Country Kids Camp

I heard about this camp from a friend of mine last summer and I just knew it would be right up Micah's alley. Swimming in the lake, playing in mud, zip lining, obstacle course, fishing, archery, horseback riding, you name it…. If it was an outdoor activity they did it! Micah was SO nervous on the way to the camp. Something I never experience with him! He was nervous that he wouldn't know anyone, but I knew he would have a BLAST. I was right! He said something like "This was the Best day EVER!" The camp was 3 days and he LOVED every last second…. And wanted to go again the following week :) I was so sad that I couldn't be a fly on the trees during this camp just to watch Micah have fun. I was SO glad at the end of camp when they offered to sell CDs of pics from the week. I jumped on that so that now I can have pics that go with the stories. This is definitely a camp we'll do again next year!

                                      

                                                         

10 years!!

In May, Stacy and I celebrated ten years of marriage. I told him years and years ago that we didn't have do to anything Big for any of our anniversaries, a dinner date was acceptable. But I let him know at least 5 years ago that I was expecting something better for the 10th. I wanted a child free trip. We were so blessed to be gifted our honeymoon trip to Sandals in St. Lucia, I already knew that I LOVED the all inclusive idea. I can not stand having to decide what to do, or where to eat. I knew and let Stacy know that his choices were either all inclusive, or a cruise. I could care less where in the world we'd go, just that everything would be included…. the less choices, the better. 
Stacy talked to Mama who would be keeping our little people while we were away. She gave him  dates of the best week for us to go. He then began shopping for cruises. Neither of us had ever been on one. He found One that was 5 nights and booked it. We left out of Charleston. Our boat left on a Tuesday. After talking to a lot of people we decided to leave the night before to make sure that we'd be able to get there safely and on time. We had more than enough time to wander the streets of Charleston. We enjoyed the market and shops. Stacy wanted to eat SO bad, (it was approaching lunch time) but I kept reminding him that we had unlimited food included as soon as we boarded the boat. I talked him into waiting, I mean we could see the boat! Little did I know that between parking the car, unloading luggage, going through customs, security, check in….. It would be over an hour. Stacy was STARVING! He is just like my Daddy and turns into a bear when he's hungry. I said more than once "You better leave the bear in Charleston, otherwise this trip is going to be miserable!" We Finally got onto the boat and I made sure that the first thing I did was find him some food. I opted for a sandwich because by now it was close to 1:00. He tried the pizza. Both of us enjoyed our meals that we ate while sitting on the deck looking at the beautiful views. 

As soon as we finished lunch we decided to go check out our room. It was actually larger than I had envisioned. Our luggage hadn't arrived, but there was a schedule outlying the events of the afternoon/ evening. I discovered that there was a tour of the ship at 4:30. I Really wanted to do that. I was afraid that we'd either get lost, or miss out on something cool because we'd have no clue that it even existed. We obviously had some time to spare, and without our luggage we couldn't do very much more, so we decided to wander the ship. 

We had to go to a safety meeting at 3:00 and Before we knew it, it was time for the guided tour. We enjoyed that and learned a lot. Glad we did that. Due to the fact that all of the luggage was still being delivered, the elevators were basically unusable, or SUPER slow. Our room was on the 5th floor and the majority of the entertainment floors were 9 and higher. We got a MAJOR leg workout on the first day! I workout regularly, but my calves were seriously sore on Wednesday! Instead of set dining times, we decided to go with the flex dinning. SO glad that we did, we could go whenever wanted which worked wonderfully for us. After checking the schedule and seeing that there would be a comedy show at 7:30, we decided to eat at 6:00. 

