"You went where?"

So we just returned from an amazing trip to Bonaire. Most people have never heard of the place but if you enjoy snorkeling as much as we do it would definitely be on your radar since it regularly gets rated as one of the top five places in the world to dive, snorkel, and windsurf. It had indeed been on my radar for years, in fact while planning this trip I came across old stuff that the Bonaire tourism office had sent me back when we lived in NYC but for some reason we always ended up going to other places. But now that the kids all love to snorkel and are completely comfortable in deep ocean water it was time to rethink Bonaire. Delta had also just recently added direct service out of Atlanta which meant that if you were on the 6 a.m. flight out of Cincy you could be in the water by 2:30 and indeed we were!

Since there are no major hotel chains on the island accommodations are really limited to rental properties with the exception of a few dive resorts that offer small rooms that cater to divers just looking for a place to lie their head down for the night. So I jumped on VRBO and found a perfect condo for us! Normally we stick to staying at resorts where you have all the amenities but after having good luck with this VRBO property, I may just have to look into them for future trips! This was our view from the balcony and the kids loved to have a pool that was always empty to hang out in after a day of snorkeling! I'm so bummed I didn't get any photos of the inside for memories sake...



The island is Dutch, the primary language is Dutch, most the people we met were Dutch, but interestingly enough their primary currency is the dollar and being that Bonaire sits just 50 miles off of Venezuela, you can find a lot of products from South America also in their grocery stores. We thought it was funny that you'd find a 2 liter of Coca Cola for $3 and right next to it another one for just over a $1. The packaging looked almost identical but one was packaged in Venezuela and the other in the states. We tested out the Venezuelan Coke and Sprite and determined that we preferred their Coke and our Sprite. Their Coke was made with the cane sugar and had a sweeter taste but their Sprite tasted like our Ginger Ale which is fine but just not the same lemon taste you expect when drinking a Sprite. With the exception of fresh milk that runs just under $8 for a gallon, the food prices weren't too bad. We did breakfasts and some lunches at the condo and took advantage of enjoying all the great restaurants for dinner.

First item to share was all the crazy creatures and wild life you'd find roaming around. It didn't take having to go to the actual donkey sanctuary on the island to find donkeys!!! There was also no shortage of iguanas. While we were eating at a local pizza joint someone pointed out these frogs sitting on this painting and of course there is a reason that the Bonaire airport is called Flamingo Airport! We loved seeing all the pink flamingos!



So here are some of the main highlights of our trip!

Jibe City at Lac Bay!!! I have to say if there is any water in the world that compares to the water of Bora Bora it would be here! We loved spending our day here. Had a great lunch at the beach cafe, kids enjoyed taking windsurfing lessons, rented some paddle boards, bought some fun jewelry, and just enjoyed the water!!!



Touring around the southern part of the island was quite amazing. We loved seeing the big mounds of sea salt and the pans of pink salt water. As you drive farther south you come across these tiny "slave huts" which sadly housed the slaves who worked in the salt industry back in the day. The huts were restored as a solemn reminder of some of the history of Bonaire. Between the pink shellfish and the pink water that the flamingoes eat and drink from you get pink flamingos!!! Who knew?! I was excited to get some nice sea salt to bring back with us but later learned that this salt is industrial grade...the stuff that much of the US ran out of last winter...






Next up, our Woodwind drift snorkel cruise! What a great day we had with Dee and her crew on this amazing snorkel journey along Klein Bonaire, a small uninhabited island just a couple miles off Bonaire. They took us to a section of the reef and you would just drift down, down, down to another section and the boat would meet up with you at that location. We snorkeled three different locations that focused on different types of things to see and different depths. By far the best snorkel cruise we've ever been on. What made it so nice was how educated she was on all the sea life. We learned stuff about fish that we had never heard in all our years of snorkeling and tours. From the lunch to the crew to the weather we couldn't have asked for a better time. We loved it so much that we hired her to take our family out on a private night snorkel later in the week.





Then it was on to spend a day snorkeling in the Washington-Slagbaai National Park! The park is located just outside the town of Rincon. Here is the photo we took of Rincon from the small lookout point on the way to the park.



