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The last week of June , while on staycation, we decided to treat Millie to a special day just for her. I had been reading about the Butterfly Adventure at the Roper Mountain Science Center since last year and thought that because she constantly tells us that moths are beautiful that she'd love to see actual butterflies. We got there around 9:30 AM and walked directly to the exhibit where we were greeted with a queue of around 30 people. It was a fun line with playground equipment and also tents for us to stay out of the sun. We ended up waiting about 30 minutes to enter the building which was not bad considering the line wrapped around pretty far.



We entered the building and the staff explained to us about the butterflies and how to "catch" them. We were given a nectar wand to attract them and went inside. There were hundreds of butterflies flying all around the beautiful plants. Attracting them to the nectar wand was a bit challenging at first, especially with a two year old, but we ended up making it happen. Millie was thrilled to be "holding" a butterfly. We enjoyed the few minutes we were in the exhubit and then we were ushered out so the next group could enter. The entire process was very well organized.


With our entrance fee we were able to go and tour the rest of the Science Center. We checked out the rest of the building that the butterfly exhibit was housed in and also the Living Farm. I remember all of these from my childhood as I visited many times on field trips. The living farm has a blacksmith, which of course was not operational when we were there seeing as it was 90+ degrees!


The Roper Mountain Science Center really is one of the gems of Greenville for families. There are so many fun things to do and kids of all ages will enjoy everything that it has to offer! I can't recommend it enough and I am excited to go back when it is a bit cooler.


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Yep... #neversaynever. Although my younger self is cringing a little, as I write this I am actually excited about our new family hauler. I mean it's HUGE(TWSS) and has so much space!  We can literally fit everything we need and more in here. When people visit we can actually all ride together! 

One of the main reasons I decided to pull the trigger is because hoisting my 25 pound toddler up into my SUV while holding my almost 23 pound 8 month old was ruining my back. At 4'11 I rarely use my height as a crutch but this was ridiculous. The first time Millie saw the van she climbed in it by herself. It was truly amazing. It was a parenting win. Also, our cup holders have cup holders! It also has a cool box to keep drinks or baby bottles cold while on the road! The amount of space will allow us to be able to haul anything we want without removing the car seats! That in itself is amazing. 

I said no for the longest time. However, after having Lucas I considered it more and more. I did say that I would only ever own the Odyssey and that's what we got! It's also hands down the nicest car I've ever owned. So with that said I am going to embrace this season of my life and own driving a minivan. I will not need one forever but for our family, right now, this was the very best decision. I can only imagine the adventures we'll take in this car!



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This past weekend we headed up to Asheville, NC to the New Belgium Brewery. It was supposed to be an outing for my cousins birthday but unfortunately they encountered some traffic and missed our tour of the brewery. The tour was 90 minutes and absolutely free. We had several beer samples and learned a lot about the facility and about the art of beer making. The tour guide was fantastic and the whole place was covered in these awesome murals which made it totally photo ready! Millie and Lucas accompanied us on the tour and there was another couple with a toddler. Both of the kids did well. They could snack and take beverages of their own so they were well occupied. 

The facility was state of the art and beautiful. The beer was cold and fresh and you can't beat FREE! If you're interested in going you should make reservations online for the tour and be aware that if you aren't there by the tour start time indicated, you will be left out. Load up the fam and head north, you won't be disappointed! Also, try the Trippel while there! It was delicious! 





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Today marks five whole years since I walked down a million stairs in five inch heels to promise to love, honor, and respect Mike for the rest of my life. There isn't a day that goes by that I do not reflect back on that day and the vows we made. I can firmly say that I have withheld my end of the bargain and although circumstances have changed significantly since, my love for him has only grown. To say that our lives have changed during the past five years would be an understatement. From new jobs to a new town, to buying our first home and having two kids, life has been going at a pace so fast that it's been hard to catch my breath. 

I wanted to sit down and reflect on this time of our lives together and the things that I have picked up along the way. These are my thoughts and ramblings. They are not going to be gospel to everyone. Here is just a small sampling of what I've learned during our incredible first five years of marriage.


1. Love isn't everything
You're probably thinking... who does she think she is? Love is the center of everything, a reason for being, yada yada yada... YES, love is literally the most important thing we can give and receive, however it is not everything that a relationship is. Relationships can still have love but lack in other very important facets such as respect, admiration, empathy, and loyalty. I believe that when we can give someone all of those aspects we are showing them true love. 

