Where Have We Been All Summer?!?!

Mostly we have been in the water. My pictures are out of order but we started this summer with a trip to the beach and that is where Tripp decided he wanted to use the potty. Biggest blessing ever!!!! It was a breeze. I did nothing. AT ALL! And after Kaylen and the years of struggles, I am ever so grateful! 

We have gone out on the boat a few times. Been to the pool almost every day. Swim team has been a big deal this year! This was my first year to be the swim rep for our pool. It has honestly been quite the task. I've learned a lot and I equate it to teaching. Your first year you make all your mistakes and learn how you want to do things the following year. It will be much better next year. Kaylen has been swimming about 3 hours a day - 5 days a week. No lie. We put her in extra lessons to work out a few stroke techniques. I have to say, she has improved immensely. She seems to really like it! City meet is this weekend so we'll see how she does. 

Here are the kids on the jet ski with Allen. They were on the river. Tripp really wants to ride a lot. Kaylen will ride but has never been as excited as he is. 

My least favorite activity is when they all want to play on the banks. They love it but it makes me nervous. I am always afraid they are going to chew on fish bones or step on a drug needle or something. I also have an irrational fear of snakes... so I can just see them coming up on one. They love  getting all dirty and have a blast!  

Rylie and Kaylen are still the best of buds. Rylie came over one night and they had a photo shoot. They were cracking me up with their poses. I had to reign them in a little. These two are so silly! 

 Rylie is a toe pointer! She's pretty good at it too!!!

 These are pictures from our long weekend trip to the beach. Allen had to work a conference and so we all went down with him. Our kids adore the beach. They were so good the entire time and we had a wonderful time!

 Here we are in a really big chair like everyone always get pics of. Only problem was it had rained and we didn't actually want to sit down. :)

 Here is Kaylen facing some major fears. She wanted to do this but some of the obstacles were a bit much for her. I'm so proud of her for doing it anyway.

 And just in case you aren't sure why she's so scared... here is how high she really is:

 Here is my child that doesn't have any fears. He'll do it by himself, thank you very much!

 Best picture I have of him... he has 4 straws in his mouth. Sigh. Such a boy!

 The kids loved swimming in the ocean. Adored it!

 Sweet Kaylen - always a girlie girl!

 What?!?! A smile from Tripp? Amazing!!!

 He loved playing in the sand and was so well behaved!

 Allen went out into the water with his mom and Kaylen.

 Ever year we try to do a name picture in the sand.

 This is the closest I got to Tripp looking at me! He also kept wanting to mess up his name in the sand. Little stinker!!!

 Thanks to Allen's work, we had an awesome room for the conference. This was our view from our balcony. Only thing is that we were high up and I felt like Tripp could have gotten through those bars. Made me so nervous.

 Also from our balcony. It all looks better when you don't pay for it too! Just sayin...

 Okay now we're back in Bama. These silly girls were wide awake. They told me they were going to pretend to be asleep. Rylie actually cracked her mouth open. Too funny!

 Here is a little pool day. The girls both happen to have the same extremely scandalous bathing suit. They loooove to wear it! Sigh.

 Tripp calls this his cradle. He has sort of claimed this float and likes playing in it the most.

 This is an unedited pic but I love Tripp's face in it. Happy kid!!!

 This is one of my favorite pictures of Kaylen. She is such a beautiful little girl. (of course, I am biased) In all honesty, her beauty shines through in her personality. I wish I could take credit but she was born with such a sweet spirit. She is gentle, quiet and caring. I wish she was a little more competitive but may still come. She has her faults but I am proud of who she is becoming.

 I tried to find a decently modest picture of us ladies since we are almost always in bathing suits. These are some amazing friends! I am blessed to have such beautiful and fun friends!

 This is starting the pictures from Amy's lake house. Her dad (with the help if Jeremy and other relatives and friends) built the most amazing place on Smith lake. We are so grateful that we get invited!!! Here are the girls getting ready to tube. Now, don't be fooled, Kaylen HATED it! She did end up liking it by the end of the weekend but it's not her thing. Rylie and Andrew would spend hours back there if we'd let them. I am proud of Kaylen for giving it a try even though she was afraid. I am a strong believer in facing your fears and she is a brave girl!