Once at the park you find an information center where you pay your fee, a small food stand, gift shop and a one way dirt road that takes you through the park with the option of either taking a long route or a short route. Being the short route is 90 minutes excluding any stops and hits the best snorkel spots we were interested in, we chose that one. Our first stop was at the Wayaka dive site. The entrance was quite rocky but you could see the water was very clear and the reef right there. So in we went! As we snorkeled towards Wayaka 2 (the next dive site) we realized that site had a much easier sandy entrance into the water. There were also all these gigantic angelfish and parrot fish that were more than happy to come right up to your face before quickly turning the other direction. They also had no problem swarming around your feet at the shallow sandy shoreline. It was so funny. I don't know if the fish are used to divers feeding them or what but they were swarming around this alcove and you could see them from above the water. We quickly decided this was the place we wanted to spend our afternoon. Sandy with a reef and even a little cave where we could put all our stuff. Perfection! We also found on this part of the island a lot of fresh conch shells. Ty loved searching the ocean floor to try to find the nicest ones. Jack got the award though for finding the largest one!



After a fantastic afternoon here we made our way back to the entrance of the park! On the way we'd stop at cool spots to take a look around.



We passed this lake in the park and if you didn't know better you would have thought their had been a blanket of snow that had fallen earlier. Actually not even big rocks that the kids were throwing could break through this salt!!!



Now that's one big cactus!



The one photo I am missing from the park is that of our white truck after our puddle experience. Apparently they had gotten rain the night before because out of no where was this gigantic puddle in the middle of this dirt road. Without any hesitation Jack suddenly guns it through this gigantic puddle. We literally couldn't see a thing as mud covered the front windshield not to mention the rest of the truck. The kids were dying! Thankfully no windows were down or perhaps it wouldn't have been so funny. Needless to say our nice white truck was now brown!

That night we went on our awesome night snorkel. This was something Jack was really excited about but me...not so much. It turned out to be super fun. Dee had one of her crew members Emmanuelle join us who had been on our day snorkel and Sage was thrilled about that. She loved to hold her hand as we snorkeled in the dark ocean, sometimes even turning off our lights to watch as we moved around in the water and looked below the surface we'd see what looked like tons of fireflies going crazy in the water. It looked like something out of a movie. We saw more eels than I've seen in my life, octopuses, lobster, shrimp and all sorts of different things that we don't normally see.



Another highlight to the trip was the day we spent at 'No Name Beach' on Klein Bonaire. We packed a lunch and ice chest, took a water taxi over to the beach where they let us drop off all our stuff and then we jumped back on the boat so they could take us up the island where we'd jump in the water and to a drift snorkel on our own back to the beach where we had left our stuff. It took us almost two hours to drift down but you literally don't even have to kick much. You don't even realize that there is a current that takes you. For most of it we stayed on the deep side of the reef. I have to say how proud I am of our kids. They are all better snorkelers than me diving down deep to examine things closer and take photos and little Sagie is amazing. She has no problem going pretty deep, holding her breath quite a long time and then coming back up to blow out her snorkel. It's amazing! It's just so great to have a family hobby that everyone enjoys.







Ok, this blog entry is turning into a snoozer...wow. Hard to know which photos to leave out and sadly this is only a fraction of what we took. I guess that's what happens when you have two underwater cameras, our nice camera, and my phone camera... So the last things I'll add are a few random shots of random things we did, like Jack teaching Ty how to drive a stick (heaven knows the next time we'll ever own one), a cool beach shack, the kids getting there one and only chance to ride in the back of a truck, pink sand...you get the point! Random stuff...



Well the whole point of this vacation was to have an amazing time together as a family snorkeling our little hearts out. So it would be crazy not to include a few underwater photos! Instead of separating out all the fish photos by location I've just included a fraction of what we took and lumped them here. I don't want to even think about all the underwater video footage I've now got to deal with! Digital cameras are so awesome but boy the amount of photos we come home with is getting ridiculous!!! Also, a special shout out to Ty who quickly became the pro with close up underwater photography. He really has an eye for it although you'll never see all his cool photos because I'd probably freeze the whole blogger site if I tried to download them... Enjoy!