I am currently going through the most difficult time in my life. I am on the upswing but it has been a long journey that for a while there I had no idea what was going to happen. I had just gotten the most unbelievable and horrible news that shook me to my core and while processing that, I found out that I was expecting my son. I have never been so shocked to say the least. Me, type A Jen, who plans everything to a T. I was terrified to tell Mike. I had no idea what he'd say but I knew he'd be upset. Of course we'd planned to have another child, but not yet. And certainly not while we were dealing with a terrible trauma. I called him crying(bawling) and told him that I was pregnant. I waited for the hurtful words to spew... but he said "that's great news!" WHAT? Here I was, sick over this news(not from morning sickness), and I just knew he was going to be upset, and he said exactly what I needed to hear! That was a greater shock than the two pink lines. Mike, although clearly taken aback, knew that this was ultimately a good thing. He built me up when I was feeling lower than low. I was very happy about the baby but I hated the circumstances that he was being born into. And when I developed prenatal and post-partum depression, Mike was there to keep me together. Always a shoulder to cry on, to scream into, and a hand to hold. Yes I had a lot of people show me love during this time but it was my husband who was there everyday, rolling with whatever life threw at us, who held our family together so I could begin the healing process of this trauma. 

Yes love is 100% important and necessary in a marriage. But it isn't everything. You need someone who holds down the fort so you can fall apart sometimes. Someone you can count on to keep it together when you cannot. Someone who sees the good when you can only see dark grey fog.


2. Raising kids is HARD business
My two children are 2.5 and 6 months old currently. We are deep into a season of bottles, dirty diapers, pbj, Goldfish crackers, and Elmo. Some days I count the minutes until bath and bedtime. On those days I feel awful because as a mom we feel bad about mostly everything. As a parent you rarely have any time to decompress. You're constantly worried about milestones and sunscreen application or if your kid is being exposed to too much media. But no one could have ever prepared me for the sheer amount of LAUNDRY we now have. How in the world can two small kids that weigh less than 45 lbs together have this much laundry? It's never ending. 

Sometimes you have one of those amazing days as a parent where both kids eat well and nap like angels. They are polite in public and give you hugs and kisses at bedtime(I'm looking at you, toddler) and they sleep all night without a peep! But most days are a series of events very different. They include spit up and tantrums, tear stains and boogers, screaming and laughter. Not one minute looks like the minute before. I find myself wondering if all families are like this? I talk to my girlfriends and realize that this is normal.

I think what makes raising kids so hard, in my opinion, is that it's so heavy. It's laden with the notion that our parents are the single largest influences in our lives. At least, that's what my parents were for me. I have this expectation of myself to be the very best and try so hard for perfection that cannot be reached. The more that I have learned to be laid back and that it's okay to wipe my kids nose with a dirty sock in a pinch, the more I've realized that kids are resilient. They're also programmed to LOVE you. And wow, the love they provide is incredible. Mike and I just sit back and talk about how they amaze us sometimes. They are truly awesome human beings. The more that we do this, the more we realize that our kids provide us with more than we provide them. And that, my friend, is perspective. And the job doesn't feel so thankless and hard at that moment. 


3. Travel is My Spirit Animal
Before our wedding, I had never left the good ol' USA. Now, five years later I have visited four new countries, two new continents, and three new states. We have explored the homeland of my father in law, attended the wedding of a friend in a tropical paradise, and the country atop Mike's bucket list! We have snorkeled with sea turtles, explored ancient ruins, and have been on an inflatable raft in a glacier lagoon with water 900 feet deep. We have basked in the glow of a sunset in the Grand Canyon and stayed up all night looking for puffins during the midnight sun in Iceland. We have people watched on the Vegas strip and Mike pissed off the largest iguana you've ever seen in Mexico. This is just a fraction of what we've experienced on our travels. 

