big helper

this guy cracks me up.  he's always ready to help dad out in the yard with whatever task is happening next!

love, laurie

the crayola experience

we enjoyed visiting the crayola experience earlier in the summer, so we made another trip in august with grandma and grandpa.  noah had fun showing grandma and grandpa around crayola, and grandma had fun visiting the area where she grew up.

love, laurie

la festa italiana 2025

i've mentioned numerous times that my favorite end-of-summer tradition is visiting our local italian festival over labor day weekend.  it's especially important to us since it's where we went on our very first date back in 2004.  i can't believe this year is 20 years since we first went together! 

we went twice this year and had a good time eating and sight seeing.

let the countdown begin for next year's festival!

love, laurie

. . .

previous trips to the italian festival: 

2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

lakeland's blooms and butterflies festival

lakeland has the best festivals.  the month of august was the blooms and butterflies festival and we loved visiting multiple times throughout the month to pick sunflowers and see the butterflies.  noah always has a good time at lakeland!

love, laurie

a trip to knoebels amusement park

ryan and i have been wanting to take a trip back to knoebels for several years now, but we weren't able because noah was so small.  this year he was big enough to ride the rides and enjoy it so we went out for ryan's birthday.

love, laurie

the harford fair

noah loved visiting county fairs this summer.  we took him to the harford fair and he had a blast trying out all of the tractor equipment and riding all of the rides.

love, laurie

a night out at the wayne county fair

we love the wayne county fair!  it has been one of our favorites for years, and we were so happy to share it with noah this year.  he was old enough this year to ride the rides by himself for the first time so that made it extra special.  of course, his trip to the fair was extra magical because they had real tractors for him to sit on too!

love, laurie