                                                 

 Just as everyone that I've ever talked to about cruises, I learned quickly that the food was delicious. LOVED the chocolate molten cake! I'm sure I ate it every.single.night for dessert! I was SURE that I would gain at least 5 pounds on the cruise. I was prepared to work extra hard when we returned. I mean unlimited soft serve ice cream that tasted JUST LIKE a frosty?! Yeah, I may have had 3 a day….. I gained 0! Not even a point of a pound! I laid around, read a book from front to back, and ate food, lots of food! I owe it all to the stairs :)
Back to the night though. We LOVED the comedian! He ended up having 2 shows that night and we attended both. We laughed and laughed. I tried SO hard not to have a coughing attack, I was on medicine for "allergy induced bronchitis" which I forgot about. I had an awful cough that wouldn't get better. I ended up taking myself to the urgent care dr hoping for an answer. I had been coughing for a month. I paid $75 copay and $25 in prescriptions, only to not only continue coughing throughout the cruise, but for the next 3 weeks as well. I think I'm finally ok again. 
After the second comedy show, I'm pretty sure we called it a night. Our second day was a full day at sea. There were all kinds of shows and entertainment during the day, and between them, eating ice cream, hanging at the pool, and reading, it was such a wonderful, relaxing day. 

 When we woke up on Thursday morning we were pulling into Nassau. This time we opted not do an excursion due to the cost of the ones that we were interested in. We decided to hang out on the beach. The water was so nice and clear. We rented some chairs and an umbrella and were set for the day.

Although we had a nice relaxing time in Nassau, enjoyed the water and had a great day, the city was not at all what I had expected. I couldn't imagine spending a whole week there…. Unless we stayed at Atlantis ;) That evening we saw The Cowboy Comedian, he was by far Stacy's favorite. I don't know that I've ever heard him laugh so hard. 

When we woke up the next morning we were almost to Little Stirrup Cay. (It's a private island owned by Carnival) Now That was my idea of an island. It was absolutely Beautiful! The water was as clear as the rent's pool. We spent at least an hour just walking among the fish. Stacy wore striped board shorts, and I laughed that the fish thought that he was one of them. He had a whole school of BIG fish keep circling around his legs. It was So cool. There were some really pretty fish. We walked almost to the end of the island just taking in the beautiful views. Loved that island! So sad that we couldn't have spent 2 days there! 

                                       

                                         

Of course after a wonderful day on Little Stirrup Cay, we came back to the boat to a wonderful dinner and entertainment. We even ventured into the casino. Our favorite game, that we only played a few times was a claw machine where you tried to grab a stack of $100. How fun! Too bad we couldn't win. By this time, I was almost done with the cruise. I knew that the following day, Saturday, we would be on the water for the whole day. I quickly realized that I am not a Lover of cruises. Don't get me wrong, I had a Wonderful time! But I think that being on the water for 3 days and on an island for 2 was backward. I'd rather spend 5 days on an island. Either way, the last day flew by. We hung out at the pool, watched all kinds of contests (Hairy chest was by far the best!) and got to see a guy carve an ice sculpture. That was really neat! We stayed up late on Saturday night watching shows and going to the end of cruise party. Overall we had a wonderful child free celebration of 10 years, but I'm thinking 15 or 20 we'll go to an island :)

I am SO thankful for Mama, Martha, Laura, and Daphne for tag teaming with the boys. I am also so thankful the VBC fell during the week that we were away. Yes, I missed being able to hear about it every single day, I missed being able to hear the songs and stories, but I KNOW that it made it so much easier for all those involved. 

One busy day!

I can not for the life of me remember what we did during the day, but it wasn't just sit around…. During the afternoon/ evening we had the pleasure of celebrating Christian and Ethan's birthdays at the pool. I can.not.believe  I have a nephew who is 18!!! CRAZY! What do you give teenage boys for their birthday? A money lei of course :) Those things took me HOURS to make. They were SO cute, but didn't last very long at all. Those boys tore them to pieces :o

 We had to leave the boy's party early to make it to the Martin's going away party. We were party animals for sure! I love love love Christy Martin. Her talks, her kindness, and her gift for photography. I was so sad to learn that they would be moving to Arkansas, and knew that we'd be at the going away party for sure. Christy's sister Hannah had planned a surprise going away party and we RSVPed to it, but the next thing we knew, Christy was having her own party. I was hoping to attend both, but Hannah canceled her's. The Martine party was stocked full of every dessert known to man kind, and 4 varieties of home made ice cream. Micah LOVED the orate kind! He said "Mama, I love this ice cream! Do you think I can go ask him (Mr. Aaron, Christy's dad) his recipe) I told him I thought that would be a great idea. He did :)

 Here is a sign of a busy busy day.