My Morris is five!

My baby turned five this week, and it's been a good one. 

On Wednesday night we made cloud & rainbow themed gift bags for his classmates. On Thursday (his birthday) he brought them into school along with sprinkle donuts. When he got home from school we had a new bike and helmet waiting for him outside and we practiced riding it for a bit before grilling dinner. While dinner was grilling he threw pebbles into the air and yelled "SURPRISE!" over and over again, despite our efforts to get him to stop. So, I took pictures instead. 

He has been so excited about turning five. He tells everyone we come in contact with. He also told me to sing him "Happy Birthday" and wish him a happy birthday several times, as well as sing "Happy Birthday to me" about 5 times. This kid is serious about his birthday.

Since about two weeks after his last birthday, Morris saw a rainbow cake with cloud frosting somewhere and immediately decided he would be having a rainbow cake with cloud frosting for his 5th birthday and has stuck with it since. So The Sweetery made his dreams come true. They did an amazing job, as usual. We have ordered cupcakes from them any time we have thrown a birthday party for Morris since his first birthday, because they are hands down the best. 

I made the balloon rainbow for Morris at 10pm the night before his party and it was perfect, but of course a bunch of balloons deflated during the course of the night. :(

Morris's party was great and so many lovely people were there. 

When it came time to blow out his candles, they would not blow out despite all his attempts. I was asked if I had bought trick candles. "Absolutely not!" After checking the packaging, a saw the words "Re-Lighting Candles" and felt awful,  but everyone had a good laugh, including Morris.

After the party a good portion of the evening was spent watching Morris & his friend Evey run through his newly gifted bubble machine with the sun setting in the background. It was a perfect end to a lovely day.

We took Morris to an indoor water park in Lake Geneva on Sunday & Monday and took advantage of the weather and ate and played lakeside. I'm exhausted from celebrating my favorite little dude's existence. 

Savannah/Tybee Island/Cumberland Island

Kyle & I planned on going to Florida for Thanksgiving so our families could get together and have Thanksgiving at my mom's house. We also decided to take advantage of the grandparent situation in Florida so we could have a mini-vacation, just the two of us.

First stop, Savannah, GA:

Southern hospitality is a real thing, go to Savannah and experience it! 

The trees around this area make you feel things. 

We stayed at the Andaz Hotel and it had the most incredible bar and bartenders. NO JOKE. So, it was hard to stray from there often if we wanted a drink.  

We ate in the basement of Olde Pink House, named "Planters Tavern", there was live piano music, southern food, and a history lesson about the place from our waiter. So fun.

I didn't even realize you can drink publicly in Savannah until the last day we spent there, so I didn't get to take advantage of that, because I didn't feel much like drinking, but at least Kyle got to.

There are a lot of gorgeous cobblestone streets in Savannah, they make you feel as though you stepped into another time.

We ate a couple times at The Wyld Dock Bar, a beautiful, serene setting in the Savannah wetlands with delicious food and cocktails. For breakfast one morning we ate at The Collins Quarter. The Collins Quarter was my favorite place we ate in Savannah. The decor was great, best tile floors. The food and drinks were spectacular. The lavender mocha is to die for. 

I didn't take much pictures in Savannah, but I urge you to go if you haven't already.

Second destination, Tybee Island, GA:

It was a cold day in Tybee, so we pretty much had the beach to ourselves, which was nice.

The first thing we did is eat a a very touristy seafood restaurant that had live baby gators. It was not good. Luckily, once we got to our bed & breakfast things turned around.  

Surf Song Bed and Breakfast is a charming place with fresh baked goods, great hospitality, and a short walk to the beach. A very relaxing part of our mini-vacation. 

Final Destination, Cumberland Island, GA:

Cumberland Island is a 50 minute ferry ride from Fernandina Beach, FL. The inn we stayed at had it's on personal ferry that picked us up. We were the only people they had to pick up that day, so we got the ferry all to ourselves. It was a beautiful ride, we witnessed a few dolphins and wild horses during the trip.

We were greeted by inn staff as soon as we docked, and immediately got a walking tour and history lesson about the island. Not even three minutes into our walk up to the inn we were surrounded by wild horses. MEGA DREAMY.  

The Greyfield Inn is the only way to stay on Cumberland Island besides camping through the National Park Service. They also include all of your meals, snacks, and beverages (non-alcoholic) in your cost for staying, as well as guided jeep tours, bikes, and more.

After our tour of the inn we picked up the ready-made picnic lunch with our names on it from the kitchen, poured ourselves some sweet tea, and enjoyed our meal outside surrounded by low-hanging trees and wild horses. Then, we hopped onto a couple bikes and pedaled to the beach. The beach had one of the widest sand shores I had ever seen. 

We hopped back on our bikes and headed towards the ruins. We also had to make a couple of stops to let horses pass on the road. The bike to the ruins was very long, but we made it, enjoyed it, and took the long trek back to the inn so we could watch the sunset from the porch before dinner.

Once back to the inn we got a couple whiskeys from the honesty bar and cuddled up on the porch swing to watch the sunset. Then it was time to get dolled up for dinner.

Dinner is an affair at the Greyfield Inn. The men must wear suit jackets and there is a cocktail hour with hors d'oeuvres before we are called down to dinner for a four-course meal. Dinner was a blast, we got to meet so many great people and loved the conversation so much that we all gathered around the fireplace in the living room to visit more after dinner.

Once some people started heading to bed, Kyle and I moved back to the porch swing for more cocktails and the nighttime island breeze.  Everyone else thought we were crazy for staying outside because it was 50 degrees, but most of them were from California and Florida, and it felt amazing to us Midwesterners.  

After a night sleep and breakfast we took a packed ferry ride back to the mainland.

Cumberland Island was a place I will never forget, and I can't wait to visit again.

Vallecito Reservoir

I can't think of a time that I felt so peaceful, besides right here.  

That is until nightfall came and us dummies realized we had no firewood.  We tried to collect some, but it had recently rained and that was not working out.  So we drove all around the reservoir (with some stops for free-range cows crossing the road) until we found the singular open place... a restaurant/bar.  When I mentioned to the bartender we were looking for some firewood he talked to some friendly townsmen who called a friend who went outside to chop us fresh firewood until we arrived.  

Quite an adventure, but the darn nice people and the breathtaking scenery made up for it all.