Christmas Morning 2007

We have had a lovely morning here at home with the kids. We are making some new traditions the four of us that I am really loving. As a kid my dad always read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas eve and I have such special memories of those times. Of course SJ and I are continuing that with our kids. A few years ago we started giving them special Christmas Eve PJs which is essentially a first gift the night before Christmas. The last thing SJ and I do before we got to bed is to hang two Christmas Pickles. They are glass ornaments that look like pickles and they are to be hidden deep in the tree for the children to find on Christmas morning. Traditionally only one is hung and whoever finds it gets an extra present. Me, I can't handle disappointment tantrums on Christmas for a number of reasons so we hang two. When all the presents are opened we sit down for a Panettone French Toast breakfast complete with "Bucks Fizz" (mimosa). This year I put the "pickle gifts" on the table as decoration and then when the kid were done I sent them off to find the pickles on the tree. It was a nice way for SJ and I have to have some quiet time at the table while the kids were hunting for those pickles. Whoever is the first to find a pickle gets to choose which (wrapped) mystery gift they want. The second to find it gets what's left. They are always equal gifts. We will continue this breakfast tradition from now on.

I am in the midst of preparing an English Trifle for Christmas dessert and have made my first custard. Hope its good...

I am hoping to be better about posting pictures and news as I know I have been delinquent lately. Don't miss our Winter slide show below!

Winter Fun!

We have been blessed with 2.5 feet of snow in the past two weeks. I happen to love snow so I see it as a good thing when so many of the people around me are cursing the white stuff. The kids have had a ball! Last week they made their first snowman of the season. We also made our family trip to the Boston Ballet's Nutcracker and then later that evening we went caroling with about 30 of our neighbors. There was hot cocoa and cookies for the kids and beverages a bit stronger for the grown-ups. I swear the kids nearly rolled up and down the street over the snowbanks. Mid-way through the street we were invited into a home for mulled wine and appetizers. The end of the evening was capped off with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", "Grand Old Flag", and "Happy Birthday" as my friend's husband was celebrating his birthday that night and will soon be deployed. In case Miss Darcy is reading this- a big thank you to you for organizing such a fun fun fun night!

First this then I'll get to the good stuff...

We have had a lovely few weeks since Thanksgiving with us first being in birthday mode and then Christmas mode. Usually I find this time of year to be totally hectic and nearly impossible to manage as I said here last year, but for some reason things this year seem to be joyously under control.

Before I share all that other good stuff, I'd like to start with a quiz.

Based on the following 3 pictures, can you guess what happened last night at our house?








Yep, L tossed her cookies at 11:15 pm last night a swift 60 minutes after my eyelids closed and proceeded to puke every half hour until 6:30 am today. SJ and I sat with her in shifts but really the only one who got any sleep was her brother B. I am now waiting for the other other shoe to drop...who's going to get it next????? Much to SJ's amusement I greeted the morning by walking around the house humming Christmas songs and liberally spraing this....





I have mixed feelings about who will be next in the house to fall victim b/c I could stand to lose 5 lbs but really hate throwing up. We'll see what the fates have in store for us!

Tagged!

The lovely M over at Chinese Take out tagged me a few days ago so here goes...

8 Random Things About Myself....

8. I have small feet for my height. I am 5'7" and wear a size 6.5. In college people poked fun asking if I had trouble balancing on my feet.

7. I have been accused of making funny faces a lot. Of course I can't exactly verify this as I don't have mirrors everywhere.

6. I have a stutter in my sneeze. Meaning, when I sneeze, I "achoo, choo, choo choo". It never ceases to amuse my husband.

5. I have a purse that I named. I have always been a handbag whore until I found Priscilla. She is a Michael Kors bag that I fell in love with last winter and have found myself to now be a monogamous handbag owner.

4. I have had arthritis since I was a teenager. It is only getting worse.

3. When my husband and I first moved in together we lived across the street from the USS Constitution. It resides in the Charlestown Navy Yard and there are a few apartment building there too. It was fun to drive home every day and see those tall masts.

2. I did three terms abroad in college. Sophomore year I went to Florence, Italy to study art history. Junior year I went to DC (okay so it wasn't abroad but it was a term away) to work at the National Endowment for the Arts in a division of the NEA that no longer exists. It was the same division that funded Robert Mapplethorpe so being amongst the controversy was fun. Then Senior year I went to Rennes, France to study french.

