Day 177 - Saturday, June 26

Lily protecting her "person"

or maybe making sure he did it correctly?

homemade fajitas for dinner!  Yum!!

Day 176 - Friday, June 25

Happy 55th Anniversary to my Parents!!!

Love you!!!

This is how I started my Friday morning....

mmmmmmmm!!

Day 175 - Thursday, June 24

Alyssa had a bunch of girls from our youth group over for a swim party tonight.  Girls are so different in the pool......very quiet with NO splashing!!  However, when they got in the house and started a game of spoons.......it was a whole different story.......very LOUD!!!!

Day 174 - Wednesday, June 23

Mother/daughter day in the pool!!

Day 173 - Tuesday, June 22

Happy Birthday to my FIL, Joe!!!

I got to have lunch today with my good friend, Denise.

She works during the school year, so it was great to get together for lunch.  Afterward, we headed out to the bead store.......we had to drag ourselves out!!

Day 172 - Monday, June 21

Recently, I bought one of the expansion packs to Settlers of Catan..

So tonight the kids convinced us not to go exercise (again) and try to figure this game out.  We started at 7:30 and Alyssa finally won at 10:15!!!

there are a lot of new pieces and new rules...

it was a bit overwhelming at first, but ended up being very of fun!!

there was a lot more strategy going on!

Day 171 - Sunday, June 20

Today was Father's day and after church, my kids and I went home to celebrate their dad.  We were having so much fun, I never got the camera out till the end of the day.  We started with grilling Steve's favorite dinner...brats, sour kraut, grilled corn, and baked beans.  After we ate, we played in the pool all after noon...volley ball, keep away, basketball.....we had a blast!!!

Then I came in and made this for my honey!

of course we had to end this perfect day with a game of Settlers of Catan!

This is what you do with your pieces when you are losing....

Day 170 - Saturday, June 19

Alyssa and I started the day down at the farmer's market.

We shared a great breakfast and then shopped.....so fun!

We ended the day seeing Toy Story 3, 3d.

This was a GREAT movie...definitely a must see!

Day 169 - Friday, June 18

This is the temperature IN my house right now.

My air conditioner has broken AGAIN.....argh!!!

We are having a HOT summer and it is only June... this has got to get fixed!!!!

Day 168 - Thursday, June 17

I had a good friend and her kiddos over to swim today.

We had so much fun!

Day 167 - Wednesday, June 16

love these flowers!!!

I am so enjoying my yard this year!

Day 166 - Tuesday, June 15

girlfriends + pool = my kind of day!

at our age, we don't take pictures of our selves in bathing suits....so I get to show the fun drinks I made.

Day 165 - Monday, June 14

So tonight, Steve and I planned to get back in to exercising.

Then someone mentioned "ice cream"

and it turned into "family game night"!

mixing up the tiles for mexican train

sometimes we "steal" each other's tiles

you have to be quick in this family!

and yes, we keep score....

but we tired of mexican train and moved to hearts!!!

what a fun impromptu night...

...with NO exercise.  :)

Day 164 - Sunday, June 14

Today was such a fun day at church!

We have a Korean church that worships in our facilities Sunday afternoons.  It has been a blessing to get to know them. To thank us, they served us a tradition Korean meal on Sunday between our services....it was a.ma.zing!!

they spent all morning making homemade sushi.

It was soooo good!!!

Some of the ladies dressed in traditional Korean outfits and then they served us....I can't spell any of the dishes, but they were fantastic!!!

What a blessing to share what God has provided with them and to worship along side them!!

Day 163 - Saturday, June 12

today started with a worship service

how awesome to be worshiping with a room full of college students!!!

at the end of the service, the chaplain had all the incoming freshmen come down front and then he prayed over all of them.  Loved this!

We then finished up his schedule and registered for his classes.

I now officially have a college freshman.  :)

Day 162 - Friday, June 11

We took Jason to ERP (early registration program) at JBU today

getting his student ID picture taken

yea for free shots!!

..when they are not for ME!  :)

Day 161 - Thursday, June 10

this is what my laundry room has looked like all week.

These are currently Jason's clothes waiting for him.

Day 160 - Wednesday, June 9

Started this study today.

It's going to be AWESOME!!

Day 159 - Tuesday, June 8

No picture today

trying to get back into the swing of reality

and getting ready to take my son

to early registration for college on Friday

Day 158 - Monday, June 7

came home to two more nests and two more mama birds

under our deck.  The one on the left sits very still and quiet.

The one on the right opens her mouth and moves up and down

like she is going to attack you any minute.

The 3rd one is still sitting on her nest down to the right.

Day 157 - Sunday, June 6

Good bye to the ship!

a great vacation behind us.

hours in the airport means a game of settlers of catan...

do you notice anything weird in the picture?

Day 156 - Saturday, June 5

today was an at sea day and we had some excitement.

half way through the day the captain announce that the ship was turning around...

there was a small boat of refugees (we are assuming from Cuba) in trouble and sinking and we were the closest ship to them.  They were turning around to attempt a rescue!

There were planes in the sky circling the boat and a coastguard speed boat got to them before us.  The refugee boat is the small spec to the left.  We were told there were 8 people aboard, but have no idea what happened to them.  I can't imagine being out on that water, in a small boat, in trouble.

people were lined up on the front of the ship to see it all play out.....and capitalism was in full swing, they were actually out there selling beer and drinks to the people as they watched....sheesh.

Having the same waiters all week, you get to know them pretty well and they get to know you.  We had the BEST wait staff and thoroughly enjoyed them.  Our head waiter was from India and so much fun.  However, she was having an awful time with a tooth ache and wouldn't be able to see a dentist for another week.  My family had the awesome privilege of praying over her!

Day 155 - Friday, June 4

Today we are in Cozumel and this was a long HOT day..

We started on a 45 minute ferry ride to the mainland.

I think this was the hottest ride ever....we were miserable and I am sure sweated off 5+ pounds!

we then took an hour "semi" cool bus ride to the Mayan ruins

the Mayan ruins were so interesting!!

what you don't see is the umbrellas they gave us to walk around with because it was so hot and humid!!

after the ruins, we of course went to a beach.

it was so beautiful but most of us had had enough of the sun and spent the afternoon playing Mexican train....our driver was enthralled with it!

ended a long but great day back on the ship with with some yummy COLD drinks!!!

Day 154 - Thursday, June 3

we ported in Grand Cayman today.

waiting on our excursion to leave

first we swam with stingrays on a sandbar in the ocean...

these were wild stingrays...and was the coolest thing ever!!!

They were all around us and so friendly

we then went to a reef to snorkel
and ended up on the beach for lunch

I could get used to this view!!!

Day 153 - Wednesday, June 2

mom and dad getting off the ship in Jamaica

our day started with a beach day

The water was a.ma.zing!!!

We ended the day at Dunn River Falls...

..in the pouring rain.

our one disappointment of the trip, we didn't get to walk up the falls.  The water was just too dangerous with all the rain coming down!!!