President's Club 2007 - Grand Cayman

Well, this past week June 3rd - 7th Jamie and I were blessed to take part in the annual sales award trip for my company- Network General. It was held in Grand Cayman which is a Western Carribean island. Here is a link that talks about Grand Cayman.

We stayed at the Ritz Carlton hotel. The beautiful picture they show at that site was not the area we stayed in with the ocean view etc. If you go there get the oceanside view or don't stay at the Ritz. We had a basic poolview and looking beyond that- a construction and road view. That said, we spent a lot of time on the ocean side of the resort which was obviously great.




We got to take a big catamaran boat with a large group of work people on an all-day adventure on Monday. First, they took us out to a reef and I got to try snorkeling for the first time. Although I drank a fair amount of salt water and the sea spray stung my eyes it did not reduce the fun and amazement of it. I swam close to the fish and took a lot of pictures. I show a few of them in this blog entry. Next, they took us out to a shallow sand bar where sting rays actually swim with people and are very friendly. You can feed them and pet them! I got in the water and experienced this but did not feed them. I did pet them- they were kind of rubbery and slick. Some people were even hugging them and feeding them pieces of squid- pretty wild. After this, we sailed out to Rum Point which is a popular party and recreation place on the beach near the tip of Grand Cayman island. It took about an hour to sail out to it. They have some bars there and my company served us a great caribbean barbeque lunch. There was a lot to do. The company rented several types of watercraft for us to use, we had beach lounges to rest on, and the ocean to splash around in. The entire trip was very hot with direct sun and you could burn by being in the sun for about 10 minutes without any sunscreen but the ocean was cool and refreshing. (hmm, how do I know it would only take 10 minutes to burn???).




Jamie and our friends Cliff and Tia were hanging out in the ocean and I used one of the sea kayaks and paddled out to the limits of where we were allowed to go and back. I loved it and was instantly addicted. I decided if I could paddle around on a sea kayak every day that would be great with me. (I know what you're thinking, how could I give up daily cubicle life?) After all of this fun at Rum Point we sailed back.

We had a couple of nice dinners while in Grand Cayman: The Grand Old House in Georgetown, the main city, and at Papagallo. They were both good but Papagallo was better. We snorkeled once more on Wednesday at Governor's Reef off of Seven Mile Beach near our hotel. It was neat- you could just walk off the beach, swim out a bit and there was an awesome reef. During that snorkeling time we got to see a school of squid swimming in precise formation (2nd picture below) - it was very cool.


Ater doing all of this snorkeling off of Governor's Reef I decided to use the Ritz's sea kayaks to do some kayaking with my boss. We were done and he was heading back when suddenly a big wave hit me and I could not recover. Kayaks are by nature very prone to tipping over and suddenly I found myself hugging the side of my kayak instead of sitting in it. I was in the endless cycle of ocean waves out in the recreational boating lanes way beyond the swimming area. I tried to pull myself up 3 times into that narrow, unstable kayak in the middle of the waves- it wasn't going to happen. I would get my body across it but couldn't make the adjustment to sitting in it. I kept getting flipped into the ocean again. I got more exhausted, out of breath, and actually sick to my stomach each time I tried. My boss had headed in so he didn't realize I had been knocked off and he was back at the Ritz when he saw I was missing. I kept trying to get onboard and after my attempts failed I was so exhausted I almost vomited in the ocean. I decided I had to try to push against the waves and the current and haul the kayak and myself back to the swimming area, and eventually back to the beach. I did get a little scared for a moment as the only thought I had in my mind was, "I wonder if I have the strength while holding this kayak to pull myself and the boat all the way back to shore." Yikes. I did my best while kicking my feet and using one arm to hold the kayak and the other to paddle. Suddenly I heard a motor behind me. A lifeguard on a Waverunner from the Ritz had come to help me out. God bless him. Then, a little dingy boat came up to help as well. They helped me to climb back on the kayak (yah, the one I wanted to do every day instead of my cubicle) and they asked me if they could tow me back to shore. I was breathing too hard to speak for about 30 seconds but when I could finally breathe again my (stupid) guy pride said, "no, I'll just paddle back myself." As I took a deep breath and forced my shredded and oxygen deprived body to paddle back I saw many people standing up on the beach watching the scene. It was embarrassing. But I was going to paddle that stupid thing back if it killed me. (it never occurred to me it would be more embarrassing if I threw up or passed out on the beach in front of a bunch of fancy Ritz Carlton guests- but like I said I was oxygen deprived). I finally made it back in and some beach workers came to the shore to help me drag the boat in. They were all asking me if I was alright etc (a couple of the little farts were smiling at me like it was amusing) What do you think I said? Yep. "Oh yah, I'm fine thanks so much for your help, I probably would have been alright out there but thanks so much for coming to check on me because you never know." Mmmhmm, yah right. I would have been JUST fine.

