Dominica

The say "Dom-n-eek-a", we say "Dom-in-eh-cuh"
either way.....this place is soooo cool!!!

We arrived to a very muggy, rainy, humid island, and left
with a whole new respect for the people of this great place.
Our tour guide was awesome.
The island was awesome.
The food was awesome.
I *heart* Dominica.

And now, what you've all been waiting for.......

PICTURES!!!!!
Meeeee!!! Peering out over our balcony.
(We were soooo lucky!! We always docked on our side of the ship!!)Cool doorway. That's all.
And it rains. Every day. All day.
Might not be able to deal with that forever.
An amazing old Catholic Church. We didn't get to stop. :o(
I love old churches.Mom, this one is for you! If you click on the picture
you can see the graveyard in the lower left.
It was sooooo cool. I don't know why it's cool
.....but we took the pic for you.
Apparently anyone who's anyone is buried there.
So the townsfolk are outta luck!! :o)

How cool is this thing???
It's called a Banyan Tree.
Basically the limbs grow into roots,
and make new roots....and more roots.....
click on Banyan up there and you can read about it!!!
I title this picture

"Your day didn't suck as bad as mine!!!"

The story goes (I think I remember it right).....
Dominica gained their independence from Britain
(go ahead, google it...let me know if you find it!)
and as a gift, France gave them a school bus.
The VERY NEXT DAY, a tree fell on it!!!!!!!!
They left it there, and now it is a tourist attraction!!
Nobody ever rode on the bus. How bad does that suck???
But such a cool pic, huh???Us in the rain forest, wondering why we bathed that day!
This is the college in Dominica. Awesome, eh?

I'm sure some of you are looking at that going,
"I wish my campus was that small. I could make it all the
way across and not break a sweat!!!"
Hahahaha!!! That was funny. :o)So next we headed up through the rain forest to
Trafalgar Falls. (more on those in a bit....)
On the way up....we saw TONS of these guys.
E decided he needed to play with one.
Got bit.
Serves him right.
Nuf said.
:o)
I love that man!
The view walking up to the falls. E and I hike all over north
GA looking for amazing falls........nobody told us
we had to go to the Caribbean to find it!!!!
This is the Daddy Falls of Trafalgar Falls.
There are 3 falls.....guess what they are called????
Mama, Daddy and Baby.

:o)

Ok....this is a long post.

I'm tired. Going to bed.

The rest of Dominica in a minute.......

St. Thomas

St. Thomas was the first stop on our trip through the Caribbean.
It was also the first day of "real" vacation. No alarm. No computer. No cell phone.
No email. No Facebook (*sigh*). No crackberry. Nuttin'.
Best day ever. In fact, it could have been in tim-buck-two,
and it wouldn't have mattered to me. I was so happy.

This is what we woke up to on Monday morning.....

Eric opened the curtains to the balcony and this is what he said.....

"Oh my gosh. You have GOT to see this!"

To which I (begrudgingly) obliged, as I was soooooooo cozy in bed....."ok..."

No explanation needed. I said to E,
"um, we went to sleep in San Juan and woke up in paradise!"

We then threw some clothes on and went exploring.
It didn't take long to figure out we were still tired.
We got the obligatory t-shirt (I think???)
and marched our cute butts right back on to the ship.

Here is what we got pics of......This was parked next to our ship. It was a mini ship.

People still have money. Obviously.

Riah said
"Mom, it's the yacht off of Fool's Gold!!"

Smart Girl!!! Looks just like it.This is the Hilton at the bottom tip of the island.

Ok, the next clip warrants an explanation:

The night before at our muster station, we were chattin
it up with the crew. We asked them how often the rescue boats get
tested. They said "every trip out to sea. The coast guard requires it."
We said, huh? Cool. Never seen it done before.
Guess what we saw the next morning?

Insert SHORT video:






Cool, huh?

Levi, don't laugh. It's not nice.

Ok. That was St. Thomas. We enjoyed the ship that day! :o)

Around the world in 7 days.....

Or so it felt like it. E and I just got home from an amazing vacation to the Southern Caribbean. He surprised me with it 3 weeks prior,
and it could not have been better.
We started our trip by flying to San Juan to board the
Carnival Victory, and from the moment we stepped on the ship,
I felt like we'd boarded a trip to Heaven.
I won't bore you with too much detail, but will document via pictures instead.

That's our ship down there!
This is a pic from the plane as we were flying into San Juan.

A Royal Caribbean Ship directly across from ours at port. I love how it looked
at night. Since we only sailed at night, I couldn't get a picture of ours this way.

