ryan – Page 5 – Terry Family Shenanigans

Mother’s Day Weekend

For Mother’s Day weekend Ryan and Matthew decided that I would love to watch baseball. Just kidding. The coach asked if the moms were on board for a tournament that weekend and none of us were going to be the one that poohooed the idea so the coach decided that’s what we would want to do for Mother’s Day. The boys probably put him up to it though.

I do very much enjoy watching them play though so I wasn’t put out. The rain decided to come down almost nonstop for the whole weekend though so instead of playing baseball we spent most of it waiting the rain out in the car, or under an overhang somewhere. One of our games was close to one of the players homes so we went and had a little Mother’s Day celebration there while we waited for a bit. The boys each gave us a red carnation with a card that they wrote a little note to us on and it had a team picture and an individual picture of Matthew for me. There was brownies, donuts, and chocolate too so it was a pretty fun time. While the moms hung out and relaxed the boys and the rest of the kids decided to have a game of wiffle ball in the cul de sac. I think we only ended up playing one game the whole weekend. We all went to lunch together while we were waiting too. We do enjoy this team and the families. Everyone is nice and friendly and for the most part gets along. We have fun times together.

Emilee and Allison love being around the boys. Allison plays is cool and tries to act like she could take them or leave them. Neither one of them is supposed to be in the dug out but Allison will casually meander in there and try and go unnoticed as long as she can. Emilee is much less subtle. She knows better but occasionally I have to haul her out of the dug out or an after game huddle. She likes to give the boys more attention then they usually want with hugs, jokes, sharing toys, tickling, stealing their hats, offering one sunflower seed at a time, asking them for sunflower seeds and anything else she can think of. Some of them don’t know what to do with her so they just pretend she isn’t there. A few start calling for Matthew to ‘fix her’ and a couple are sweet and play a little bit with her. We remind Matthew that they will never admit it (at least Allison) but they watch him like a hawk and want to be like him and with him as much as they can so when he can he needs to include them. Sometimes I get an eye roll but most of the time he is good about letting them hang around when they can.

Team lunch waiting for better weather.
Matthew running the bases in wiffle ball.
All the moms and the boys on Mother’s Day.
Emilee spending a half inning on dads lap.
Matthew forgot how to wear a shirt.
Emilee giving Cam the run down on how many flowers she collected so far.

Spring Break 2019

Spring Break was a week earlier than usual this year, and with as much time off in February as we had by the time it came to Spring Break I felt like we had already been having a Spring Break.

Ryan and I talked about doing something further away like maybe Chicago or Gulf Shores. Neither of us got around to planning it though and we had asked our friends the McDonald’s to do something with us. By the time we did get around to planning it we decided to do a long weekend in St Louis with the McDonald’s and spend the rest of the week at home.

Monday was my catch up day. I told the kids that I was going to be checking as much off my to do list as I could then we would have more Spring Break like activities the rest of the week. Monday was actually the first sunny day with temperatures in the 40’s instead of teens so it felt wonderful to be outside. I ‘made’ the kids go to the park for 30 minutes at least. Three hours later I had to drag them home with sun burned faces. After a quick refueling they were back outside playing baseball and riding bikes, playing tag, roller skating, digging in the dirt, and having a great time being outside. It definitely gave us all Spring fever. It was just a teaser though because the rest of the week was cold windy and rainy.

Tuesday was cold and rainy so we decided to go swimming at the Olathe Community Center with the rest of the people in Olathe. Despite the large crowd the kids still had fun. Emilee in particular can’t wait until it is swimming weather again.

Allison picked our activity on Wednesday. A few weeks earlier she had gone to the Johnson County Museum with her girl scout troop. She loved the kids area and has been begging to go back again. We invited our cousins to go with us. The boys stayed behind to play some video games and the girls came with us. They played at the museum until we were all hungry and then we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. We topped the day off with a sleepover.

Johnson County Museum
‘modern art’ toys
Spinning chairs at the museum.

