Our "Cruise-i-versary" to the Bahamas

Lem and went on a Bahamas cruise for to celebrate (a month early) our 10 year anniversary. It was a first cruise for both of us, as well as our first trip to Florida. We flew all night from Anchorage to Miami on a Sunday and arrived in Miami Monday morning. We'd rented a car so we could get around a little before getting on the ship that afternoon. After an eventful adventure through what can only be described as "the wrong side of the tracks," we eventually found our way to an IHOP and got some breakfast. We picked up some water and other snacks to take on the boat, dropped of our car, shuttled to the port and embarked on the Norwegian Sky.

We had about 2 hours on the ship before our stateroom was ready so we spent the time, touring the boat and lounging on the pool deck taking in the fun atmosphere and enjoying some tasty drinks and the spectacular view as the ocean stretched out ahead of us. At exactly 5:00pm we set sail, pulling out of port. Our excitement mounted as the Miami skyline grew smaller in the distance. Our first onboard activity was a conga line, followed by a drawing for free spa services-I won a free beauty treatment! We enjoyed sunset during dinner and relaxed on our balcony and settled into our little stateroom.

The next morning we arrived at our first stop, Freeport. There wasn't all that much there, as far as where we docked and we didn't have any excursions planned for that day, so I did my spa treatment, met up with Lem poolside and we headed ashore to check things out. We toured the straw market and headed back on board for lunch and an evening of entertaining activities aboard the ship.Our second stop was Great Stirrup cay, Norwegian's private island. It was a beach day for us so I was pretty stoked. We spent the day lounging in the sun and floating on our inter tube for two, complete with cup holders perfect for our island drinks. We had lunch on the island and headed back to the boat around 4:00pm. We had dinner and took in some more of the evening entertainment with our shipmates.

Our last stop was Nassau. We did our only excursion here, a trip to the spectacular, luxurious Atlantis Resort. We spent the day at the resort enjoying the ridiculously lavish waterpark. With a mile long river with exhilarating rapids, 11 swimming pools 9 thrilling water slides, and 5 beaches it was by far, our favorite island stop. We had such a blast floating the river in our tandem inter tube and splashing our way through the rapids along the way. We did a few of the slides together on the tandem tube and had so much fun with that. Lem did a few of the solo slides while I soaked up a little more sun. We headed back the ship and had a fancy dinner date and had our photo taken by one of the cruise photographers. Lem even slipped away to buy me a new delicate Swarovski crystal necklace we'd seen in one of the ship's shops earlier on.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time, both on and off the ship. We ate like crazy and laughed alot during the nightly activities. We saw the comedian and watched a jeopardy style game between passengers and we even took in the white hot nights dance party poolside one night. Lem and I even got up and danced on the stage! Our little room was so cute and comfortable and we loved having our balcony. It was so nice to watch the sunset there, have breakfast there or do some stargazing at night. We docked in Miami on Friday morning and though our cruise was over, there was still lots of fun in store for us before heading home on Sunday.

After getting off the boat we picked up our rental car, a convertible and headed over to our hotel. When we checked in the gal mentioned, "I see it's your anniversary-10 years, a big one, and we've got a nice....a REALLY nice room for you." When we got to our room and saw our huge fluffy bed and our two, yes TWO beach side balconies I thought, yeah, no kidding, a "very nice room!" We had lunch at Olive Garden and dinner at Red Lobster, two of our faves. It rained some that afternoon so we did a little shopping before dinner. We had a super great time cruising the town from our home base, Hollywood Beach, in our convertible. It was definitely kid-free, care-free living! Saturday we spent, literally ALL day being beach bums. It was great! We walked across the sidewalk from our room to the beach (nice, eh?) and got ourselves (with our free hotel credit) our own little clam shell shade and set up camp. We had an late afternoon snack just as the forecasted rain storm began and then got ourselves some Smoky Bones (YUM!) for dinner and hit the sack early, anticipating our 5am wake up call to head to the airport and catch our flights home.

In the Very Merry Month of May

May, where did you go? This month just zoomed by so fast, I feel like we almost missed it! Without a doubt, we've had a whirlwind first three weeks of the month and we're certainly going to enjoy our vacation this next week-we could use a break from all the hoopla! Lem's softball season has kicked off, and he's sent seniors through their AP Government test, celebrated Senior Fun Day, Baccalaureate and Graduation, and finally, this last Thursday, the last day of school.

We said good-bye to our dear friends, the Bracketts as they started their journey to their new home in Texas :( We were so sad to see them go, Sycely especially had a rough time handling her friend Joslynn's leaving, but we plan on keeping in touch with them and are praying they will be back stationed in Alaska again some day. We had one last gathering with a few other families to bid them farewell as they headed down the Alcan to start their new adventure. It was a fun (final) time of food and fellowship and as always, was such a blessing.

Sycely had a ton of fun end of the year activities at school. They had spirit week, including a Crazy Hair Day and Duct Tape Day. Lem fashioned a smashing duct tape crown out of an old headband and some sequins that turned out simply fabulous. Her class also took a field trip to the zoo and I got to go as a chaperone which was lots of fun for both of us. She was able to visit her future 1st/2nd grade classroom for a little time to get to know her new teacher, too. They also had field day at school and celebrated the last day of school with special treats. We were sure to get some photos of her with her friends and her teacher before we said good-bye for the summer.

