Bahamas Cruise

We decided right at the end of our stay that we wanted to take a cruise to the Bahamas. There is a cruise ship that leaves from Ft Lauderdale every day and does a five hour trip out to Grand Bahama Island. There, you can do a quick tour and return on the ship for another 5 hours, or you can stay at a hotel for any number of nights and go back another day. We opted to spend one night and left on Thursday July 9th returning the 10th.



The boat ride out to the Bahamas was pleasant. We left the house at 5:30 am to make it to the boat around 6. We enjoyed a buffet breakfast (included in the ticket price) after the ship left dock and then William, Anna and I napped in the cabin we had reserved. It was a tight fit, but we snuggled up just fine. Kip and Becca ended up napping on a deck under the lifeboats. We got to the Bahamas in the early afternoon and headed to the hotel. It was a beautiful hotel and we had two rooms connected, unfortunately not facing the ocean. The hotel pool was gorgeous with an aquaduct-like construction going over that spouted waterfalls in several place. The ocean water at the beach outside the hotel was amazingly blue and clear. I wished we could have had more time so we could have gone out to the coral reefs in a glass-bottom boat.




We took the boat back the next day - Friday. After going through the security and getting in line to have our tickets and passports checked, we realized that Becca's "loving blanket" was not in any of our luggage. This was a disaster. She adores that blanket and can't sleep without it. I asked one of the security workers if we had time to go back to the hotel for it. He said no and suggested we use the phone in the main office to call the hotel for it. Kip went up to the main office and started the calling. In the end, it was decided that we would have the hotel staff give it to a taxi driver and have him drive it to the dock where we would be waiting to pay him for his delivery. It cost us $25 to have this done and he arrived just as the lady in charge of loading was about to tell us we were out of time and had to get on the ship. (All five of us in a taxi from the dock to the hotel had cost $25, so that blanket was an expensive passenger.) It was worth it. Becca took a nap as soon as we got onboard and found our cabin.


On this trip, Becca napped first with Kip while the kids and I lounged and toured the ship. Then we all had our buffet dinner (really good pasta and bread) and I took William and Anna to the cabin for bed. Eventually Kip and Becca joined us back in there and we learned that 4 out of 5 of us could fit in the little beds.

Beaches

We spent a lot of time at the beach in Ft Lauderdale. The water was around 80 degrees and the air usually a little warmer. It was wonderful! We loved to float on our backs on the rolling waves. It was never very choppy where we were, so it was very pleasant just to lie back and let the water lift you up and drop you down. The kids learned to like their floaty rings - although Becca took until the last day to like Mr Turtle - and would float out with us. We loved to see the fishes and collect pretty little seashells and bits of broken coral. And lots of lots of sand ended up in our swimsuits.





This is where we washed off back at the house. It was a great thing to have!

Cousin Time

We're really enjoying the opportunity to spend time with Uncle Chad, Aunt Angie and Cousin Abby. The kids enjoy playing with Abby and want her to come along on all the activities we do. Here, we're enjoying dinner at the Floridian after a boat tour of the New River through downtown Ft Lauderdale.


They're really working on getting Abby to make funny faces. Anna really has hers down.


Uncle Chad, Becca and Kip like to hang out in Chad's kitchen.

Princesses and Legos

We went to Downtown Disney on the 16th to get our souvenir fix. William loved the big Lego store there with play areas out front. Anna was thrilled to meet some princesses she didn't need to be shy of.

Disney

Grandma came to Florida to join us and we all went to DisneyWorld Saturday the 13th and again on Tuesday the 16th. Lines were a little worse than at Universal and SeaWorld, but not as bad as I expected. Of course, we only rode kid-friendly rides, so things may have been worse on rides popular with older people. The weather was hot, but we generally stayed in the shade. I was surprised that Disney didn't have many fans. Universal and SeaWorld had fans with water-misters that were incredibly refreshing. There weren't anything like that at Disney. If you were lucky, you waited in line for 30-60 minutes in the shade. If not, you were in the sun. No fans. I thought that was a little lame. If the other parks provided fans and sometimes even TV's, why did Disney just make you stand in the hot sun?