Thursday we played around the house and packed up to get ready to go on our weekend getaway. Friday morning we followed the McDonald’s to St Louis and spent the weekend there. We stopped for lunch and then went to The Arch. We had all seen it before but we had never been in it, or seen the museum with it. It was cool to see the view from the arch. The tiny round 5 person pod that takes you 600+ feet into the air was a little claustrophobic but bearable. After the arch we checked into our hotel and then went to Dave-N-Busters for dinner and to play in the arcade for the evening. Matthew figured out the timing on one of the ticket winning machines so he scored a bunch of tickets for everyone. It almost took longer for then to ‘shop’ with their tickets than it did to play the games. It was a fun night.

Then next morning after breakfast at the hotel (one of the kids favorite things about staying in a hotel) we went to the City Museum. It is an incredible place. It is an old ten story building that they have converted into a giant play area. We went a few years ago and it was a little nerve racking trying to keep track of the kids. They can crawl in a hole and come out in a completely different room. It is almost impossible to keep track of them. They are older now so I was a little less worried. We set a meeting spot and split up to explore. There is caves, and a catacomb area with a ten story slide. There are basically just mazes and places to crawl around all over. There is an outside portion the has tunnels and paths leading all around that is literally attached to the side of the building so you are hanging in the air. Everything is made with recycled material too. It is hard to explain but it is a pretty amazing place. We spent most of the day there exploring. When we were worn out, we ate lunch and then stopped at a well known ice cream place that I can not for the life of me remember the name of now. It was yummy though. We were meeting our long time friends the Schellman’s that night so we had about an hour to kill before we were supposed to meet them. We all decided to stop at the park and play because the weather was pretty nice. After dinner and visiting with the Schellman’s for a few hours we met back up with the McDonald’s at the hotel and the kids all swam for a few hours. The second best part about staying in a hotel. Sunday morning we went to church with the Schellman’s and then drove home. It was a fun weekend. It was nice to get out of town for a few days and enjoy some fun time with family and friends.

Fortune cookie at dinner on Spring Break
We went to St Louis with the McDonald’s
Top of the St Louis Arch
Entrance to the pod that takes you to the top of the arch.
The McDonald Pod
The Terry Pod
Riding up to the top of the arch in our five man pod.
looking out the tiny windows
Top of the Arch
Top of the Arch
View from the top of the Arch
Top of the Arch 2019
Lined up against the outside of the Arch
City Museum in St Louis
Allison crawling through a tube above me.
Emilee peaking out a castle window.

Winter Festivities

This year our resident NFL team did really well. They ended up making it to the play-offs. They haven’t done that for 20 years or something like that. I don’t remember they exact statistic. This year they made it to the play-offs so Ryan took Matthew and went with a friend of his from high school. They got seats for the lower bowl on the 35 yard line. It was COLD! Like low 30’s with snow and wind. They had several layers of everything plus snow pants and boots. They stayed pretty warm except for their toes, but that didn’t stop them from having a great time. The Chiefs won too! They lost the next week, but they won the game they were at which made it even more fun.

Chiefs Play Off Game!
Chiefs Play Off game with dad.
Chiefs Play Off Game 2019

The girls have been taking gymnastics for a few years. A couple months ago we switched to a new gym and they had pictures recently. So I got a cute picture of each of my gymnasts.

Allison’s gymnastic picture
Emilee’s gymnastic pictures

The high school has a Saturday cheerleader camp every couple of months. Allison and her friend Carlee like to go together and dance it up together.

Cheer Camp
Cheer Camp

This is Emilee’s second year playing basketball. She has come a long way. Last year she wouldn’t run to the other end of the court. When the ball went to the other side of the court she would sit under the basket against the wall and wait until everyone came back. This year she runs the court. If she gets tired though she comes up into the bleachers and asks Ryan and I if she can be done. Matthew works on her dribbling with her during the week and she is getting better.

Emilee having a team huddle with her basketball team ‘The Bears’
Emi playing in her basketball game.

