January - June 2015

 Somehow, my phone is holding my January-March pictures captive, so we're starting at April. I'm already a few months behind, so what's a few more? By the way, you should be able to click any picture, and cycle through a bigger version of all of them. At least on my computer you can.

This face. I can't handle it. He was mad because it was Bella's day to be first in line at the bus stop. Ah, sibling rivalry at its best!

Finished Easter eggs! The kids super love doing this every year. Since one can only eat so many hard-boiled eggs, we just color uncooked ones. The kids have a blast, and I get a visual treat every time I go to cook them.

Whereas Ryan is very slapdash about his eggs and finishes in about 32 seconds, Bella has to plot and plan and re-dye. She is meticulous. I'm sorry this picture didn't turn out better because the girl can dye some beautiful eggs!

Easter morning. I can't handle the cuteness! And, 95% of the time, they really do get along and love each other this much. (But MAN! That other 5%...)

The actual pictures of them bowling never turn out well (too much backlighting down the lane), but Bella rolled a 96, and Ryan an 82. Not too shabby for a 5 and 7 year old!

The Children's Museum for the 4,926th time. We're at the Transformers exhibit as both are equally obsessed with the show.

One of the exhibits is about how they make movies and they had a green screen and this projection. Ryan got pretty washed out, but it's a fun shot none the less!

Now that the $6 a pop robotic ice cream machine is gone (YAY!), BOTH kids get double scoops for the same price as one cup of the other stuff. Bonus? The people are very generous with their scoops.

This girl would eat ice cream every single day if I let her. It's her first choice when asking for a snack.

Ryan looked particularly GQ this day, but of course Bella wanted in on the action!

First fishing trip in the pond behind our house. Both kids caught quite a few.

Ryan. My glasses. Nuff said.

The kids RUNNING into our new church building. God has written an amazing story for Harvest Bible Chapel!

 An afternoon at the Indiana Transportation Museum for Train Day. It's their opening weekend and includes tours, a caboose ride, lots of kiddie activities, and old cars you can climb all over. The kids love it here.

Love that he's helping her up.

Bella's ever-changing smile.

Happiness is a boy on a caboose ride.

And then it was May! And we celebrated lots of things: the first fire of the year, Ryan's birthday, our anniversary, the end of the school year. I'm so grateful to my parents for dropping everything to come here and love on my kids while we were in Jamaica. Here's to a wonderful May!

No, the fish isn't as big as Ryan! But, being a fisherman, that's the tale he'll tell!

I'm sure Bella talked to/encouraged/kissed this one before throwing it back.

Stand back! I'm going to do science!!

How is this little guy 6 already?!

Can you tell he decorated it himself?

I love our faces in this one!

Some nights you just need to sleep with your puppy.

And then, we were heading off to Jamaica! Good weather, great food, an awful sunburn, amazing adventures. It was wonderful.

Saying goodbye to my sweet babies!

Okay, Blogger is doing this really annoying thing where all the photos are aligned right until I upload them, then they go all upside down and sideways. I apologize for this, but I have yet to find a way to have the pictures go the right way.

Smiling like fools in our first class seats!

Legroom!!

I took this for the kids, to give them an idea of what it looks like up there until they have a chance to fly.

The view from our room!

This was our reality for a week.

Here's the pool next to the ocean.

Aaaahhhh. Feeling the tension float away on the Caribbean breeze.

I cheated. I admit it. I cannot pass up a chocolate croissant and coffee, so here's my gluten and dairy laden breakfast that I did not regret. At all.

The view from my breakfast table (besides the view of my yummy food).

Loved this. Walked down the line going, "Hmm. Don't know what this is. I'll try it!" Okay, so I know eggs and bacon, but there's a pumpkin fritter, a fig, a slice of fresh coconut, and some sugar cane! Oh, and a green smoothie and some plum juice that was amazing.

We spent the better part of two days with this view. Out there is the "isle" in "Couples Tower Isle." It was the nude beach which was a shame, because it seemed like a fun place to explore.

Panoramic view from the hot tub area (which we didn't try).

The spa where Joshua had a massage and I had an aloe treatment for my sunburn.

Lion fish! You know, the brown striped, long-spined, poisonous fish? Well, it's yummy!

The view sitting on our patio.

One of several almond trees on the property. Who knew?!?

Jamaican jerk chicken. Tasted like barbeque sauce to me.

Coconuts at the smoothie bar. Everyone drank coconut water out of coconuts. Well, except me because I'm not a fan. But the smoothies were good.

I have always had stick-straight hair. Until recently, when it's begun to get wavy. My hair + Jamaican humidity = craziness. I didn't even try to mess with it.

10 years to the day that we walked down the aisle! There were a TON of weddings on the beach that day. It's a good day to get married!

Drinks on the veranda. Every day was a new drink, but it was just a variation of rum and fruit juice. Still, not a bad way to end the day...

The spotless lobby.

