4th of July

Ready for some action!!
Extreme Close-Up!!!!
Daddy and his Girls!!
"So why is this supposed to be fun"???

We had a great 4th of July...we got to see fireworks 2 times!! We went on the 3rd and saw the fireworks show at Fort Gordon. R stood in line for 45 minutes for funnel cakes, but boy were they good!! The fireworks were amazing, and the girls had a blast! On the 4th we went over to our friends' house...they live in our neighborhood and we watched the local Patriot's Park display from their driveway. The girls got to experience their first sparklers, and neither one of them were too sure what to think of it. They both decided to leave the fireworks to the professionals...they will continue to be only spectators!!

Our little swimmer...

"Okay, this isn't so bad"...
Concentrating....
ON HER OWN!!!!

A finished her swim lessons last week, and she was so happy to see them end!! She was not excited when I told her she had to take lessons again this year (last year she was in the "cryers" class), but she made it through the two weeks, and actually swam on her own twice without her instructor touching her!!

Our trip to Arkansas & Oklahoma

When we went to pick up the girls, we spent a week visiting family in Arkansas and Oklahoma. The girls got to see all four of their great-grandmothers, which was a feat in itself! I think each of the grandma's enjoyed seeing the girls...

Our home improvement project...

Our bland carpet... The nasty concret we found underneath...
The finished product!!

Sable says, "Where's the glorious, soft carpet?"
I have been wanting wood floors in our house for some time now, and I finally convinced R that it was a project we could do ourselves to save some money. So we found a good deal on the flooring, and as soon as we got back from our cruise, we started ripping up the carpet in our living room, dining room, and two hallways and replacing it with laminate flooring...over 600 sq. ft. of laminate flooring to be exact! We ended up working on it the entire week that we had alone here without the girls, and staying up till 2:00 a.m. the morning before we left to get them to finish up some details so it would be done when we got home with them!! R has said "never again" and I think I agree! It was a much bigger job than we expected it to be! But, we LOVE the floors and I am so happy to be rid of the carpet in the living room! Sable had some major difficulty walking on them at first...she was pretty much confined to her pillow when she was inside, but with a little practice she has gotten quite good at walking on them now...

Nassau, Bahamas

My feet are on dry ground!!!
The straw market...flea market gone wild!
Straw market shopping!

Trying out the Bahamian food (notice the hoodie...too cool for beachwear!)

One of the stops on our itinerary was Nassau (which turned out to be our only stop in the end), and we loved it! We were both so happy to finally be off the ship, we were giddy! We took a tour of the hot spots, went to the beach (no swimming...the waves and wind were crazy), saw the Atlantis resort, shopped at the straw market (where we bought souvenirs for the girls), and ate authentic Bahamian food (we ate things we would never dreamed of eating on a normal day, but we were told these are Bahamian specialties, so we tried them)! We decided this also would be a cool place to retire someday...

Our Cruise

To celebrate our 10 years of marriage, R and I went on our maiden voyage. We have talked about going on a cruise for years now, so we finally did it! We were amazed by the size of the ship (it holds 3x more people than the town I grew up in), the food and service were AWESOME (we forgot the healthy eating and indulged in the midnight chocolate buffet), but the weather was horrible! We ended up being stuck on the ship all but one day of the trip. The waves were so bad that we couldn't stop at the private island where we were supposed to spend one whole day! We had sunshine the day we left port, and never saw the sun again! It was a great 5 days together, but we think we are done with the cruising lifestyle!

Cocoa Beach

The night before we left for our cruise, we stayed overnight in Cocoa Beach, FL. The next morning we walked the very short distance to the beach, and it was beautiful!! Of all the beaches I have been to so far (which is somewhat limited, I admit) the sand here was the best! R and I had a wonderful time walking hand in hand up and down the beach...it was a nice start to our vacation. We have both decided that this would be a great place to live...doing some research on that...

Pre-K Promotion

A has officially graduated to kindergarten!
See how tall A is?
It's actually funny to think that A is actually younger than a lot of the kids...

A passed through pre-k with flying colors!! They had a little ceremony for the parents. The kids sang songs, and then they received kindergarten learning materials to represent their promotion. It was very cute, and we are just amazed at how grown-up our baby A is getting! (By the way, notice how tall our baby is compared to the rest of her class...do you see the difference? R still has dreams of making her a basketball player, but she pretty much has zero desire to play...its a work in progress...)

OUR Idol...

Each year, the girls' school has a singing event called "Lewiston Idol". T participated last year, and did a great job, so when it rolled around this year, she was excited to do it again! She sang a Hannah Montana song with one of her friends, and they were too cute! They both stood there with their arms crossed the whole time, but they sang beautifully! Needless to say we were very proud. (We tried to get A to get up there and sing a song, but she decided she would rather watch.)

Field Day

At the end of each school year, the girls' school has a Field Day. They order t-shirts, and they have outdoor activities and contests all day. The kids look forward to it, because its a day out of the classroom, and it signals the end of the school year. Since A was in school this year, she got to order a t-shirt and be part of the field day activities. She was SO excited, and thought she was such a big kid!!