February is always an odd month. Its short anyways and there is usually teacher conferences and President’s Day which are no school days. Then there is usually snow days. So far this month thanks to ice storms we have had FOUR snow days and its only half way through the month. Nothing makes the kids quite as excited as a surprise day off of school. We try to get in some fun activities and of course lots of playing in the snow.

Snow day facials
Matthew and Carson built a snow fort.
Emilee and Jovee built a snowman.
Allison and Leah went sledding with Ross and Lauren.
Emilee and Jovee working on their snowman.

Allison was Ms. Coovert’s class Student of the Month. She gets a special certificate and a coupon for a free ice cream at Culver’s. She was very excited and Ryan and I were very proud of her. One of her besties Hailey was PE Student of the Month with her.

Allison was the Student of the Month
Student of the Month with Hailey

More pictures from our Winter.

Allison decided to use her bean bag as her pillow.
Emilee’s 100th day of school celebration
The 6th Graders went on a ski field trip.
I thought this was a cute picture so I just stuck it in here. 🙂

Matthew’s First Time at the Temple

In our church we believe that everyone has to be baptized to live with Heavenly Father after we die. Not everyone has that opportunity while they are on the earth so one of the things we do in the temple is act as a proxy for our ancestors that weren’t baptized before they died. Once you are twelve you can do this so we got a babysitter for the girls and Ryan, Matthew and I went to the temple last week. Matthew is a good kid. He has a kind, good heart. It was a nice night with just the three of us. We stopped at Freddy’s afterwards for some ice cream.

When we drove up Matthew noticed that the shadows above the windows look like little temples. I thought that was pretty awesome.

2018 Quotes for the Fridge.

I have a little white board on our fridge that I decided to use to put quotes on that I read or heard somewhere. Someday I will have a quote wall or something to display a bunch of them but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet so it doesn’t look sloppy and drive me crazy.

When you really want something you’ll find a way. When you don’t really want something you’ll find an excuse.

~Girl, Wash Your Face

Whatever standard you’ve set for yourself is where you’ll end up…unless you fight through your instinct and change your pattern.

~Girl, Wash Your Face

Words have power but actions shape our lives.

~Girl, Wash Your Face

When you know better you do better.

~Maya Angelou

Life is to be enjoyed not just endured.

~Gordon B. Hinckley

If thoughts make us what we are, and we are to be like Christ, then we must think Christ like thoughts.

~Ezra Taft Benson

Forget yourself and go to work.

Be grateful, humble, smart, prayerful, involved, true, positive, and still.

~Gordon B. Hinckley

Be proud of the work you do the person you are and the difference you make!

God gave the Sabbath day for man, not man for the Sabbath day.

It’s their day too.

The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God won’t help you.

Choose the harder right, instead of the easier wrong.

~Thomas S. Monson

Wherever thou art, act thee thy part.

~David O. McKay

If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything.

One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what someone has to say.

I am your mother, you are my child. I am your quiet place, you are my wild. I am your calm face, you are my giggle. I am your wait, you are my wiggle. I am you dinner, you are my chocolate cake. I am your bedtime, you are my wide awake. I am your lullaby, you are my peek-a-boo. I am your good night kiss, you are my I love you.

In December we decided to change it to our scripture board and we wrote scriptures on it that we wanted to memorize as a family. For a little incentive to memorize them, we let the kids pick a small reward each time they memorized one. Matthew picked a QT icee, Allison picked staying up an extra hour after her regular bedtime one night. Emilee is still deciding. They have to have them memorized to the point that I could ask them at any time and they could rattle it off without thinking.

Alma 37:35 …yea remember my son and learn wisdom in thy youth. Yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God.

Alma 38:9 …there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved only in and through Christ. Behold He is the light of the world. Behold he is the word of truth and righteousness.

Merry Christmas!!

Despite the fact that time slowed down so one day felt like 10 according to my kids Christmas Day FINALLY came! We were at Grandma and Grandpa Terry’s this year with our Bourne and Terry cousins.

