A Million Things

In the middle of July we went to SC and of course I meant to blog a little while I was there.  When am I going to learn?  It’s just too hard!

So I have a million things that I want to put down before I forget them.  Please bear with me as I sort pictures from several devices and get my thoughts down.  Also, to be honest, writing this post is going to hurt a little bit, but I have to do it to move on.

At the beginning of the summer we had the difficult task of saying goodbye to some of our closest friends here.  When you live far away from your family, your friends become family.  When you can’t ask your family for help, you have to reach out to others to fill that gap.

I’m not going to lie, I can’t think about living here without them without tearing up.  However I know that having good friends is a blessing and I have been blessed tremendously in my lifetime.

We had a lot of going away fun!

A couple of my friends in this picture have had a really tough time this year.  When I say tough time I mean incredibly tough.  For their privacy and security I won’t say what happened, but it is the kind of things that make you want to curl up in a corner and cry.  They didn’t though.  They showed strength and resilience.  It is still really hard for them right this minute, so I am hoping and praying that things improve and they can look back on this year with some happy thoughts along with the difficult ones.

The children have lost their friends too.  Learning to say goodbye is an important skill and I know they need to do that, but it doesn’t stop this mama’s heart from hurting for them.

We hope to see them one last time before they start a new chapter on a different continent and I try to remember that goodbye doesn’t mean forever, but that I’ll just miss them until I see them again.

This picture isn’t the greatest, but oh boy does it make me smile.  We had FUN!  Until we meet again!

Independence Day- Bahamas Style

We spent Bahamian Independence Day with some of our favorite Bahamian friends….s well as friends from Switzerland and Chile.  Unfortunately Allen had to work and then go to the official events, so he didn’t get to come with us.

We headed out of our neighborhood.  These boys do not look like they are having fun, but they really were.

And so were we…

As soon as we got to the beach, the boys did their thing….

And so did we…

Later in the day the clouds were amazing.

Not too long after this we saw a water spout off shore.  {A water spout is a tornado over the water.}  Fortunately for us we could see it from a safe distance.

The lovely clouds turned into a lovely sunset.

One day I hope that they will look at these pictures and see what an amazing life they have lived here.

The sunset made an amazing day even more special.

This special friend of mine is moving away soon.  When we come back from S.C. they will be gone.  It was a bittersweet day since we knew our time was limited.  However, that is a post for another day.

To end our amazing day we all piled back in the boat with tired, hungry, salty bodies and headed back home.  And went through a thunderstorm.

As they say storms can’t last forever.  However I hope our memories of this amazing day will last forever!

Winter Weather

Sometimes I miss the snow, but then again I don’t miss the months of cold that come along with the snow.  It seems like everyone has been suffering with the bitter cold this year.

Miller and our neighbor decided that it was a perfect day for a swim. 

We went to the beach last weekend….

 

They built a rock wall…

They found a starfish…

Poor guy had an incident with a big rock. 

But it was an amazing weekend!

Sorry.  Not sorry.

Sleepover- Squared

When I was young {and naïve}  I told someone that I’d love to have twins.  That wise person told me this, “It’s not baby times two, it’s baby squared.”  That turned out to be wise advice, and as it turns out, twins were not in my future.  However we do have twins in our life.  Jackson’s best buds are twins and we love them like they are our own. 

They boys have been begging for a sleepover since last time and I thought it was time to just get on with it.  So we invited the twins for a sleepover.  They weren’t quite sure if they wanted to come and leave their hamsters, so I swayed them by letting the hamsters come sleepover as well.

Hank was very curious!

Chase’s hamster didn’t feel very social that night, so we just played with Triston’s hamster.

This is the one who almost swayed me into getting a hamster.

Well it ended up being a sleepover squared.  The boys all did really great and even went to bed much earlier than I expected.

A Special Afternoon

For quite a few months we have been trying to plan an afternoon with friends at Dune.  Some of our friends suggested putting the children in the Atlantis Kids club and heading over to The One and Only Club for an afternoon.  It was heavenly!

We ate, drank and laughed our way through an afternoon.  If that wasn’t enough, this was our view!

Michele got to join us!

 

Did I tell you we laughed?  Oh my, this is the funniest group of humans on Earth!  Before we knew it, it was time to leave.

The men had to dash off and pick up the children…

The ladies had to make a pit stop at the pool.

There is some amazing history at this resort {you can read about it here }.  The view is one of a kind.

It was wonderful to spend a relaxing afternoon with friends in such an amazing location!

3rd Annual Cookie Party

For the past 3 years I have hosted a really fun party for my girlfriends.  We get together on a Sunday evening and  it’s always a big time.

This year, per tradition, I made about 100 cut out sugar cookies and icing and we decorated them.

Once I saw this cover of Good Housekeeping Magazine, I was inspired and thought it might be fun to try some of these cookies.  Ambition is a good thing, right?

All of my friends are good cooks, it’s just that they claim not to be.  Good thing I know better.  The decorating is a bit different from actually cooking, so we had some practicing to do.

Can you tell we laughed a lot that night??

If there were mistakes, we just added sprinkles!

The results were impressive! 

Talented ladies!

We each put our favorite cookies in the middle of the table.  They are all so different

After we decorated we did a cookie exchange. 

Each of them brought 7 sets of cookies to swap.  I love that they were all different!

Poor Stef had a cookie accident on the way over.  She left the cookies on the roof of her car!  We know she worked really hard on them, though!

Everyone got an assortment of different cookies.

You know I’m southern and love a good monogram, so I couldn’t resist adding initials to the take home cookies!

I’m already looking forward to next year!