Happy Silver to us!

And I'm not talking hair color thank goodness...at least not yet! Although Jack may say the gray hair he has did in fact come from 25 years with me... lol! But really what an amazing milestone to be celebrating twenty five years together! From our three children who continue to impress us and surpass anything we could have expected, to raising a few pets including a bunny, some fish and our fur ball of a puppy, to living in six states, to calling ten places home, to crossing the country for work and traveling the world for vacation...we have lived a life together than has been anything but predictable and boring. We are taught that the best things in life require hard work. I think it's fair to say that includes marriage. While we have perservered through some difficult times the joy comes from reflecting on all the amazing experiences we've shared together and there have been plenty of those and being excited for what lies ahead! So here's to another twenty five!!! I love you baby!

During the past twenty five years we've been lucky enough to travel to some amazing places but how do you choose where to celebrate your silver anniversary? Well since we added a dog to the mix a week before our anniversary it needed to be somewhere that didn't require too much advance planning, a place preferably close so that we wouldn't leave my parents for too terribly long with a brand new puppy, yet somewhere that had adventure, nice accommodations but still felt off the beaten path because everyone knows I don't like to travel to places everyone else does. So to the Exumas we went and what a treat it turned out to be. While the airport ranks up there in the top two smallest we've flown into, the bonus was that it felt like we had the island to ourselves much of the time. It was dreamy that's for sure!

So here are a few highlights from this picturesque place!

Flying in was so beautiful, seeing all these small islands surrounded by sand and fifty shades of blue!



We made it!



We stayed at the Grand Isle Resort on Great Exuma. It's an all villa property on the beach with a beautiful golf course that wrapped around the property. We would definitely return here to stay as the service, food, and location were fantastic.






We spent our first day getting settled and enjoying the beach at the resort. How cute is this swing set?!?




So for our first full day I planned for us to go on an excursion to see some of the out islands. What a fabulous time we had and how much more fun it was to do it with my brother Sean who jumped on a plane with his fiancee Amy to join us from Nassau where they were for Sean's Presidents club retreat! We spent the day crossing miles and miles of ocean visiting numerous cays where we fed iguanas, swam with pigs, explored a cave, grotto, and plane, saw celebrity private islands, enjoyed sand bars in the middle of the ocean, and of course the highlight swimming with a bunch of sharks! It was quite a day of adventure and boy did we cover some mileage!













Our next day we rented a boat so we could explore all the small cays just off of Great Exuma! Captain Jack always does a great job navigating us around and how fun this was. While it was a little windy, we still had such a nice time. It reminded me of our time on Lake Como in Italy when we rented a small boat like this one. We hit some snorkeling spots before enjoying lunch at Chat n Chill on Stocking Island. My favorite part of the day had to be exploring the sand bars though. It's amazing how quickly a bunch of sand bars start to appear in what feels like the middle of the ocean. We'd anchor our boat in the sand in water no deeper than two feet and just walk and walk, finding all sorts of sand dollars and star fish! It was so peaceful and beautiful!

Captain Jack!







The next day I had a car delivered to the resort so that we could spend the next several days exploring the island and all the fantastic beaches I had read about. We spent this first day heading to Little Exuma which is connected to Great Exuma by a small bridge. On the way we stopped at Hoopers Bay which I had read was a great place to swim with turtles. Sure enough it did not disappoint! Afterwords we enjoyed a great lunch at Santanas where we also got to watch lemon sharks swim alongside the beach as we ate. After grabbing some delicious banana bread freshly made next door at Mom's Bakery we were on to the Tropic Of Cancer beach. We can see why this beach continues to make the top five list of best beaches in the Caribbean. It was beautiful but the water was even more spectacular!







After a wonderful day, we cleaned up and went in search of finding a good place to watch the sun set! We weren't sure it was going to happen because the side of the island the sun sets on isn't the side with all the main beaches but I'd say we hit the jackpot. Again it was low tide and sandbars could been seen popping out of the water.




The next day we were on another beach adventure! This time we focused on the northern part of Great Exuma but not before making another visit to Hoopers Bay to hang out with the turtles.




After another fun morning with the turtles we made our way back up north making a stop at Big D's for lunch before heading to Coco Plum Beach. I loved the bright colors of the restaurant against the blue of the ocean. Such a fun setting!



Coco Plum beach did not disappoint. It was beautiful and I was so glad I had read to arrive at low tide because really what makes most of these stand out against other amazing beaches we've been to are all the sand bars that pop up at low tide. Again we could have spent hours walking out on sand bars that stretched into the ocean...well, that is if low tide lasted hours...ha! Unfortunately, low tide comes and goes pretty quick!




And look what they also had at Coco Plum!!! I'm really loving the swings on the beach! Even if Jack and I got a good laugh over him trying to get me up on the swing. It's a bit harder than it looks!!!



Well, this trip is up there with some of our other top trips. We had such a great time and it was so nice for Jack and I to have some time together alone. When your soul mate starts to feel like a roommate, it's definitely time to get away! Our new goal is to make our next twenty five better than our first! Hear's to us!




Of course a big thank you to my parents who continue to make our life easier by coming to watch the kids at the drop of a hat! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!!

MoPro 2019

I'm so happy to see the boys having such a fun high school experience here in Florida. I really can't believe they are at the conclusion of their junior year! With that comes all sorts of dances and parties, including Mormon Prom. While a lot of their friends chose to not take dates to this dance, Ty went with his sweet girlfriend Nicole and Connor went with Abby, his friend from school. What started with just the boys and a couple of their friends special ordering funky coats turned into their whole gang doing it. What a fun group and kudos to their dates for trying to match up with them...









