BAHAMA MAMA!!!!!

Usually with my postings I write alot, but there were so many things that I could talk about with this trip I decided to just include a bunch of pictures with captions.  We will save the "good" stories for telling in person!  Like me losing the bottom of my shoe in the formal dining room, or Kisha accidentally flashing our cabin steward, or the experience we had with a woman in Ron Jon's Surf shop.  Of course some pictures can't be put on the blog, because "What happens on the ship, stays on the ship!!!"  Hahhahhaa!  We were a pretty tame bunch, but we did have a fun time! 

We are finally onboard and waiting to leave Port Canaveral.

Looking down at cargo that still needed to be loaded before we set sail.



Boy, would my kids love to be with us!  Notice on left side slide goes out over ocean!  Ahhhh!

Home sweet little home.  Note fake window hole!

Brandon standing outside our cabin door

I am so happy I can't keep my eyes open!

Waiting for comedy show to start.

Seal Towel Creation

Brandon up top of our ship. It had nice padded jogging track and mini golf.

A look out at some Nassau beaches

Pier leading into Nassau downtown area.  This deck onboard that you see is at the back of the ship and is called Serenity.  Padded deck chairs and no kids allowed!

Me onboard our ship which is docked right next to the Disney Dream.  Makes all of us on our ship jealous.  Look at their waterslide.  It has clear tubes and rafts you ride in around their top deck!

View coming into Nassau.

I am just infatuated with this lighthouse. How pretty!

Brandon thought this was photo worthy... pretty cool and unexpected.

Kisha and Tommy waiting on there freshly made conch salad.

Tommy kept trying to get our picture, but trucks kept driving behind us, but this one shows true colors.  Brandon is a happy little fellow isn't he!

Brandon holding down the fort on Cabbage beach.  Kisha got a massage and we had to change into bathing suits in the bushes! I can actually say I have been on the beach naked now!  Hilarious!

Crystal blue waters

Brandon and me at Cabbage Beach

Kisha and me in neck deep and only a few feet in from shore.  It's ankle deep one minute and looks like this a step later.



A beautiful drape of flowers and vines over some windows outside a downtown Nassau shop

Downtown Nassau shop area.  They had rolled up the streets by this time of the day and very few places were open.

Friday Night Dinner

Tommy being silly



If Tommy is gonna be silly so can she.  I have a similar picture of her from about 12 years ago, but instead of a napkin in a formal restaurant it was an Amish bonnet hanging out the side of a minivan!

Tommy and his beautiful wife.  I absolutely love this picture of Kisha!

Swan Towel Creation



Stingray Towel Creation

Abandoned boat out in the middle of nowhere...Hmmmm...

Saturday night Dinner

Sunset in the Bahamas

Atlantis Resort-Famous for a huge waterpark and luxurious accommodations

Last weekend of Summer Vacation

So last week was the girls' last days of summer vacation and I wanted to make the most out of it.  I took Friday off so we could have an open 3 days to plan stuff, and boy did we plan stuff!  We began Thursday evening by having Karsyn and Kailey over for a late night weinie roast and smores event.  They had been over the previous weekend and wanted to come back to ride 4-wheelers and spend the night, so we had them for entertainment all Thursday night and all day Friday.  When I say all night Thursday, its not to let you know they spent the night, but to tell you they were up ALL night Thursday!  Emily and Karsyn finally went to bed at 4am Friday morning.  That didn't keep them from being wide open all Friday though.  We put the inflatable slide up and between that and the 4-wheelin' they were busy.  They had asked our neighbor last time they rode if they could ride down his driveway and through his property to make them a bigger trail and he said it was fine.  He wasn't around Friday to ask again, so they made themselves at home.  They made dirt paths through the grass at our house by lunchtime and it dawned on me that there very well may be the same thing going on over at Clifford's house!  Whoops!  Oh well.  When you see 4 girls on 4 4-wheelers, you don't go out in the cloud of dust to stop them!  The waterslide had made a huge mudhole in the back yard and so that was an opportunity for them to go muddin' and our backyard looked like a 4-wheel drive mud event had taken place.  I had to hose down the kids before they could get in the car to go home! It was hilarious to see 4 little girls in bikinis, some barefooted, some muddy, some in cowboy boots, and one in mud boots.  It was a hoot!  Abigail has just learned to ride by herself and you would see the first 3 girls flying by and then Abigail in her bikini and cowboy boots carefully maneuvering behind them.  I really hated seeing the other girls go home because they were having so much fun. 

