Salt Marshes and Humdity

We are off again. This time to Emerald Isle NC for a week at the beach. I will post pictures once we are back.

Palm Springs Hot

114 degrees all 4 days we were there.
This waterslide is what we did all day every day. Thank God for it. The kids were wiped out, slept like babies in the cool air conditioned room. Then they woke up and did it all over again. Troy did manage a round of golf in the heat on Fathers Day, he's such a stud...:)

The Graduate

Miss Viv finished 5th grade this week. This is the promotion ceremony that she had a school yesterday. THe woman in the dress will be her guidance counselor next year at the middle school and she came to hand out their certificates.


Part of the weeklong celebration for the 5th graders was a luau on Tuesday. The company that set it up put together several Polynesian villages that the kids went to to learn about various customs and traditions. This guy was Samoan and he showed the kids how to crack a coconut and shave the meat out. He also talked about the importance of women in the Samoan society and how they are to always be treated with the utmost respect. Check out his tattoos, they go from his waist to his knees. THey were pretty intricate. The kids were curious if they covered everything in that region but no one asked him.. I was curious too . They also learned to hula. Vivian is not in this picture, but that is her principal in the back. After the villages, they had a luau lunch with terriyaki chicken and then a hula and firedancers show. It was a wonderful day for the kids, she is graduating with a good group who were all very kind and respectful to each other and the visitors.

The Other Graduate

Gabriel graduated from pre school yesterday. His teacher said a littl ebit about each kid before she gave them their certificate. She said Gabriel was a boys boy and was very popular with the girls and that he was her most athletic student. She was very sweet. As always she had the event catered, had a jumper and a face painter for the kids and she opened up her pool for everyone to enjoy. It was a great day . Made even more special because I am free from preschool tuition forever. How should I spend it????
Here he is with his best bud Bradon. They will be attending the same school for kindergarten next year. And lets hear it for the face paint. Kids just love it, moms find it all over everything. My white couch has hints of red in it now. Thank heavens for slipcivers.

Dog Days

Winston came too, and he had his buddy Reagan to play with. They discovered the grease drippings in the fire pits and became obsessed with them. By the end of the weekend they had bad poops and they were filthy.

Winston also now has warts in his mouth. Apparantly it is very common in young dogs whose immune systems are still maturing. They are disgusting, but the Dr. says, no worries, they will go away on their own in a month or two, and then he will be immune. She says they are not contagious, but coincidently, Gabriel just got 2 warts on his hand.

Kids on the beach

Gabriel could have flown this kite all day every day
Henderson had the most fun, digging ramps in the sand and the riding over them with his bike.
A Viv and Mom moment.

Memorial Day Camping

This was our Home Sweet Home for the holiday weekend. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't the greatest, but we still had a lot of fun. Every night I fell asleep listening to the ocean, and some nights I fell asleep listening to the ocean and the rain.

These gravity chairs were perfect for just kicking back and relaxing. We quite enjoyed ourselves.

This is Dawn, Missy and myself bundled up, but enjoying the view.