Christmas Eve we had a big yummy ham dinner together. Grandpa read us the Christmas story and talked to us about using our time wisely on Sundays when we get an ‘extra hour’ at home. We sang Christmas songs and then the kids bounced off the walls and played games until bedtime. Then they continued to bounce off the walls in their beds with excitement until the last of their energy wore out and they fell asleep. Leah and Allison were the last two to fall asleep. There goal was to stay up all night. They said they made it to midnight, but I checked on them at 11:30 and they were sleeping. They woke up at 5:45 but we made a rule the night before that no one could wake anyone up until 6:30. They stayed in their room like they were supposed to and argued about who was not being quiet enough just loudly enough for the people below, next to, and across the hall to hear them.🤦‍♀️ At 6:30 AM sharp all the kids magically awoke if they weren’t already and let everyone know it was time to open presents.

Santa was right on with his gifts this year. Emilee loved her doll that can ride her horse she got for her birthday. Allison got a karaoke machine that she has been using non-stop. Matthew got a new bat for next season that he is very excited to use.

We spent the rest of the day playing with new toys, eating left overs, relaxing and staying in our pajamas. It was a very nice Christmas day!

The moms always go get their toes done. Alli and Leah get to come now too. Allison has been looking forward to it since last Christmas.
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Emilee and Allison loved to hold Baby Chloe.
Christmas Eve
Christmas Morning!
Allison opening her Karaoke Machine from Santa.
Matthew’s bat from Santa.
Tyler and Emilee eating Pringles and watching the cars race
Emilee’s doll from Santa
Traditional Christmas morning family selfie.

Not sure why their hats are attached to the front of the foreheads…great job on the song though.

Grandpa always has some new jokes for the Grandkids.

Ryan’s new sunglasses

Ryan has a thing for sunglasses. Partly because he loses them all the time and has to get new ones. Partly because the kids (not as much now) break them. Partly because I take them. Those are his reasons for having so many sunglasses. The real reason is that he likes sunglasses and they are for him what shoes are for other people…or coats for me. He doesn’t spend tons of money on them, in fact the cheaper he can get them for the better in his opinion. Who knows how long they will survive before being lost, scratched, or sat on?

When we were getting ready to go on our cruise he decided he was going to order himself some new snazzy sunglasses. He did and even paid a extra to get them in time but we had a big blizzard that delayed shipping all over the place (we drove right through it, I don’t know why the mail couldn’t😁 J/K) so his new sunglasses were delivered the day after we left and he had to settle with a ‘less favorite’ pair.

As we were walking to the ship there was a street vendor that had sunglasses for sale (authentic Ray Bans for only $5!😉 ). So we tried a few. He debated on some that looked like some blinged out pop stars (just for the cruise) but settled on an aviator style. A short time later a girl took a picture for us that was wearing the same blinged out glasses he almost got, and I wore a pair that I stole from him because I liked them the whole cruise, so we started giving him a hard time that he seemed to have a thing for girl sunglasses. Fast forward to when we get home from our trip. He is still very excited about them and puts them in the car to wear the next day. When he comes home from work, I see them for the first time. He gives them a glowing report and says that he loves them. I think they are girl sunglasses. He disagrees and continues to wear them. I sent the picture below to Sherri and her carefully constructed political non-answer was ‘they are fashion forward’. So…what do you think?!? Don’t worry, he never reads my blog so he’ll never know. 😂 Girl glasses or not, he is still a handsome guy.

Christmas Activities

The past few years I have tried extra hard to make it a point to enjoy the holiday season and not get to busy with things that it rushes by and I feel stressed and frustrated instead of joyful and peaceful like you should feel at Christmas. I was able to get decorations up and most of the Christmas shopping done before we left on our cruise so that when we got back we could enjoy the rest of December and do our family Christmas traditions.

We kicked off the week after we got home by setting up the card table and pulling out a bunch of puzzles to start doing. There is something about Christmas music, lights, decorations, and cold weather that makes you want to put your slippers on and do a puzzle, or ten.