Us at our Muster Station.....
being good little passengers and doing the safety drill.
We laughed so hard while this was going on, and I'm so glad E got this pic.
OH, and all was fun and games until there were
700,000,000 people around me,
and then claustrophobia set in and
E saw a WHOLE new side of me. Yuck!

Leaving San Juan!! Can you tell how stinkin' excited I was???

Our messy room.....(note to self, take pic of stateroom AFTER room steward cleans it!)

Ok.....next post.....stop #1!!!

Stay tuned!

Now you see it......

Now you don't.....



I forgot to take a pic of her super cutie A-line cut that Auntie Kelly
cut it in to....but we'll add that soon! :o)

She donated her hair to Locks of Love-again!
This is her 2nd time to donate 9+ inches!!
We figure she's got 1 year to grow it back out before
her next ballet recital.

Proud of her....she does great things and has the biggest heart!

....and she danced......

....danced so beautifully.... so gracefully.....

Maddie had her ballet recital two weekends ago, and she was beautiful. I was so impressed with how much she has learned. She is working towards pointe, and I imagine in a few short years she will impress us with her skills. Here are some pictures of her awesome day.

Waiting back stage after she got dressed and put her shoes on......Water....must have water!!Ready to go on stage!!
Counting out the music......

Dancing....dancing...dancing....

And then my camera died.
Nice.

So here are some shots after from Auntie JoJo
Ahhhh.....so pretty....
With her class....an awesome pic of her leaping.....

....and the landing...


Me and my baby.

June 13, 2009
Cartersville, GA

....and a new story about Tanner.....

So...I didn't forget him. He finished school too. In fact, he's a freaking genius.

Let the story begin.....

....a few days before school gets out I get an email from T's teacher. He's aced the CRCT. That's standardized testing in GA....and he literally aced it. Out of some 100 odd questions (or more) and days of testing, he missed 1. What? 1? OMG. That's so cool. Seriously....so cool. I can't wait for him to test for advanced placement next year.

.....fast forward......two days.....email from same teacher....

"I wanted to let you know...*edit for length and content*.....Tanner put on a ring at school today that was not his. Long story short, it didn't fit. He didn't tell me about it until it was time to go home. He had it on for roughly 4 hours. We tried to get it off in the classroom with water, soap and lotion. No luck. The finger was swollen, purple, and had me very concerned. We went to the nurse, she tried something else....no luck. School nurse calls head nurse over the county and Tanner overhears this:

....yeah, I think we are going to have to cut it off!"
Tanner: CUT WHAT OFF??????
Hahahahahaha!!!!!!

At any rate, they cut off the ring, gave him some ice and a candy bar, and the boy lost a little bit of his common sense that day.
I asked Tanner why he stuffed a ring on his finger that didn't fit. He very simply said to me:

"No, Mom, that's not how it was. It slid right on to my finger. It wasn't until time to go home that I tried to slip it off and it wouldn't budge."

Oh, I can't make fun...heck, they called my mom b/c I swallowed a paper clip!!
The swollen middle finger.....

At any rate...he's great. He learns a little more every day.....
and teaches his Mama something new too!!!

2nd Grade....here we come!!!

Clearly a sleep in day!!!


Love this kid......He my favorite boy!!!

School's Out!!!

Nobody is more excited about this than me.....not even the kids.
No homework!
No bedtimes!
No schedules!
No nothing, but......

Staying up late.....
Sleeping in later......
Vacation, vacation, vacation!!!!
Grilling out every night.....
Watching movies until we just can't keep our eyes open......
Slip and slides.....
Sleepovers......
Slumber parties!!!!

Here are some pics of the last day of school.....a week or 3 ago....but end of school year pics none the less!!!

Mom and Riah out to lunch on the last day!!!
Who's the coolest mom ever???
Ok, not a quality shot....but a shot none the less!!
This is Riah getting 1 of her awards at the 3rd Grade award assembly.
She was so ready for this thing to be over with!!!
Maddie finishing 4th Grade!!
She is getting her Cookie "Dough" award here from
Mr. and Mrs. Kraemer.
She got the award for always having on the most matching,
coordinated outfits that are the most up to date,
and especially having perfect hair all the time.
The "Dough" was to indicate $$$....cute.
Hummmmm, wonder why she gets this award every year???Maddie and her BFF's Carrie and *yikes, I can't remember her name!!!*Some of the kids in Maddie's class!!

Yeah, schools out!!!

*......read the next post for Tanner's pics and story.....*