Anyway, other than that drama we had a great time.... and no I don't want to sea kayak every day anymore so don't be a wiseguy..

I got to spend some good devotional time as well with the Lord (where I'm sure I repented of my stupid pride) and Jamie and I both got to relax.

I'd like to take the kids there someday to swim with the stingrays, go to Rum Point, and snorkel- but perhaps not to sea kayak.

See you guys!

Update on us!

Here is an update on our favorite topic- us! Just kidding. It has been crazy busy around here since we last gave an update. Noelle turned 2 March 7th, Madeline is 5 1/2 and has graduated kindergarten- see pics below. We're having a lot of fun and living right! No changes on the job front or really much of anything else, just busy! Maddie is in dancing, swimming, gymnastics, and cheerleading- she is quite a performer and is REALLY good at it. Noelle copies everything Maddie says and does and loves her big sister very much. Maddie is such a little Mommy to her and is a complete blessing to everyone. Here is a compilation video I made of Maddie's graduation:


Brian has been running a little Internet ministry on the side and is trying to reach out to provide some counseling to people in need through that as well as sharing the Good News of Jesus. There have been some wild responses and some heart-touching ones and it feels good to make a difference. He is advertising the website through Google keywords and the ads run randomly over 100,000 times per day (but you only pay per click and its a tiny charge per click). So, even those that don't click on the message get a little light shined on them and perhaps a seed planted. We get responses from people who are just browsing Myspace or some other random website and right in the middle of the page our ads pop-up. Fascinating to be able to reach people right in the middle of what they are doing anywhere in the United States in a variety of different conditions and need. We get a lot of thank-you emails from the content on the site but believe it or not we also get a little hate mail- can't say it doesn't keep things interesting though because it does.

Playing with the kids is the best. We love to read to them, tickle them, take them to the park, and just goof off. We got an outdoor trampoline so we anticipate a lot of fun with that. Maddie is reading pretty well so she practices on us which is a lot of fun and she is proud of it.

Ok, just for fun (and because I like to embarrass myself) I am going to include a little Youtube video Maddie and I did recently- enjoy. If its not funny don't tell me ;)

Love to all, I'll include several recent/relevant pics as well as I'll embed the goofy video Maddie and I made here:

Happy First Gotcha Day!

Can you believe it's been a year already?! On December 11th, we celebrated Noelle's first Gotcha Day! Ryan, Amy, Lilly, and Nate Gibbons came over to celebrate with us as it was Lilly's first Gotcha Day as well. The Gibbons have been another blessing from the Lord to our family. We had the priviledge of traveling with them to China and receiving our baby girls together. Noelle and Lilly are 7 days a part and are from the same city.

We dressed the girls in their Chinese clothes. As Noelle would say "Nese" clothes. We ate Chinese food for dinner, of course. We then let Maddie and Nate perform as this is what they like to do when we get together and then we all enjoyed some Gotcha Day cake.

It was a great time to reflect on the last year and think about how blessed we have been to have Noelle with us. We can not imagine not having her part of our family, she has been a true gift from the Lord. We love her SO much that words can not explain. We think she's pretty fond of us too! =)

Catch Up!

We have not been so good about updating our blog...but with the New Year right around the corner maybe we can turn over a new leaf.
We are all doing well. I will post some pictures and get everyone caught up in the next few post. I think we left off at the end of October.

Maddie went with her class on a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch. As well as she attended a fall carnival, which collected pajamas for children in foster care. She loved taking pajamas for the foster children and she had a great time getting her face painted and her hair painted pink. The weather was great through out the fall so Daddy and the girls were able to go to the park quite frequently.




We also attended our Church Fall Festival. The girls had a blast! Although it was VERY cold. Maddie dressed up like a fairy princess and Noelle was the cutest kitty cat you have ever seen. She acted very funny dressed as a kitty she became very serious, we could not even get her to smile and she was very upset when she had to take the kitty cat costume off. It was priceless. Oh how I wish we knew what she was thinking.

Maddie was able to go out on the football field again and this time dance with the Faith Lionettes. She loved it....being able to dance in front of an audience is a dream come true for her. I think we have a performer on our hands. One of the Lionette dancers, Laura, became quite fond of Maddie and Maddie thinks the world of her.

