Enjoying the last days of summer....

The kids filled up the pool for one last time, more than likely, last weekend. They were having so much fun, sliding in and laughing, diving and practicing their "moves." My kids have "cool moves" for just about any occasion. And Olivia was cracking me up with the goggles. :)

eating lunch with my girls...

So every day I scramble to get lunch on the table for hungry girls, especially right after Livvy gets home from preschool - Rylie is already clambering into her seat shouting "It's ready! It's ready!" as soon as she sees me walk over to the paper plates on the counter. By the time I get lunch on the table for them they are "SO starving." Today was a perfect example. I got their food ready and they started eating. I warmed up a bowl of leftovers for my lunch. And as I sat down at the table to eat my lunch, Rylie had finished already and climbed up on the table across from me, staring at the bowl.

"Rylie's? Rylie's?"
"No, Rylie, that's mommy's lunch. Are you still hungry?"

(by now she's lying on her tummy on the table, leaning her face into the bowl)

"I eat it. A bite? A bite?"

(I give her one.)

"Oh, hot-cha mot-cha! Blow it. Mommy. Blow it."

(she begins "blowing" with her two front teeth pressed against her bottom lip making a loud, spitty "fffffff" sound)

"Ok, Rylie. That's enough. That's enough. I'll blow it."
"Oooh. Yum Yum. The meat!"

(she starts picking through the rice to find all the pieces of hamburger. she moves around the bowl and sits in my lap. she takes my fork.)

"Rylie do it. MMmmm."

(now cold, spitty hamburger and rice pieces are falling all over the carpet and my lap. I've given up trying to eat my own lunch.)

ahh...the bahamas...

(Don't forget to check out the rest of our Bahamas pictures - follow the picasa web link to the right, just below my profile picture!)

Well, we're back from our most wonderful vacation ever. It was just incredible. We are forever indebted to Kat and Todd for taking us on this cruise. It was great for our marriage, great for our sanity, great to remember what it's like to hang out with friends without kids around...and the kids just loved being at Grandma and Grandpas!

We drove down to Miami on Sunday and then had a lazy Monday morning before we all boarded the cruise ship. Dan said he knew we were on a cruise when, while we stood in the main deck, we heard a smooth voice singing "Strangers in the Night..." It was funny. And as we pulled away from Miami beach, we could see huge storm clouds in the distance. It was cool to see the sky divided in half, so clearly, between a menacing gray and clear blue...a perspective you could really only get from being far out at sea.

We woke up in the port at Nassau. Dan and I ran on the treadmills at the top of the cruise ship and looked out over the Bahamas. (We needed every chance we could get to burn calories, seeing as how we ate SO MUCH.) It was a gorgeous day. We took a ferry to Paradise Island and the Atlantis hotel, where we walked for a while to the beach. I will never ever forget the moment when we walked up a sandy hill and as we looked through the trees we caught our first glimpse of the most beautiful water I've ever seen. There are no words to describe the multiple blues we saw in the water. It was incredible. There was nothing to keep me from that water. I just sat in the waves and enjoyed the day. The sand was so soft and beautiful - not white, but filled with the tiniest bits of pink and pale blue. I was so sad to leave the beach and head back to the boat when it was time. We haggled with vendors in the markets for a bit before we got back on board - it was funny how everything was "on special sale today just for me."

Each night we had elegant dinners with Kat and Todd and talked and laughed for hours. Todd and I had several "stirring" conversations about politics and education and other random things, and then when Kat and Dan were tired of listening to us argue for fun we would go up to the top of the ship and watch the stars. It was so nice to feel the warm sea breezes and hold hands with Dan and count the shooting stars.

Tuesday was the "private island" of Cococay. We walked all the way around the island until we were almost the only ones around. Then we pulled our beach chairs into the water and we read. (I had to finish Breaking Dawn, which I read those first two days of the cruise - excellent! I don't really know which book is my favorite.) Dan and I brought blow up air mattresses to float on and we spent a couple hours floating far far away from the shore. It stayed shallow for a long time, and though there was quite a bit of moss and seaweed in parts, the open ocean was still a beautiful blue. And several times we were passed by a stealthy sting ray - yikes. This was the day that we got a little sunburned, but also the day that we got to relax the most. :)

Wednesday was Key West, which Dan and I both thought was a bit of a disappointment. It started out pretty cool, but quickly became just another "beach town" kind of place. We walked to the Southernmost point in the United States, just 90 miles from Cuba. We did a lot of walking in the very hot sun, walked past the presidential vacation "whitehouse" and the Ernest Hemingway home, and then Dan and I headed back to the cruise ship to relax and read some more. :) That night we saw an incredible sunset and spent a lot of time on the upper deck. The sea breezes were cool so late in the evening - it was actually nice to go back to our cozy little cabin for one more night on the ocean.