1. At the age of 9 I started going to French Camp. It is actually part of a group of summer camps for kids run by Concordia College in Minnesota. They are now called the International Language Villages and have something like 11 international village summer camps. You do all the regular camp stuff like archery and canoing but you do it in a foreign language. You get new name and you eat food from the country you are supposed to be in. For instance, my names at French camp over the 5 years I went included, Paulette Chateaubriand & Angelique Belgique. Now of course those sound like stripper names to me. You could always tell when it was close to meal time b/c the whole camp smelled like freshly baked baguette. Yeah, not bad for summer camp. Two summers I did additional sessions at Chinese camp and German Camp. The best things about those camps were a) learning how to use chop sticks like a pro and b) eating damn good gummy bears every day. Now these camps offer family weeks where you can go with your kids to introduce them to another culture. I have often considered going back with my kids. Here is a link if you are curious....

Tickled Pink Talk... tag...you're it.

How NYC are you?

I am a born and raised Boston Girl so it amazes me how much I connect with NYC (except when it comes to baseball). SJ and I lived there for 3 years after we got married and it is in my blood. Here is what the blog quiz told me...

You Are 72% NYC

You are probably a real New Yorker, though there's a good chance you really live on Long Island.

How NYC Are You?

Which is funny b/c I am not in NYC any more so the LI thing made me laugh!

Smile and this too shall pass...

Yes, admittedly I am very grumpy. I actually have a few things to be grumpy about other than the adoption timeline. However, no one is in harms way so I'll just have to deal. Luckily for me, my mother came to the grumpy girl's rescue tonight with these very funny ads:

Deutsche bank
Ikea and the vibrator
Jenny Stripping
You could jack your car up with that.
Snoring Spouse

Bone me.

I'm in a mood. I'm in one of those don't f*ck with me moods. My USCIS paperwork is up for renewal as my 171H expires on 11/30. CCAA continues to match 1 week of referrals each month and I made the mistake of counting how many weeks there are between 12/8/05 (where they are now) and 7/6/06 (my LID). 33 weeks. Which at this rate means roughly 33 months. From now. I am so in a lapel grabbing mood. The kind when you just want to grab someone's shirt, shak'em up a bit while shouting "what the hell's going on????" On Monday we had to make the decision to meet with our social worker to update our homestudy for hundreds and hundreds of dollars so we could go waste a day of our lives getting refingerprinted and re-file our I-600A. "Bone me" is all I could think to myself. Even better, lets take about a grand - for fun, how about in all singles- ball it up - stick it in the fireplace and light it on fire. Cuz really? really? CCAA you gonna get to us inside of 18 months?? Really??? Yeah, I thought not! So what, I spend all this time and money on paperwork only to have to re-do it 18 months from now when it expires YET AGAIN?!?

Here is my plan: Tom Cruise is the CCAA and I am Cuba and you'll need to subsitute the words "speed up" for "money"...



We are letting our freaking shit expire and when the CCAA shows me a speed up, I will hop, skip, and gleefuly jump over to our USCIS office with my wallet open wide!

More comments on the B.S.

I went trolling and didn't get very far. However I did stop by Brian Stuy's site and there was an interesting but depressing read about how the wait times are going to increase over the next 12-18 months. There are facts, figures and graphs all supporting his theories. He is very conclusive that there just simply are not enough children to fill the waiting parent files and thus the wait increases. He even goes as far as to say that he does not know of a single NSN child under the age of three who is not already in the IA system. He even challenges anyone to tell him of a NSN child under three who is not yet in the IA system. So here is this....during our wait we have been sponsoring a child through HTS. She was born February 2006. Last February I sent her a birthday cake along with a box of toys and clothes. Each time we are about to get a progress report for her I expect to hear from HTS that she has been adopted. I just got one last week and as of July 2007 she has not yet been adopted. As of then she was nearly 18 months and clearly adoptable. Why???? Why???? WTF. I know of a beautiful little girl who would probably love to find her forever family and here I am aching every day that my daughter is so far away. Don't freaking tell me there are not enough children when I know of a little girl that I would have be MY DAUGHTER in a heartbeat and she continues to live without a family. Per HTS I cannot inquire about adopting this girl b/c it could jeopardize the HTS program in China. I will respect that but it really pisses me off when people like Brian Stuy infer that all the children in China's orphanages are already placed either domestically or internationally. LOAD OF FREAKING CRAP!