But enough complaining. It really was fun. We forced the kids to do the Peter Pan ride. They ended up kind of liking it. Then we rewarded them with the Small World ride. They loved that. Anna liked the Dumbo ride, but the line was the worst of our whole trip. At least an hour long with no fans and no shade for the last 15 minutes. I almost got Anna through the line to meet the princesses, but when I refused to hold her for the 15 minute wait, she decided she didn't want to see the princesses after all.


We went to Epcot on Tuesday. It was fun. We went to the funny show and Kip got to be part of it - putting hook&loop diapers on dollies. He did great. The kids liked the Nemo ride. They had to be forced to leave the aquarium at the end.

Universal with Abby

Uncle Chad, Aunt Angie, and cousin Abby joined us at Universal on Friday June 12th. Becca puked on the way to the park, so I took her home to chill for the day, but the others had a ton of fun riding the rides at Universal Islands of Adventure.

Universal

June 11th we spent at Universal Studios. We were all excited to find Avatar Aang there - you know he can save the world, right?



We spent the first part of the day at Feivel's play area. Becca was thrilled to play in the water and never wanted to leave.


Once we found the ball pit, there was nothing else the kids wanted to do. It had things to suck balls up, things to drop balls and even huge air guns to shoot balls across the room. And there were enough fans that Mom and Dad didn't mind sitting and watching the kids play for hours.

SeaWorld

June 8th, 9th and 10th were our Sea World days in Orlando. The kids fell in love with Shamu. Our first day there Anna leaned over to me after one of the Shamu shows and said with total rapture in her voice, "Mommy, I love Shamu." Late the second night as we were leaving Anna told me she was sad. I asked why. "Because I just said goodbye to Sea World."


I really appreciated attractions that were indoor and airconditioned.


There's nothing better than riding an ocean-themed carousel!


Becca loved that we were at the park for the daily rain shower on the 9th.

William had a Birthday!

William turned 6 on May 29th. We had some friends go bowling with us. No theme party with cool theme games and cake like last year. We just picked up a couple friends and drove to the bowling alley. We had 6 kids end up bowling and, thanks to Jo's coupons, it only cost us $6. Wahoo! When they had had enough bowling, we headed home for pizza and cake. (Actually, it was when the bowling alley threw us out because the leagues were starting and we were on a league lane. They hadn't thought 6 kids would take so incredibly long to bowl - it had been more than an hour and they were just on the 8th frame. We got more free bowling coupons out of it so no one complained.) William got a ton of Lego gifts for which he was very excited. And he enjoyed his non-Lego stuff, too.


William and Spencer and the cake.


Butch was a little cranky after working all day.


Opening gifts.

OMSI

I took the kids to OMSI today with Jo and the 4 Istook kids. Kip and I just bought a membership, so we thought it would be fun to break it today since it was a school holiday. The museum wasn't crowded at all. The Beaverton School District was the only one with the day off and according to the signs we passed near the zoo about the zoo parking lots being completely full at 11am, everyone from Beaverton choose to spend the day there. The weather was perfect, so I can't blame them (mid 70's and SUPER sunny). But it sure worked well for us! The kids had a blast. We spent the entire 3 hours of our visit in the children's area. It was perfect because we knew we could come back any time. We didn't feel like we had to try to see the whole museum in one go.


Anna spent a lot of time playing in the store/kitchen area. She loved the cash register.


William and Spencer got abosolutely soaked.


Becca looked stylin' in her OMSI boots. She didn't like wearing them, though.


But she REALLY liked splashing and getting wet.

