Families that play together, stay together...

So we just returned from our fall family vacation to Beaches in Turks and Caicos. I really thought it would be hard to top the Disney cruise we went on last November but this made for tough competition. We couldn't have asked for a better all inclusive place to take the kids. It definitely makes the "return to very soon" list. Be forewarned, I had a hard time picking some of my favorite photos from over 400. It's a long post...

As we were flying in it was very evident why this place is known for having some of the best beaches in the world. Never have I seen so many different shades of blue water. It is crystal clear which is why this place ranks high for snorkeling and diving. Thankfully the weather cooperated perfectly which is always one of my biggest fears when planning our trips.



We stayed in the Italian Village which had just opened this past January. We had a great view over the pool and out to the ocean. Thankfully the kids had their own room with bunk beds, flat screen and xbox system. The bunk beds even had a trundle for Sage which she loved.



Here are just a few of the many, many highlights of this trip:

The resort sits on this long 12 mile stretch of beach on Grace Bay. We could EASILY make this our home. You can snorkel right off the beach at some of the many reefs, do some of the water sports, or just relax.






There's plenty to do on the grounds. We took advantage of all the slides, surf simulator, lazy river, pools, and swim up bars. On a couple occasions we couldn't find Connor but low and behold he'd be chilling out in the jacuzzi. Granted it was in the mid 80's but Connor loved the hot tub!





Jack and I both love to explore when we are on vacation so we decided to rent a car for a day with the kids to check out some beaches and good snorkeling spots I had read about. The island itself is pretty blah but the beaches and water are AMAZING! We didn't have time to cover all the places we wanted to so we are now determined to return hopefully sooner rather than later...






We booked a fabulous half day snorkel trip with a tour company that came highly recommended. They definitely delivered and what an amazing trip it was. We put Sage in kids camp and took the boys on this adventure of snorkeling, diving for conch, chasing iguanas, and relaxing on a remote beach. Our two guides were awesome! We were able to see a shark, several barracudas, and many many fish on the reef out in the middle of the ocean that they took us out to.





The last stop of the tour was at Horseshoe bay where we chased iguanas and relaxed on the beach while they taught us how to get the conch out of it's shell and prepare a salad with it. The boys loved learning about this. I was pretty grossed out though when they asked for volunteers to try the conch "pistol". This is some clear tube type thing that is known as the "caribbean viagra". Nice. Just what we need a couple 7 year olds downing. No one in the group was excited or willing to try it...with the exception of our boys. According to Tyler and Connor, it tasted like a salty gummy worm. YUCK!



The boys made it clear that they'd rather be with us than in a kids camp. We were ok with that since we love taking them snorkeling and exploring with us. We were able to talk them into going once so Jack and I could enjoy a couples massage (this was a first for Jack) but that was it. I guess it's a good thing that our kids enjoy being with us. Perhaps I should have been more worried if they were anxious to abandon us. Sage spent a few hours for several days at camp Sesame and really enjoyed it. Although she'd say beforehand I don't want to go to camp because she'd hear her brothers say that, once she arrived, she had lots of fun. She especially enjoyed when the Sesame Street characters would drop in. Judging from Ty's response when we picked him up and Connor up that one time, I think they had a good time. It's just the idea of "camp" that I think scared them.



Whether it be an evening parade or show, or lounging at the pool, the characters of Sesame street were regularly making appearances. Sage loved meeting Zoe and Abby. Even Tyler and Connor were smitten by Elmo and the characters.



The evening shows were quite a hit with the kids. Sage would always be clapping, singing, and dancing along. During one of the shows there was the "dragon man" who would blow fire out of his mouth. During the show he asked for a couple volunteers and before I knew it the girl sitting next to me was dragging me up on stage to join her. Next thing I knew I was putting a flaming torch on this guys heal and inside his mouth.





The food here was amazing. With 16 restaurants to choose from, there was quite the selection. It was rare to find Sage and I without some sort of daiquiri in our hands...





Evening fun:



Finally, a view from down under. Here are some of the photos I took while snorkeling out in front of our resort and on our snorkel tour.

tidbits!

So last week when I was cleaning out Ty's backpack I came across this folded up piece of paper. Is this really happening already? I seem to remember boys still having cooties at this age... (I erased the numbers but you get the point.)