Friday it was hard to leave. We had a long breakfast with Kat and Todd, which was difficult, since I spent most of my free time during the week eating...and eating...and eating. We were nearly the last ones off the ship, sitting near the duty-free shops and talking about the coming school year and our little ones, and how we want to make sure we do this again very soon. We're so grateful to have such wonderful friends in this life - I don't know if Dan and I would have ever done something like this without our friends' encouragement (and financial help!) We needed this week to ourselves. It was fantastic. :)

Get Ready for Cruising!

I just can't wait, can't wait, can't wait! We're leaving on Friday for Grandma and Grandpa's house, and then on Sunday we leave the kids and drive down to Miami! Wahoo! I don't know if I'm more excited about the cruise, or more excited to spend a week with our best friends, no kids, just having fun. I haven't seen Kat and Todd in forever! We have been so blessed this summer to have such wonderful family vacations.

So, I'm pretty sure that the next blog post is going to be all about the fun we've had on our cruise. :)

Youth Conference

I had my first experience chaperoning a youth conference trip this weekend. It was a little crazy, since I was battling a cold and I had lost my voice for pretty much the entire weekend, but it was still fun. I have awesome girls, and I loved having the chance to get to know them a little better. There's something great about hanging out in your jammies and eating junk food at 2 in the morning - something that brings out the honesty in all of us. :)

And it was nice to have Dan taking care of the kids all day so I could have the break. It's so nice to have him home more this month. I know that August will bring a bit of a busier schedule, so we're making the most of this while we can. (As in getting dentist appointments out of the way, etc.) We're bummed, though, because we had finally scheduled a temple date and Bart and Amber were going to come watch the kids for us, but we found out the temple is closed for the rest of the month. How sad, that the only real month that we have time together, the temple is closed. Bummer. We'll have to work around that somehow.

Fourth of July

We had a super fun Fourth of July - Grandma and Grandpa came to visit (uncle Chandler wanted to stay home and hang out with his friends, which we totally understand.) We got to go to the movies, and we saw Wall-E, which the kids just loved (and of course Grandpa did, too.) Actually, it really was a wonderful show, and even Rylie held out through most of it.

Then we had a barbecue in the thunderstorm (which brought the lightning, which struck the tree, which dropped the branch on our roof and Dad's car.) And then the rain stopped in time for us to enjoy a big party at Bishop Park with some of our friends from the ward. There were fireworks and lots of fun things to do there. I made these really cool blue popcorn balls (which unfortunately claimed a portion of my tooth the day after the fireworks, and now I have to get a crown. Pooh.)

I've put a few pictures with this post - but don't forget that you can see more pictures at our Picasa website! (I put fourth of july stuff in the "summer 2008" folder.) The link is just below my profile picture on the right. :)

the tuckfield beach trip

Two weeks ago was our fabulous Tuckfield family week at the beach - we had the entire family there, except for Quinten, who is in Nevada on a mission. It was a wonderful week - we took turns making some delicious dinners (I think Lindsay and John's fish tacos with the fresh mahi were my favorite, although Brittany and Tyler's enchiladas were a close second - we want those recipes!) And we had a fun birthday party for everyone (Mom, Dad, Livvy, Brittany, and Tyler...plus Cam and Kym's birthdays for the next two years). 

And we had a super fun baby shower for Lindsay and John. I have to admit, the guys were pretty good sports to hang in there for Brittany's crash-course-in-parenting-relay game. And we have some great shots of everyone smelling the chocolate "poopy" diapers.

I think the best part, though, was just being together, for seven whole days, with nothing to do but enjoy the sun and waves and sand and be together. I read two excellent books - The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, both by Khaled Hosseini. They were amazing, wonderful, life-changing kinds of books. And we got the family addicted to Wizard and The Great Dalmuti. :) 

I just can't believe it's over. As Mom would say, "In the blink of an eye..."  :) It was such a great time. We are so blessed to have been able to spend that week together. I know that those times are far too rare, and so when we get a chance to be a family together like that, we need to cherish the memories. Feeling the happiness and peace that we felt that week at the beach is just a glimpse of heaven, and I'm so glad to know that our family will be together forever. :)