goodbye to the internet infrastructure that brings our lives to yours.  It's closing a chapter, it's shutting a door, it's truly saying goodbye to a life we've known and loved.

But praise the Lord, that we can already see His goodness and provision in this next chapter.  We can see Him pulling together the details of what lies ahead.  And we are excited and thankful.  We can't wait to be close to family.  We can't wait to give our boys a backyard.  We love New England and all that it offers and can't wait to explore this area with our boys and make a new life together in a new place.  There truly is an excitement in our family unit.  Albeit bittersweet at times, sometimes you have to say goodbye to say hello to something just as wonderful, something just as promising, something just as meaningful.  And we trust that is what lies ahead.  

So, thanks for coming along for this part of our lives.  And stay tuned for how to keep up with us in the future.

And who knows...  Maybe this won't be my only blog.  But this is the end of the Melder Family Blog.  That busy mom raising 4 boys in the Burgh is moving on.