Our Upcoming Trip + a WINNER!

I know I'm partial, but is this not the cutest little passport you have ever seen?!

We were extra excited and relieved to receive it this week, just THREE DAYS before our departure. Whew! That was way too close for comfort Passport People. But thanks for making it happen.

This is what packing a little each day during nap time looks like

To say we are excited about Ryan's first flight, his first beach trip, his first time in a pool, and his first time in another county would be a definite understatement. We cannot WAIT!

So what made us decide to go out of the country for all of these firsts?!

Two things:

One, we had two flights on our credit card that needed to be used before they were gone.

And two, while we like the idea of getting away just the two of us at some point, neither one of us is ready for that trip now. And when we are ready, I think we'd prefer an overnight trip within driving distance of our house just in case we needed to come back for any reason.

So after realizing we were on the same page about not wanting to fly somewhere just the two of us quite yet, we decided we would fly somewhere with Ryan. We figured we've had lots of fun adventures together as two and are ready to make some new memories as THREE! 

Poor Tal, he'll have to stay at home. But don't feel too bad for him- my parents will be staying at our house (because they're great like that) and will be spoiling this pup with daily walks and hikes while we're away.

Once we made the decision to fly somewhere fun, we looked at places we hadn't been before and came up Maine/New England area, Washington D.C., or some place tropical.

The crazy snow storms were happening while we were in the process of planning our trip, so that ruled out the New England area pretty quickly. So that left DC or some place tropical.

Yes, those two options are quite different. QUITE different. But the nerd in me loves museums and history and the thought of walking around a new city for a few days with (at the time) our happily immobile baby who loved to be carried in his wrap sounded great. But a few extra pounds and lot of movement later, I'm glad we opted for the non touristy trip for this go around.

So where is our someplace tropical?!

Well I couldn't be more pumped to say that just last week Trip Advisor named it the #1 island in the world. Crazy right?!

We are headed to Providenciales in Turks and Caicos!

This will be one of our views for the next week. Eeek!

We cannot wait.

The flight is 2.5 hours, which seems perfect for the little man's first trip. It also takes off at a time where he'll be taking his morning nap, which will either be awesome or awful... we'll hope for the former and find out soon enough. ;)

I'll be keeping up with my #nelsendays2015 posts on Instagram and will be posting one picture each day while we're away, so if you'd like to follow along, you can find us @hmnelsen or by clicking on the camera icon at the bottom of this post.

And I'm sure I'll have lots more pictures to share when we return!

And now for the

Congratulations, Abbi Leigh!

If you did not win but would like to place an order (her prices are SO great and your order will help make her mission trip to Israel possible!), email A.J. @ ashleyjjordan@gmail.com.

Remember, if you're in the Atlanta area, A.J. can meet you somewhere to help save on shipping costs. You can check out all of her products here!

Have a great weekend, friends!