B.S

That is to say that this is.....B.S and I am B.S. You can use the phrase how ever you want and it will apply. Or you can say this is a load of crap. Rumors out there are stating that April 2005 LIDers got referrals. Yep. April. No the CCAA has not officially made it into December of 2005 but apparently there is an entire travel group of April 2005 people who just got surprised with referrals. I am heading out into the wild wild west of the internet to troll for info on this rumor. Who knows what I am going to find but I am PISSSSSSED.

Education and the Future

Education. It is something I am so incredibly passionate about. I believe that all children are born with talent and the ability to succeed and the single factor that can either squash or foster that talent is the educational environment they are subjected to which includes both the institution they attend by day as well as the home they return to in the afternoon. I will admit to having been given, over the course of my life, a pretty fabulous education. I was given a private education from 2nd grade through my BA. Private school means different things in different places. In some places it is a punishment for ill behaved children. Where I grew up it was considered a privilege. I was nurtured and well educated and went off to college with a strong ability to succeed. And I did. I graduated Magna Cum Laude, first in my division, and Phi Beta Kappa. But for all my success, I still found myself on the other side of college wondering what to do. Do I get a job or go back for another degree? If I get a job, what should I do? What are my talents? I have a BA in Art History and French but really what are my skills? My even brighter brother went pre-med and never had to face these questions. He graduated, got into a top med school, got an internship and residency at probably the best hospital in the world and is now a fine young radiologist. So why am I telling you all this? Well because my daughter, my eldest child, has started kindergarten this year and I am forever worried about the educational environment that will surround my children in their formative years. Will they grow to be life long learners? Will they learn to work hard and succeed? Will they respect the classroom and their education? WILL THEY KNOW WHAT TO DO WHEN THEY GET OUT OF COLLEGE???

My husband and I believe that traditional education is NOT the way of the future. We believe that by the time our children are entering the workforce for the first time our world is going to be a very different and much smaller place. Things change rapidly now and we feel that in 15 – 20 years it is going to mean NOTHING to say you are a US educated person. As we can plainly see now, there are plenty of people around the world who can do our jobs as well as us for cheaper. I don’t want my kids to grow up thinking they can do anything they want because they are lucky enough to be Americans but I want them to think they can do anything they want because they are talented. I want them to be prepared for a more global focused world and be able to speak other languages or know other cultures enough that they can work together with the people of other nations.

Part of our decision to move to NC last year was for my children to attend a unique private school down there. It had all the wonderful attributes of the private schools I went to up here but had this Global Curriculum that knocked my socks off. I feel that this school offers a program that will really provide children with ALL the tools to succeed in the world they will be facing in 2025. Unfortunately, life threw us a curve ball and this move did not happen and we had to withdraw from that school. I still have mini-breakdowns every once in a while about that. My kids are enrolled in the public schools now mainly because the private schools up here are insanely expensive and we just can’t do it for three kids and none of the private schools up here seem to address the global issues with which my husband and I are so concerned.

Last night I went to our PTO meeting at which the new Superintendent of our school system spoke. He is a man who spent 6 years living in China as an educator and superintendent. He spoke of his belief that the old ways of educating our children will not truly prepare them for the world they will enter after college. He is over hauling the curriculum from K-12 to incorporate a stronger focus on critical thinking, creative problem solving and innovation. He believes these are the needed tools for the future in our rapidly changing world. My husband and I could not agree with him more. He is also going to spend the next 3 years developing the IB (International Baccalaureate) program at our high school and we will be one of the first in the state to offer it. I nearly cried at the meeting. I was so willing to do anything for my children to get the kind of education I wanted them to have and when all seemed to be lost, the education came to us. This is a sign. This does help me feel good about the life choices we have made. Thank you universe for sending me this peace of mind.

Here is a passage from a letter this new Superintendent wrote to the community and a link to a 20-minute video of Sir Ken Robinson that is funny and moving. If you have the time, please watch it is captivating.

