Monday, November 4, 2019

What April Looked Like

It's kind of hard to see in this pic...

A little easier in this one...


It snowed!
In Greensboro!
In April!
Unheard of...

So, Brandon and Emily stopped dating months ago.
We figured he wouldn't go to prom this year.
But, Quinn asked him to go to her prom.
He decided that sounded fun. 
Petra, in the blue dress, is on the climbing team
with Brandon and Caroline.
Quinn is her sister and climbs some, too.

They had a great time.

Look at all that hair!




 After months of rehearsal at Penn-Griffin School for the Arts,
it was time to put on Whitney's first High School Musical,
Shrek the Musical.
It is not necessarily my favorite show,
but it was funny and the students did a GREAT job.

Cute fundraiser Shrek ears for sale.

Whit had several parts,
including:
 One of the three little pigs,


A dragonette,

A tap dancing rat,

And one of the three blind mice.
I love watching her on stage!
She really does light it up.

Curtain call

A fun cast

 So happy the Aagards and Leinbachs could come to watch her!

 April = General Conference = Cinnamon Rolls = YUM 

We've never seen one of these around here,
but found a TREE FROG on our front window...

I LOVE watching Natalie's babies!
I felt so proud of myself getting both Hunter and Jackson
to sleep at the same time. :)

It's looking like spring!

This semester, B has been taking his afternoon 
classes at Weaver Academy, a magnet school
in our district. It offers some computer classes
that aren't available at Ragsdale.
He gets along really well with one of his teachers,
who suggested that he participate in Skills USA. 
I had never heard of it.

It was a sight to behold.
It is a competition that focuses on 
skills that America's workers need.
There were categories from welding
and landscaping to auto repair and video production.
It was fascinating. 
B was competing in math.
He didn't place, but it was an interesting experience.

Winslow was an answer in Jeopardy this month!

Caroline and I were excited to go watch Shae in 
her school's play, Suessical the Musical.

For date night, Andrew and I went to the Arboretum
and Bicentennial Gardens so I could take pics
of the lovely dogwoods (and other plants) in bloom. 











Spring is my favorite!

We always look forward to date nights.

Christian was baptized.
He asked Spencer and B to be his witnesses.
So cute.

I ran out of time to make it to the nail salon before
our cruise, so I gave myself my own cute pedi.

Caroline went on her first overnight field trip.
And I wasn't able to chaperone!
I was a little nervous, but she has a great time.
They went to Camp Hanes,
a YMCA camp not far from here.

They took environmental classes,
did team-building exercises,
and slept in cabins.
The food was great.

They got to zipline!

While most of her classmates slept
on the bus ride home, C just chilled.

We got to celebrate Whitney's 15th!
Love this girl so much.
She is an extremely hard worker
and has so many talents.
Grateful to have her in our family.

Some of her gifts:
An easy piano Hamilton book

A giant tub of mints,
which she found hilarious

Tickets to see Anastasia the Musical

A fun collection of gifts in a Fab Fit Fun
box from Grandma Sweat.

So fun!

Finley invited Andrew and I to his birthday
party at Spare Time to try to win him a ton of
tickets on Space Invaders. Ha!

The headquarters of Burt's Bees in Raleigh.
Cool building.

Anastasia was fantastic!!

We both knew the general story of Anastasia,
but didn't really know what to expect.
They had amazing special effects.
Unlike anything I'd seen in a stage show.
Great use of technology.

Love going to musicals with this girl!

Whit almost caught me in height!!

I love snuggling these babies!



In honor of Easter, I had Whitney sing
"O Lord, My Redeemer" by Jeff Goodrich.


Friday, November 1, 2019

Cruise: Grand Cayman and final day at sea

Can you see why we loved this cruise SO much?
And there's more!
Our final stop was in Georgetown, Grand Cayman.
Our excursion didn't leave real early, so we got to sleep in a bit.
That was nice.
We booked this last excursion through Carnival.

First impression: Whoa. Grand Cayman is TOTALLY different
than Belize or Honduras. It is SWANKY.
There are gorgeous resorts, golf courses, hotels.
The landscaping is impeccable.
Nice cars everywhere.
They are a British territory and drive on the left side of the road.

For the first part of the excursion, we took a boat ride out to Stingray City.
Andrew and I went their on our very first cruise with Tony and Cindy years ago.
It was fun to go back with the kids.
We were on the boat for about thirty minutes,
riding out into the Caribbean.
And pretty soon you come upon a sand bar,
where the water is only 3-4 feet deep.

And CRYSTAL CLEAR.
It is SO pretty.

We got to hold, kiss, and feed stingrays.

They say that you get seven years of good luck
from a stingray kiss. ????








After a fun boat ride back to shore,
we got on the shuttle again and it took us to
the Cayman Turtle Centre.
It was amazing.

We got to hold little hatchling sea turtles.


They were SOOOO cute!


Then we got to SNORKEL in a lagoon with bigger turtles.
Are you kidding me?
It was fantastic!

The time went by too fast.

Before we knew it, it was time to get back on the
shuttle and head to the ship.


The views on the drive back were picturesque.

Who goes all the way to Grand Cayman to
purchase Myrtle Beach flip flops???

Back on the ship, we grabbed some food.
The girls and I played Chinese checkers, Guess Who, and Connect 4.

I spent time on the balcony reading and watching the sunset.

At dinner, we got to sing with our servers and swirl our napkins in the air.

On our final day at sea, we got to pig out at the chocolate buffet.



Whit and I got to learn a dance routine to Thriller.

And we had one last visit from our favorite table magician.
He did an amazing trick where he figured out the password
to Andrew's iphone. Kind of creepy and very mysterious....

Favorites:
Caroline
*Sea turtle center
*Hugging a sloth
*Food--esp. filet mignon and baked Alaska

Whitney
*Braised ox tongue
*Crocs on the river cruise
*Chankanaab snorkeling--esp the cuttlefish

Brandon
*Roatan snorkeling
*Hanging out with people--Johnny, Jeremy, Larissa
*Monkeys

Drew
*Cuddling with a sloth
*Playing with the monkeys
*Being able to see four different countries

Me
*Chankanaab snorkeling
*Monkey/sloth hangout
*Snorkeling with sea turtles

Other highlights that are not pictured:
C: Seeing dolphins in the open ocean from the ship
D: Winning Sports trivia and Trivial Pursuit
W: Awesome waiters, especially Superdi

Things we would've changed:
A: Slightly shorter river cruise
D: That the texting app would've worked.
W: Wouldn't have ordered the tofu steak.
D: Better on-ship entertainment
D: Don't want to hear the main theater speakers from our room.

When we got off the ship, we went to a sacrament meeting in
Florida and then headed toward home.
Marianne and Patrick were nice enough to host us
for Sunday dinner.
We didn't get to hang out for long,
but it was so good to visit for bit.

Love having them on this side of the country!