Rockhounds...

We went to our first Rockhounds game of the year to watch Barry's niece, Holly, cheer before the game started. Calla kept on running off, so finally, cousin Cole just decided to pick her up to contain her. Here he is carrying my little Gravy Boat...

Holly was so excited to be out there on the field with all the big girls! They did a great job!

"Pop-eye" Leslie and Cole...

I entertained Calla by letting her climb in and out of the chairs. The kid loves to climb...

Celebration of the Arts...

We try and take advantage of the local events we have here. They're never anything extravagant, but the crowds are always light and the girls have a fun outing. We took the girls to Celebration of the Arts a couple weekends ago. The highlight of every such event is face painting and balloons. Leslie opted for a butterfly this time...

Calla could not figure out what was going on with this big blue-haired zebra painting Sissy's face. She wasn't scared, but she stared at her like this the entire time...

You can understand why...

Leslie was so very happy with her butterfly face. She even got sparkles down the body of it! Always the creme de la creme...

One of our friends had a booth set up teaching about printing, so Leslie got to help turn the wheel and print a pretty little flower picture...

We got a ladybug balloon for Calla. She thought she was so special! She waved it around and tried to hit people with it who stood too close. You know- basic naughty baby stuff...

There was this huge greyhound roaming around trying to raise money for the local greyhound rescue. At the shoulders, it was taller than Calla! And it had black stripes all along it's back. It looked more like a tiger than a dog! But Calla, staying with her personality, had no fear. She walked right up to it and pet it. Then it laid down, and Calla turns around and starts backing it up to sit down with it! No fear. She sat down and the dog curled around her without any problem. The bigger surprise was that Leslie was willing to get some what close to it! Cute girls! Great dog!

Calla's favorite part of the entire day was dancing to the live Blues Band. We put her down and she sprinted off toward the stage stopping occasionally to stomp her feet and bounce her bum...
(Sorry I couldn't get the video to upload. I'm sure Barry will include on the next DVD)

Dancing Sorrow...

I'm sure most of you have heard the story of Leslie's dance recital, but I wanted to show you all the before pictures and how excited and beautiful she was leading up to the incident.


Here she is Saturday morning watching TV while Grandmommy rolls her hair...

She played like this all morning. It was really cute to watch those curlers flap around...

She's a big scaredy-cat for a lot of things, especially blow driers or curling irons, so we let her play her Leapster video game while we fixed and curled her hair...

A monkey face from my sweet Cuddle-Up Cub before we left the house while Mommy and Grandmommy tied bows on shoes...

I'm so very glad we stopped to take a picture of us together before we left the house. She was so amazingly beautiful...

She was extremely excited about her performance. As you can see, she was smiling ear to ear all the way there...

And then tragedy struck... We dropped her off, and as she was walking to her seat, she slipped on her tap shoes and fell straight on her bum and elbow. After a long time of holding, and crying, and ice-ing, we finally realized this was more than hurt feelings. So I texted the family who was in the audience watching the show that we needed to pack up and head to the hospital. She wanted to feel better and dance so bad! I was sad for both of us that she was going to miss it.

She's getting so big that she's more comfy on her daddy's lap. He held her almost the entire ER visit...

After a couple hours in the ER, she was sent home with only a sling. Her x-rays didn't show a break, but because of the swelling amount, the orthopedic surgeon thought it was probable that she had a fracture. We gave her the flowers we got for her performance when we got home, and that at least put a smile on her face...

And a final picture of Daddy with his favorite Cuddle-up Cub...

I'm still so upset and disappointed that she didn't get to perform her dance. It's so much bigger than missing a t-ball or soccer game. She's been working toward this one goal since September, and she missed it by 1 hour. Several times she has apologised to us for hurting her elbow and promises that she "won't fall on her tap shoes and hurt her elbow at her next recital at Lee High School." It makes me tear up to explain to her that that experience is lost.

Hopefully, once dance starts back up for the summer, I can at least get her teacher to go through the dance with her so we can see it. I originally thought I would simply have her wear her regular leotard for it, but I think she might like getting all dolled up again and trying to gain some resemblance of what she missed. I guess I'll ask Leslie when the time is closer. Stay tuned for video of her private performance...