“Our children are facing a different world; one that continues to rapidly change. Today, it is not one's nationality, or where one may live that will be the predictor of success; it is what you know and your ability to adapt, think, innovate and create that matters. Thomas Friedman in his book "The World Is Flat" describes this new world. Bill Gates expresses the aforementioned new world environment in the following quote from Friedman's book. Gates says:
"Thirty years ago, if you had a choice between being born a genius on the outskirts of Bombay or Shanghai or being born an average person in Poughkeepsie, you would take Poughkeepsie because your chances of thriving and living a decent life there, even with average talent, were much greater. But as the world has gone flat, and so many people can now plug in and play from anywhere, natural talent has started to trump geography. Now, I would rather be a genius born in China than an average guy born in Poughkeepsie... We're going to tap into the energy and talent of five times as many people as we did before."

Although there remain solid reasons for us all to want to live in the United States and preferably in [our town], our students must understand the world discussed above and more importantly, prepare for their ultimate entry into it. Please "click" on the link to the left entitled "Sir Ken Robinson", to hear his thoughts on this subject, as well as his views on creativity, philosophy and a child's need to think and be innovative.”

more silly

Silly is good.

In all seriousness I had no fewer than 5 ideas for a post that were all way too serious and complicated. Who needs it when you've found Jib Jab?

NEVER FORGET

I was 7 months pregnant with my daughter. My best friend called and woke me up and told me to turn on the TV and about 10 minutes later the second plane hit. I am pretty sure that was THE moment fear over came all of us. It was a strange thing living in Boston that day. I can’t remember at what point the news broke that both those planes had come from Boston but I remember starting to frantically call my friends whose husbands travel for business. My husband travels a ton and luckily he was home in Cambridge that day. Luckily, everyone I knew was accounted for safe and sound. My friend who called me, her father had just come in on a red eye from CA on one of the planes that later went into one of the towers. He walked off that plane at 6:30 am and about 2 hours later that very same plane was flying into a building. My heart aches over this day. I am sure I will never get over it. It is as if the wounds are as fresh as they were 6 years ago.

The Story of L and My Mother
This is a story that came about because of 9/11. One week earlier I went for my 7th month check up and a new nurse was going through my file and accidentally told me what I was having. I was so pissed. I did not want to know. My mother had been desperate for me to find out what I was having but I really did not care and wanted to be surprised. My mother cared. She wanted a granddaughter. I am the 5th generation of a girl born first on my mother side. She was positive I was carrying on the tradition and was having a girl but, yeah, like we can plan those things!

When I called to rant to my mother that the nurse had told me what I was having my mother said “so so so what is it?!?” I told her I wasn’t going to tell anyone and she was so disappointed. The week of 9/11 my parents head out to SF and eventually get stuck there because they can’t fly home. By the time they started running flights again I think everyone was terrified of flying especially cross country. I called her that morning crying, telling her I was so scared she was getting on a plane. I then just blurted it out. I said “ I can’t let you get on a plane without telling you you’re having a granddaughter.” She was so excited. We didn't tell anyone else but I am so glad I told my mother that day.

Good News!

This family is officially through the review room! Lets see how long we sit on the floor of the Matching Room.

My Mother Made Me...

I guess she felt since I was making my kids stand in their first day of school outfits with silly signs, that she would make her kid do the same...


This was taken the evening of our 10th in the same spot in my parent's yard where I took most of my wedding photos.

10 Years Ago this Week: Part II

Happy 10th Anniversary to us!!!

10 years ago today all our friends and family had safely arrived in town and were waking up to a beautiful September morning. All of the family on SJ's side were up at 2 am to watch Princess Diana's Funeral. Our wedding was at 3 pm in a beautiful stone church and then the reception was at an Art Museum. I would not have changed anything about that day. In fact I'd love to do it again with the same guy!




This is a picture of my maid of honor and myself. She is currently working for the US State Department in a far away place. I am so proud of all that she has accomplished in these 10 years. I know she'll check over here today so I will take the opportunity to sing her praises and tell her I love and miss her!!!


P.S. I know I owe you all my silly first day of school photo. I will get that up tomorrow!

Here are some more pics...

Here I am getting dressed:

Here I am with my cousin K. I was in her mother's wedding when I was 8. She was in my wedding when she was 15. She is now engaged to a wonderful guy and will be getting married next June. My kids will continue the tradition and will be her flowergirl and ring bearer!


Formal photos were done and we were waiting for the limo to arrive at my parents house. I'm here with my brother and father.