On another note, yesterday at the kids school there was a special assembly in honor of Veterans Day. On this day, family members or relatives of students who serve in the armed forces show up in uniform and are honored for their duties. Since Connor is a member of ASB (basically he's a student body representative), he got to be dismissed from class early to greet some of the special guests. He could hardly wait. I'm amazed at how serious he takes his role on ASB and how much he gets from it. Today he woke up and the first thing out of his mouth to Jack and I was "Happy Veterans Day!" and then he added that "At 12 p.m. we need to be sure to have a two minute moment of silence in honor of all the service men and women". He also was the one to remind us to put out the flag! Judging from his Halloween costume selection and his excitement surrounding this holiday, I think I may be the mom of a future service man...

(OK, it's been a half hour since I posted this and have to add that I just had to giggle inside when I looked out the window to see the boys not only putting up the flag but also reciting the pledge of allegience in their pj's...) What CUTIES!!!



Other news of the week: Sage starts asking for a big girl bed! I think she has finally realized after a few play dates at friends houses that she still sleeps in a crib while everyone else seems to have big girl beds. Being that it's not something that you just run over to Target and pick up, Jack decided to take the side bar down on her crib and turn it into a day bed. It seemed to make her very happy, so happy that she hasn't been able to fall asleep until after 10 p.m. the last few nights. sigh...

Happy Halloween!!!

It seems like this year Halloween just snuck up on us. It didn't help that the flu worked it's way through our family and with all the buzz about swine flu, I spent most of October paranoid of what symptoms belonged to which virus. By the time whatever illness we had worked it's way through all of us (with the exception of Jack), two weeks of October had passed by. Thankfully the house still got decorated and everyone was well for Halloween.

I'm always amazed when I see or hear about people carving their pumpkins a week or two before Halloween. Are ours the only ones that would be moldy or start to shrivel up? So like always, we wait until the last possible moment. This year it meant Halloween morning. It's tradition for the kids to looks through a bunch of pattern books that we have accumulated over the years and pick out their favorite. Then dad works his magic. It came as no surprise when Sage found herself in a debate between "the castle" and Minnie Mouse. Each night she prays that we'll travel safely on our Disney cruise. Granted that cruise isn't for a few more months but clearly Disney is on her mind nonstop.

You can see the "goop" affects everyone differently...



Clearly it's more fun to throw the goop rather than put it in your bucket...



The beautiful work of dad:



Every year I dream of the three kids going as some sort of theme for Halloween. This could include Star Wars, superheroes, cowboys and a cowgirl, etc. Sadly, I don't think that day will ever come. Ty seems to be interested only in the costumes that have lots of gear. This could include built in muscles, masks, swords, arm pieces, etc. This year, that meant Bumble Bee from Transformers. Connor is more of a less is best type of person. He doesn't go for masks or too many extra things to put on. So for him Captain Underpants was right up his alley. For those of you who don't know who Captain Underpants is, he's a character in these chapter books that Connor LOVES reading. This costume would have consisted of tighty whities and a red cape. Yes, that was it. Simple! Now, granted I would have been all over this idea considering the cost would have been next to nothing but I knew that this would not be weather appropriate for Seattle. Thankfully, he then decided on an Air Force pilot. Sage had a hard time deciding on what to be. Every trip we made to Target she would beg for a different costume. Once she stated begging to be some pink pony/unicorn type thing, I knew I could talk her into anything as her mind just kept changing. During the past few weeks she has picked up this "cowgirl" accent she likes to do. I persuaded her into being one for Halloween. Once she got past it being a "boy costume", she was ok with it.



Can you say "Sleepless in Seattle"? Well, that was what my night would be like following all this candy. Sage had taken off the wrappers to a dozen or so suckers and taste tested each one within a few minutes of getting home. We have a rule that goes into effect the morning after Halloween and that is that for each piece of candy they eat, they have to eat something healthy. I think Connor's skin should be turning orange any day from all the baby carrots he has eaten...



Ty was born to trick or treat. He has more energy and desire than anyone. Connor on the other hand, always tells us he's going to trick or treat "all night" but we laugh when after about 30 minutes he asks what time it is because he's concerned it's getting close to bedtime. This year it was 7:15 when he hinted he was starting to feel tired and his bag felt "heavy". Sage continues to crack us up as she runs behind the boys screaming "don't ring the doorbell yet". In the end, Ty outlasted everyone.