I guess that brings us to December. Maddie was in several Christmas performances. She was a Star in her school Christmas program. She also performed her worship dance that she has been working on for several months during the school chapel. She also performed at her Ballet, Tap, and Jazz class recital to Christmastime in Texas. She did great in all her performances we were so proud! As I mentioned she is quite the performer and LOVES an audience. I'm not sure where she got that trait as I would soon die then be front and center of a large audience. I think she gets it from her Dad, who loves to do public speaking! I don't get it =)

Noelle, although too young to have school/dance performances has been a huge "star" and performer at home. She does everything her big sister does. It's so cute to watch, she tries to dance, sing, and mimic everything Maddie does. She is delight and an even bigger ham than her sister!

Friday Night Lights

Friday night Maddie got to participate in a half-time cheerleading performance along with the "big cheerleaders" from School.
She had gone to a cheer camp last Saturday which was a fundraiser for the cheerleading squad and then got to perform at half-time this week. She adores the big cheerleaders and had an amazing time. She was SO excited! We were so proud!

Daddy and Girls go to Bass Pro Shop

There is nothing that says "country dad" like a trip to the Bass Pro shop! All I am missing is my straw hat and black tooth!

Latest family Pic

Happy 5th Birthday Maddie!

Maddie,

It does not seem imaginable that you turned 5 yesterday. Everyone told us the time would go fast, but you never understand until it happens to you. You are starting a very important chapter in your life tomorrow. You will be attending Kindergarten at a great local Christian school. Daddy has been praying for five years that you would be able to attend a Christian school and his prayers were answered. You were officially accepted into the school last week. We decided at the last minute to go ahead and put you in big girl school for Kindergarten instead of waiting until 1st grade. You are so very excited to be going to big girl school. You met your teacher Mrs. Munson last Friday and she is so very sweet. You also attended a princess party that one of the Moms had for all the girls that will be going to Kindergarten. You were a little shy with the girls which surprised Mommy because I would not use the word shy to describe you. However, I know you all will become fast friends once school starts. You have been at Crème de la Crème since you were 9 months old, so it is hard to leave some of your very best friends that you have been with since you were 9 months old, but Mommy tells you everyday that we will still see them.

You had two birthday parties this year to celebrate your birthday. The first one was as Sweet and Sassy with your school friends. We shared a birthday party with a good friend from school, Alex Chavera. There were about 10 girl friends from school that came. You girls all dressed up in fancy dresses, they fixed your hair really pretty, put make up on you and painted your fingernails. After that they put you on a model runway stage and taught you some fun dances. The last thing they did was call you out one by one and let you walk down the runway like a model. You looked absolutely beautiful in your Cinderella dress with your makeup and hair all done. The second birthday party was with your family and some close family friends. We rented a big water slide and a cotton candy machine. Everyone had a great time! You have been SO blessed by your family and friends.

You have been quite busy this last year. You attended Pre-K at Crème and have been involved in some sports activities-tennis, gymnastics, cheerleading, soccer, and swimming. You learned to swim this year in just a couple of weeks. It was so much fun to watch you accomplish swimming. You were so proud, it was sweet! You also participated in two Pep-Rally’s, you were an amazing cheerleader!

By far the biggest event in your life this year has been the addition of your baby sister Noelle. Being you were an only child for 4 years Mommy and Daddy thought you would have a hard time having a new sister…were we ever wrong! You LOVE having a sister! I can not even explain how sweet you are to Noelle. She pushes you away, has bitten you, cries, pulls things out of your hand, takes up a lot of Mommy and Daddy’s attention, but you still are so sweet to her and talk so nicely to her. One morning you were hugging Noelle and I heard you say,” Noelle, I love you so much, I would die for you”. It was so sweet. You call her your little friend. You will see her in the morning and say,”Hi Noelle…how’s my little friend?” Anytime she gets hurt in your company you cry thinking you may be the reason she got hurt. Noelle is SO blessed to have such a sweet sister like you. Mommy and Daddy are SO proud of how you are with your sister.

You still LOVE markers and coloring. I bet you have over a thousand markers and you have everyone accounted for. You also still love make up. You tell people you are a make up artist, it’s really cute! I do have to admit you really are good at putting make up on except for the one blob of blush you put in the middle of everyone’s forehead.

Mommy and Daddy are so grateful to God for giving us such a beautiful sweet daughter. We love every minute we get to spend with you! You are a complete joy to be around…a little loud but a complete joy! =) I think you are pretty fond of us as well. Poppy gave you some money and you put the money on both mine and Daddy’s nightstand and you told me it was because you liked us a lot and you were going to keep giving us a lot of money because we were the sweetest Mom and Dad in the world. You are absolutely precious! We love you very much and can’t wait to see what this year has in store for your precious little life.

Love,

Mommy

Wheee!