Making Dust

The Gang

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words!

Friday night we all crashed and slept like rocks.  Emily had an early morning softball practice Saturday morning that I had to drag her to and by Saturday night we were ready to go to the drive in movies.  My kids had never been to one and that was one thing on my list of TO DO this summer.  We saw a double feature of ParaNorman and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  We sat in the back of the truck and fought over the towels and blankets I had packed because it got really cold on us after dark.  I have to say that this was a good idea and fairly cheap (and I like cheap) way of doing it.  $18 and all 4 of us watched 2 new movies! 

Tailgating at the Drive In

Sunday morning Emily went to spend the day with a friend and Abigail, Brandon, and I went to Morrow Mountain.  We had a picnic KFC lunch, went canoeing, and then went on a 4 mile hike to "The Rocks".  We had a very active day.

 

I hated to see the evening come and the thoughts of the 1st day of school came to my mind.  We had to rush around and find all the Wal-Mart and Target bags that contained precious new items for the new school year.  We couldn't find Abi's backpack and she ended up carrying Emily's old LL Bean one that has Emily's name embroidered across it.  She didn't seem to mind.  Bless the heart of a second child that doesn't even get phased by a "new" hand me down!  Abigail danced around the house and was so excited for school to start the next day.  This was a good feeling knowing that they were going to a new school.  Our beautiful nice school that is exactly 1 mile from our house got shut down and now they are being shipped into Locust to be put in a building built in the 1950's.  Nice huh? 
Anyway today was the 2nd day of school and again Abigail is singing and dancing around the house, but for a different reason...  She lost her 1st tooth tonight!  Yes, her first!  She is 7 years old and had a beautiful little mouth full of baby chicklet teeth until now.  Her permanent tooth for the one she lost is already in and so it was kind of necessary for Brandon to hook it with dental floss and jerk it right out of her little mouth.  She just told me that she cried because she had tears of joy not because it hurt!  She is so funny.  She was in the bathroom about 20 minutes after it being pulled getting ready for a bath.  I looked in at her because I heard her singing about the tooth and she was stripped down naked, slinging a shirt around and around over her head, and shaking her butt to her singing.  She truly is happy over this one!

Out with the Old, in with the New!

Well we spent the rest of our 4 day weekend cleaning out both girls' bedrooms, moving furniture, and giving the upstairs bathroom an update.  What a job that was.  I was so happy to go back to work on Monday so I could get some rest. 
Emily took our old queen size bed and gave Abigail all of her "little girl" furniture and we still haven't decided if we are going to put Abi's old furniture in the spare bedroom or just take it to the basement to add to the massive "old" furniture storage area down there.  Abigail has started sleeping on Emily's floor over the past several monthes just so she could be with her.  We decided to just go buy a queen mattress and give them a place to sleep together.  Now that Emily has the new bed she doesn't want Abi to sleep in her room.  All that work for nothing?  Oh well, I am not switching back now!
Emily has zebra curtains on 2.5 of her 3 windows and we are waiting for the last panel to come in so we can have Mawmaw Kaye hem them to the right length.  We need to get her a huge bookcase to consolidate all her little ones and we need to put some pictures on the wall and hopefully we will be done in there for another 3-4 years!  Abi's room needs a new ceiling fan (so we can get rid of the Tinker Bell one that is so 4 years ago).  Thank goodness Emily had a selection of old bedding stuff for Abi to choose from so we didn't have to buy new stuff for in there. 
The bathroom had a princess castle and frog theme and we got rid of all that and put in a Paris travel theme to go along with the "mannequin" Abigail purchase last month. It all looks pretty good to have come off the clearance rack at Sears!

New accessories-I slid them all to one side for them to get in picture together

New Bathroom Rug with no toothpaste stains yet!

Eiffel Tower Shower curtain-HOW CUTE!