 For our anniversary, we chose a private dinner on the beach. We could have gone to "Naked Island" as we called it (don't worry! They close it down for the dinners and you have to wear clothes), but we chose to stay where we were. There is something pretty wonderful about sitting with your toes in the sand and listening to the surf while someone brings course after course of amazing food.

 The day of our catamaran tour. This is the port in Ocho Rios. I didn't want to risk losing my phone overboard in the waves, so this is the only picture I have of that day.

 The Gala Buffet on Sunday night. All the restaurants were closed so everyone could eat poolside. The chefs pulled out all the stops and I ate until I couldn't eat anymore. Then regretted what I hadn't eaten!

 I'm fairly certain that devotions would always be fantastic if I could have them here with my room service coffee.

 Joshua and I visited "Dolphin Cove" which surprised me because Joshua didn't seem like the "swim with dolphins" type. We obviously couldn't take pictures, but we spent about 45 minutes in the water with Misty, a dolphin. For me, it was like a dream come true because I would have loved to be a dolphin trainer. Misty swam under our outstretched arms so we could feel her skin, see her up close, hear her talk (ridiculously shrill and loud up close), make gestures for her to respond to, we rode her fins and she gave us kisses. It was a remarkable experience. And Dolphin Cove had a ton of other things as well.

In case it's too dark, the sign reads "Beware of Falling Almonds."

There was a shark tank. 5 guys had fed them, then for extra money (of course) you could get in the tank and pet them. No thank you!!

 

Misty!

 There was an enclosed area where you walk in and they hand you about a teaspoon of bird seed. Then the lovebirds descend on you like you're a giant treat.

 Another area allowed you to hold things like iguanas and boa constrictors. As my brain is still functioning correctly, I chose to decline. Joshua, who is in the middle of crazy at work all the time, chose to touch the scaly, slithery things.

Another thing you could do was take a boat ride over to Dunn's River Falls. This is a touristy area where you can walk the waterfall. Mom and Dad did it when they visited Jamaica on a cruise, but Joshua and I didn't really want to do that. So, we still got to see the falls and have a crazy boat ride through the giant waves.

This is how our guide steered the boat-from the other side of the steering wheel! Joshua is in the "driver's seat" and I'm next to him. That man had talent!

Had to get a picture of this place!

And, then it was our last night at the resort! We snapped a bunch of pictures to remember it all, and ate dinner literally over the ocean!

Always windy! But that kept the temperature down and the mosquitos away.

This is the view from the end of the pier.

A nice panoramic shot.

Naked Island.

Our restaurant! We had the "cabana" right past the trees.

My view from dinner.

And a tiny frog we passed on the way out.

Last glorious Caribbean sunset.

 But we got back in time to finish off the school year. This is Ryan and Mrs. Roller, his kindergarten teacher. I was the room mom for Bella's class and was in the middle of class party craziness, which is why I don't have a picture of her and Miss Fry. It was a good year!

So I picked them up from school and we headed to the yogurt place. They love it there!

 And we've had a lot of fun this summer.

We picked waaaay too many strawberries.

Ryan's friend's mom threw a kindergarten graduation party.

Ryan learned to ride his bike without training wheels. In about a day.

He lost a tooth!

 Another visit to The Children's Museum. Can't pass up a Hotwheels exhibit!

Bella discovers candy cigarettes.

 We stopped by "Ferrari Fest" after church one day. It's actually "Ridiculously Expensive Car Fest" because there was a Lamborghini or two, a few Porsches, aTesla, and a smattering of Maseratis.

 

Once I explained the plate to her, Bella asked me to take a picture.

The Maserati that's second from the left costs as much as our house. Yikes!

And, as a bill-payer, Joshua fusses about this, but the kids (as all kids do) LOVE LOVE LOVE running in the sprinkler.

Even Sasha enjoyed getting wet!

 We had a wonderful visit from Uncle Jeff and soon-to-be-Aunt Donna. They brought Granny's dressers here for the kids to use. We were so happy to see them and so grateful for their generosity and sacrifice of a weekend for us!

There's a lot of love in this picture!

Uncle Jeff taking the kids (all three of them!) for a trailer ride. You would think they were on a roller coaster with how they whooped and hollered!

 Conner Prairie is a place my kids continue to love visiting. We went for "Curiosity Fair" one Sunday afternoon. They had a blast, as always.

There was a stunt bike show that mesmerized Ryan.

Always fun climbing on a cement mixer!

The kids and I on a six-person bicycle.

This was the "circus" section so they had these little tiny bikes. Bella was determined to ride, even with her long legs.

The girl can't pass up face painting. At the end of the day she was beat and said, "Kitty down!" She was done!

Feeding a calf a bottle? Bella's idea of heaven.

We laughed at the baby goat in front of us playing "Marco Polo" bleating to find its mom.

And that, my dear friends, is a butterfly that's landed on Bella's wrist. It was a good day for her!

 Family dinner at Red Robin, because they have amazing burgers and gluten-free buns. Bonus: mustache straws for the kids!

More adventures coming soon - stay tuned!