Goodrich Annual Girls Trip: Connecticut September 26-29

How quickly a year goes by!  It seems like all of us were just in Tennessee have a great time at Dollywood!  I LOVE that the ladies of my family make it a priority to get together each year for a woman weekend.  How much fun it is.  Sadly, grandma wasn't feeling up to making the trip to Connecticut where this years outing took place, but the rest of us were sure to have enough fun for her too.  My sister in law, Rachel's mom lives in Newton, CT and offered to let us come invade her beautiful home for the weekend.  My mom was excited to go there because the Goodrich ancestors had land and settled in Wethersfield, CT (about 40 minutes outside of Newton) back in the 1600's!!  So the trip was decided.  As usual my mom (Terry), my aunt Carol, my sister (Katherine), my two sister in laws (Rachel and Becky), and my cousin's wife (Christa) came.  It was fun to have Henrik there (Becky's cute little toddler boy) and meet baby Myles (Christa's 3 month old).

The first day my mom had arrange for a private walking tour of old Wethersfield.  It's the oldest town in CT and were my 16th great-uncle (I hope I'm getting this part right) lived.  It was neat to see the old houses and to see where William Goodrich had his plot of land.

Here we all are outside the Wethersfield Historical Society Building.

They had a cheesy little museum of the time period back then, but the saddest part was the book of handwritten letters from soldiers back home during the Revolutionary War.

A map showing where William Goodrich's homestead was.  Of course my mom bought multiple copies of this!

One of the old historic houses.

I'm assuming the people that lived in this house were very wealthy for that time period.  If I remember correctly, this light green house is now a bed and breakfast.

Another cute bed and breakfast

This is where William Goodrich's plot of land was, his house is not longer there, but it is close in proximity to where that blue house now stands.

Henrik was sure a happy little boy throughout the trip

We visited the oldest cemetery in the town.  The higher up on the hill the headstone was, the higher up in society they were.

Grace Goodrich's headstone.  For dying in 1712, it's amazing how well her headstone looked.

There were so many Goodrich's.  It was great to see these.

Of course we had to go find Goodrich Drive!

After a little afternoon shopping (because every girls trip must consist of that), we came home and with 8 women in the kitchen a fabulous meal was whipped up in no time!  We had such a great time just sitting and chatting at night.

The later the night got, the crazier we became.  We had a wild night of pictionary and literally I don't think I have ever seen my mom laugh so hard in my life!  It was hysterical.  Haha...love her!

The next day we explored around Newton, CT.  What a charming town.  I think Rachel's mom told us there are over 1000 historical homes just in that town alone!  The streets were beautiful as the leaves were just starting to change colors.

The old library is a fabulous place.  We spend time going through old books and watching Henrik play in the best kids area I have ever seen.

Henrik loves his Aunt Rachel

After a yummy lunch at the old General Store it was back to the house for book club.  We all pick a book to read and this year we read "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" by Laura Hillenbrand.  We had an interesting discussion about humanity and the life of Louie Zamperini.  The weather was perfect 74 degrees outside and it was so great to relax.

My mom with baby Myles

Next up:  Apple picking at the local orchard.  We decided we were going to pick our own apples and then come home and make apple pie of course!

Katherine and I

Mom sampling if this was the kind of apple we wanted to take home

I thought I would give it a try too

Henrik loved this place!  Here is the cute little man with his mama.

The whole group on a perfect fall day

After buying apple cider and apple donuts to take home we headed to the local duckpin bowling alley.  Rachel's family loves to come here when they are all visiting so we thought we would give it a try.  I had never heard of this before.  It pretty much consists of mini pins and mini balls but otherwise it is like bowling.  We had a so much fun and lots of laughs as Katherine beat us all!

We came back to bake our apple treats.  Here is Rachel with her mom, Eve, who was such a fabulous host!

That night we got the computer out and all Skyped with Grandma Goodrich.  It was so fun to see her and it was like she was on the girls trip with everyone.  I know it meant a lot to her to be able to do that.

And just like that another fabulous weekend comes to an end.  My mom is amazing and puts these things together with every detail.  I love her!  Eve, was such a generous hostess and despite us all living all over the country it is great that everyone puts the time aside to come.  Until next year's outing...  :)

Nick's 31st Birthday and Sept happenings

In September we spent most of our time in North Carolina.  We had a much needed date night one weekend, trying a new yummy restaurant.

September is a special month because so many family members and friends have birthdays, but none as special as this guy!  As usual when I asked what he wanted to do for his day his response was "hit some balls."  So it was off to the driving range and then out to lunch.  I had gotten Nick a gift card to the driving range and some golf accessories so he was excited to use them!

He knows what he is doing!

 Me on the other hand...haha, not so much!  

 That night we had some friends over for cake and ice cream.  Nick wanted a chocolate ganache cake and boy was it good.

 One of our friends little girl, Kaiya was so excited to give Nick the picture she colored for him.

In other happenings, Nick is still working 60+ hours a week.  On this particular day he had to do several saftey walks so he was dressed down and I'm not sure how happy he was that I took this photo at 6am!  Little did he know his day was going to be one to remember by the end :)

 When I picked Nick up that evening from work I gave in to him wanting to look at trucks (for the 2nd time this week and probably 50th time in the last year)!  By the end of the night, he was as happy as they come and found himself the new owner of an F-150.  You can't wipe the grin off his face.  

 The exact truck he wanted was at a different dealership, so Nick had to wait two days for it to be delivered.  When they called on a Friday morning saying it was ready, he dropped everything he was doing at work and went to pick up his 'baby'.  His smile and excitement made all my stress worth it.

 The first start-up

 My favorite picture!  I love that he is still pondering that this is HIS truck.  

 Back at his apartment he was so careful when picking out where to park

 The inside is probably nicer than any vehicle I will own

 Nick getting this new truck meant one thing---goodbye Mazda!  I bought this car when I graduated from college and it has been so good to me.  The night that Nick signed the paperwork I started crying when he said they were going to take the Mazda that night and give us a loaner until the truck was delivered.  Well the salesman saw me getting emotional and said I could keep driving my Mazda until Friday when the truck came in.  Haha, I felt dumb but I guess I wasn't ready to hand it over.  The next day I took the Mazda and got it all cleaned and detailed much to Nick's dismay.  Yes, I know kind of dumb to spend money on it, but it made me feel better so I did it.  Friday when it came time to hand the keys over I was totally fine---I think because all I could do was smile as I was looking at Nick's excitement.  Ahh, such a great car this had been to us.

On another note, all my flying as paid off.  I'm finally Silver preferred status.  haha.  Nick is jealous because he flys a lot for work, but obviously not as much as me traveling to always see him.  Since I received this 'status' I've been upgraded to first class twice!  oh yay :)