Brayden's first soccer game!

My nephew, Keegan on the far left, trying to get a touch on the ball.

I have been looking forward to this day since Brayden was born. I was NOT disappointed. It was pure entertainment watching eight, 3-5 year olds try to kick the same ball. I laughed so hard, I almost peed my pants. (Yes, some of it was inappropriate laughter). At one point the WHOLE green team was on the ground. I am pretty sure it was their fault, tripping over their own team mates. All the coaches swooped in and put each one back on their feet, while the red team scored once again. They don't keep score at this age, I discovered mainly because it would be impossible! We were scored on, on an average of every 30 seconds. The score had to be 20-something to 1.

Brayden is on the green team, which was the Green Beans. Now they have decided to change it to the Fierce Sharks, which no one can say. That's where my occupation comes in handy. Each night after practice I am going to have speech therapy sessions so they can cheer each other on appropriately. J/K! I have to say, I am disappointed they aren't the Green Beans anymore.
The fans: Ally, Ellie, and Owen.

Warming up the all-stars before the game.

This was early in the game when I was watching nicely/quietly from the side.

Right after this, Brayden scored a goal!! However, it was for the wrong team. It didn't even phase him though. He came running off the field so proud and excited, yelling, "Mom, I GOALED!"

I gave him a high-five and said great job! I then said, "Do you remember that you are going the other way, and you're supposed to kick the ball in the other goal?"

He looked at me like I was nuts, "I know Mom, but that was WAY too far away. I would have had to run all the way down the field, this one was much closer!" Always thinkin' I tell ya, so smart. :)

It's all B! One v. four!

Half-time pep talk, it went something like this:

"Coach, can we play on the toys? Can we have a snack? I'm all done."

Coach Brian, "No, we're not done playing soccer yet. Who knows which way we're going? What do you do when you see the ball? What do you do when the other team has the ball?"

Grandma Phillips and her three grand daughters, such loyal fans.

This was right after Brayden scored his goal in the RIGHT goal!

This was right after Brayden ran and ran all the way down the field with the ball and didn't score. Yes, he is crying. He was a little distraught that after all that work, he didn't "goal!"

High-fives and finally the best part, SNACKS!

It was our snack day, we got to hand out ding-dongs and capri suns, how does it get any better than this?

Brayden's first day of school

Since we were on vacation, Brayden missed the first week of school. I know, we're those BAD parents. But, since he has already had two years of pre-school and he knows the routine, I wasn't too worried. He missed the kindergarten cut off by four days, but I think in the long run it will be a good thing. Hopefully he will be a leader, since he will be old for his grade level. We shall see...here he is on HIS first day of school. He looks so grown up to me, I can't believe he is getting so big!

All aboard the FREEDOM!

Ok, so this is a massive post. We just got back from vacation and it was wonderful! Kent and I went on an Eastern Caribbean cruise, while my sister, Kalin, watched the kids for us. My camera broke right before we left, therefore, Kent was in charge of taking the pics. (which was really nice for me). He did a great job, so great in fact, we have 600 pics.! It is a bit overwhelming AND they got all mixed up when they were uploaded. Bare with me, they are out of order and there are a lot! I tried to pick just the best ones, but as you know, I always have too many pics.

Here we have the infamous towel animal. I have to admit, I took pics. every night that we got a new animal, it was really quite cute and amazing.

Our ship was called the Freedom, and it was magnificent!

Our first port was San Juan, Puerto Rico. I was the most excited for this because this was where we got to do the zip lines through the rain forest! I had been looking forward to this since we booked the cruise in May. I was not disappointed! It was the high light of my trip! We didn't get to the port until 5 pm. Therefore, we ended up doing it in the dark, which we knew ahead of time. I think I actually preferred this because then I couldn't see the 500 feet of wilderness below me. I was oblivious to the dangers and just hooked on and took off, flying through the air! It was by far one of the best adventures I've had! The only downfall was my light on my helmet was a little askew, so unfortunately for the safety instructor on the other end of the line I couldn't see when/ where the line ended and where I needed to "brake." This resulted in a huge collision, which he was not too happy about, but he reassured me that he gets paid for that, but I really need to brake earlier! OOPS!

It was SO HOT and humid, everyone was just dripping, even before we started the hike up the mountain.

Kent coming in for his landing.

Waiting for the adventure to begin.

Out of order, this is when we were docking at the port and we were itching to get off the ship.

Flying through the air with the greatest of ease!

As everyone knows, I am not the most graceful. Maneuvering through the platforms in the trees was sometimes a little tricky, especially in the dark.