Ologies...

The Petroleum Museum has a HUGE kids night 4 times a year. We decided to take Leslie to this one about "ologies." She learned about astronomy, biology, geology, climetology, nephology, petrology, brontology, campanology, phrenology, and many more! Here she is at the horology station making a sun dial with Daddy...


They had so many exhibits! We didn't even get to half of them. Several of them were a bit too old for her, but she's good about accepting help. Here she is after the lepidopterology

showing off her beautiful butterfly...
And the highlight of the event was, of course, the milk and cookies at the end...

Friend Fun...

Our friend, Parker, spent the night with us a couple weeks ago. It was so hot, that I climbed in the attic and got all the water toys for the summer....
Leslie had alot of fun. Parker had fun for a while...

Calla? Well, she just wanted to swing...

We did alot of super hero time. Parker was initially a little upset that he was having to stay with a girl... until he remembered she had Hulk gloves...

They did pretend play a ton! It was really fun to watch/listen to because Leslie has never been real good at it, but Parker is a pro. Here they are flying to New York after fixing several meals for there friends who will be here soon...

Calla, as you can see, chose to drive:)

A Blessed Day...

Today (Wednesday) has been a blessed day. The bible study Barry and I are going through has different "Soul Training" exercises for us to do each week. This week's study is on lust, and since so much of our world is overflowing with unGodly sexuality, our challenge this week is to go two full days without media (TV, music, computer.)



Now the girls are not in the bible study and are allowed media. However, I like to think most of the things they watch are not horribly racy, but I know the commercials are not sending a good self-image message. So, unless I needed the TV to babysit while I did something in another room, the TV has stayed off.



The day started off awesome and never stopped. I got up a little after 8 and had a chance to start getting ready and read some before the girls' chaos started. Calla woke up a little after 9 and Leslie slept until 9:30. So, I figured Calla was not going to fit 2 naps in today, and decided that we would try and make it to playgroup. It was a great way to occupy my time and take my mind off of my TV addiction. Playgroup ended up to be a picnic lunch at a park which was lots of fun. Leslie was social, and played well, used her manners and minded great! Calla, like always, was just happy to be outside. She tried climbing up all the ladders that are much too big for her. Then, she decided to try her luck at just going up the slides. She does surprisingly well for a baby! After lunch, a couple of school buses full of elementary students rolled up, so we decided to head out. It was getting hot and both girls were tired anyways.



We came home and had some ice water and read books while we cooled off. Then Calla went to bed. Leslie and I read a couple more books then I let her watch a little TV while I took a little power nap! Then Leslie went off the bed.



Our "media silence" is supposed to include the computer, but my group isn't real legalistic about things, so I decided that checking the weather, reading only personal emails, and working on my own blog while the girls were asleep was okay. I don't think there is anything lustful is those 3 activities. Although, on weather.com, the girl in a bikini dancing around the ad for home refinancing does just generally piss me off.



Then when Calla woke up, we had a friend from church and her son stop by for a short while to play and visit!



Then Daddy got to come home early because he had a follow-up on his eye. (Everything looks good and the doctor got all the holes)



Then we played outside some more with Daddy before going to Home Depot and getting garden supplies.



Then, the Brauchi's made a triumphant return to Rosa's! Oh- how I missed you!



Then, we all went to the old K-mart parking lot and had some great snow cones!



We came home, played outside some more, had a snack, took baths, and went to bed.



It has been such a great, busy, productive day. I love getting to have adventures and make memories with my girls. I really loved having them sleep in and getting to start my day at a little slower pace. I loved having the TV off and limiting the computer. I loved actually getting out and doing things and seeing people! Truly a blessed day...

This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Craft time...

As silly and lame as it sounds to alot of y'all, one of our favorite activities on the boat was going to the towel animal workshop. Everyday, our hospitality guy would leave a different towel animal on our bed. It was really amazing and impressive to see what they could make out of just towels. They always made us think of Leslie and what a kick she would have gotten out of them. So, when we got our final "Fun Times" and saw a towel animal workshop, we knew we had to go!