Well, we are sold on Bonaire...so much so that Jack contacted a realtor. Of course he got like this after going to Turks and Caicos. Then I just remind him we could vacation here twice a year for the next fifty years and still come out ahead without buying...silly boy! But boy come retirement though, I may be an easier sell...

So here are the after photos on the balcony! Until next time...

Fall fun!!!

As excited as we were for our fall trip, we weren't going to let not being in town for Halloween take away from getting the yard all festive and ready to kick off the holiday season! Of course Jack is like a kid in a candy shop when it comes to the pumpkin patch and has a hard time leaving any behind. As long as it's unusual in shape, has a unique color, or is super sized, it seems to make the cut! Once again he went a little crazy...



If there is anyone that deserves credit for keeping the local farmers in business that would be Jack...

Camping in Kentucky!

Well after much preparation and repeated trips to Bass Pro, REI, and Field and Stream the weekend had finally arrived that the boys would head out to Red River Gorge for their weekend hike/camping trip! Unfortunately Ty's ankle prevented him from going which he was completely bummed about but they'll get out again in the spring! Although they could have had a relaxing weekend at the Four Seasons for what they spent in the weeks leading up to this trip the excitement in Connor's voice as he shared stories from the trip made it all worth it. I know he also really enjoyed being able to put to use some of the new found skills he was learning in scouts! Now for someone like Jack who wants to be prepared for any situation and was not about to assume they would catch their food in the streams, he struggled to keep his pack weight as low as it should be but my favorite quote from the trip was when they pulled up and when I asked how it went the first words out of Michael's mouth was "Jack and Connor ate like kings!" haha!

Thanks to Rick we have these few photos as Jack's phone died shortly after he texted me to let me know they had finally arrived at the campsite and unfortunately the cool solar charger my dad gave Jack for his birthday didn't make the cut when it came to packing up the pack. I guess food is more important than photos... :)




Watch out Bear Grylls, there are some new survivalists in town...

Taking in Cincy!

So grateful for friends who are better than I about getting out and seeing the sights of Cincy! Thanks to Andrea for sharing Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park with me on such a beautiful day!!! I would have never known about such a place if it wasn't for her but being she is here in America from Germany while her husband does a three year rotation at Proctor and Gamble she is making the best of her time here in Cincy! Here are just a few of some of the really fun art pieces we found displayed throughout the park.

Happy Birthday to me!

The earth has once again made a trip around the sun but I'm pretty certain it happened a little quicker this year...Where is the time going?!?



Shout out to my fabulous family for spoiling me once again! As excited as I was for Jack's gift (which is beautiful) I have to say that what warmed my heart most were the gifts from the kids! Sage had attended a party at the Mad Potter just a couple weeks ago and when she was asked to pick out a piece of pottery she insisted on picking out something she thought I'd love because she wanted to have a surprise for my birthday! So sweet!!! So she picked out this cute purse that she said was to store "special" things in. I love it sweet Sage!!! Tyler made a great card and Connor put together a wonderful powerpoint presentation expressing why he loves me! I am blessed. You'll also notice the traditional angel food cake and lilies. Yes there are lilies in that bouquet...lol!

One thing leads to another...

So the Labor Day weekend had come to end and now it was time for Ty to head to school for the first time with a cast and crutches. My heart ached for him as I tried to imagine him maneuvering around the busy middle school with crowded hallways and classes that felt like they were miles apart. I had done the route for parent teacher conference so I knew it wouldn't be easy. Any way I could ease his burden I wanted to. Which was exactly why I offered to drop off and pick up the boys from school for the first week until Ty got into the hang of things. Since we weren't exactly sure if we were treating a severe sprain or a broken ankle I didn't want anything that could possibly make it worse like hobbling up and down the school bus stairs to interfere with the healing. The quicker we could get him out of the cast and into a brace the better...

Well, this is how our afternoon drive home from school turned out...



The photo with Ty's cast hanging out the door reminds me of a scene from a freaky Halloween show...lol!

