First Thanksgiving with Curtis' Fam

This was the year we planned to visit Curtis' side of the family for Christmas; however, I will be too far along in my pregnancy to travel at that time so we compromised and spent Thanksgiving with them instead.  It was my first time that I got to experience a McDaniel-style Thanksgiving!  It had been 5 years since Curtis last celebrated with them.

The whole McDaniel family

As a tradition, each adult child brings a dish to the table for the Thanksgiving meal.  I brought green bean casserole and Curtis brought a sea-foam jello salad.  Everyone went around the table and shared something that they were thankful for from the current year.  They write their answer on a paper leaf that is displayed on the table each year.  It was neat to see all the things that his family was thankful for over the years - some big, some small (like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, haha).  

We also got to spend some time with his grandmother ("Nana") while were were there.  It was really nice to see her since we hadn't seen her in almost two years.  She was very excited about her great-granddaughter on the way!

The weather was amazing for a Thanksgiving in the Pittsburgh area.  We even played bocce ball and corn hole outside!  

Curtis was able to bond with Belle, their sweet dog.   She was so desperate for attention!

Thanksgiving night, we headed to the Grove City Outlet Mall to see what kind of deals we could find for Christmas gifts.  This is another one of the annual traditions in the McDaniel family.  I did feel bad for Megan (his sister) who had to work early the next morning.  I'm sure she was exhausted, but I'm glad she was able to join in the fun.

I thought this was such a cool picture of Curtis, his dad, his mom and Heather as they were putting up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.

One more thing...in anticipation of my upcoming baby shower (post coming soon), Heather made us this motorcycle diaper display for our baby girl on the way.  She was so creative!  It's hard to see all that went into this, but she used bibs, receiving blankets, washcloths, socks and so much more.  She also made little booties and a cap for her.  Thanks Aunt Heather!

Our time flew by in Pennsylvania.  We had a great time celebrating with them.  It's hard to believe that the next time we see them all we will have a new little addition to the family!

Quick Trip to Central Florida

Last weekend, my aunt and uncle planned a day trip to tube down the Ichetucknee River with my parents.  They also planned to surprise my parents by having Curtis and I show up!  

 Curtis and I traveled to Gainesville the day before so that we would have a shorter trip the next morning.  This was a blessing because Curtis and I were able to spend more time with the Fields!  Jeffrey, another good friend, was even able to join us for a little bit.  Pictured above, you can see Curtis and his buds praying over each other.

Meanwhile, everything was going smoothly for the surprise until my parents ended up canceling at the last minute.  By this time, we were in Gainesville and my aunt and uncle were in Ocala prepared to head to the Ichetucknee River the following morning. We ended up spilling the beans to my parents and we worked out a compromise so that we could at least see them after we went tubing.

The tubing was really relaxing - Curtis and I were able to float down the river talking with two of my uncles, an aunt and our sweet 4 year old cousin.  Afterwards, we met my parents at Sonny's for a late lunch.  Even though our plans were changed a little bit, our trip was a lot of fun.  Great memories were made! :)

NYC - Day 1

For those of you that have been following our blog for a while, you know that we go on an anniversary trip each year.  We know that we won't always have the opportunity to do this each year, but we plan on doing it whenever we have the ability.

For our 3 year anniversary, we decided to travel to New York City.

We left on June 1st when a sweet friend from our church drove us to Jacksonville for our flight to NYC.  (Thanks Becca Taylor!)  Once we arrived in New York, got our subway tickets and checked into our hotel, we didn't have but a few hours to spend looking around the city.  So, we headed to the Financial District to see some of the well-known buildings and figures.

 I'm not really the best at explaining what each picture represents, so I will do my best, but you will find lots of pictures in the first day.  (Hey, we were excited!)

 This was the New York Stock Exchange.

 This was where George Washington took the oath to become the first president of the United States.  Notice the huge statue of GW!

 Everything was huge!

 Here's one of the Donald Trump buildings.  I think this is the one that they show on The Apprentice.

 Some cool artwork in the middle of the city.  We eventually stopped taking pictures of the artwork because there was lots of it!

 The famous bull.  I wish I could say that I knew about this well-known bull before I went to New York, but I didn't!  

 Here is the new Freedom Tower that they are building to replace the Twin Towers.  Apparently, it will be completed in 2013.

 We walked far to get a good picture of Ground Zero, but I don't think it really helped that much. Ground Zero is in the top of this picture.  It was all covered up and blocked, so we had to take this picture from several blocks away.

 A dear friend of mine told me to check out the church across from Ground Zero.  I wish I could have gotten a chance to go inside the church, but we just observed it from the outside.

 There was a little park around there with lots of unique artwork.  Here I am standing in front of this rainbow colored structure.

 I loved the way this looked with the huge building in the background of the fountain.

 Here's Curtis chilling out in front of the fountain.  

 Here I am in front of the fountain!

 We went to a restaurant called "Biddy Early's" - it was not one of our favorite places to eat, but the food just got better from there at all the other restaurants!

 Here I am at the restaurant too! :)

 Curtis told me that we should head to Times Square to see what it looks like at night.  Little did we know that we'd be going to Times Square almost every night!  We went to the m&m's store and I took a picture of these rotating colorful m&m's because sometimes Curtis calls me his "m&m."

 It really felt like we were at the center of the universe!

 There were tourists everywhere! If I lived in New York City, I probably would avoid Times Square!

 Here's the Nasdaq building.  

Lastly, we got the courage to have a tourist take a picture of us in Times Square!  You can see all the chaos behind us - I just kept telling Curtis throughout our trip that this place is crazy busy!