A hot afternoon at the zoo

It was going to be a relatively cool day--91 degrees--and relatively low humidity, so we decided to take advantage of free day at the zoo. I dropped Molly off at VBS and went to clean a house, then we went to lunch with friends, and I took my 2 kids plus 3 friends to the zoo. We only had time to see about half of it before heading home early to beat the rush hour traffic, but we had a good time! Sorry about the poor picture quality--I took them with my PDA.

It looks like the girls were doing all the rowing!Adam and Seth Warren

Laura Warren, Aislinn Goldie, and Molly

Blueberry picking

Today we went with some friends--Andrea Allen and kids, Renda Goldie and kids and her mother here visiting from South Africa--to a blueberry farm to pick berries. We each got a whole bucket full to bring home, and I think we ate as many as we picked! Yum! We also stopped at a nearby little place for a yummy lunch and ice cream. It was cloudy, so it wasn't too hot, and we had such fun! Now I need to look for some blueberry recipies...

We all loaded up on one wagon to ride to the other
end of the rows so that we could work our way back.I think Adam and Kendall spent more time irritating the girls than anything else.

Our 20th Anniversary Cruise

Yep--20 years! Seems like yesterday. Well...maybe the day before yesterday. Anyway, we decided to take a cruise with Lee's sister Davida and her husband Mark. We went out of LA on the Vision of the Seas (Royal Caribbean) to the Mexican Riviera, our first non-Caribbean cruise. It was very different, as the weather on the Pacific was chilly, windy and sometimes very foggy. The water was rough too--just ask Lee. In port, the days were clear and warm, though. We visited Mazatlan, Puerta Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas. We went the last week of school, and the kids stayed with various people while we were gone. It was nice to not have to parent for a while! Here are my slideshow videos:

Around the Ship
The Port of Los Angeles
Cabo San Lucas
Mazatlan
Puerto Vallarta

Sorry it's been so long!

As I sit here sipping my keylime-ade and watching Molly splash around in the pool with a friend, I realize that the summer is half over already! Where did the time go? The last post I did on the blog was our spring break cruise. Since then, we have done another cruise, gotten out of school, gone to Cincinnati for a weekend, done lots of sewing, and generally just done summer things.

I aim to post here more often rather than long, wordy posts that span a month or so of time. I think short posts would be more interesting to read, not to mention quicker to type!

Our month of June was very busy with...well, just stuff. I sewed three bridesmaid dresses for a wedding, four pairs of culottes for a friend's daughter to wear to camp, and I am finally finishing up a friend's window treatment that has been way, way too long in the making.

The kids have done generally nothing but play video games, watch TV and swim, but that's OK for the summer, at least to a certain extent. I decided to implement some structure around the first of July, so that at least SOME things would be accomplished, like Adam's summer reading and Molly's verse memorization. But summer is supposed to be a laid-back time with no homework stresses, no strict bed times, fewer obligations, and just time to have fun. So that's our priority. I invite friends over to swim occasionally, or sometimes we'll get together and do something else fun like shop, pick berries, or go to the sprinkler park. Fun summer things. But I fear that school will be coming sooner than we realize. Already I am preparing things for the school's uniform consignment sale that takes place on August 2nd.

But for now, I will be thinking up fun ways to relax, and I will be posting more posts to keep family and friends connected.

in Roatan

Our Spring Break Cruise

Whew! Did you ever have one of those vacations that you had to rest up and recuperate from? Well, last week we had one of those. We had a blast! We went with the Hale family and Rachel Taylor. The Voyager of the Seas is a really big ship with lots of things to do. We tried to do them all, but I never got in the roller blading or ice skating. I wanted some time to relax a little. But the kids managed to squeeze in all the activities!

We left Memphis early Friday morning and drove to Winnie, TX to spend the night. The next day, we drove along the NE coast of Texas and took a ferry across to Galveston. We spent the day at the Schlitterbahn water park there. What fun that was! Then we stayed in a hotel that night right across the street from the beach. (Tori flew in that afternoon from Dallas where she was playing in a soccer tournament.) We took the hotel shuttle to the ship on Sunday afternoon. We had already had a nice little vacation at that point!

Monday was a day at sea, spent exploring the ship, soaking in the hot tub, playing cards, eating (of course), and having a good time.
Click here to see the slideshow of the ship.

We were in Cozumel on Tuesday where we rented cars (one happened to be a convertible) and drove to the other side of the island after doing some shopping. It was beautiful there! Very few people go to the other side, and it is far less developed and unspoiled. I could have spent all day laying on that deserted beach looking at the ocean! But the wind was actually a tad chilly, so after a while we loaded up in our cars and drove around the island.
Click here to see the Cozumel slideshow.

Wednesday was in Roatan, Honduras--an island off the coast. We had planned to go ziplining, but we couldn't find the bus that supposedly could take us there. So we walked down the streets shopping and seeing the little town of Coxen Hole where the ship was docked. It began to rain and rained most of the day, so I'm glad we didn't spend money on transportation or a shore tour or something where we would have been disappointed because of the rain. A little girl along the street had a few monkeys that she let us play with. They climbed all over us, and we got lots of pictures. How cute they were!
Click here to view the Roatan slideshow.

Thursday was another day at sea, and we did find some time to lay in the sun and relax.

Friday we stopped in Progreso, a little town on the north side of the Yucatan Peninsula, directly south of New Orleans. Here we found the public bus station, and rode into Merida--a very large, very old, very Spanish city. It was interesting to see the old cathedrals, and see how the Mexican people live. It was quite a departure from the usual touristy places.
Click here to see the Merida slideshow.

Saturday was a day at sea. The kids went ice skating, Adam and Jameson spent a good bit of time playing minigolf, and all the kids (including Rachel) played a lot of basketball and soccer on the sports deck.

Sunday we headed home. We got off the ship (finally--a long process), caught the shuttle back to the hotel where we had left our cars, waited in a long line to get on the ferry, and finally got back on the highway around noon. We made it in around 11:30 p.m. Sunday night.

We were all exhausted the next morning! But we had a really good time. I think Rachel is hooked now--she proclaimed it "the best vacation ever." I'm inclined to agree.

Snow!

Finally, finally! Molly has been asking all winter, "Mom, WHEN is it going to snow?!?!" I tried to tell her that we might not get any snow at all, especially since it has gotten so close to spring. Well, the weather finally cooperated and brought us snow yesterday! Of course, I'm finished with winter and getting ready for spring now. But it is nice to finally have a good snow--probably the most we've had in a long time. It started snowing yesterday afternoon (school got out at noon), and snowed all evening and all night, even thundering some. I had no idea it thundered during a snow storm! Adam spent the night with a friend, but Molly has been out in it a lot. We visited some friends last night, and all the kids played outside until really late. I think Molly is asleep on the couch now--she has played hard and loved every minute.

I think we had about 3-5 inches total. The sun is shining brightly today, and the snow is all melting very quickly. It is supposed to be in the 50's tomorrow, so it will all be gone very soon. But we have enjoyed it while it was here! I really need to remember to buy a sled to have just in case. That would have been fun.
The wind blew pretty hard, and the snow even came through the screening and into our back porch, giving our very summery-looking porch a white dusting: