Bahamas

Grant won a trip last year from Toyota and your choice vacation spot was the Bahamas.  Any vacation that involves a beach is ideal for me and this did not dissappoint! We stayed at the Atlantis resort which was UNREAL!!! I want to go back, and it was so easy to get there I am sure we will try and make it happen some day.  The resort had it's own private beaches, so it was never crowded.

 This was my view one day as Grant and I hung out and read our books.  You can see my little tootsies at the bottom of the screen, yep that was literally my view.

 This was the view from our room.  The beach was  right out the door.

 There were also amazing pools all around the resort (which was on 112 acres of land for the record.)

The resort also had aquariums and a pretty fun water park.  We spent a couple afternoons just playing at the water park.  It had a mile long "lazy river" that actually had some pretty serious waves and rapids.  You could go on some rides off of the river without ever leaving your tube.  There was one ride that involved a 70 nearly vertical drop off that takes you under a tank of theses sharks:

 This is the top part of the drop off, the picture does not do it justice, but the water you see is filled with sharks and the tube goes under and through that tank.  Pretty intense!

We spent time just walking up and down this beach searching for sea shells (and found some pretty cool ones).  When we were not walking the beach we were in the water playing around and snorkeling.

While there we took a Catamaran cruise to the middle of the Ocean and went snorkeling.  Grant went Deep Sea fishing (which unfortunately ended up being kind of a bust).  We had a couples massage (Grant first massage ever).  We got to swim with the dolphins.

Grant ended up getting bit by one of the dolphins two times.  The first time it just nipped at his hand.  The second time it bit his foot and tried to drag him down in the water.  It left a little mark, but did not break the skin.  He ended up having to fill out an incident report and felt like the biggest nerd.  That was our first morning there, but did not ruin our fun at all.  I actually got many a good laughs from it.  We also went and explored the local market and town a bit.  We spent a whole day scuba diving (but that deserves a post all it self.)  It was virtually the prefect vacation.  We were able to play plenty and relax enough too. A full week alone with my man 24 hours a day...HEAVEN!!!

Cleaning the house

You know what makes cleaning the house more fun (at least for me)...Turning on XM Radio, possibly turning it up a little loud and dancing along as I scrub toilets, dust and mop.  I have to say cleaning was kind of enjoyable yesterday as a shook it.

Art Award

Our school is amazing for so many reasons.  One of those is that they make sure we have the arts for all kids to enjoy.  We are only able to have a part time art teacher, but every classroom has a mom volunteer to do art an the weeks that Mr Parsons is not at our school.  At the end of the year a school wide art show and contest is held.  This year Miss Jamison was selected for second place of all second graders.

 She did her piece "The Fancy Kingdom" all by herself.  She loves drawing and doing crafts so much, it was so exciting for her to win an award.  She also got a goodie bag of art supplies she carries around with her almost always.

This girl has really broken out of her shell this year and we are so proud of who she is becoming.  Awesome job my little Fancy artist!!!

MS Run

Our Elementary school does a fun run every year.  They call it the MS run (One of the teachers had a husband diagnosed with MS years ago and they have been doing a run for years to raise awareness and funds for a search for the cure. That man died this last summer.) So this run is a two mile run and it is a big deal.  First and second graders have to have an adult run with them if they want to leave their classes.  This year Mammy ran with Jamison and I ran with Caleb.  

Caleb was so excited for the run.  We talked strategy, and our goal was for him to run the whole time and not have to walk.  We were so excited (I think he was a little nervous, his heart was pounding right before we started.)  I had to pull him back a little sometimes so that he did not run too fast too soon.  We slowed it down on the uphills and sped up a little when it was downhill.  When we neared the end he was getting side cramps, but when we were almost there he kicked and I had to sprint to try and keep up with him.  He ran the whole thing in 17 minutes and 7 seconds. To get a feel for how amazing this is let me give some added info.  So all first graders through fifth graders do this.  Grant and I figured this was over 400 kids.  Caleb (Our little first grader) got 21st place out of the whole school.  he was just seconds behind his friend Payton (also a first grader) but no other first or second graders were even close.  I was so proud of him, and he had a blast.  It will be fun to see what he can do as the years go on!

What are they teaching in Sunbeams these days?

On Sunday as we are we are eating dinner we go around the table and have the kids tell us what they learned at church that day.  Last Sunday Mique was so excited about what she learned she did not wait until dinner.  She came up to me and said, "Mom today at church we learned about the birds and the bees....and uffer stuff."  It took about all I had to not totally crack up.  I am pretty sure her teacher would want her to remember the butterflies and worms and insects too.

Colorful

Mique, oh Mique...you are, something! Life is never dull with you around. You are full of personality, that is for sure!!!! This weekend your aunt Amy kept saying how cute you were and how colorful life is because of you. You can be quite a challenge for me (always saying you are hungry, even though you just ate or just refused to eat, your constant whining and crying, your torments to your siblings, your demands without a please or thank you, your telling me "NO" way too often, your insistence that you cannot do something even though you did it swimmingly the day before, your need to always have someone with you even to sit next to you to eat breakfast....yes you try my patience! Sometimes you make me want want to use colorful language.



But it is true, life without you would not be complete. Your many faces make me laugh. Your giggle, well it is unmatched. your determination will serve you well some day. You are beautiful, and those eyes.....oh those eyes! You are my little Miquey moo and I love you to pieces, colorful pieces!!!!

First Prayer

I am always telling this kid he needs to learn how to talk. He gets everything done by grunting and pointing, but I want to hear words. In the last couple weeks he finally decided to listen and has been saying so much more. I finally realized that he will not jibber or jabber. He will only talk if he is saying a real word and he thinks he can say it well. (Great another perfectionist on our hands.) I love his little voice and love that he is using it.
Last night it was time for family prayer. I asked the kids who's turn it was and Isaac's hand shot straight up in the air. We decided to put him into the rotation and let him give it a try. It was the cutest little prayer. He tried to say every word. It was not all audible, but he folded his little arms the whole time and said his little prayer. Those moments are ones to never forget. I am just glad our kids still fight over who GETS to pray and not who HAS to prayer. This is a good stage (I just need reminders of that ever once and awhile.)