Wordless Wednesday - Texture

Ten on Tuesday ~ Playing Catch up

Hello???

Is there anybody out there?!?!

I so would not blame you if you gave up on me and the ol' blog. 

I have been a terrible blogger lately.

But finding the time (and motivation) these days seems to be a HUGE challenge. 

Sooo, I'm using the Ten on Tuesday to play a little game of catching up.

So, here we go....

1. We had a lovely Father's Day. Scott got his Father's Day/Birthday present early this year (a Motorola Xoom tablet, which pretty much elevated me to best wife ever status, thankyouverymuch!), but we still gave him some pretty snazzy new work clothes. Being that we had his gift exchange early in the morning before going to church, I didn't take many pictures. But from the few that I did take, this one is by far my favorite:

2. The reason Daddy got some snazzy new work clothes, is because he will soon be starting a different job. We are SO very excited about this. Trust me when I say this is most definitely answered prayer!

3. Also, speaking about Father's Day, look who signed his name on daddy's card:

Arghhhhh!  This is painfully adorable!

4. Did I mention that Isabella lost her first tooth a couple of weeks ago while we were on vacation?

She did! She was lying down on the floor coloring, when suddenly a tooth that has been loose for oh I don't know, 6 months or so, fell and landed on her coloring book. Lucky for us the tooth fairy found us in the Arkansas mountains. And needless to say, she was one HAPPY girl!

5. Last week, the kids and I spent some time in Barnes & Noble looking for a birthday present for my nephew. While perusing the Bargains section, I came across these books:
Shhh... please don't tell my nook that I broke down and bought actual books, OK?
It's just that at $4.98 each, I couldn't pass them up.

6. Speaking of reading, I've been on a roll lately. Out of the 35 books I set up to read at the beginning of the year, I've already read 26. Woo Hoo! I will definitely have to up that number next year. And if any of you have a good book recommendation, please feel free to send it my way. I'm always looking for good reading material.

7. The kids recently discovered, and are totally obsessed with, a bunch of caterpillars hanging out and devouring some bushes in our front yard.

Needless to say, we check in on them every single day. These are some very hungry caterpillars!

8. I already started all the planning and preparations for Isabella's upcoming birthday party. The theme for this birthday is ART! Shocker, I know! I have so many fun projects and decorations planned, I can hardly stand it! So stay tuned...

9. The kids started VBS at my brother's church tonight. I won't lie, was a bit concerned about the 6-8:30pm time frame. But today I dropped them off, had dinner at Subway, walked next door for a pedicure (my toe nails are PURPLE and I ♥ them!), and then drove by the McDonald's drive thru for a $.75 low fat vanilla cone. And I did all of this before picking them up. It was a good night!

10. The kids started their swim lessons yesterday.

One of them loved it, the other didn't. 

Wanna venture a guess as to who it was??? 

Let me give you a hint:

 Yep, this is pretty much what he looked like during the duration of the lesson.

And like this.

And later in the day, when his Tata asked him about his swim lessons, his immediate response was: 

It was a NIGHTMARE! 

HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa! 

That boy of ours cracks me up!

Isabella, on the other hand, loved every minute of it!

It literally seems like she shed all her "water" fears overnight.

In fact, her teachers mentioned she might be ready to move up to the next level.

We are so proud of our cute little fishy!

Our Summer 2011 List

I just realized that even though our Summer Fun List is up on the fridge, 

and we've been busy checking things off, 

I never did post it here.

So, without further ado:

After looking at our previous years' lists  

(which you can see here 2009 and here 2010), 

I've come to the conclusion that with the exception of a few new things, 

we really enjoy doing the same stuff every summer. 

But hey, as long as we're having fun, I'm not complaining.

Fairfield Bay, Arkansas

OK, so I've sat down to work on this post like three times now, and something always seems to come up. So I'm just going to bite the bullet here and get as much as I can done, and we'll see what we end up with. Hopefully it won't turn out to be a crazy mess. Keep your fingers crossed...