Getting out of my comfort zone allows me to let go of many of the preconceived notions that I have. But what I've gotten most out of our journeys is that we compliment each other so well while traveling and in our everyday lives. I am the schemer of our family, so I enjoy the planning stage of a vacation so much that I am consumed by every detail and facet of what we can fit in during the time. Mike is the more laid back person. He usually lets me run the show and just lets me know the high points of what he wants to do. Of course, things happen, someone gets sick and cannot scuba dive in a cenote in Mexico, or a tropical storm threatens your plans for an entire week, but it's what you make of your experiences that truly determine what you'll get out of that trip. And what I've always gotten are wonderful and lasting memories to cherish and rehash forever. At least once a day one of us brings up one of these experiences in conversation. We laugh or speak in reverent tones about our favorite places.

Being addicted to traveling allows us to plan for something good and fun. A new experience that we will have fond memories of. I have the travel bug right now so bad. Lucas is only six months old so I do not feel comfortable leaving him yet. But come next summer, for our six year anniversary, we will be packing our bags and headed out on an adventure. I hope the kids will be as receptive to adventures as we are because we are already planning special trips to take them on!


4. Expect Change and Overcome
I mentioned above that I am currently dealing with some circumstances in my life that couldn't have been foreseen. During this time I have gone from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the hill, and that was all in one minute. Life has a way of throwing you for a loop. I have known this truth since I was 13 years old and lost my mother. But I could not have planned to go through what I am currently for anything. I am currently digging out from the deepest pit of my life and I can say with absolute certainty that although this experience has been awful and sometimes unbearable, it has made my marriage thrive. Throughout this time of turbulence I got up in the morning and had coffee with my husband, I kissed him before I left for work, I sat down and enjoyed watching the sunset with him on our back deck while he let me talk and vent about anything and everything. I genuinely enjoyed his company more than ever before. I crave our time together and prioritize it because it makes me feel good. When everything else is crumbling down I have one constant that I can cling to. An anchor that keeps me safe.

Change will come. Some changes will be happy and some will rock your world. But I've realized that I have a true partner to navigate these sometimes treacherous waters with. And that has made all the difference.


5. Life has Just Begun
Little did I know that 1826 days ago, when I said I DO, that sitting here today I would be reflecting on what has been, hands down, the greatest time of my life. I have never laughed so hard or had so much fun as I've had with Mike and things are sure to get better with time. We have only just scratched the surface and I am so excited to see where we go next! Five years in and we're just getting started!





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I realized that I never shared photos from our trip to Aruba(in October of 2014). Shocking, I know. We've kind of had a lot going on since then. However, it was a fabulous place(albeit pricey). The scenery was beautiful and the people were very friendly. Here's a smattering of pictures from our last big trip pre-baby. 










 






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Þingvellir National Park is the place of national parliament of Iceland which was established in 930 AD.  It is a very popular place with tourists as it's located 40 km from Reykjavik. Mike and I read all about it and honestly it gets a bad rep on the interwebs. Honestly, because of some salty travelers I was not even looking forward to this day but WOW was I surprised. From the first lookout at the welcome center my breath was taken away. The park is vast and you can walk for miles and miles.

Here we saw the boundary between the tectonic plates and the largest lake in Iceland. The views were just amazing and there was so much to see. Take your walking shoes and camera. We had beautiful weather and captured some priceless images. The vistas are just spectacular!


You can actually snorkel in Silfra between the tectonic plates. Sounds awesome huh? It probably is but we decided not to do it as it takes about 4 hours and the maximum temperature in the summer is 36-39 F. So um...no! The water is very clear and you can see various fish just by walking along the bank so that was good enough for me. 


Make sure you find Ã–xarárfoss and bask in it's beauty. It's a small waterfall but the rocks surrounding it just take it to another level. We spent quite a bit of time here. There is now a boardwalk and benches to rest on as it is an uphill climb to get there. 



You will not be able to miss Ãžingvallavatn which is the largest fresh water lake in Iceland. It is massive and oh so clear. These vistas are incredible and I couldn't stop taking picture after picture!


Honestly you could walk around all day and not see everything here. It is a massive UNESCO World Heritage site and you should make sure you have budgeted time to visit here. Do not let the massive amount of tourists scare you or the negative remarks online. I enjoyed my time, much more than I thought I would! 


Looking back over these pictures I am reminded about Iceland's bipolar weather. The sky color is different in every picture just as it was in real life. The weather changes by the minute. You just need to always be prepared for anything!


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About me

I am a constantly caffeinated, thirty-something, mother of two, living in the upstate of South Carolina. I love to explore the world as well as the area right outside of my front door.

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