This is in Antigua, it was beautiful . We took a taxi tour of the island and saw some amazing things.

We watched the people who paid $300 to swim with the dolphins. The dolphins were so quick, I couldn't get a good shot of them.

This is me a little too hot and getting a little irritated with some dumb Americans that were on our tour. Side note: If you put your hand up to a parrots beak, he will bite you. WTH, this lady seemed so shocked that she was bitten. What a freakin' idiot, then we had to listen to her complain about it for the rest of the day!

Another stop was at the Bomba Shack. Apparently they really know how to party here. Whenever there is a full moon, the whole island comes out to drink the "Bomba juice." There were women's panties and plenty of pics. to prove that they know how to have fun.

Another stop on the tour was the rum factory. Eyes on, hands off!

We also made a beach stop, which was great. We made a point to take pics. of all the hotties in speedos. (That's for your benefit Shelbi). Always a treat to see old men in banana hammocks. I wanted to share the pleasure with all of you. :)

This is me and my cheesy smile waiting for Twilight to start on the mega-flat screen on the lido deck outside! I was so pumped and ready! However, they didn't play it! 007 came on instead, let me tell you, there were a lot of disappointed people. We ended up watching it, and it was great, kinda like a drive-in, in a lounge chair with the wind blowing through your hair....ahhh, I wish I was there right now, it would have been even better if it was Twilight.

I'm sure most of you have heard how great the food is on cruise ships. Yet again, we were not disappointed. We made sure to eat our moneys worth. :) It made me laugh when Kent whipped out his camera to take a pic. of his breakfast! I told him

he needed to start his own blog! It was eggs benedict and it was so scrumptious! I'm just glad he thought to take the pic. while there was still some left!

This is our team waiter, Jose. He was wonderful, we got to hear all about his family in El Salvador. He loved to perform for us, he was the ultimate singer and dancer!

This is Kent on one of the formal nights, sorry it's sideways, I don't have the patience to go and fix it now, I just deleted the one of me in my fancy dress. I'm sure you will all survive though.

These are our new friends from Arkansas, Matt and Melissa. They renewed their wedding vows on the ship. We had a lot of laughs with them, they were great people!

Lounging by the pool, reading a book, and loving life!

I did a lot of this.... I guess that's why Kent felt he needed to take a pic. and why I thought I should post this horrific pic. of me... but I do love my sleep!

This is a shot of the huge flat screen I was talking about. On the screen now, was our cruise director, "WEEE JIMMY" doing his morning show. He is from Scotland and was an absolute riot the whole trip. We really enjoyed him!

Here is another port day in St. Thomas. Kent is posing for his senior pic. in Magen's Bay. It was beautiful. We really enjoyed our beach days!

Hanging out on the balcony waiting to get to the next port.

Still waiting!

This is Melissa, Matt and I walking through the Atlantis trying to find tickets for the water park.
The place is HUGE! It was beautiful and ever so fancy, but I just wanted to get to the freakin' water park.

The aquarium at Atlantis.

Here is another pretty beach shot at the water park. This European mom (I'm assuming European) is just putting sun screen on her boys.

The Atlantis.

This is part of the wild, rapid river at Aquaventure. The place was unbelievable. You may have seen it on the travel channel. They have roller coasters where you sit in your tube and go shooting through rapids and up and down hills. LOVED IT!

Included in our ticket was access to the beach. Here I am with a Bahamian wheelin' and dealin' to get purses for the girls. They are super cute and she put their names on them. She was very interested in me when I told her I needed "Two!"

Mayan temple water slides.

Carnival Freedom. We also went to Tortola, but I apparently forgot to upload those pics. to this post. It was a beautiful island!

This is the sun rising on our final morning in the Ft. Lauderdale port. They woke us up at 6:30 am to let us know it was time to get off the ship, your vacation is over! It was rough! Our flight didn't leave until 4:30, so we booked an excursion to the Everglades.

Waiting to get on the air boat to check out the alligators.

Hello Mr. Alligator. It was crazy, he came right up to our boat, a little too close for comfort for me!

This crazy gator boy stuck his hand and then his head inside the gator's mouth! It was quite the show!

Kent in Magen's Bay, St. Thomas

Magen's Bay, absolutely gorgeous!

That was as short of a synopsis as I could do... we had a great time, but we were ready to squeeze our munchkins! Now we are home and it's life as normal...as normal as we get anyway!

Only in Greenacres....

Yep, this is exactly what it looks like. I was driving down Sprague (a busy 4 lane road) and oh shoot, there's a boat sitting in the middle of the lane. WTH?