First Days of School

Anna and Kate started 4th and 2nd grade on August 15th. They were excited to start their first day along with everyone else this time!

Drew was very supportive even though he had to wait another week before he could start school.

Both girls got a new backpack!

Off to the bus!

The girls have loved their new school! 

Before he started school, I had a special morning with Drew at the beach.

We built sandcastles, swam in the water, went for a walk, and fed the birds.

On August 22, Drew had his first day of Pre-K and didn't want pictures.

This was the closest we got to a smile!

He had a great day! He shared with me how he learned how to wash his hands thoroughly (pictured below).  

He's been loving his new school too!

The Rest of the Summer

Our summer was filled with fun! I always reflect and realize that we did more than I thought! So, I'll share some highlights. We went to Legoland!

The kids were pretty excited to stay at a hotel in Lakeland afterwards. They especially liked Curtis's hotel perks now that he travels so much! While we were there, we stopped by my paternal grandparents' grave. I hadn't visited it since the last funeral in 2006.

We also did a lot of exploring around our house and in our neighborhood over the summer. Our kids were pretty excited about learning to catch lizards. We have so many of them in our yard!

The pool was a daily activity!

We also had some spoils from our backyard: limes and pineapples!

We attended a fun 4th of July neighborhood party too.

I love this picture of Anna!

I also went to a New Kids on the Block concert with some of the neighborhood moms! That was quite the experience. Feel free to ask me about it sometime.

I took my kids to Itchetucknee Springs for a float trip. I did this many times in my youth and it was fun to enjoy it together!

It was beautiful there.

Our cute kiddos

Selfie at the end of the float trip!

Curtis and I headed to Denver for RUF Staff Training. I had never been to Colorado before! We did get to do some exploring together before training started. He took me to a few breweries that he usually goes to with other campus ministers and staff. It was nice to finally see where he goes for his RUF national events.

I also got to hike up Mount Sanitas (3.2 miles) with several RUF wives. I thought I was in shape until I realized what elevation will do to you! I think we all bonded through this trip. We somehow got off the main trail and went down a way that was very steep. The views were incredible!

We did get a picture with various RUF staff that have served at RUF at Purdue over the years! Some are currently serving there now, some are interns at other schools (they were our students), one was our intern that is now a campus minister! It was pretty cool to have all these people together. Some didn't even know each other!

I did have to take a picture of Curtis in front of the Curtis sign! (We do this for me in the Keys.)

Our family officially joined our new church at the end of July. My parents and the Warrens (not pictured) joined us for the special occasion. This was the first time that Kate had a profession of faith and became a communing member of a church!

We went to the Jacksonville Zoo in early August with two families from our church. We had a great time exploring the zoo and we even got an annual membership. (We haven't made it back yet, but hopefully will soon now that it's cooled down a little.)

Drew and I surprised my Grandpa on his birthday to celebrate his 94th with him. It was great to finally re-connect with him since moving here.

Before school started back, my parents took the girls on a special overnight beach trip to Daytona Beach. We joined them the next day and enjoyed it! The weather was perfect!

One of my dear friends from Indiana came and visited us! Alicia was my rollerblading buddy and she also was Drew's speech therapist for almost a year.

I finished the summer off with a MOPS night out on a sunset cruise. It started out really nice and relaxing and then it started pouring. We had to cut our ride a little short, but it was quite memorable! It was a great first summer in Florida.

 

Our Anniversary Cruise: 4 Years Late!!

We went on a cruise for our honeymoon and we've always talked about getting back on a boat. On our 10 year anniversary, we made the decision to go on another cruise. We planned to make it a "belated 10 year anniversary cruise" because we had 6 week old Drew and wanted to wait until he was weaned and could be left with my parents for a week. We thought 2020 would be the year! Of course, covid shut down that plan so we rescheduled for the next June...again, shut down by covid. So June 2022 was finally our time to cruise...except we've now been married for 14 years! This is our reaction when we finally got on the boat! 

The countdown was over!

We decided to have a really special dinner the first night on board and we ate at Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse. They surprised us with champagne and a fun dessert since it was our anniversary!

This may be hard to see, but I participated in a hula hooping contest and won for our age range! I'm wearing a white hat below. I did not win overall though so I missed the fun trophy!

We had 2 formal nights on the cruise. This was one of them!

Our first stop: Aruba

We went to Eagle Beach. It was amazing! We want to go back!

We loved their Fofoti trees!

We also sailed on a catamaran to watch the sunset.

Here's a picture of us and our ship (Carnival Horizon) before we left Aruba.

Next stop: Curacao.

We had a bit of a stressful time in this country because I accidentally left my cell phone in a taxi! We spent a lot of time trying to determine who our taxi driver was, but praise God - the people of Curacao helped us out and I got it back! It all took about 30 minutes, but it was the scariest moments of our whole trip! We even still had time to do the Curacao liqueur distillery tour that I planned. It was very educational and we enjoyed some samples and a cocktail. 

It was beautiful here! We didn't have long in the port before we were off to the next place so I think we would like to come back and explore their beaches. Some of our friends on the cruise got to snorkel with sea turtles! I think we would have enjoyed more time here. The loss of my cell phone put a bit of a damper on this port for us so I think we need to give it a second chance.

Next stop: La Romana, Dominican Republic.

We spent our entire time here on an excursion. The views on the bus were breathtaking!

We arrived in Monkeyland! We had friendly squirrel monkeys climb all over us while we fed them. This is my initial reaction when they started to climb on me!

We had such a good time! We also got to try some fresh cocoa, coffee, and Mamajuana (the national drink of the Dominican Republic) before we headed back to the ship. It was a whole experience!

 

Last stop: Amber Cove, Dominican Republic.

This was the view as we arrived at the port. The Caribbean sea was so blue! Pictures don't do it justice.

You can barely see us in this picture!

We took another catamaran to sail and snorkel.

Here's our snorkel gear!

The water was so clear! Here's Curtis in the water:

Here I am:

After our snorkel and Caribbean lunch, we had a nice sail as we danced to music on the catamaran.

Our dance party was halted when 2 dolphins appeared swimming right in the front of our boat! It was magical!

This is one of my favorite pictures! I love that you can see the mountain in the background.

After 4 ports, it was time to head back to Miami. One of the fun things on our ship were the animals made out of towels! They gave us one each day in our rooms, but one morning the Lido deck was covered in towel animals! Our kids would have loved this!

We rode on the Sky Ride - it was a little racing track around some of the ship where you can bike and take in the views! Curtis and I did this twice. It was exhilarating!

There were also 2 large water slides on the top of the ship. Here's Curtis going down the one that requires a tube.

Here I am going down the other slide that doesn't require a tube! They were both fun, but I might prefer the one with the tube! We also did the ropes course and played putt-putt on the top of the ship (not pictured). 

Gosh, I feel like there was so much more to share, but I think I'll stop here. We had such a wonderful time and it was worth the wait! We couldn't wait to be reunited with our kids after this 8 day cruise! Unfortunately, I brought an undesired souvenir (COVID) back with me so I haven't gotten to share much about our cruise with anyone yet, not even our kids! I definitely think the next time we go on a cruise, we will bring our kids so they can enjoy the experience too!