Happy New Year...

25 days late. 

2011 is sure to be filled with milestone moments as our little family grows from 2 to 3. and the start of the year definitely did not disappoint on BIG changes. j & i brought in 2011 with a cross country move back to california. after being in NYC for a little over a year, dealing with some challenges in our current work situations & a sweet little bundle on board...we decided to thank our lucky stars for the wonderful year we did have, pack or bags and head back west. we are excited to see what this new adventure holds & we are delighted that we are able to share this 1st grand baby on both sides with of family & friends.

it was definitely bittersweet to say farewell to NYC & Classic. it isn't how either of us imagined saying good-bye but we are looking forward and holding tight to the lessons learned in the past. 

so, we drove. from NYC to LA. 55 hours of driving, over 3,500 miles (we took the southern route to avoid the winter weather) & 5 1/2 days later landed us back in california. 

want to see a peak in to our trip...

before we left the movers came & helped finished up some packing...loaded everything up & left us with an empty apartment. gosh empty houses always make me so emotional! this was our first place. just the two of us. it's where we began to make our family. it's where we celebrated our first christmas married, our one year anniversary, our first house guests. it was our home.

i will miss our fireplace & snuggling on the sofa. 

i will miss watching the pups cuddle as close to the radiator as they possibly could. 

i will miss walking out of our apartment & having 50 or more tasty restaurants to pick from & none of them being chains. 

i will miss our walks to central park.

i will miss exploring the city & seeing the shows on broadway.

i will miss this being our home.

we headed out on thursday afternoon after the movers had come & gone. 

we decided to make our first stop & stay in DC.

do you know what's on the way to DC? Philly...which equals a philly cheese steak.

of course we had to stop. 

since we didn't have a chance to explore DC. we made it a "must see" on our road-trip list. 

we were only there for a couple of hours & definitely want to go back. maybe when the kid or kids (weird!) are a bit older so they can enjoy it too!

we continued our drive with a stop in richmond, virgina to see jason's cousin dustin & his sweet wife jessie. we forgot to grab a photo...dang it! 

but, we had a great visit and they treated us to some tasty ice cream!

final stop on new year's eve...right outside charlotte, nc.

we stayed with my aunt & uncle!

we had a great breakfast with them & my cousin. we don't get to see them nearly as often as we would like. i have so many amazing holiday memories with all of them before they moved to the east coast!

thank you uncle bob, aunt marsha & carin for treating us to a tasty southern breakfast AND letting us stay with you guys!

we made a LOOOOOONNNNGGGG push to biloxi, ms (about 90 miles outside new orleans)

the next morning we explored the big easy or at least the french quarter. 

we devoured a tasty brunch.

 

 and took the pups on a good walk around the french quarter. which totally feels like a movie set!

 how cute are these two? 

they know exactly what to do when we want their picture! 

if only the behaved this well all the time!

then we were off...again. next stop san antonio, tx! talk about a drive!

we were honestly so lucky with these sweet pups. they just rested and napped most of the trip. 

by the end you could tell they were so OVER being in the car. but. so were we.

the next morning we made our final tourist stop. the closer we got to california, the more eager we became to get out of the car permanently!

after one more night in a hotel. we saw the sign we had been waiting for!

and then this.

welcome home! welcome home!

it is good to be back! i am sure many adventures lie ahead for us. 

AND i am so freaking excited to take a REAL vacation again...soon!