Sage and I enjoying the peace after everyone left...



After the dance the kids all came back to our place where many of them spent the night. I love having a home that the kids feel welcome in and enjoy hanging out at!

Spring Concert for Sage!

Always love watching our sweet Sage perform in her school concerts! Here she is with the one who makes these concerts possible, her instructor Ms. Lynch! Sage adores her but sadly won't get to learn under her next year since we are zoned for the new middle school opening in the fall while Ms. Lynch will stay at the old school. Regardless, I have no doubt Sage will continue to thrive no matter who she learns from.



Friends who share the same passion for singing!





It's always fun to end the night at the ice cream shop!

An Easter Miracle...the Roddys get a puppy!

Well, well, well, what do we have here?!? After years, literally years of Sage begging us for a family fur ball, we finally caved. Talk about going from one headache to the next...Just when the house is starting to come together, not to be confused with completely together...we decide the time is now or never. I mean, if we are going to get a dog it should be before the boys leave for college! And how sad for them to not have the same memories Jack and I both had as kids with family dogs, not to mention the life lessons that can be learned from owning a pet bigger than a fish. So back a couple months ago we decided to take Sage to a pet store to just LOOK at all the dogs. This particular store specialized in all sorts of puppy breeds and allowed you to take dogs into small sectioned off areas to spend time with them. We came across this darling Pomsky puppy that we fell in love with. When we asked about the price we were shocked to learn it was $4500. My jaw dropped. I knew getting a dog was going to be pricey but I had no idea dogs even sold for that much. Needless to say we said we had to think about it. Sage and I continued to dream about this dog but after a couple weeks it had sold so it was time to move on. After doing a lot of research on pomskies we came up with our list of traits we were looking for. Because a pomsky is a cross between a husky and a Pomeranian, depending on the parents coloring, sizes, and fur type, you can end up with heaven knows what combination. We knew we wanted blue or brown/blue combo eyes, a white, silver, gray, or black and white coat, the husky mask, one that wouldn't get much bigger than 25 lbs, a plush coat, and of course one that would make a good family pet. Seems easy enough but let me tell you, it was quite the challenge. And what you get as a puppy especially with the pomsky breed can change drastically as they age their first year. So after spending a full month researching dogs, taking with breeders, and then passing them by Sage, we finally found our puppy! Because he was located out of state, he had to be flown to us which I was a bit nervous about but the breeder had already sent a couple to Florida and said that most his dogs are shipped and he had never had any issues. Of course there is always a first and we prayed it wouldn't be with our puppy! We tried to keep it a bit of a surprise by telling Sage that there would be a delay in getting him but smarty pants ended up watching my every move on an app and was able to see the day we were at the airport picking him up. Not to mention in my excitement I sent a marco polo to my extended family sharing the news as we drove back to the house forgetting Sage too was a part of the group chat... So long story but important to know since sweet Nova is now a member of our family and as Jack pointed out, is treated better than anyone else in the family...haha!

As for names, I had originally come up with the idea of naming him a name that reminded us of our Florida chapter. Jack came up with Boca since our first over night trip after arriving in Orlando was to Boca Raton for a water polo game and Connor came up with was Daytona since we love to go to Daytona beach. After taking a poll, it was evenly divided but Sage made the call to go with Boca and we all agreed that Boca was easier to say and just seemed more appropriate. As we spent the first few days calling him Boca we all kind of agreed that it just didn't seem to fit or suit him. So back to the drawing board we went. We pulled out a list I had compiled that included a few names that each of us had come up with. In the end we landed on Nova. While it probably seems a big more girly, it seems to suit our sweet boy perfectly! So here is Nova, our Easter puppy! Born on January 2, 2019 but delivered to us on April 20th, 2019! Sadly this is the only photo I got of him just as they were bringing him to us at Delta Cargo.



As we pulled up to the house we were greeted by not only Sage, but a houseful of the boys' friends! I wish I had a photo of them all surrounding him and petting him. It was quite the arrival scene. In the end the fan that mattered most was this one...




After a peaceful first night's sleep for Nova who was clearly exhausted between the air travel and all the attention he had gotten upon his arrival, we left him in his crate while we attended church! We returned home to find him anxiously awaiting us in his crate and had a lovely Easter Sunday enjoying him, the weather and each other! Also, Grandma Roddy had arrived a couple days earlier so she got to be a part of welcoming our new furry friend to the family!




While he seemed OK with his crate, he wasn't a fan of the leash. Thankfully that changed over a few days...



Yup, it's clear whose dog this is...



While Nova was the highlight of the day, the kids still managed to get excited over Easter baskets and an Easter egg hunt! I loved that even after just a day of being a part of the family Nova was following Sage around like a puppy as she hunted for eggs...oh wait, he is a puppy!



I don't know who was more exhausted after twenty four hours of dog ownership, us or Nova...




It's hard to believe that within 72 hours our dog had boarded a plane, had a layover in Atlanta, made his way to Orlando, celebrated Easter with us, and spent a day at the beach! With the kids in school and Jack's mom only around for another day it seemed the perfect way to spend a beautiful spring day so off we went and in true Roddy fashion, we don't let the kids or now pets stop us! So Nova came along for the ride! What a cutie!!!



Sage will no longer be able to say "mom and dad have each other, Connor and Ty have each other, and I have no one..."