So after two days of life, the pumpkins are tossed. In loving memory...



Halloween 2009...check!

So long soccer season...hello holiday season!

So we made it through another season of soccer and I can proudly say the two most improved players on the team came from this household. Considering they took last season off because I thought we'd be moving, I was pretty happy with how well they did. They didn't start out as the strongest players but by the end of the season, they were pretty close. This seems to be a running theme with our boys. At first we were a bit nervous that perhaps we were raising better referees than players as both were fantastic at running up and down the field watching the ball without actually touching it much. Mysteriously, that changed on games that Jack was at. On those days, some other "Tyler" and "Connor" showed up. No one wants the wrath of dad on the car ride home (ha ha) so they know to give it their best effort when dad's in attendance. Just like in basketball, Connor is excellent on defense. He sticks close to "his man". He just needs to work on kicking the ball with more power when passing it or attempting a goal. Ty on the other hand is awesome at getting the ball out of tricky spots and taking it down the field for a goal. Once Ty masters accuracy when attempting a goal there will be no stopping him. The season couldn't have ended more perfectly with both boys playing very, very well and BOTH of them making goals in this last game (oh, and the team winning!) :)

Ty baby taking it down the field and making a goal...




Connor in on the action ...



I loved that when someone got a goal, Ty would make a point to run up to them and high five them. Here he is giving Connor a high five after scoring his first goal this season.



I think this photo speaks for itself...



Daddy paying close attention...



Of course, besides winning the games, a big highlight is receiving the medal...



I just need to say that this year the boys had AWESOME coaches. Coach Noel and Coach Joe were clearly more organized and prepared then any other coach we played against and they were awesome with instructing the kids and giving feedback. Kudos for their patience with 9 crazy boys...

A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

So here is what we've been up to over the past month...

The big FORTY is less than a year away:

Eeeekers! And like clockwork, I feel and am starting to look really old. I'm not buying this 40 is the new 30 thing. This year especially I've noticed that all those years of soaking up the sun have definitely come back to haunt me. Anyways, Jack was sweet and for my birthday brought home an angel food cake even though I'm now the only one in the family that likes it. Jack has never liked it but I figured the kids would. Well it didn't take long to see the kids were in Jack's camp on this one when I went to clear off the table and found what looked like three wet sponges on each plate. The whipped cream was gone but sure enough, the angle food cake wasn't a hit for them either. Let me tell you, this was not a bad thing. I could eat one angel food cake a day! My sweet friends also put together a fun evening to celebrate the occasion. That yummy Dairy Queen ice cream cake was by far the highlight. I love my family and I love these girls!!!



Sagie's starts her preschool program:

Eden, Sage, Macy and Melia make up the group. Aren't they darling...



Connor gets elected to ASB:

So a couple weeks ago Connor comes home from school talking about how he is going to run for ASB. I wasn't even clear exactly what it was but when I heard the line "people vote for you" the first thing that ran through my mind was prepare him for the worse...a loss. Connor is our sweet but very sensitive child and I wanted to make sure that he wouldn't see defeat as an indication that his class doesn't like him. Since 2nd grade is the first year they can run for a student body officer position, I figured many of the kids would want to run (although Ty indicated he wasn't interested because it required going to after school meetings which he would have nothing to do with since that would interfere with after school play time). I had completely forgot about it until a few days later when Connor came running through the front door to tell me how excited he was because "Guess who got elected to ASB for their class?" "I did!" He was soooo excited. I still don't know all the details but did receive an email from his teacher that included the news. Apparently one boy and one girl is selected from each class. They have to submit a written speech about why they want to run and read it in front of the class, after which point the class votes. What cracked me up was when I asked what he wrote he said, "I like to help around the house" (hmmm), and "I am kind to people", (very true, except when it comes to kindly helping mom pick up around the house.) Anyways, that was very exciting news. Here is Connor with Ranger, our neighbor's dog that he loves.



Sage finally figures out how to ride her bike:

I was worried she'd never figure out how to use her pedals but this past week she got it down and now loves to go fast in circles around the driveway, basketball courts at the park or anywhere else that has a big open area to ride! Whenever she finds she's stuck on a slight hill or something that requires more effort than she's willing to put out, she jumps off and says "it needs some gas", pushes it a few steps and jumps back on. It's very funny. Yea Sage!