Emily's new room. Still need to hem curtains and add stuff to walls

Abigail's "new" bed

Abigail's desk with dresser mirror to the side that Brandon "forgot" to hang over her dresser for her

18 Hour Beach Blast

Brandon and I were both off for a 4 day weekend this week.  We watched the weather and decided that the first day of our "vacation" would have the best weather so we decided to take a quick trip to the beach.  When I say quick I mean QUICK!  There are a million other things that we need to get done this weekend and we wanted to be at home to do them.  Brandon insisted that we leave at 3:30am, but I tweaked with the alarm clock before bed and hit snooze several times!  We did leave at 4:55am though.  We were eating breakfast in Supply at 7:55am and on the beach by 9am. 

My girls enjoying there half priced boogie boards!

HB Bridge.  I remember the first time I went over this bridge in 1986 I put my canvas float under me in the back seat of the car just in case the bridge caved in. There used to be a draw bridge here until this bridge opened.

Magic Mountain Waterslides. Doesn't look like it has changed a bit!

The good ole Beach Mart.  Went here every time I came to the beach as a child looking for some special trinket or keepsake.

Now who do we have here guarding the Keebler snack box and beef jerky??? Ahh, it's my shade loving husband!

Our little piece of the beach.

Here we are at Sunset Beach's Twin Lakes Restaurant on the waterway

My Silly Hushpuppy Eater

My Silly Blue Eyed Beauty

I wanted to go down to Holden Beach since we hadn't been there in over a decade.  I talked to some people a few weeks ago at a ball tournament from West Brunswick and it stirred some nostalgia and a need to go back there.  I told the people from Shallotte that I pretty much spent all the summers of my childhood there at Holden Beach, but we had to travel to Shallotte to go to Burger King and Food Lion.  They told me that Holden Beach had a Food Lion now and they told me of all the places in Shallotte that were still there and what had shut down.  I told them that when I was little anytime a car was pointed in that direction I was in it!  They reassured me that Magic Mountain was still there. This was a waterslide place that my grandpa Wetter would drop me off at and come back and get me when my time was up.  This is strange to think about because I was pretty young and on my own.  There was also a public pool nearby that he would take me to and leave me for several hours.  I had to be somewhere between 8-12 years old!  Could you imagine doing that now with kids? 
Anyway we went to the beach and set up our area and the kids played hard all day long.  I was relieved to find out that they still hadn't let big business and high rises on the island. That is what I love so much about North Carolina beaches like this. I love the colorful houses and not having the sun blocked by a 30 feet tall building right on the ocean!  I read 2 magazines from cover to cover and Brandon read a book under his little sunflower umbrella.  Brandon is not really a sit on the beach kind of guy, but the umbrella made it more bearable for him.  He doesn't have a love for the beach and blames it on all the years he worked for Allendale Furniture and had to work at the beach delivering and setting up furniture.  So I was lucky to have him agree to come along and sit there all day with us!  Abigail and Emily bought themselves a boogie board down at the HB General Store and they practiced catching waves.  Abigail got pretty lucky on several, but she paid the price because she crashed and burned a few times.  The area where the waves break was full of a thick bed of broken shells and she would get churned up in there almost everytime she came in.   I had to keep taking her out in the deeper water to wash the shells out of her bathing suit.  She would have these quarter sized shells in her crack and all up in her suit.  She was tough though and kept at it despite the bleeding leg, knee, back, and feet!
We played until 4:30 or so and then packed up to go down to Sunset Beach where we went to the Twin Lakes Seafood Restaurant.  It was really nice and right on the waterway.  We has some really good tuna steak, shrimp, and flounder and ended with the "Beached Whale" dessert.  Abigail spent dessert time with her head down on the table asleep and woke up when all that was left was a dollop or whipped cream.  Thank goodness she wasn't in the mood for dessert! 
We left Sunset Beach at 7pm exactly and pulled into our driveway at 9:55pm.  I think this was our quickest trip home ever!  We all got quick showers (during a thunder storm) and climbed into bed together.  I didn't want kids upstairs because of the wind so we all snuggled together in one bed.  Emily eventually went to couch to sleep and Abigail slept across me and Brandon's feet.  We are such a cooky family but we have a fun time being cooky!

What Birthday Money Can Buy!

