One Happy Grad

Wow - how is this girl graduating from high school already? Way back when I met her she as a little 7 year old who was not happy about me taking up so much of her big brother's time (the second time I went to their house she said to Randy, "Why'd you bring her again?" haha) and now she's a beautiful 18 year old ready to head off to college! We are so excited she will be going to a college that is only about 20 minutes from us!

What was Lu thinking putting all these wonderful cakes on a table the perfect height for a little boy to see and grab?? Yep, and that's just what he did - and he was Oh so proud of himself! Mommy made it clear that he was not to do that again!

I love it that these two are buds. My youngest sis in law, Missy and my little cousin, Em.

Silly Kim - Disobeying the "No cross-training" sign. She's a rebel!

Randy's other sis is now about 38weeks. Wow - I can't believe it's baby time already!! She had Isaiah by this point so that little one could be here any day! I'm really hoping she goes another 2 weeks though... (yeah, I'm gonna be mean, but I can because she knows I love her!) She was still so tiny with Isaiah and she never got to that huge uncomfortable stage, so this time.. she gets to feel what the rest of us huge uncomfortable pregnant women feel during those last 2 weeks. lol Love you Kimmy and can't wait to meet that little one!

Kaid, Kason, Isaiah and Evanne playing in the church nursery

Yep, that's my boy wearing pearls. We're so proud! :)

Lisa and McKenzie

Kason and "saiah" playing

Paul and Lu enjoying getting their 5th baby graduated.... now only 1 more to go!

In the 11 1/2 years Randy and I have been together, this is only the second time I have ever met his grandpa.

"Boon!"

Kaid just adores my little cousin, Meggy.

Congrats Myk! You will have an amazing time in college - we are so proud of you.

Sum-Sum-Summertime

So, maybe not summertime by dates, but man has it felt like it! We've had to take lots of play breaks inside to cool off! LOVE it!

My little puppy just LOVES to lick. He was sticking his tongue out, but when I told him to do it again for the picture, this is what he does. Silly guy.

Swing time!

I don't remember what Kaid was grumping about, but I caught the perfect moment! She got over it very quickly when she noticed I was trying to take a grump picture of her and she ran and giggled away - she must have been pretty serious!

Bonnie was over playing and Kason was being hilarious with his "football stance" Where does he learn these things?! And Kaid waiting patiently for her turn.

Trying to climb the fence...

Now it's Kason's turn to be mad! We have no clue where exactly he wanted Kaid to go, we just know it was NOT here!

Trying to be SO convincing... then he would let out a little grin, then realize he wasn't grumping any more then go back to this grumpy face. They must learn the drama from their daddy.

My garden! I put a ton of different things in it last year and I'm glad I did - now I know what worked, what didn't, what we ate allot of... etc....

So this year, the front is all tea and strawberries (I was thinking I was going to get some crazy mint strawberries, but luckily I didn't! :) Then my Spinach that didn't do well again this year, then my onions and potatoes are doing AMAZING! Behind the Potatoes I have a row of green beans then half rows of cucumbers and zucchini. I would have liked to do more green beans and was going to have Randy build me another smaller section just for green beans but because we are planning on putting the house up for sale next spring, I decided against it.

Time for a haircut!!

SO glad that daddy can now cut his hair - saves us $15 every 4 weeks or so.

Anyone who asks about the kids gets an "and that Kason is SO ornery!" Yep, here's one more reason I say this... as if I needed another reason.
He was so proud of himself.

What?

The day I took the swing pictures... actually very shortly after I took them, Kason scared me so bad. Daddy had come home - he is a HUGE daddy's boy - so of course since he hadn't seen him all day he just wanted his daddy. Well, daddy wanted to go for a run quick, so he got Kason "side tracked" and took off and jumped over the fence and he was off. Kason saw the whole thing and was LIVID! He took off running after him and was over standing on the the gate screaming his head off! Finally he gave up the screaming and was just standing on the gate quietly. Kaid and I started cleaning up the toys and I had my back turned to him. Kaid looks over and says "mom, why is the gate open?" WHAT! I had NO clue he could open that gate. My heart dropped. Luckily he had only gotten to the driveway. Talk about giving a momma a heart attack. Oh my. So now he not only knows how to open the sliding door if it is unlocked, but he can unlock the fence gate also. Ugh... my summer is not going to be as relaxing as I thought it would.