A few times before Christmas we like to drive around and look at Christmas lights. We get in our PJ’s, make some hot chocolate, bring a cozy blanket, turn on our favorite Christmas music, and go check out all the neighborhood Christmas lights. There are several neighborhoods that we know will not disappoint but we try and find new ones too. When we found the house with all the blow ups we had to get out and walk through it to appreciate the 100+ blowups in their yard, including a 25 foot penguin. I bet their neighbors just love them.

The girls are sitting on top of the van to get a better view of a light display we were watching.
I remember doing this as a little girl.

Matthew is loosing interest a little in gingerbread house decorating but the girls still love it. Sometimes we make one big one, sometimes we each make our own little one. Then as Emilee announces several times a day, “Gingerbread houses are made to be eaten.” They slowly become stripped of their candy and frosting. If there is anything left, our elf Bubbit takes them with him back to Santa on Christmas Eve to share with all the other elves.

Allison’s Gingerbread house
Emilee’s Gingerbread house
Matthew’s Gingerbread house

Bubbit is our elf that visits every year and keeps an eye on who is being naughty or nice for Santa. Every morning he is in a different spot, sometimes he is being a little mischievous or silly. Occasionally he gets into marshmallow fights with the barbies or super hero figures. The older he gets the more he likes to just hide in funny spots. We got him in 2013. At the time Allison had found a grasshopper and named it Bubbit so when our elf showed up she thought it was the perfect name for him too. Lots of people have elves. They show up around December 1st. Some ambitious elves show up on Thanksgiving. Bubbit is a special elf that helps Santa do some extra work so he usually doesn’t make it to our house until mid December. It is good to let the anticipation of his arrival peak before he comes.

My mom and dad gave us a story called ‘The Last Straw’ that was a tradition we did in my family growing up. We have an empty basket and we fill it up with straw by putting in a piece every time we do something kind for someone. Then on Christmas Eve the basket is full of straw from hopefully hundreds of small acts of kindness and love, and we have a little Baby Jesus to put in the basket.

We usually go to the church Christmas breakfast. It was a little low in attendance this year but it was still a fun time. Allison picked a spot in the very back corner for us to sit. I looked up while I was eating and could see everyone there eating and visiting and having a good time while Christmas music played softly in the back ground. It was a nice moment. We have a very nice and friendly ward. Santa came at the end and the girls gave him a high five and talked to him. Emilee wanted to do it but almost had a heart attack waiting in line as the anticipation of willingly walking up to a stranger and talking to him built up. She was with her two good friends so that helped her bravery and she did it. When they finished and she found out that you get a candy cane for talking to Santa, her bravery went through the roof and she went back all by herself.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Champion.

Matthew has been a little bit of a scrooge this year. Allison has noticed and taken it upon herself to fix his ‘not Christmasiness’ self. She brainstormed a few ideas and I carefully helped steer her towards ones that might actually have the results she wants instead of the opposite. (Running into his room every hour tonight while he was sleeping and yelling, “Matthew be more Christmasy” until he said ‘ok’ was luckily moved off the table) Instead the girls made him a giant poster that said Merry Christmas Matthew and hung it up in his room. We will see if operation ‘Make Matthew Merry’ is a success.

Operation ‘Make Matthew Merry’

Several years ago we made chocolate pretzels to hand out as a treat to out neighbors. The kids had a lot of fun doing it and it has become our traditional treat from the Terry’s that we hand out to friends and neighbors. We have stream lined it pretty good too. It used to be an all Sunday afternoon activity, but now we can make them and hand them out in the same day. It is also pretty hard to screw up which is good for me.

Making Christmas treats

The kids are leaving tomorrow to go to Grandma’s early with their cousins. Ryan has work he wants to get done before Christmas, and I want to see the church Christmas program Sunday morning before we go up. It has been a very nice December. It isn’t over yet, I know, I’m just relishing the greatness so far of this magical month.

Going home.

