Monday, May 12, 2014

Career Day

The day before we left for the cruise, we had Anna's career day! Both Paul and I had been asked to come talk to the 1st grade about our careers. Anna had that proud smile the whole time :) We certainly cherish these moments because soon she won't want us near her school!! Lol! I brought lots of NASA SWAG the kids loved . And I got pictures of Paul at work.







What Paul gave to the kids (Anna: "everyone said I was famous!")




And earlier that day I lover her face when her name was announced for Perfect Attendance:




Seriously to be that young again!

TJ brought this flyer (photo bow) to us one morning in the car when she noticed Anna in the picture and then we got another in the mail, advertising a camp. Apparently this is the result of those photo waivers you sign for camps :)
She's in the blue shirt. I think Anna was 5 when this was taken because she didn't go to this camp last summer :) She's got the typical flower clip in her hair. Again, she says "I'm famous!"








Weeeeee!!! It's cool :)

The cruise 2014

Well I'm way behind but better late than never! We've been pretty busy around here but took a week off to have fun on this year's family cruise! This year we had my dad, stepmom, step sister and her husband and children. It was great spending time with them and Anna is really growing up and enjoyed hanging with the big girls :)

Itinerary was Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel.

Jamaica was Ziplining! Ever since Paul and I had done this in Belize we have been waiting for Anna to get old enough to go. She's an adventurer so we went for it. But since we had just experienced a new found fear of an old favorite roller coaster ride at Legoland, we prepped her with photos and gave her an "out" plenty of times before we bought the tickets. She insisted we Zipline! So we did. And she was ah-mazing!!!! This was in the jungle, at a jungle national park, with ravines and tall trees, and climbs and hikes. We got dirty and sweaty and we were so proud of this kid! There was no tandem zipping, she took to the high lines on her own. She was in heaven and it was beautiful! The staff treated her so special as the youngest there. Such great memories! I have more photos we bought from the place but will have to post later... This is the best I got with my iPhone :)


























We had time to hit the beach soon after:




















Anna took these pictures:








In Grad Cayman we visited a sea turtle farm and dolphin encounter. We'd never done either and it was great! But I think I like the sea turtles better :) They're just too cute!














In Cozumel we snorkeled and swam At a local beach resort after watching the rest of the family Zipline there (Anna was too young for that one, ha!)

On the ship, we took a towel animal class and did the ropes course there (surprisingly tough, sheesh!!! Especially for the short ones like Anna! One was so scary she got stuck and started crying so we were able to help her across and she pulled it together and kept going :)































Her pretty dress from daddy from Cozumel.











A great week, we all are wayyyyyy too much, relaxed some, and played a lot. New experiences and new memories, and time with my favorite people. Awesome! So glad she likes adventure and is a good traveler. She asked plenty of questions about what she saw of the local culture/color of each place we visited. Good exposure beyond the walls of clear lake city!



























So grateful!

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Happy Mother's Day to me!

Lovely day :)

































She was so excited for Mother's Day all week :) She made me several cards. The one she gave me with breakfast said, "Thank you for choosing me to be your kid. Happy Mother's Day is finally here! I hope you will love your breakfast!"

This little girl loves me sooooo much :) I am so happy she picked me to be her mom!