Here we are waiting to go down the aisle. I am with my dad and Maid of Honor. The church was so small that it did not have room for me and my dress between the outer and inner doors so I had to wait outside to go down the aisle. I literally stepped off the sidewalk onto the aisle!

As you can see, I made it all the way up the aisle!


And back down again!


SJ's wonderful parents that day. His father passed away nearly 3 years ago now and we miss him every day.

Photos in the Japanese garden of the Museum.


Our First Dance

Our Yummy Cake- the top of which we ate on our first anniversary!


And finally- in 2003 an editor from Modern Bride called me after she got a hold of one of our wedding photos that the photographer submitted to a photo contest (and won). She asked if she could print it on the last page of their December 2003 issue where they highlight each month an already married couple. So of course I said yes.
(I took out the paragraph b/c it has all sorts of personal info in it. )

First Day of School!

I think this image says it all. She was so so so damn excited for her first day of school. It was incredible. Not one ounce of apprehension. This is the outfit Nana bought her for her first day and I must say, she looked darling in it. In fact, she looked so damn cute that another mother (a friend of mine) cried when she saw her at drop-off.

L had a wonderful first day of Kindergarten and I could not be happier! She handled it all so well while I was a ball of tears!

Mr. B also had his first day of school today in our Preschool's TK class. L did this class last year so I know the teachers well and B is very comfortable there. He had a great day. As you can see the color of the day was GREEN!

A choked up Mommy sending off her baby girl to school!!!


This is Lily's very first friend J. He is the son of one of my best friends from high school. Believe it or not, the two are only 3 months apart and yes, he really is that tall!



We take an annual picture on these stairs and figured today was as good as any to take our summer family picture!


Tomorrow...first day of school photos of Mommy! Stay Tuned....

Fresh Attitudes of a New Generation

Well I just got the kids off to bed in anticipation of our big first day of school tomorrow. My daughter likes to go to sleep listening to stories on her CD player and my son who just got his own CD player has yet to indicate a preference. Well tonight he indicated his preference with a complete 4-year old meltdown. He wanted stories just like his sister and I told him he'd have to wait until tomorrow when we could make another CD just for him. I suggested that he could choose to go to sleep in silence or he could listen to our sleepy time music CD. The sleepytime disc is a compilation of Mozart and the like. B pitched a fit screaming he was NOT going to listen to BABY MUSIC! After a good chuckle over that I informed him that it was actually old fart music and he should learn to like it.

Thanks to Baby Einstein, the masterpieces of classical music are no better than Old MacDonald to this generation!

10 Years Ago This Week: Part 1

10 Years ago today SJ and I woke up to the horrible news that the lovely Princess Diana died from her injuries. SJ is English. This news came as an incredible blow to him. He has always loved to taunt and tease the royals but I will never forget how he clasped his mouth at the announcement coming from CNN 10 years ago this morning.

The night before I spent the evening with my oldest and dearest friend celebrating her 24th birthday. At the time we lived in the same building and we were about to embark on a crazy week as she was to be my Maid of Honor at our wedding 1 week later.

We got home that night to find that the Princess & Dodi were involved in a serious car accident. In the naivety of my youth, I shrugged it off as "oh, but she'll be fine."

The week following was as you can imagine, very busy for us with all those last minute details (oh and a quick trip to Seattle for a job interview with Microsoft). It was difficult to focus as the television bombarded us with images of people mourning and leaving flowers for their Princess. It was difficult knowing there were all these people getting ready to fly over for our very happy occasion who were struggling with their sadness.

10 years later, we all still miss her vibrant and beautiful face. I can only imagine what her life would have become if it had not been so tragically cut short. I am now nearly the age she was when she died. It is just so sad that her children had so little time with her.

Can you help me???

I have been trolling the internet tonight looking for cute waterproof stickers to use to label my kids lunch box stuff for school. I can't find any stuff I really like. Any suggestions out there.

PS I already know about Mabel's Labels and that is my back-up.

Mom is either running late or has dirty hair: An Explanation.

Do you ever have moments where you wish whole-heartedly that you could be pulled together on a more regular basis? Well I do and for me, being pulled together starts with a shower. An event that I wish was more regular in my life.