The last night of the cruise you have two options for getting ready to disembark the next morning. You can keep all your luggage with you and carry it yourself off the boat and do ‘express disembarking’ which means you will get off the boat first at 7 am. The other option is to leave your luggage outside your room the night before and they will take it down to the disembarking area for you. Then they dismiss you by number starting at 7:30 in 15 minute increments. We decided we weren’t in to big of a hurry because our flight wasn’t until the afternoon so we all left our luggage outside our room except for an over night bag. Our time for disembarking was at 8:45, Kenny and Sherri’s time was 9:15. They asked us to be out of our staterooms by 8 am so we met for breakfast at 7:30. We were enjoying one last breakfast at the Facejammer and at about 7:45 they made an announcement that said there was a ‘slight issue’ that needed to be resolved before they could begin the disembarking process. At 8:15 they came back on and explained that the ‘slight issue’ was that all the taxi drivers and luggage porters had gone on strike and were blocking the airport and cruise terminals so that Ubers and any other drivers couldn’t get in or out. Of course they were working to have the issue resolved as fast as possible, were sorry for any inconveniences this was causing, and would let us know as things changed. Sure enough we looked out along the pier and there were taxi’s as far as you could see blocking the roads. There wasn’t much we could do so we just stayed at the Facejammer and played a game of hearts. We also looked into how much an Uber would cost when we finally did get off the boat and it would be $12 for all four of us and our luggage (Ryan and I paid a taxi driver $18 for the two of us to our hotel when we arrived which was about a 2 mile trip). They continued to make the same announcement every fifteen minutes or so until sometime between 9-10 they started the express disembarkers and then slowly started calling the groups. Ryan was getting a little antsy about missing our flight so we decided we would get in line to leave the boat and by the time we were through the line hopefully our luggage would be ready. Our plan worked and they called our number about the time we entered the the luggage claiming area. Kenny and Sherri got theirs and got in the customs line and outside to start getting a taxi. Ryan and I went to our area and… could not find out bags. We asked someone about it and the look on their face was not encouraging. We ended up walking through all the luggage areas and found nothing. By that time two suitcases the same size as ours were the only suitcases left in our area. The luggage guy (we will call him Bob) called the number and LUCKILY someone answered the phone. Bob explained to whoever answered the phone that they had taken the wrong luggage. The person Bob was talking to did not believe him and kept saying, “I already have my luggage.” It took several minutes for Bob to convince him to just look at the name tag of the bags he took and he said, ‘Oh, I took the wrong bags!’ Ryan had progressed from antsy to irritable to angry and he only got angrier when we had to sit there and wait…and wait…and wait until every single other person had gotten their luggage and left the boat. Then after a little more waiting the person arrived with our luggage. Which other than being roughly the same size as ours looked nothing like our luggage. Different color and style. We then had to take it through customs again to make sure they didn’t do something to it. We got outside and luckily found a taxi quickly. When we got to the airport the driver told us it was $25…we only had $20 and some change on us so we had to stiff him a little. Apparently the solution for the taxi strike was to charge us more so I didn’t feel to bad. Sherri and Kenny were already there in line so we joined up with them. There were a lot of people that had missed their flight or were late like us so the airline split us into two lines, people leaving within 2 hours (we had about 45 minutes) and everyone else. However they forgot the let the people at the front know so they kept taking people from the wrong line. After 10 minutes of our line not moving Ryan went from angry to irate. He asked several different attendants to direct the line and none of them did so he took matters into his own hands and started directing traffic. He got a few fist bumps and high fives from the people in line with us, and some ‘watch our for the crazy guy’ looks from the airport workers. Miraculously we made it through the agricultural check and regular security and didn’t miss our flight. The rest of the way home went without any drama.

Roger picked us up at the airport and brought us home. It was a wonderful vacation but we were glad to be home. Grandma and Grandpa did a very good job taking care of the kids and gave them a good report too. They were better behaved for Grandma and Grandpa then they are for us, which is a little frustrating but I am glad they can pull out their manners and use them for someone. They caught us up on everything they had been doing and we showed them our pictures. Then it was back to real life.