 My besties!!! I don't think I would get through the days without these two. God has been gracious to place them in my life!

 And here are our little ones. I have so many great shots of them sitting on these steps. They were ready for bed and waiting for the fireworks show from the dads. It did not disappoint! Well, actually the really loud ones scared some of them but they can't feel bad about that! It was awesome!!!!

 Ok... this is a random shot of the girls under the boat on the river. Smith lake would be offended if I let people think it's water was that green. These two do love to play under there though.

And now we're pretty caught up. I plan to take the kids to cathedral caverns in a few weeks and also have a trip to the beach with our youth group coming up. Summer is always jam packed full of fun! See you all soon!!!

Bahamas pictures

These pictures are all out of order but I'm going to briefly explain what they are all about anyway. This first picture is from the front entrance. 

 Here we are at Bobby Flay's restaurant called MESA. The food here was good but sooo expensive. Thankfully BI was picking up the bill because for 3 couples we racked up a $824 bill!

 Just a part of the decor.

 This was the walkway we went down each morning on our way to grab breakfast at the hospitality suite.

 We were on our way to ride horses this morning.

 This is the lobby area. Down below is an aquarium that is called the Dig. It goes on and on with lots of different fish tanks. It's really cool and there is a sting ray that looks like it's the size of a whale. It's huge!

 This is from our excursion out to a private island. This is by far the best excursion I have ever been on. We took a powerboat out to this island and fed sting ray and watched this guy play tug of war with sharks and then we went snorkeling with them. It was scary but fun. They had a bartender and they served us an amazing lunch. This was my favorite day of the trip!

 Crazy guy is holding a shark by the fin!

 Allen wanted everyone to understand just how stupidly close we all were standing to these crazy sharks.

 I got my finger stuck in a sting ray's mouth and it cut me! I was scared to pull it out for fear of him barbing me.

 Check out  how blue the water was!!! It looks like he's in a pool.

 Another shot in this amazing place. I so wish I were there right now!

 This is the boat we rode out there on.

 Here is an above view of the fish getting excited about the food he was cutting up. They weren't small.

 Wow, we're getting burnt!

 This is the award's banquet night.

 This is when we first got to our room. The views from our balcony were amazing!!!!

 These are the sting rays we could see from our room. The hotel had a great shallow habitat for them.

 This shot is from our window as well. This slide was a blast to ride on!

 This is looking out of our room to the right.

 This is Penelope Cruz and her kid having a nice little vacay. We saw them at the casino the next night but our friends saw them on the raging river and got these shots.

 Check it out... it looks like she is posing for them but really she just fell off her float.

 And there they all are. :)

 This is Lisa and me at Mesa.

 This is the view from our room looking left.

 Here is allen going down the slide.

 This is me me going down the slide holding on to my hat so I didn't lose it.

 This is a slide you go down on a tube and at the end you float through the middle of a shark tank. It was way cool. In the pic it is me, Allen and then Patrick.

 Allen and Patrick harnessing their inner monkey!

 Us trying to get our picture taken with some sting ray. It didn't really work too well since I don't really see any!!!!

 Allen wanted his picture taken with the starfish. I have to say it was cool how their little suction cups on the bottom would come out and then retract when you touched them.

 This is just one of the many pretty areas on the grounds. Atlantis really is like Disney World for the water.

 Here we are at the raging river.

 Here we are with our friends Patrick and Lisa. I am so glad they won the trip too. It was awesome to be there with such great friends!!!

 If  you look to the right in this picture you can see where our room was located! :)

 Allen being recognized for winning the trip.

 This is from the first night at the outdoor party. We had a blast dancing it up. This old lady wasn't scared to bust out her jazzercise moves. She was hysterical!

 Me and Lisa dancing.

 Me dancing with the exercise grandma!

 Our high schoolers taught us how to flip when we taught them how to swing dance. So we've been breaking that move out every now and then. :)

 Strike a pose!

It was an amazing trip and I will have tons more pictures when we get the disc's from the professional photographer.