I got elected PTA Secretary at our last PTA meeting of the year so that will add to my responsibilities next year, which is actually pretty exciting; I've been waiting years to be active in the PTA and my times has finally come! The school year's over, summer's officially started, and the Aces won the Kelly Cup, all in all, a great end of May for us! The girls are super excited to spend the next week with Nanny and Papa. They're going to get to go on a 5 day camping trip to Homer and will get to see my Dad and Kate while they are there, too. Lem and I, are of course super stoked for our cruise. It's hard to believe it's finally, actually happening, after nearly two years of planning and dreaming, we'll be on our way in less than 24 hours now! I got a fresh, new haircut for the occasion and got myself a facial and took Sycely on a Mommy Date to get our nails done. The sunscreen and sandals are packed and my Kindle is loaded up with ebooks, Bahamas, here we come!

Mother's Day Weekend

Mother's Day weekend ended up including a semi-impromptu camping trip for our family. Nanny and Papa wanted to take the trailed out for a test run before their big camping trip to Homer with the girls while we're gone for our cruise so Lem, the girls and I jumped at the chance to get a little ways out of town and have some family, kicking-off-summer fun.

Lem was emceeing Dimond's Baccalaureate service on Saturday night so we weren't able to leave town until around 9:00 so the girls hit the highway with Nanny and Papa Saturday morning and Lem and I drove down on our own once Baccalaureate wrapped up. We got to Seward around 11:00 (just as it was getting dark!), after everyone else was already settled and sleeping. We snuggled into our little nest in the back of the Explorer, complete with an cozy air mattress and ghetto-style privacy curtains made from whatever we had in the car (blankets, coats, etc.)

We all enjoyed a trailer-made breakfast of sausage, pancakes, muffins and eggs in the morning, then set out for "town" to get some coffee and take a little walk to the harbor. We got to see a giant sea lion trolling for fish in the harbor and, as it started to sprinkle, headed over to the Sealife Center to check out the animals there. The girls had a great time seeing the animals and getting to see the seals and sea lions being fed. Sycely thought the touch tank was super cool (as did Mommy) and we even got to see a hermit crab vacate his shell and move into a new one! Super neat! Ella spent much of the tour looking for sharks, for whatever crazy reason :) I could have spent all day watching Woody and the other sea lions swim.
After we finished our Sealife Center adventure, we had some quick lunch and hit the road home. The girls road with Nanny and Papa and both napped much of the drive home. Lem and I enjoyed having 4 hours of highway time (down and back) to share conversation without being interrupted-what a special treat!

We shared a Mother's Day Family Dinner with Nanny, Papa, Ian and Kathryn once back in town. It was a tasty feast of beer battered halibut, vegetable skewers, corn fritters and special cupcakes for dessert. And, of course, we were showered with gifts from our families. I can't say there's any other better gift than time together with those I love the most!

Sycely's Spring Dance Recital

Sycely had her spring dance recital this month. The theme for the performance this year was Iridescence-all the numbers used songs that had colors in the titles. Sycely's group performed to a very upbeat version of True Colors. As you can see they wore some pretty wild, neon, 80s style outfits to accompany their "funky" number. Miss Theresa introduces some of the jazz moves at the end of the K/1st ballet class and their number included alot of those moves, rather than just the traditional ballet moves. Miss Theresa was a little worried about our little "bun head" (i.e. a dancer whose forte is the classical ballet style) being able to loosen up enough to embrace this "funky" number, but she certainly managed to bring the "funk." Miss Theresa kept coaching them to be "funky" and have "attitude" and Sycely took that to heart and pulled out all the stops.

Hoppy Easter!

Easter involved all the usual fun and celebrating for our family: egg dyeing, baskets of treats, church, hunting eggs, family dinner and the like. We joined forces with the Gibsons to dye eggs this year. Scarlett, Summit, Sycely and Ella had a great time drawing on their eggs and dipping them in the dye, creating all kinds of creative designs. We followed up our egg dipping with a traditional Good Friday chili/cornbread muffin dinner ;)

On Saturday of Easter weekend, we attended the egg hunt at our church. Every year our church hosts a community egg hunt as an outreach to families in our area. Both girls got a paper with letters and symbols on it and they searched for eggs labeled with the letters and symbols until they'd collected on of each. Then they turned in their empty plastic eggs for a bag of candy and other treats. We invited my cousin Danny's girls and the girls were excited to get to see them and have a little time to play together on the playground after collecting their eggs.

Easter morning kicked off with Easter basket treats and pancakes with Easter designs on them. Then we headed off to church which was in itself a special kind of service! The Sunday before Easter one of our pastors had said, "Next Sunday, there's going to be a celebration here! So, bring your noisemakers and foam fingers, cause we're having a party. Jesus is risen!" So, of course, I took him seriously, and after encouragement from some of our friends and church staff, I showed up Easter Sunday with my noisemakers and foam fingers! We sported them with pride as we joined our Church family in celebrating our risen Lord with enthusiasm.

After church we got the girls some lunch and did a little photo shoot with them and our bunnies. Below are some of the photos we took of them in their Easter dresses with Mr. Hopps and Silly Billy:

Then, it was the time everyone's been waiting for: hunting for Easter eggs. Apparently, the Easter Bunny came while the girls were eating lunch and littered our lawn with eggs! The girls were quick to gather them all up and start enjoying the treats that were inside.

Since Nanny and Papa were on vacation in Arizona, hosting Easter family dinner fell to us, and since it was just us and Ian and Kathryn (a smaller crowd) we decided to go with something low maintenance and high taste-homemade pizza! We enjoyed a tasty pizza dinner that didn't take all day to cook, my first attempt at devilled eggs and strawberry shortcake for dessert. All in all, and fantastic Easter!