"Our Vacation"

With Micah's graduation this year and it being our ten year anniversary later this Summer we decided it was time for Micah and I to have a vacation for just the two of us. Micah had a business trip planned to Florida and we figured why not start our vacation there. I met up with Micah in Tampa after his conference. We asked a few people who were from/lived in Tampa for suggestions on what to do the night before our cruise. We received a few recommendation to go to The Columbia restaurant. It was an authentic Spanish restaurant that had been there for more than 100 years. In there main dining room they have a show with Flamenco dancers. We kept thinking during the show that it would be hilarious to have our girls with us because we know they would have tried to imitate the dances at home.

I forgot to bring our tri-pod, so almost all of our pictures are us taking a picture of ourselves holding it out in front of us. Cheese!!!

Both Micah and I had never been on a cruise before. What an experience! We were constantly amazed by how HUGE the boat was, and how many people were on board.  They mentioned that there were 2,052 guests and around 900 staff to keep everything going. AMAZING! The other thing I found amazing was that this was not even one of their biggest ships.

The staff was so incredible.  We were a little nervous about our seating arrangements for dinner considering we knew no one on the ship, but it worked out great.  They sat us with four other couples who were there by themselves and around our age.  We had a great time getting to know the other couples and the food was sooooo good.  I gained several pounds to prove it.

For all of you that have been on a cruise I'm sure you recognize the towel art.  We spent most of our days just laying on a lounge chair drinking cold drinks.  We hit a few of the comic shows, and even just loved walking around to see the entire boat. I did win a free scalp massage which was nice, and we both took advantage of the spa services. Being on the boat was so great because we had no choice other than to relax. The cell phone was off, and I couldn't even call home. So I had no choice other than to sit back and not think about anything.  It was fabulous!

We did have a one day stop on Grand Cayman. We chose to do an excursion that day and it turned out to be the best part of the trip. After a crazy bus ride (on the wrong side of the road due to it being in the British West Indies) we took a small boat ride (25 minutes) out to a sand bar in the middle of the ocean. The sandbar was called Stingray City.  There were hundreds of stingrays there that we got to hold, pet, and swim with for some time.  They were really friendly and would just swim around us. Not to mention the amazingly soft sand and crystal clear blue water.

I can't believe I am even posting these pictures because they are so bad, but that's what you get with a water camera and humidity on my naturally curly hair.  I'm actually really grateful that we did only take the water camera because it did rain quite hard while we were on the excursion. It soaked everything on the boat. 

These truly were amazing animals, and the tour guides were very knowledgeable so we knew just how to handle the stingrays without them or us getting hurt.

They would lift up the stingray and it's little mouth would squirt water like a squirt gun.  The tour guides were really fun and outgoing.  I loved that they were saying "ya man" all of the time and blasting the reggae music.

 
After the stingrays we were also able to go snorkeling on a coral reef.  I had never been snorkeling before and was surprised that I could really do it.  It took some getting used to, but once I had the hang of it I didn't want to come up. It's amazing what is down there that you can't see from above the waters surface. I think Micah and I both took in a few mouthfuls of salt water. It was so salty it literally made us sick. Even to have it on your lips was disgusting. Below is one of the only pictures we have of our snorkeling adventure and it's an awful picture.

After six days we really felt like we had a great break and were ready to see our girls.  They of course had a great time with both sets of grandparents and a few aunts. I was really nervous about leaving my kids, but they did well (or so they tell me). They had plenty of adventures of their own to tell us about when we got home. 

Leaving the boat took a lot less time than we had planned for. Therefore we spent several hours at the airport waiting for our flight. This is another great picture of us holding the camera  out for a picture (we have a lot of those). We found this great lounge area at a hotel that was attached to the airport. We were not suppose to be there considering we were not staying at the hotel, but they didn't ask questions. We figured we had so much time to spare we may as well be comfortable. 

We had a great time--can't wait until we can do it again.

Avery's 6th Birthday

My "Sweet Ave's," as I call her, turned six on June 9th.  Due to a crazy last few weeks we celebrated several times with different groups of people. I haven't even had the opportunity to sit down and post pictures until now.  Micah was going to be on a business trip on her actual birthday, so her celebrations were a bit early so he could attend.   

We started the celebrations with a pool party for some of Avery's close friends. We set up a few pools, sprinklers and blew up a lot of water balloons.  The great game of "duck, duck, splash" was a hit along with other water balloon games.  

  

I think limbo was the best liked game of them all. I can't believe how flexible some of these little bodies are. We rented a limbo music CD from the library, and they just wanted to do it over and over again.

Of course she was insistent that the birthday girl goes first with ALL of the games.

This is Avery's cousin Zayden below who wins the award for flexibility.  

Can you believe this kid?

She looks like one happy camper.

The following day we had a pizza party with Micah's side of the family (pizza by her request of course.) I think I made a total of four batches of cupcakes or cake for this birthday girl before her celebrations were over.

I love this picture of Aliza completely enjoying her ice cream cone.

She was spoiled this year with a new scooter from her grandparents, and a much needed new bike from her mom and dad (some other fun stuff too).  She is set for a great Summer.

On her actual birthday Micah was in Florida for a conference.  We did a birthday dinner with her the night before he left and then my parents treated us to a movie and lunch on her actual birthday.  We had a lot of fun at the movie, but I didn't think to take any pictures.

 

After the movie just me and the girls played the rest of the day and ended up at the Olive Garden (per her request again) for dinner.  We had our own little girl's night that ended with, of course, a birthday song for the birthday girl. Avery really hated being the center of attention during the song, but I secretly think she loved it at the same time. Thats not all. Then when Micah and I left for our vacation she spent the day with my mom and sister who gave her a adorable pink bat and ball (a huge hit.) She had a very long drawn out birthday this year.  We sure love our Avery and I wish she would stop getting older! That goes for all of my kids.  I wish there was a pause button we could push every once in a while to keep them from growing up so fast.  Happy Birthday Avery!

Last Day of School

Another school year has come and gone.  This school year seemed to just fly by.  We were so blessed to have such great teachers.  Both teachers were just the perfect match for both Abbie and Avery.  I still can't believe that I have a 1st and 3rd grader next year.  I wish they would stop growing.

Avery's class put on these fun caps and gowns the last day of school as they received their certificates to move on to first grade.  All of the kindergartners were able to bring their mom and dad to see their "graduation." They sang a few short songs, and of course ate cookies.

We are going to miss Avery's teacher Mrs. Wengreen soooo much. What a great blessing it has been for us to have Avery in her class. Avery fell in love with her the first time we met her. I really didn't think Avery would go to school without kicking and screaming, but she loved her teacher and that made all the difference. Whenever Avery was sick she would say "I can't miss school today, Mrs. Wengreen will miss me too much." Is that not a sign of an Awesome teacher who loves each child in her class, and each child knows it. Avery has grown leaps and bounds this year.  We are so lucky to have had such a great teacher that has taught Avery to love school. 

This is Abbie with her teacher Mrs. Hutchings.  Again, a perfect teacher for Abbie this year. This sweet lady has patience beyond what I could have endured with a class of second graders. She has taught Abbie so much this year, and really encouraged Abbie to do what she loves which is writing stories.  Abbie was constantly writing and reading stories to her class with Mrs. Hutchings encouragement.  She was always concerned about each student, and what was best for each of them with their very different personalities.  We are so lucky to have had such a great year.  Much different than that of the year prior, but that is a whole other post for another day.