While the cats are away....

The baby mice will play!

The first day Lu came to our house so Kaid wouldn't miss all three days of preschool last week. I think her being here the first while was a great transition for them while we were gone. Then Lu loaded them up and made the trip back to HC. They spent the next couple of days at my mom's that included lots of Avery time! Yay! Mom and Jody's mom took the kids to story time on Wednesday.

Then on Thursday they got to spend some time at Aunt Bethy's playing with their big cousins. I know they had to have had a blast! Thanks Bethy for showing them a good time! Hope it wasn't a bad flash back for you! :) Friday they spent the day with grandma Lu and Uncle Kevin, then back with mimi and pop for a trip to the circus! Poor Kaid has a rough rough last day. That morning when I talked to her she was crying so hard - it just broke my heart! Then that evening she had quite a few break downs also. Poor kid.

Mimi and Pop with their babies at the circus

Poor girl just couldn't stop.

Kason couldn't have cared less that we weren't there. Just give him cotton candy and he's anyone's best friend!

Finally Kaid is having a good time!

Kaid and one of her best buddies! Miss A and Kaid, although they can get into it sometimes, love each other SO much. I love watching them being so close. They may never have sisters, but they will always have each other!

We found paradise! CoCo Cay!

The last day we were heading to a private Royal Caribbean island - Co Co Cay. We ported at around 8 and we were off the ship shortly after 9 - all I can say is WOW! This is by far the most beautiful little island I have ever seen!

The water while we were out at sea...

This is for my "Little Mermaid" lovin baby girl...

The ship anchored out in the ocean then we took little ferry boats back and forth to CoCo Cay. The picture of perfection!

The beautiful island

The jump park - some friends we met on the ship went and did this and said it was a blast

This friendly big guy was about 3 feet from us in 2 feet of water. Yikes!

Can you spot the salamander?

The island was about 2 miles long and 1 mile across - We walked about half way around the one side. Most of the people stayed in the main areas but some were scattered and found their own private oasis!

2 little sand sharks circling their prey.... although we didn't see anything where they were, so could that mean that WE were their prey?

We had a BBQ on the beach and when the food started coming out the seagulls went CRAZY! There were a ton of them over by these palm trees, but you can't really see them that well in the picture.

The bar was appropriately named the Wacky Seagull. It sounded like they were all laughing.

We rented a float to relax in the ocean... ahhh, nothin better!

Our home away from home

The ferry's that took us back and forth

Yeah, tough job....

There was a huge area of reefs that you could snorkel in. You could come and go as you wished all day long. We saw the most beautiful, huge, brightly colored fish, some stingray, and a big starfish. We wished we would have had an underwater camera! Just amazing!

Unlike the Iguana's in Aruba these big boys didn't want you near them! (the ones in Aruba would let us pet them!)

Cast your vote: my vote is that they dump truckloads full of blue food dye in the ocean every day... really, how else could it be THIS blue??

Getting ready go head back to the ship after a beautiful, skin frying day. Ahhh, I could live in this place!

All of CoCo Cay as we were sailing away. *sigh*

The "map" of the ship. I'm glad it was the smallest ship in the fleet. It was hard enough to get to know at it's size! I can't imagine the newest one that you can fit 3 of these inside... wow!

Saying goodbye at our last dinner.

The head waiter, our wonderful table mates Emily and Shawn, our head waiter, Calin in the back and our assistant waiter in the front. What an amazing crew they have on the ship!

We were off the ship by 8am the next morning and spent a long 5 hours at the airport before our flight took off - we tried hard to get an earlier flight out with no luck! The kids had a great time at Mimi and Pop's, Aunt Bethy's and at Grandma and Grandpas, but we were SO ready to see them and they were ready to see us! Kaidrie had a rough last day and really missed her momma. She told me, "mom, I cried my head off!" So good to get away, but SO good to come home and give them hugs and kisses!