Take this morning for instance. I woke up to a beautiful sunny New England day with unseasonably chilly temps that reminded me that fall is just around the corner. My children were playing quietly in their rooms and with my busy day ahead of me I thought to myself, I actually could get a shower in today and get the day headed off in the right direction. So I pop into my bathroom and realize that I hadn’t yet unpacked my shampoo, which was sitting in a bag still downstairs. So I run down three flights of stairs to grab the shampoo with the intent of running right back up to hop in a hot shower. When I got downstairs I heard the garbage trucks and a quick glance out to the drive way indicated my other half had neglected to take out the cans this morning. So I ran out the back door to wheel the cans out to the end of the driveway. While doing so I noticed all the toys all over the yard and remembered that our lawn guys are coming today and needed to get the stuff off the grass. So I did a quick yard clean up and trotted back into the house. The quiet children were at this point alerted to the fact that mom was up and were now chirping for breakfast. After making breakfast, cleaning it up, loading and starting the dishwasher I headed straight for my shampoo bag still sitting where I had left it on Sunday. As I crossed the house the phone rang with my friend on the other line. We chatted about getting together on Friday and I complained that life was getting out of control and needed some organization. She then told me about a great product she just bought called a MomAgenda and gave me the link. I of course grabbed my laptop and looked it up and indeed it seems to be a worthy product. Getting distracted from my goal of a clean body, I started trolling around this website and found another link to a cute website for birthday present stickers and birth announcements. Ingenious! Realizing I was running late, I put a call into my mother to let her know what stage of the game were at and headed up stairs only to find myself back where I started on the third floor trying to get in the shower with NO shampoo.


I eventually showered but was in fact late and the lawn guys never showed.

Rainy days are still fun!

So today was a bit dicey b/c rain was called for the entire day. The sun was out when we woke up and the boys raced out to a boating store to get a ski rope and by the time they got back the rain started falling. GRRRRRRR.

They decided to go water skiing anyway and after 2 hours of boys being on the water and the kids destroying the house, the girls decided to go outlet shopping in North Conway, NH. The dads took the kids mini-golfing and to a park b/c the rain ended up stopping once they got back on land. (that is always the way!)

The girls and I had a fine time perusing the stores and I made a few purchases that I am currently wearing!

Of course we overstayed our time at the shops and had to race home. Got back around 5:30 and the dads had already fed and bathed the kids!!!! I told them the good news and the bad news was that they did an incredible job taking the kids for the afternoon. I am sure it won't be long before we ask them to do it again ; ) The moms graceously did bed time while the guys set up some lawn games.

C&D made some tasty munchies for cocktail hour and the boys played "baggo" and the girls relaxed on the couch.

D of C&D took me driving in their vintage beetle. I had never driven one before and I was thrilled to drive a 2 gear car with no clutch! Ha! Total fun!

Here are some fun pics from today....


My friend T relaxing on the couch.


R on the grill making lunch.


The boys playing Baggo.




C of C&D is serving her apps to the guys playing lawn games. What a nice gal!

Lobsta

I am having trouble with the pictures on the last post. They are getting all screwy. Our friends M&T brought 33 lobsters for the 8 adults. Yes, do the math, it was a VERY good meal. Needless to say, there were a few crustations left over.


M of M&T then made Lobster-Cakes for cocktail hour yesterday. They were HUGE and so incredible. Nothing better than fresh lobster!

The kids were thrilled to have SMORES last night...




After the kids go to bed we retire each night to club HOMY (stands for our last names) which is the game room in this house. We blast club music and pull out the beers. In the absence of a sitter and being able to get out of the house, this is a great late night alternative!

VACATION

Hello From Maine!

We are on vacation with 3 other families at a lake house in Maine having tons of fun. Eight kids and eight adults lends itself to a whirlwind of chaos and mad fun. It is a 9 bedroom house right on a lake where we've got a boat and a few canoes and kayaks.

I made scrapbooks for all the kids and a T-shirt with a "Maine 2007" Logo I created with all our family names on it. Each day the kids are going to write their favorite part of the day and then draw a picture of it. Here is a picture of all the kids about to get their goodie bags.
Here they are working on their first journal entries. (the making of future bloggers!)











Our friends M&T have lobster traps back home and brought up all their lobsters for dinner last night. Here is a picture of our dinner table from last night. It was a GREAT meal!

Here are some more pictures from our first day here:





A picture of my handsome hubbie!






Kids on the boat yesterday.