I already have the main body made on the table by my bum, and now I am working on the dog's head...


Ta-Dah! Here I am with my little pug nosed dog...

And here's Barry with his dog...

We also learned how to make a bunny...


And finally, here we are with both of our elephants...

It was so much fun, we actually ended up buying the book that tells us how to make a bunch of different animals, so if you ever need to know, feel free to ask! We really felt like dorks for enjoying that so much, but there were actually a lot of people there! I always enjoy adding one more dimension to my craft repertoire!

So that was our cruise! It was so much fun and we definitely hope to go again... in a few years. I think next time we're going to try a little harder to find some friends to go with us and keep us company on the boat. Other than that, it was really perfect! Thanks to everyone for being so interested and all the useful tips. And a special GIGANTIC thank you to MiMi and PawPaw and Grandmommy and PaPa for watch my precious little girls while we were gone. We are so very grateful and blessed to have family that loves us and our family so much! Thank you!!

Tulum...

Our final stop was in Cozumel. The water here was absolutely beautiful! I was really looking forward to snorkeling some, but the wind was CRAZY! You could see that the usually turquoise water was tinted brown in places from the strong waves.


For this stop, Barry really wanted to travel over to the mainland and visit the Mayan ruins of Tulum. First, we had to take a ferry boat from the island of Cozumel over to Playa del Carmen where we then had to catch a bus down to Tulum. The ferry ride was miserable with the strong wind and waves... luckily, Barry and I made it with our breakfast intact.

Since the weather was so bad, the ferry had to dock at a different place than it was supposed to, so we had a short walk through the town to get to where our buses were parked. On our walk, we passed by this wall of glass shards. We thought it was a creative and somewhat artistic way of securing your property. Alot easier on the eyes than razor wire!

It was a lot of traveling time, but once we got there, Tulum was really amazing and beautiful.

It was right on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean...

Some of the main buildings were still intact. Mostly, you could just see the steps and foundations of where the houses used to be. Our guide was half Mayan and was very educated on its culture and history. It was very insightful and interesting to hear the Mayan story from his angle.

Can you imagine living in this gorgeous place? Our guide, Cesar, told us all the house frames we could see were only for the very important/rich people. Most of the the inhabitants slept outside. But that didn't seem so bad with the lush green grass under your head and the ocean waves lulling you to sleep.

This is the main reason we came to Tulum, so Barry could act like Indian Jones...

This was a partial wall and the foundations for one of the houses. Unfortunately, you couldn't explore any of the big buildings because idiots in the past had started writing their names on the walls and such. So, that was disappointing.

Barry took this great picture of the main temple where all of the big ceremonies and human sacrifices were held...

We also got to go down to the beach. Like Cozumel, the water and sand was beautiful, but the wind and waves were still pretty extreme. Our guide said it had been like that for the past two weeks! Once we found a rock to hide behind and change, we played in the water for just a bit before we had to go. It was hard work staying afloat in that water (especially for all the girls who kept losing their tops!) Barry loved trying to jump over the waves, or dive under them, or trying to ride them in to the beach. (This is why I don't feel a void in my life by not having a son!)

Tulum was a great place to visit, but like our other excursions, it was too short. The only shopping we got to do in Mexico was at a bathroom stop on the way to Tulum! We didn't even get a chance to try any authentic super hot sauce or buy any little senorita dresses for the girls!

Next time....

Grand Cayman

Grand Cayman was our earliest and shortest excursion day. We decided to use the local bus system and jump our way around the island to hit the major snorkeling places we read about. But first, keeping with our tradition of making Barry pose with funny life size creatures, Barry had to stand by a big fake pirate. They had these all over the island... like Plainview and their cows:) Although I have to say, the pirates are so much cooler!


We started out at Turtle Farm on the north side of the island. We read it had amazing snorkeling, but we weren't terribly impressed. It was overcast and the water seemed colder than it was in Jamaica. The tides were ALOT stronger, so we had to be careful getting in and out of the water since this place was super rocky. Here I am getting started...


