Famous Graffiti

Outside Jo's in Austin. South Congress.

Rudy's

Dawn and I had a feast at Rudy's Bbq. Oh, I love Austin!

Frisky Little Swans

Austin

Dinner at Salk Lick in Austin with Dawn.

Math

It only took like… a week…. but…. finally got it!

Won

Yep… That's MY name they just called.

Raffle

Marissa. Hoping to win the raffle for a month of free family karate lessons.

CC Showcase

Marissa got to show off her art at the Classical Consortium End of the Year Showcase.

Math

Headache of my week…. solved!

Tate…. 50s Dance

50s dance

The Fonze accompanying his sister to the dance.

Poodle Smooch

50s Dance

Had a blast making matching poodle skirts for Miss and me!

Chef

Marissa was recruited to help Dad in the kitchen for a fundraiser for the Soccer Club in Wauconda. Getting to help with the Olive Garden breadsticks- tough for a carb loving 9 year old!

Marshmallow Marissa

Marshmallows

Marshmallows

In an effort to be blue men at home, we had marshmallow throwing (and catching) competitions at home.

Musuem of Science and Industry Tornado

Toilet Plunging

Sundance Film Festival

Butt Joint

Marissa discovered the joy of the dictionary. She just couldn't get over the word "butt joint".

Facebook

Tate has been wanting to have a social media account. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. I told him a long time ago that he needed to be much much older before he could have that type of account. I recently was thinking about and pondered allowing him to have an Instagram account when he was say, 14. It was a big deal to me. And i wasnt even sure if I was convinced it was a good idea. But considering it represented a huge give on my part. Thinking that Tate would be thrilled with this notion, I told him about how I was mulling over the age requirement for Instagram. He got this very funny look on his face when I told him. I thought that it was the look of excitement, maybe joy and relief that he didn't have to wait as long as he originally thought. He finally smirked and said, "Okay great, mom! Does that mean that I can get a Facebook account when I'm like, married?"

Nervous Nelly

Marissa got invited to go to a mid-week church activity at her friend's church. When I went to drop her off, she was looking a little worried. I asked her if she was nervous. She said, "Yeah, but I'll just cover it up with a smile."

Garett's First Place Science Fair Display

Respect

I was trying to feed too much information into Garett's ear about math. He was trying to calculate it and I was a tidge distracting apparently. He threw up his hand to separate my voice from his ear and said, " Respect the hand!"

St Thomas and St Johns - post is a little late, and a lot long!

So we’ll start w the dramatic scenes.   As it turns out, marine life encounters aren’t cheap.   But they’re quite cheap compared to kids.   So the thinking goes, pay a few bucks to drop the boys in the shark tank, and a few more to put your daughter in a room with a 300 lb sea lion, and perhaps you come out ahead in the long run!

First, the bait boys swimmin’ with the fishes (and the giant sting ray)...
































The sharks didn’t bite upon initial entry.   So the chum children were encouraged to go under water and take a closer look at the shark cave.

Nurse sharks in the cave and a reef shark lurking above as Garett goes under...

The ladies chose to stay dry and were all smiles on the other side of the glass… 

But dry land wasn’t without adventure.    We were soon tossed into the sea lion’s den!
Here, all three of us are sporting toothy grins!

And here’s Marissa doing what she does best - making a new friend...

Then dancing and soccer...

Followed by the sea lion taking a shower…

Meantime, the boys got to know a baby nurse shark outside the tank (this shark was too small for the larger tank).

After the fun with marine life, we made our way through the hills of St Thomas.   We went native, renting a car, driving on the opposite side of the road, and…
Experiencing a total brake failure!   Kevin managed to safely stop the car on a side road, but the tow truck was 90 minutes away, and we had just loaded up on (insanely expensive) Eskimo Pies!  The kids had a solution.   For the eskimo pies…


















Kevin sat on the back bumper to flag down the tow truck.   And trimmed his toe nails.   By hand.  And took a picture of his handiwork.   This is proof he made the trip:





One day we drove our replacement car onto a ferry and made our way to St Johns Island.   Here I am enjoying the ferry ride...
















Upon arriving, we found parking, and hiked through the jungle...

...to an amazing beach.   That’s Garett with shoes above his head...

We hiked some more - past unstable ruins from the sugar trade long ago...

and past giant termite (we think) thingymabobs…

Later, we got to spend time at the world famous Trunk Bay and enjoy amazing snorkeling - including the underwater self-guided tour - after the cruise ships had departed and the bay was nearly deserted.     

We managed to make the last ferry back that night.   A road closure due to an overturned truck (that had to be extracted by a crane - no joke, though no one was hurt), almost meant spending the night on St Johns.   Worse things could happen!   But we made it back.   

The next day, we headed to the Top of the Mountain on St Thomas for amazing views and a world famous Banana Daiquiri!  Snapped a couple photos along the way...

And made it back to the hotel for sunset.   This is the view from the window of the living room of our villa.

It only rained once.   On the last day.   While we were snorkeling at Coki Beach (fantastic snorkeling - bring a dog biscuit and the fish will literally eat from your hands!)   But what happens when it rains in the VI?   Double rainbow.   Ending in the ocean.   Boss.

Long post, but i spared this blog pictures of the large charging iguanas (plural!), hilarious service stories (it’s relaxed down there), Tate and Garett’s front flips & kevin’s back flips into the water, and Marissa and me playing it cool and lounging by the pool.  All in all, a successful Christmas trip for the kids!