So I'm not meant to be a pumpkin farmer:

As you may remember, last year I attempted my first try at growing pumpkins. I decided to take advantage of the planters we had that the landscapers put in hoping for some sort of return on investment. The return last year ended up being a green golf ball sized pumpkin. This year I decided to attempt one last time using the seeds I had saved from last years purchased pumpkins(hoping that would make the difference). So this past May I took them out, lied them on our patio set and within a short time the crows must have found them in the Ziploc bag and decided to have them for lunch. Well, fast forward a couple months and I notice some vine growing out of the corner of one of the planters. I could tell it wasn't a weed but wasn't sure what it was. Within a few weeks we saw the beginning of what looked like a pumpkin. The only thing I can think of is that as the crows flew away with my seeds, they happened to drop one. What are the chances that one of the seeds would actually happen to land in the corner and I mean smashed up against the corner of the planter? So we've gone from golf ball sized to grapefruit sized. At least this year's was orange in color...

I had to cut and paste this email from Connor's teacher...

Connor's teacher sends out emails every so often describing the atmosphere in the classroom. In the first email she indicated that some of the kids were being a bit disruptive and also lectured the parents about making sure kids weren't bringing toys to class. I responded that I'd appreciate any feedback she had on Connor. This is what I got back:

I'd like to place an order for 24 more just like Connor! I've really enjoyed having him in class. He can be rather serious at times. I love his eagerness.

Something funny and cute happened last week with Connor. I wasn't sure he would tell you this story, so I wanted to share it with you.

We were lining up for lunch and one of the boys asked me why his hands were stinging after using the hand sanitizer. I explained that he probably had some tiny cuts on his hands and that the alcohol in the sanitizer was burning just a little, but that it was ok, because it was cleaning his cuts at the same time. Connor was standing behind this boy and heard our conversation. He stuck his hands out, looked rather alarmed and said in a panicked voice, "I'm not supposed to touch alcohol!!!"

I have several children with severe allergies, so my mind is racing, trying to remember anything about an alcohol allergy while looking at his hands for any evidence that they are blistering or about to fall off or something. Connor was still panicking, his voice getting a little higher pitched with every piece of information he could give me: "I've already touched it. I used it today." Then he finally gets to the part that helps me the most, "My mom and dad don't even touch alcohol. We're Mormon!"

Whew. I tried to explain that the hand sanitizer contains rubbing alcohol, which is a different kind from what he was thinking. He seemed ok after that.

Thanks for the email-
Martha Thomason

Back to School!

So yesterday marked the first day of 2nd grade for the boys. It was clear Connor was excited to start school when I found him in the media room with the cartoons blasting at 2 a.m. Yes 2 AM! He is our early riser but that was insanity. Needless to say I put him back to bed and alerted him that he still had many hours of sleep time ahead of him before his school day would begin. The kids ate their 1st day of school breakfast treat of cinnamon rolls (let the teachers deal with that sugar high) and then they bounced out the door to catch the bus. We are fortunate to live just beyond the mile marker that divides the walkers/drop offs from the bused kids. As for school budget cuts, increase the class size to 25 but don't take away my bus service please... :)

We are very excited about this year. I separated the boys so they have different teachers but we've heard wonderful things about both of them. If I get the same compliments about the boys from their teachers at school as I do from their primary teachers at church, we will be very thrilled. My only concern is homework. Just hoping their assignments are similar or that their teachers have the same views about the amount of homework to give. Not looking forward to the painful conversations that could arise if one gets a lot more homework than the other...

Sage will officially start a preschool program next week that I'm doing with a few other friends. This will be a change from the paid preschool I did for the two years before the boys started kindergarten. But Sage is so easy, seems more socially mature, and has a great bunch of friends her age so it seemed foolish not to join a few friends and do a preschool program of our own. Granted now that Sage's entertainment team has headed back to school I may be wishing I had done the "paid" preschool but she is my little buddy and I'm a bit sad to see her leave the nest...

My sweeties:



The bus stop boys:




Waving goodbye for the day (and thrilled to see Ms. Penny as our bus driver again!):