Strawberry Picking

The spring weather is trying so hard to stay around and we are taking advantage when we can!  We kept up our tradition and went strawberry picking again this year!  

 For the past few years we have gone to Wise Acres in Indian Trail, NC.  They have now blown up and we have heard it gets pretty crowded, but luckily we were able to go on a Friday since kids don't have school and Ryan doesn't work Fridays. 

 The kids love all the cute activities and swings they have around the property. 

 We picked tons of strawberries...and sampled a few too!

 This little one was very picky about which ones he chose to put in his basket. 

 After playing, running around and picking strawberries we had a snack and lunch break.  The strawberry slushies and coconut oil popcorn is the best combination!

 They also have a wood fire oven and make the best gluten free pizza!!!  The twins are already asking to go back and we have eaten our way through two crates of strawberries so we just may have to!!

Pirate Dance

Bobo and I recently attended the Mother Son dance at our club.  The theme this year was Pirates and he could not have been more excited!!!  He started counting down the days weeks before.  We invited our sweet friends to be our double dates for the night!

 Harry and Bobo loved all the dress up accessories..argh.

 There was lots to do and keep these crazy boys entertained!

 There was more on the dessert table than the regular food table:)

The boys seemed a little tired when we first arrived, but 9 desserts later and they were running circles on the dance floor!

 This night is one of my favorites and I just pray he always wants to dance with me!

Meanwhile....this little lady had a special double date too.  

 Lilly store, dinner at Roosters and Ice Cream with one of her favs Dylan!

Safe to say we all had a magical night!!!

Our final days in Iceland

Our last leg of our Icelandic adventure started on Reynisfjara, the black sand beach!  We were the only ones on the beach and it was a cold and clear sky kind of day.  Ryan climbed up high and I skipped rocks in the ocean and walked around with the twins.  I love this picture he got of us walking hand in hand. 

And I got one of him up high too!  

 Once again within one part of the country we experience diverse landscapes.  The kids loved the basalt columns on the side of the cliff.

 And this crazy cool cave created by the bottom of the besalt columns. 

In the background of this selfie you can see the basalt sea stacks, or black lava columns, called Reynisdrangar.  We saw them the day before on the other side from our hotel, but it was even better walking along the black sand beaches in the morning sun.  On the other side of the beach is Dryholaey, which is a former island of volcanic origin.  It is also known as "the door hole island". 

 After spending the morning at Reynisfjara we drove to the west to our hotel for our final night.

 We certainly saved the best for last (well hard to argue what was our favorite part, but this one was definitely up there).  We ended our adventure at the Blue Lagoon. 

Before leaving for this trip Ellie and I picked the perfect shade of milky blue, which we called "The Blue Lagoon" for our piggies.  

 There are people swimming around with different mud masks and we did a few and let the kids try one too!  Although the water and mud masks are wonderful for for your skin, it is terrible for your hair!  We all put tons of conditioner in our hair for days to get it back to normal. 

They have a swim up bar too!  We got some bubbly and the kids loved the blue slushies. 

 We stayed here for hours.  We ate lunch, swam, played and explored.  We even got the twins some color changing toys to play with since it was so warm in the lagoon, but when they put the toys on a rock they quickly went back to the original colors. 

After showers and warm clothes we had dinner at our hotel.  This was also our last chance to see the Northern Lights.  Poor Ryan woke up a lot over the week in the middle of the night to see if they were out.  We had several hotels we stayed in that offered an "aurora alarm" and they would call and wake you up as well, but we sadly didn't get lucky enough.  We happened to always be in the wrong place at the right time.  This particular hotel said the few nights prior they were putting on a show:(  That being said we now have more reasons to come back to this truly remarkable country!!! We love all of our vacations together, but this one is one we will never ever forget! 

Iceland Part 2

The view is the absolute best to wake up to!  Pictures don't do it justice at all.  

 I am so glad we decided to start our Icelandic adventure in a rental house and not hotel.  We enjoyed sleeping in and waking up on our own schedule, making breakfast and slowly starting our day.  When we went grocery shopping we kept seeing this yogurt called Skyr, yall it is so creamy and delicious.  We have several versions of it in America as well, so we have stocked up now that we are home.

Our rental house also had this cute little playset the twins loved.

We went on walks around the lake and enjoyed exploring!  Ryan got this picture of me taking a picture haha!

We loved this little area that had benches and a picnic table out on the island. 

Each day we spent several hours in the car, but we had great playlist and lots of beautiful scenery to keep us occupied. 

 Iceland is known for being the home to vikings and the twins found so many fun toys and dress up stuff  at each stop.  Don't worry we only let them get one toy each and it had nothing to do with vikings!

 The Kerio crater not far from the house we rented.  Since it is just the beginning of spring it was still frozen over, but still massive and impressive!  We sat here for a while explaining to the kids this used to be a volcano and how over a long time transitioned into a massive hole in the ground.

We saw dozens of waterfalls throughout our adventures, but these were some of our favorites.  Seljalandfoss was tall and popular.  Unfortunately the ground was frozen so we were not able to hike the stairs that lead to the back of it.  

 Not far from there we went to a more unknown waterfall called Gljufrafoss, and that was our favorite.  It took us a while to figure out how to go under this mountain and through a cave to get right to the base of the waterfall.

We found it!  And found one other couple there who happened to be on our plane and recognized us.  They were not going to attempt wading through a stream until they saw our 5 year old twins did it haha!

This is us inside the cave that is at the base.  We got absolutely soaked, but had a dance party and just stayed there in awe of being at the base of a waterfall for a while. 

On our way back to the car we sat in the sunshine trying to dry off and had a snack!  We found fish soup (sounds gross, but it is in fact delicious) and lobster soup at every stop!

 Another fun moment was when we got to Skogafoss there was a double rainbow!!!  How cute are these twins under a twin rainbow?

 We of course continued to stop and feed horses.

When we made our way to the souteastern side of the country we stayed a night at the Foss hotel.  

 Iceland is full of waterfalls and we would often see them just driving down the road.  Ignore the terrible singing haha!

Next up on our Southeast adventures was Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon and Diamond beach.  Again pictueres can't even begin to captures to magnitude and beauty of this place!!

 Ellie and I found some small diamonds on Diamond Beach:)

 So on one side is the glacier lagoon and the other is diamond beach where all the parts that break off the glacier wash up on shore.

 Here is us at the actual glacier lagoon.

After this we drove back to the southwest part of the country to a town called Vik. When driving in Iceland the landscape changes drastically and quickly.  One minute you feel like your on Mars and then the Swiss Alps and then Colorado and then Ireland...it is crazy! We did a little adventure ride around Lomagnupur mountain.  I even drove a stick shift for the first time!

We stopped at the moss covered lava rocks to take it in and snap some pics. 

 When we made it to vik we went to a local pool and let the kids swim and then played soccer on a nearby field.

 We read that the weather can change in a minute in Iceland.  This was the only time we experienced this.  It was blue skies and sunny when we went to the pool and by the time we left it was snowing sideways!

We shopped and checked out this little town before showers and dinner at our hotel. We had a loft style condo here and the kids loved sleeping upstairs in the loft.

There are way too many pictures and details to cram it into one or two posts....up next our final few days and adventures!!!  We may have saved the best for last too!