Brynn is excelling!

I just wanted to pass along some great stuff about Brynn. I met with her teacher yesterday to receive her first report card in grade 1 and to speak with him about her progress. She is doing excellent in all areas, but especially excells in reading and writing. Her creativity is amazing and she is particular about detail. Another thing he really praised her for was her ability to be mature emotionally. As far as he could tell, she is friends with everyone in the class. She chooses to remain unscathed by the emotion many girls, especially, experience at this age. She doesn't come home ever complaining about having a bad or even sad day. She takes life as it comes and makes the best of it. What an amazing example to me! She loves school and her teacher is excellent and obviously enjoys having her in class. Their personalities really work well together and she is a super listener and hard worker. I guess if I want to see some of those same results at home, I'll have to ask her teacher for suggestions! We are so proud of Brynn for working so hard and for just being a good girl. She was so surprised that her teacher had all those nice things to see. She kept talking to me about it and wondering why he kept saying all those nice things. To be so innocent again...
We love you Brynn!

Camera

A big thanks to Ryan and Tonya (Stan's brother), who sold us their camera for super cheap. It works great and we are so happy to have a camera again. Now I don't have excuses for not blogging. I'll have to remember how exciting day-to-day life is and not compare it to the tropics.

Picasa Web Albums - ShNell - Southern Caribbean Cruise!

Picasa Web Albums - ShNell - Southern Caribbean Cruise!

Here are more pictures. If this worked properly, there should be captions on some of the pictures.
St. Martin was my least favorite island but we made good memories there. It was our first chance to swim in the ocean since our first stop was on Sunday. It was my first warm water ocean experience. It was amazing how well you float. Stan was the only guy with us. He was sick the day before and needed a relaxing day off the boat so he came with us. We collected some sea shells, rented wave runners, played in the water and soaked up some sun.
In Antigua we went to their rainforest and zip lined for 30 minutes or so. The course was really short but it was a lot of fun. That afternoon I got a dose of the world of bartering. I wasn't very good at it. It was way too much pressure and some of the people were slimy. I finally just stuck close to my sister-in-law, who was used to this.
In St. Lucia (Loosha) we sailed on the pirate ship that was used in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies. There were 3 actors from the movie on board that day. It was a fun experience. We sailed about 40 minutes or so to Pigeon Island where we swam and hiked up to Fort Rodney. This was my favorite island and I definitely want to go back some day. We heard there's a direct flight from Calgary there for pretty cheap.
Barbados was the last stop and it was rainy that day. We went to see some caves and have a tour of part of the island, by bus. Beautiful place, wonderful people. The beach had the most amazing sand and the clearest, blue water we had ever seen. In the middle of that beach experience, a big rain storm came, forcing everyone to vacate the beach. We took cover for awhile and then decided to go swim in the rain. It was so much fun!
My brother-in-law is burning us all cds with pictures from each couples' camera. I'll probably post a few more pictures when I get that.
We had the time of our lives and can't wait to vacation again!

Just like Heaven

What an amazing trip we had to Puerto Rico and the cruise to St. Thomas, St. Martin, Antigua, St. Lucia, and Barbados Seven nights on the ship, Serenade of the Seas, with 17 other family members: Stan's parents and all of his siblings and their spouses. The weather was 85F/29C every day with some humidity. It was sunny until Barbados, the last stop. I loved that we got to see so many places, spend so much time with people we love and have a completely stress-free 9 days without kids. My parents were amazing to keep our kids for us and the kids had a great time with their grandparents in Washington.
I'll make a couple of entries to spread this out a little.
We flew into San Juan and stayed the night. We visited the Rainforest the next day and boarded the ship.
These pictures here are of San Juan and the El Yunque(Yunkay) Rainforest.



Most of these are pictures of or on the boat. After we ate dinner the first night, we were required to do the safety drill, in case the ship goes down. The food on the ship was amazing. Very good and too much of it. My body is recovering from food overload. Our stateroom attendant left us every night with a towel creation. Our ship held 2400 passengers but it wasn't full. I guess the week we were out was just prior to the regular cruising season. We were lucky because most of the time we were the only cruise ship in the port. It wasn't ever crowded, anywhere we went.

More to come...