We were both a little fearful with how we would do with a snorkel, but it turned out to be really easy. We were really happy we decided to spend a little more and get a snorkel with a valve in it so water didn't come in the top!


The coral just looked really rocky here. There wasn't a lot of variety in the shapes/types. It was hard to get good pictures of the fish and all their colors because the sun wasn't out much, but Barry got this good picture of a cute yellow guy swimming around...

Here's a little school of bright blue fish (again, much more impressive in person...)

This was what we were having to avoid smashing into...

Pretty in pictures, not so pretty with tides slamming you all around!

Speaking of making some pretty picture back drops...

Then we caught the bus a couple miles south to Cemetery Reef named for the cemetery it's in front of...

All of the real estate along 7 mile beach was developed, but every couple blocks they would have a sign and a path between properties to get to the beach...

The tides were even stronger at Cemetery Reef. I would be snorkeling, looking at something, then all a sudden fall several feet and fear I was about to smash into the coral. I thought the coral was boring here. Even our bus driver said this was the best snorkeling spot, so maybe it's alot cooler if the sun was out. You can see a lonely little blue fish at the bottom on the picture...

Barry was happy to find "Dory" (from Finding Nemo.) He told Leslie that she was all by herself and acted lost, so he asked her if she was Dory and needed help finding her way home. But she couldn't remember who she was or where she going. Funny Daddy...

I swam out to all the close buoys they had marking the formations, then headed back in. There were some more buoys alot further out, but with the tide so strong, I didn't feel comfortable getting that far out. It was hard work swimming in that water! I was really glad I am such a strong swimmer. So I came back in and played in the sand some while Barry finished snorkeling. It was white and soft here!...

Barry likes taking pictures of his feet which sounds silly, but this one turned out pretty good I think...

The tide was coming in and there was this perfect rock sloping out of the beach, so we couldn't pass it by without doing a Little Mermaid reenactment...

"Some day I'll be, part of your **splash** world"

The final snorkeling spot we hit was the Wreck of the Cali. None of our bus drivers even knew what we were talking about which stunk because we weren't real sure ourselves! Luckily, one of the locals we stopped and picked up knew what we were talking about and told the bus driver where to drop us off. We had a picture of the beach/cove that you are supposed to enter from, so we just started walking around looking for familiar rocks. We figured out it was the beach directly beside the cruise terminal. And once we started looking, we noticed several little boats out a 100 yards or so and people snorkeling. We didn't take this picture, but it gives you a good idea of just how close it was to the beach...
Right before we got in the water, one of the locals threw a bunch of food scraps in to the water and a huge school of these HUGE fish went crazy! We actually left that little cove and entered from the next one over. As we were swimming out, one of them swam right in front of my face and screamed through my snorkel, made a right hand turn, and started kicking my little legs as fast as I could to get away!

Then when we got out, I told Barry about how close one got to me, and he starts telling me how he was chasing several of them! Crazy!

Barry also got this great picture of a rare wild North American Snook! The picture doesn't pick it up well, but there was a big school of yellow fish swimming all around me. It was really neat to see them so close!

We kept swimming and swimming... further and further out... we were starting to get worried, but luckily we had the excursion people to copy from. So we swam over to the middle of all the little boats and kayaks and all of a sudden, there was a GIGANTIC sunken boat! Barry was really good at the whole snorkeling thing and was able to dive down and get some cool pictures.
Everything was covered in coral. It was amazing to see how colorful and diverse the coral was since the boat has only been down there a little over 60 years.

Here's a close up of the engine best we figure...

There were pieces parts scattered all over. We both wished we had more time to explore.

But it was getting close to last tender, and it was a LONG swim back to shore against the current. Once again, super glad I am a strong swimmer.


And here we are on the ferry back to the boat with Grand Cayman in the background...

This was such a short, early, and busy day that we never stopped to reapply sunscreen, so we got a little pink this day. This was by far our favorite day and place! We were scared of showing up to a new place without a set excursion, but it turned out to be perfect! Just too short!

That evening we decided to just chill by the pool and watch a movie they were showing on the big screen TV over the main pool. It was a nice relaxing end to such an exhausting day...