We had just left the middle school and were heading up Mason Montgomery when all the sudden traffic was coming to a screeching halt long before the light on main street but just after the light at the community center. You could see the back ends of the cars before me lifting up as everyone laid on their brakes and I had just come to a stop and turned to check on Ty in the back passenger bucket seat to see if he was ok from the sudden slow down when suddenly we heard and felt a loud bang of the car behind us ramming into us. It felt like we were in slow motion as we suddenly got slammed into the truck in front of us. It was awful. The kids have assured me that the mother of all words managed to come out of my mouth but the noise of the buckling metal is really all I remember. Connor was in the front seat with me and both our seat belts burst on impact but thankfully not until after they had done their job. I was certain the whole back end of our car would be gone but thankfully my 12 mpg beast had paid off and the majority of the noise we heard came from the car behind us being totaled.

Looks like the bus would have been the safer way home for poor Ty. His poor leg went flying into the front passenger seat but after some ibuprofen for him and Connor for a few days they seem to be doing fine. My arms were aching immediately but the officer said that was normal as you tend to stiffen up and grab the wheel during impact and then to be slammed into the truck in front of us he said would cause that. He also said it was a blessing my spare tire was where it was because it absorbed most of the energy from the wreck which was a good thing. The poor guy who hit us though was the one we were most worried about. As you can see his front end was totally mangled and all he kept saying was it was a company car and he couldn't afford to lose his job over this. I felt really bad for him. It was an accident and thankfully my car is so big and I could see many cars slamming on their brakes in front of me that I had enough time to slow down but even if he had looked at his radio for a second, it would be easy to not realize how fast people were slowing down.

Unfortunately in instances like this I can't help but think if only Ty hadn't gone to the party or if only Connor hadn't offered his "expert advice" to Ty on how to do that gainer, then I wouldn't be dealing with this! They say things happen in threes...heaven help me...

Labor Day fun!

Our sweet friends the Habra's had been wanting us to join them for some jet skiing and finally our schedules lined up so Labor Day it was! Well of course we planned this before Ty buckled his ankle but we were determined not to let a cast, sand, and possibly some rain prevent us all from going. Ty was actually the most determined to still go but we later realized it was because he was certain once we got out there we'd some how figure out a way to get him on the jet ski and keep his cast dry. Well that didn't happen but thankfully he was a pretty good sport! Sadly I don't have any photos of most the gang but here are the couple I did get...



Good times!

Really?!?

So we have been a pretty accident free family! Aside from a few cuts and bruises we have managed even through football to stay out of the ER and keep all bones in tact. Well we knew this couldn't go on forever and it didn't.

So Ty and Conner were invited to attend their friend Julius' birthday party at Skyzone. The kids love these places and of course so do the orthopedics and physical therapists...it's called job security! Ty has always been the daring one in the family who is willing to push limits, whether it be mastering some sort of flip off the diving board or stunt off his bike ramp. So when Connor offered up some tips to Ty on how to improve his "gainer" at the trampoline place, Ty was all ears. Now to clarify, Connor himself never attempts these types of stunts but for whatever reason he had suddenly become the expert on such stunts. By the next jump Ty found himself in pain. Of course the party was only half way through and Ty wasn't about to sit out the remaining hour so apparently he wobbled around until the pain just became completely unbearable. Of course the first we learned of it was when Julius' dad dropped the boys off at the end of the party and Ty literally came crawling into the house. After the door shut, the tears started streaming and it was clear he was in a lot of pain. So off to Urgent Care Jack and Ty went. After several hours, multiple xrays, and some Percocet to help with pain the doctors were still uncertain if their was a break on the growth plate, the ankle or if it was a severe sprain. But due to such a large amount of swelling and xrays that couldn't be completely read properly because Ty was shaking so much during the xrays they said they had to treat it as a break which meant a big cast. Apparently it's actually better to have a break because the healing is much easier but as time went on they felt pretty confident it ended up being the worst type of sprain you could have which was going to now mean a longer healing process and a bunch of physical therapy. Bummer!

So here is our boy fresh from the doctor and high on Percocet! Later that evening Julius and his mom had made this sweet cake for Ty!



The timing couldn't have been worse! That following Monday was Labor day and we were scheduled to go to Caesar Creek with the Habra's and jet ski which Ty would no longer be able to do not to mention he would find himself missing out on a paint ball birthday party, fall baseball which had only been going on for a week, and the possibility of being in a cast on our family vacation...

And this is the reason why the trampoline places make you sign all those waivers before you enter...