St. Thomas

Our last full day of the cruise was in St Thomas. I thought this island looked more like the United States than Puerto Rico did as far as buildings, shopping, things like that. There roads actually had two full lanes with painted lines dividing the lanes. For our last day the guys felt like they wanted to change it up a bit so instead of finding a taxi to give us a tour. Kenny rented a Jeep and he drove us around. Sherri and I did some last day shopping while they went and picked up the car. To make it a little more fun even though it is a US Virgin Island, they drive on the left side of the road. We had to stop really think before we turned so we knew where we were going and were sure we weren’t pulling in front of someone. Kenny said his auto-pilot wanted to keep taking over. The research from the night before on where to go in St Thomas resulted in two beaches that we wanted to try. Another indication that we were getting closer to America is that you couldn’t just walk up to the beach anymore, when we arrived we had to pay and they had restrictions posted all over the place.

Our Driver and Navigator for the day. Notice the big yellow sign if front of Kenny reminding him what side of the road to drive on.
All the islands had chickens roaming around all over the place. They seemed particularly numerous at St Thomas.
This is the roof someones house. It is on the side of a hill so you park on the roof and enter the house from the top. If you were to walk out the ‘front door’ you would fall straight down the side of the mountain.
I thought it was cool to see the ‘ocean parking lots’ with all the boats.

The first beach we went to was called Megan’s Bay. It is rated one of the top 10 beaches in the world. It did not disappoint. Of course it was very beautiful, but the sand was so fine and soft. It was like walking on powdered sugar. Another difference at this beach was as soon as you stepped into the water you could see thousands of fish swimming around you. They started tiny, just an inch or so. The further out you went they kept getting bigger. The would move away from you as you walked which was fun to watch too. When we were about as far out as we could go and still touch if you held still a fish 6-8 inches big would come and start swimming around your legs. Kenny had one that stuck with him for a long time so he named him Frenchy. The name stuck and we started referring to all the fish as frenchies. The pelicans were at this beach too and they seemed to know the big fish liked to hide by people because they were not shy to dive right next to you and try and catch them. We stayed here for an hour or so and just enjoyed the moment. Kenny started trying to catch fish like the pelicans because he didn’t think it seemed that hard. That was funny to watch. When we got hungry we dried off and left to find some lunch. We found a little hole in the wall pizza place. It was really good pizza and their garlic bread was even better. Not very authentic I know but it was delicious.

Mocking the picture guy on the boat who always wanted us to pose like that for pictures. Ryan refused to do it.
I know Kenny is strong but his tree actually just decided to grow sideways.
Baby ‘Frenchies’
Sand like butter.

After our bellies were full of delicious pizza we carefully made a right turn without causing an accident and went to the last beach of our trip. Ryan and I took a long walk down the shore line. I decided to make a little sand castle too. Kenny and Sherri and Ryan were floating around out in the water and found some cool rocks to add to my castle. There were a few people on the beach but not many. Most of the beaches we went to were surprisingly crowd free for the most part. There was usually some stray dogs and cats wandering around too. They were not very interested in people. They seemed a lot tougher than american dogs. Not aggressive but street smart, and content. No begging or puppy dog eyes. Just content to play or nap in the sand or swim in the ocean then wander around and find some food or shelter. We stayed at that beach until it was time to head back. We stopped at an ice cream shop at the docks right by our ship and enjoyed more of the perfect 85 degree temperature. Sherri and I meandered back to the boat while we shopped and the boys returned the Jeep. St Thomas is only about 70 miles from Puerto Rico so after we left port we went about as slow as possible back to the disembarking dock. There were lots of games and activities going on for the last night on board. It was an incredible vacation. We really did love every minute of it.

Last beach of our trip
The darker areas are giant beds of sea weed, not the slimy gross kind though. The almost looks like they are made out plastic little tree kind.
I made a sand castle for funzies.

They were trying to decide what something was without touching it.