Abigail has had money burning a hole in her pocket ever since her birthday 3 weeks ago.  She had only bought 2 joke books at Sam's club until today.  I had to go pay my JCPenney bill after work today and she picked out 2 outfits while we were in there.  Mind you that I just bought her an outfit at Kohls on Sunday for school that costed more than I wanted to pay, but it was cute and she wanted it so badly.  I told her today that I would by 1 of the new outfits, but she had to buy the other,  So it was a deal.  Then we went to Hobby Lobby where she laid down some of her cold hard cash for a mannequin.  Yes, a mannequin.  (I thought Brandon would roll out of the kitchen chair when he heard how much she spent on a bust doll with a dress on!)  It is very cute and I love it, but I would never buy anything like it just because I wouldn't splurge on something like that.  I talked her into putting it in the bathroom instead of her bedroom and it is so cute in there.  Emily is doing her room in zebra stripe/safari and it seems to be leaking over to Abigail too.  Lord knows what our upstairs will end up looking like!  Anyway, back to the shopoholic... she is such a fun person to go shopping with.  She acts like some rich woman in New York boutiques.  She walks around saying, "ohh I like that, how much is it, ohh that's not bad, I'll take it!"  Then she moves on to the next display of stuff.  I had to talk her down from quite a few things, but the bust doll was mandatory because she stood at the display with her arms crossed until I okayed it.  Thank goodness I had a 40% off coupon that I let her have.  We were going to head to Target and I gave up and we had to settle for the nearby Wal-Mart to pick up a few things.  Both girls picked out some school supplies to get a jump start on the back to school stuff.  Emily found her a zebra striped "softee" (what we call blankets) that she purchased with money she earned for various accomplishments while in the softball tournament last week. 

We had such a good time for those 3 hours of shopping.  When we got back in the car to head home, Abigail said "This has been such a good day"  and then a bit later she said "You are the best momma ever"  so when it's all said and done I guess it was worth it. (Especially when they were spending their money for the most part!)  So for any of you that gave Abigail money for her 7th birthday here is an idea of where it went.  I have to say that it was well spent and she had a ball doing it.

EDEN NC DIXIE YOUTH SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT

Well we just got home today from Emily's softball tournament. Emily is still in Martinsville VA with some of her team. They had already paid for tonight and so they decided to stay until tomorrow morning. We lost today to Rockingham 7-8. It was an amazing game with all the girls doing pretty well despite the heat. Yesterday we won against Dunn and the score was 4-0. This was a crazy exciting game because those 4 runs we got all came in the 6th inning with a grand slam by Karlee Efird. Emily had hit a base hit and got out there and then 2 other players got the bases loaded and set Karlee up to bring them all in. It was crazy! The games are supposed to be 5 innings, but since we were tied 0-0 we had to go into this 6th inning that ended up being what we needed. Emily finally got some respect from her team for getting them started and getting the first run in of the game. The other amazing thing is that every girl that had the bases loaded were all "benchwarmers" and finally got some attention. This was wonderful. We were on cloud 9 all evening after that. Then going into today we knew that Rockingham was going to be tough, but we held them at a close game and I think we actually made them worry about a win for a change. I am going to post some pictures from over the past few days. I have a video of the grand slam event, but can not upload it to my blog due to its size. If you are interested we can arrange a viewing!

Abi chilling out under Abby's family tent playing with uncle Chad's old iphone.

Emily on first base from her hit in the game where they won 4-0.

Emily on 2nd base after her hit that got them started.  To see her on 3rd base you will have to see video!

The team after losing to Rockingham 7-8. You can tell Emily isn't too happy.

Emily concentrating

Emily trying to get a hit in

 Abby and Abi-Attached at the hip for the entire ball tournament.  Note Flynn and Rapuzel are wearing the wrong clothes!

Emily waiting in the outfield for a ball to come her way.

My Baby is 7 years old!

We weren't able to plan a party for her birthday, but we did get in 2 games of bowling late last night after Emily got out of ball practice.  We invited my brother and Brandon's sister for this last minute trip and we really had a good time.  Abigail has never been bowling.  Imagine that!  She had a great time.  She would get excited and just bounce up and down.  I guess we can add this to LIKE list for her.  So come on Living Social I need you to offer a deal!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!