Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Island in Paradise...

We took my parents to Little Gaspirilla Island this past weekend to celebrate their 40th Anniversary. We had so much fun and many memories made. We left town after school on Thursday. We arrived at the Island house around 8:00 and made a Mexican dinner of tacos and Mexican dip. It was quick and easy. The next day we woke up to delicious ham and cheese omelets made by my dad. The girls are used to his delicious breakfast spoils them with their own fried toast in a skillet.
We gathered our beach items and headed for the beach. The weather was awesome. It was a little sunny with a breeze and NO humidity, YES!! We enjoyed playing in the ocean and sand. We took a walk on the beach to the end of the Island. We headed back to the house for a lunch of sandwiches and many desserts my Mom made (rice crispy treats, brownies, sugar cookies, oatmeal cookies and chocolate chip cookies. She went ALL out. That afternoon was fishing time. Well, my Mom was quite the fisherwoman. She got at least 11-12 fish. Which is awesome in a 2 day peroid. It was fun because everyone was fishing at the same time. We were all waiting on the big catch. We saw dolphins, sting rays,and jelly fish. It was fun fishing together. We were all getting quite competitive. I am so happy that my family has found a sport that we all like doing together and is fun and relaxing. We went back to the beach house to get ready for a nice dinner at the Fishery Restaurant. I love going in the boat to the Fishery because we get our chance to see the sunset. We had a delicious dinner and headed home for a fun game of Guesstures. In the past, we have played Guesstures with my parents and for some reason it is the funnest game every with them. We have pictures from some of the action.
The next morning we woke up and decided to fish first then the beach. We went out and had another fun day fishing and exploring. We spent the afternoon at the beach. We grilled steak in the evening and watched a few football games. After the game,
Ryan took the kids and my parents on a golf cart ride of the Island while I got a much needed nap. That night at dinner, the girls and I made a suprise anniversary cake. The girls suprised Granny and Grandad after dinner singing "Happy Anniversary to Ya'll" and they pulled confetti poppers. We had a fun time with my parents and we are looking forward to coming down in the summer and renting the house out so that we can get my brother and sister and their families together and make it a once a year outing.

Click to play Beach Trip 9/08
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Monday, September 29, 2008

Kindergarten Blues are now over...

Maci in Mrs. Holland's class
Madi and Maci-best buddies!

Maci was having a hard time starting the school year. It was really suprising to everyone that knows Maci. She is always very happy at school (at least at pre-school). She was always the little leader of the pack. Anyways, the first few weeks of school Maci was very sad to go to her class. She was crying and pouting. But, finally the blues are now over. It only took 4 weeks of school. I still haven't figured it out. She had been asking about "K" now for over a year. It may have been that I am here teaching and she realized she couldn't be with me. WHO KNOWS? But, I did want to tell everyone THANKS for all the prayers, bribes, etc for Maci (HA!). She is now a happy camper. We always said that Maci is going to make our lives interesting.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

A Day of Play!

A few weekends ago, Ryan and I took the kids to the Children's Museum. This is one of Maci's favorite places to go in town. She loves to grocery shop, dress up and most importantly play waitress. Madison still likes to go too! I thought maybe she would be bored (now that she is getting older) but she had a great time. We enjoyed our weekend time together!


Lovely...
Maci deep frying something...


Our friendly waitress

Maci checking over our order.
Playing in the maze.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Sertoma Golf Luau Party

Ryan has played in the Sertoma Golf Tournament for the last 5 years. It is a 2 day tournament with a Luau party on Saturday night. Our best friends Shane and Lisa were able to come down and spend the night and go to the Luau. At the Luau we had dinner finished the night with a great band. We had fun dancing and enjoying time together. Courtney Percy usually goes every year but she had a baby and was unable to come. But, she reasurred me she will be back next year. I can always count on Lisa and Courtney as my dancing partners and a good time.









Labor Day Golfing






















Ryan, I and the girls went golfing over Labor Day! We had the best time. Golfing is one of those sports that looks easy but is very hard. We started our day at the Harder Hall Executive Course. This was a great course because it is only 9 holes and the best part no one was golfing but us. Madison loved it and golfed all 9 but Maci only lasted 2 holes. Not really exciting for her at this point. My favorite moment was actually hitting the ball over a pond. I knew for sure it was going in but it made it. I can drive the ball decent but my putting skills need major work. So, I am going to begin lessons next week at Harder Hall. They are just for women and are called "Hit and Giggles". I guess because that is what we do when we hit the ball. I have a few friends joining me so if you are interested, give me a ring. I think golfing is similar to fishing because we can go out and do it together as a family and is very relaxing and a quiet sport. Not so sure Ryan likes us learning the "GUY TIME ONLY SPORT" but oh, well!!

Monday, September 1, 2008

At the end of July, Ryan and I went to NYC with our best friends Tracy and Mike. We had the best time. We started our first day walking around checking out Times Square and just taking it all in. We got on the streets and just got down a few blocks and we were approached by David Letterman's staff to answer two questions right about the show and we got tickets. So, we decided it would be fun to go. So, thanks to Tracy and Mike they answered both questions. We quickly found a place to grab lunch before the 4:30 taping of the show. We ate at Mariella's (which was voted by Oprah and Gayle as the #1 place for pizza). I am sure we gained 3lbs a slice. It was just right. We attended the show and it was really neat seeing how the show runs. We also were in the fourth row from the front and were seen on TV. That evening we went to a wonderful restaurant called "Hurleys". It was delicious (I think most of NYC is eat, eat, and eat). We then went on our carridge ride in Central Park. The next day we woke up early and began touring. We saw Ground Zero, Statue of Liberty, Staten Island, The Empire State Building, NY Stock Exchange, Central Park and many more sites. Our third day was great! We spent time shopping on Fashion Avenue and the famous Canal Streets. We have several stories from Canal St. Quite a different world. That evening was our big night in NYC. We ate dinner at The Tavern on the Green. We really didin't have high expectations. I thought it would just be a really fancy restaurant but actually it was great tasting food. Along with beautiful dining rooms. After dinner we went to the broadway show of "Grease". It was fun, especially seeing Taylor Hicks. Any broadway in NYC is fun! Our craziest time was when Tracy and I got up at 5am to see Miley Cyrus on the Today show. We went to get pictures for our girls and hope our family could see us on the show. We when first got there we were told we wouldn't get close enough to even see the stage. Well, Tracy and I managed to slowly work our way to the front. We were on TV a few times and had a good view. There were people right by us who slept over night. No way, we just were clever and moved our way up slowly. One of our favorites was our trip to "Serendipity" (famous dessert spot). The home of the $1,000 dessert. Tracy and I had the frozen hot chocolate and Ryan had a caramel sundae. It was delicious!
We had many more moments of fun including our adventure out to night clubs trying to spot a star. We did see "Andre 3000 from Outcast". He was really cool and took a picture. Well, I made a slide show, I hope you enjoy the rest of our trip!














Click to play NYC Trip
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