Shearing the sheep

We finally broke down and shaved off William's overgrown hair on Tuesday night. While we were out in the yard doing it, we decided to give Becca a fresh start on hers. It's been growing in all crazy. There was getting to be some good length on top, but not on the sides. There was one clump of about 15-20 hairs behind her left ear that grew long, but the rest of that area was short as could be. It looked pretty crazy. So, we shaved it all back. I think she looks pretty cute, but now even more people think she's a boy because what parent would shave their little girl's head?

Reunion in Utah - Playground and Temple

On Sunday we went to church and relaxed at the condo. The kids had a blast at the play area outside our unit.




On Monday we went to the St. George Temple and had a picnic. The kids really liked the visitor's center. It was very peaceful there.




On Tuesday, we headed back up to Kaysville for dinner with the Parkers. On Wednesday, we packed back into the car and drove 13 hours back to Oregon. We were sad to leave all our family behind, but very happy to be back in our own house and get the kids back to school.

Reunion in Utah - Snow Canyon

On Saturday April 25th, our first full day of reunion, we headed to beautiful Snow Canyon. The red rocks and sand were stunning. The kids had a blast playing at the red sand dunes.




Kip took William with Grandma, Chad, Angie and Abby on a hike of the Butterfly trail. They had a great time walking and shooting immaginary aliens per William's request.

Reunion in Utah - the trip down

We drove to Utah last week. We headed from Beaverton, Oregon all the way to St George, a total of 1,080 miles according to Google Maps. It was a lot of time in the car.


On the way down we stopped at the Parker parent's house. The kids got some time with the dog and didn't do too bad with her.


Between Kaysville and St George, we stopped the the Dinosaur museum. It had a lot of neat things. The kids wished we could have spent longer.

Spring is in the Air

It was such a pretty day today we decided to take a walk. We went to Powerlines Park and then to the duck pond. The red-winged blackbirds were in the trees. The ducks were on the water. The kids found lots of dandelions to blow and pinecones to toss. They really enjoyed it. I realized what a perfect photo-op it was while we were out and ran home for the camera. We don't get weather this nice often in Oregon in the spring.

Mothering

I heard a talk at a church event once. I think it was a previous years' Conference, but I'm not sure. I just know that the story shared by the speaker really impressed me. He told of an event from his childhood. He did something wrong, broke something or something like that, and was nervous about how his mother would respond. He said she could have totally yelled at him. She could have been very angry about what he had done. But she wasn't. She told him that she knew it was a mistake and that he hadn't meant to do it. She didn't make him feel worse about it. He said that this was exactly what he had needed at the time and he was incredibly glad his mother had responded that way. Listening to the story that first time, I felt just awful. I've been that mother, but I didn't keep my cool. I blew up at my son. Lots of times. And in my case it wasn't always even something precious that was broken. It was just that I was a Mommy who didn't always respond in a forgiving and loving way to something that really wasn't a premeditated act of aggression on my child's part. And maybe one of those times when I didn't respond lovingly was a time when he really needed me to do so. I felt bad about this for a long time. It came to mind often--probably most often after another case of getting angry over an accident that I shouldn't have gotten mad about. Then, one night I had a breakthrough. It was during a "bad mother" phase soon after Becca was born when I was tired all the time and prone to short-temperedness. I would go to bed each night and think back on all the less-than-patient ways I had responded to William or Anna and all the good things I had neglected to do with them and feel bad about it. I was really depressed about my mothering skills and very frustrated with myself. Suddenly, I realized something about the story. The boy feared that his mother would yell at him and scold him for what he had done. He feared that she would respond that way because, and this is what really struck me, she had responded that way in the past! This thought struck me like a ray of hope. If his mother had responded that way in the past but had managed not to do so this one time when it really mattered, maybe, just maybe, I could do it to! Maybe I hadn't already missed the time when it mattered most with William or Anna. Maybe I could keep trying and trying to be more loving and forgiving when they did things I didn't like. And, just maybe, the time when they need my understanding the most, I'll actually hear the whispering of the Spirit telling me to be nice and do it! Maybe being a good mother is a process--something I can develop in little baby steps of improvement--not simply something I either have or I don't.