Last week, the family and I headed to the Arkansas mountains for a much needed vacation. In all honesty, I had no idea what to expect. I mean, come on,... we were going to the mountains of Arkansas. Between you and me, I may have had a scene or two from the movie Deliverance playing in my sub-conscience on our way there.

These two were SO excited to go on vacation:

It took us a bit longer than we had anticipated to get there.  

(Darn MapQuest!) 

But alas, we made it. 

I was so relieved to walk into our condo and see that is was WAY more updated than the photos we had seen revealed. And the kids immediately found their room and did the first thing you always do when you arrive at your vacation destination...

Jump on the beds, of course!

Although we managed to do a whole lot during the week we were there, we also managed to rest quite a bit and sleep in and take glorious naps. We only had one scheduled event during our stay, so other than that, we pretty much let the chips fall where they may. Which was such a nice departure from the jam packed vacations we've taken in the past.

Anyway, here are some snapshots from our week in Fairfield Bay, Arkansas:

We hiked the Indian Rock Cave Trail, 

which lead us to some amazing Indian caves the kids LOVED exploring.

It's hard to really show the size of this one specific cave. 

As you can see Scott looks tiny!

It was absolutely fantastic!

Scott said this was his favorite vacation adventure!

We played mini golf:

And what I remember most is laughing.

Hard!

Oh yeah, and sweating. 

A lot.

It was a scorcher of a day.

And this was our one scheduled event of the week.

And it was totally worth waking up early for.

We rented a pontoon boat for 4 hours and enjoyed every single second of it.

Isabella shocked us a number of times during the week.

Especially with her love for tubing and swimming in the lake.

I would have NEVER expected that from her.

But we're so glad she was open to experiencing new things.

Sam, on the other hand, was leery of it all.

He enjoyed the boat ride, the music, the dancing, the napping, the eating and the drinking.

But he definitely preferred to stay out of the water.

He did, however, say that this was his favorite vacation adventure. 

Like I mentioned earlier, Isabella was full of surprises this week.

One of the local country clubs hosted a kids' karaoke night.

Straight out of left field, Isabella decided she was going to sing.

She stood by her brother and her Daddy, in front of everyone, 

and sang Jesus Loves Me!

It was ADORABLE! 

And then she walked up to a teenager and asked if she would like to sing with her.

Huh?

 Who is this adventurous girl?

Together they sang You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift.

SO cute!

One day we decided to make the hour trip to go see the 

Blanchard Springs Caverns in Mountain View, Arkansas.

It was stunning!

It reminded me so much of our caves back home in Puerto Rico.

This was definitely my favorite vacation adventure.

And then we swung by the Blanchard Springs 

and enjoyed dipping our feet into the nice 58°F water.

The views were unbelievably beautiful.

There's something so peaceful about being surrounded by nature.

Well, except maybe when you come face to face with this:

Yes dear friends, that is a snake.

EEEKKK!

We also enjoyed a puppet show, grilling out and making smores.

And let's not forget the swimming pool.

We spent a whole lot of time playing at the pool.

So, there you have it, our vacation in a nutshell.

☺

By the end of the week, we'd had no Deliverance-related issues.

We loved every minute of it.

And we can't wait to go back!

Oh, and as for what Isabella's favorite vacation adventure was...

When asked, she smiles really big and says: 

EVERYTHING!

Hold all my calls...

because for the next few days, my family and I will be enjoying some much needed R&R time, away from the hustle and bustle of the big city,... or our mid-size city,... or the suburbs of the city,... or,...well, you know what I mean!

Anyway, we're going to the lake and the mountains, 

where we'll be doing a whole lot of relaxing 

and swimming 

and boating 

and reading 

and hiking 

and sleeping 

and playing 

and exploring
and vegging

and celebrating
and grilling

and eating 

and pretty much doing (or not doing) anything else that tickles our fancy.

 source

And the best part is, we'll be doing all of this without the pressures of a schedule.

I won't lie to you, in my book, this is pure 

BLISS!!!

So, see you soon with lots of pictures and lots of LAZY stories!