a blog about faith, family, food, & more written by a wife and stay at home mom of five
Today Tad and I are celebrating six years of marriage!
We were talking yesterday about how we thought we would know more by the time we were married six years, but how in fact each day is such a continual learning experience!
We are so happily in love, and we’re thankful for all of the precious gifts God has given to us in the last six years. We look forward to celebrating many more anniversaries together!
As I’m sure you’ve noticed, we try and take fun family outings a few times a month so that we can see new places and make memories together! Last weekend we went to New Bern, NC for a little day trip!
Our kids are awesome travelers, so they didn’t mind the hour-and-twenty-minute car ride at all.
The first place we stopped was the local Goodwill, because you know I love to bargain shop!
Then we went to a really fun park called Kidsville. It reminded me SO much of a park I went to as a kid!
The kids loved exploring all the fun hideouts!
There were lots of fun things to do and challenges they weren’t used to.
(Mom, if you’re reading this… doesn’t this look like Kids’ Castle?)
Some members of our family were starting to get tired and hungry, so we decided to head to lunch.
We ate at a delicious little restaurant called Cilantro’s Mexican Grill. It was clean and family-friendly (extra napkins without having to ask!!), plus the food was all made to order from very fresh ingredients. The kitchen is open so we could see the chef working. We received great service, and of course the food was amazing!
We all got tacos with various meat fillings, but everything on the menu looked great!
After lunch we headed down to the water to visit Union Point Park. We were able to walk out on some piers and get close to the water. 
There is also a cool gazebo that the kids liked running around in!
The breeze coming off the water (the Neuse River) felt great!
While we were down by the water, we met a lovely family of ducks! We saw Mr. and Mrs. Mallard as well as ten fluffy little ducklings! Our kids love the book Make Way for Ducklings, so this was quite a fun experience for them.
New Bern flies a flag with a bear on it, so there are large bear statues throughout the city. We found some smaller ones at the park!
We enjoyed walking around downtown and visiting some little shops.
We got ice cream at a really fun place called the Cow Cafe! They had lots of flavors to pick from, and the whole restaurant is cow-themed. Jude particularly liked the electric train that ran around the top of the room.
After our ice cream, we drove around the historic district. The kids started to fall asleep at this point, but Tad and I loved looking at all of the amazing architecture! The house below was built in 1907 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The kids all slept the whole way home (I guess we tired them out!). We had a really fun day and we look forward to going back to New Bern again!
On Sunday afternoon, one of the families in our life group (small group) at church invited our whole group to come to their house on the river for a cookout!
We had the BEST time that afternoon swimming, playing with bubbles, relaxing in the hammock, playing in the sand, kayaking, playing cornhole, water skiing (just Tad… not me, haha!), eating, and fellowshipping with our friends.
The girls had a blast in the kiddie pool and playing in the sprinkler.
Tad took CC out in a kayak while I took Vera out in one at the same time. Vera thought it was really fun, but Cordelia was a bit nervous! I felt like I could have stayed out in the kayak all day!
Jude is going through a phase where he doesn’t like sand or water very much, so he just enjoyed playing with a ball and being Mr. Charming.
We had a delicious cookout!
Vera got to ring the dinner bell when dessert was served!
Of course Cordelia and Jude had to take turns as well!
The girls made a new friend.
By the end of the day, we were all quite tired!
The kids always love getting to spend time with our precious friend Maggie!
We felt so blessed by our friends’ hospitality! It was such a fun day!
