Diana Elle Blog

Happy Travel Tuesday! Today is the last time we will all be linking up with Bonnie, A Compass Rose for #TravelTuesday. I found this link up back in 2013 while I was planning for our first trip to Italy . I saw the button on Margo's blog back when it was Guten Blog, y'all! And it stayed in my notes, I finally took the plunge and joined the #TravelTuesday link up for the first time back in February 2014 (my post about taking a day trip to Schwerin). I don't recall but I think I just dumped my link and left #NotCoolYo, I didn't receive any comments on said post. The next time I linked up though, I did hop around and "met" some bloggers. It was May 2014 and the prompt of the month was all about languages. I really enjoyed hopping around that week since there were quite a few German-related posts; Katrina's " Love/Hate Relationship with the German Language " comes to mind. I continued to participate in this link up throughout the next tw...

We didn't tell any of the kids that we had a secret trip to Orlando planned. We made sure to use code names for the theme parks "Apples" and "Bananas" and had little gifts ready for them for the day-of. But first, let's go back to the day before. Dec 31st, 2015. My mom left Charlotte early in the morning, I'm happy she was able to be with me for some time while we were state-side, and we got to do some sightseeing while she was there. After dropping her off at the airport we went back home to start getting ready for the last day of the year and our trip the next day. Some of the kids new we were going to go on a family trip and were fine with that, they didn't ask where we were going to they were happy to be traveling all together. We had a low-key new years eve celebration, because the plan was to begin our road trip at six a.m. the next day. We had all our suitcases ready-even the ones we weren't taking, since we left for ...

Continuing with our December trip today and talking about what we did on December 27th!  One of the main reasons my mom decided to go to Charlotte was to be with me on my birthday (and to see us, duh!). Naturally, I chose my birthday as the day we go visit First Ward Park.  The one thing that motivated about visiting this park was this video: The video made me feel like there was a lot to see. I convinced everybody we should go, they were a bit skeptical at first since they hadn't been there (or heard of it), But we had a nice time there, it did not disappoint. We spent the afternoon here and even bumped into a nice German family (from Hannover) and chatted with them for a while about how they like it there and us Germany, while Avi played with their girls. It was very nice, we had some great views of the city's skyline  and the kids got to play around while we took pictures, win-win! Welcome to travel Tuesday! U...

I hope all the lovely mothers reading this had a lovely day on Sunday, and to all the momma's in Mexico reading this I want to wish you a happy day today. My brother and Sister in law are really into sports, so while we were visiting them in Charlotte my sister in law took us to the US National Whitewater Center. She thought it would fun for us to do some of the activities they have available there, they have a trail, where you can bike, walk or run in, other activities like rafting, zip lining, a climbing center, and rope courses. We were interested in trying the rope courses, but we made it right before closing so didn't get to do that, instead we walked the trail and did a mini rope course, and it was pretty fun for us and the kids.  We actually visited the center on the same day we visited the James K. Polk historic site (after taking a quick stop at home to grab a bite to eat). I was a little surprised to see the lake without any water to be honest, bu...

If you weren't aware, we visited Charlotte this past December, and while it was not our first time there, it was for my mom. As soon as we booked her plane ticket, I started looking into things to do for a first time visitor!  I wrote down a list of possibilities and asked my sister in law which of those options would be best. One of the first things we did once my mom arrived was visit the James K. Polk History Museum in Pineville. This historical site is small but interesting, it is a great place to go to to learn more about the 11th president of the United States. Did you know? James was actually born on this land in 1795. The visitors center features exhibits on Polk's life, his presidency and on early Mecklenburg County, there is enough to keep you busy for around two hours and they offer a tour of the cabins every ..:30 after.  They don't let you take pictures inside the cabin, but it is pretty cool being able to see how they lived and what tools t...