First Relay for Life

Okay to catch you all up on the last week and half, I'll begin with the Relay for Life. For those of you who don't know, our family participates in the Carlisle Annual Relay for Life with our team Betsy's Bunch in honor of my Grammy (Betsy) as well as the many family and friends whose lives have been affected by cancer. This year I'm proud to say we raised nearly $3,000 for the American Cancer Society! On top of that, Gracie was there to experience her first Relay for Life with us! Here are some pictures of the event...

Gracie's 1st Road Trip!

Following the Relay, we went home to pack and then we were off to Michigan to visit the Yinglings! For those of you who don't know, Andi Yingling is my best friend who also happened to have a little girl, Abby, born just 5 days after Gracie! As we began the first leg of our trip, we quickly learned the challenges we faced traveling with an infant. (Fortunately we learned from our mistakes and the trip home went fairly well with the exception of a horrendous thunderstorm that almost caused my mom a nervous breakdown). The rest of the trip went waaaay too fast (as most vacations do). My mom and I decided to put our Penn State loyalty aside for Dave's sake and we made our first stop in Ann Arbor to visit the University of Michigan. Unfortunately the stadium is closed to the public, but we were still able to walk around and get some really cool pictures. The next day we were off to the tiny town of Cheboygan! We were so excited to finally meet Abby and introduce Gracie to Andi, Brandon and Ethan. During our visit, Andi showed us around Cheboygan, Petosky and Mackinaw City where we did some shopping and ate at some really unique (and delicious) restaurants. We also "snuck" into the pool at my parents' hotel and took Gracie and Abby for their first swim! Dave was a total hit for Andi's four year old son, Ethan, who was stoked to have a new playmate. Ethan was SO cute with the girls too. He was very careful when giving them hugs and kisses and was always going up to them saying "Gracie/Abby, I love you!" Alrighty well I think that's about all the highlights from the trip. As per usual, I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking...

Showing my "support"

Lighthouse of Cheboygan

Sleeping with Daddy

Lunch at Julienne's Tomato

Spending time with Pappy Kurtz

The girls were mesmerized by the blinking musical star on top (so much so that we ended up buying Gracie the same play mat for at home)

The Dads and their Girls

Grammy Kurtz's favorite part of the trip : )

First time meeting the girls!

Brandon's Ship (He's in the Coast Guard if I didn't mention that)

Okay, this one I'm particularly proud of. Up until this week I was pretty apprehensive about nursing in public, but thanks to Andi and her tips and tricks, I now feel like a pro!

Gracie & Abby's first swim!!!

BFFs

Ethan holding Gracie

Of course we HAD to do matching outfits : )