First Day of School

Josh 7th, Kyndra 6th, Hailee 4th,

Gabe 1st, and Michael in Pre-school

They all had a fun day at school. Josh and Kyndra had no problems.Hailee had to take summer school to take her FCAT test again so she could advance to 4th grade. She passed and we are so proud of her. She worked super hard this summer. She loves her teacher and she enjoys school. She loves to be with her friends. Gabe also did great.When he got to his room he had to find his desk. He had a little hard time finding it. He was looking a little worried . So I went in to help him. His desk had his full name Gabriel. He has only gone by the name Gabe..No worries, we figured it out. He had a good time. Now Michael on the other hand, he was so excited to go to school with the other kids. Did great until it was time to pick him up. The other parents got there super early. We were still early but he saw all the others kids leave and he thought he was going to stay and that we would forget him. This is the first time he has been alone without his siblings around. This is a big step for him. He goes 5 days from 9am., to 12:00pm. In South Florida the program(VPK) is free. The state wants them to be ready for Kindergarten. It make a long day for him. When he comes home he wants his lunch and to take a nap. So my afternoons are very quiet. So far...Fridays at school Michael takes a karate class.
He loves it and shows us all his new moves.

The End to a Great Summer

Summer is over

We had a busy Summer this year. After school ended we all waited for our little bundle of joy to join our family. She arrived on July 14th. She is so fun... My Parents came for a visit on July 16th and stayed through the 28th. We went to the beach and went on a Air boat ride and saw a 10 foot Alligator right from our boat. Did some shopping and enjoyed some Cuban food. The boys (David, Grandpa Jack and Josh )went deep sea fishing. We enjoyed our time with them and it was sad to see them go. A week later on August 6th my sister came to see us all. I wish she could have stayed longer. We again went to the beach. And took her out with some of our friends to one our our favorite Italian restaurants and had a great time. She was a a lot of help and we had a wonderful time together. We all miss them very much.

Regal Theaters sponsers free movies all sumer here, which was nice as we were able to attend the movies every Tuesday and Thursday to watch some free movies. We a brought our popcorn and snacks and met our friends. On Wednesdays we would meet up with our beach going friends, and would head down to the beach. We would either spend our time at Fort Lauderdale or Hollywood Beaches. It was always fun to drive down past Port Everglades and see all the Cruise ships in Port. It makes us anxious to take advantage of some great pricing on some cruises. There is one ship line that will carry us to the Bahamas for $49.00 for the day. The bahamas are only about 50 miles off shore. Although we haven't done it yet, I am sure we will. There is so much to do here and we have barely scratched the surface of all the fun activities we look forward to taking part in. Now that the baby is here and I am feeling better, we plan on checking some of these need to do activities off out list as soon as possible. Down on Hollywood beach they have a wonderful Boardwalk area, we we can just walk up and down the beach, do a little shopping, or stop for an ice cream and enjoy it while strolling along beach.

The final week of Summer Break, we made a trip to Orlando for the weekend to support our friend Laura in her first triathlon, She did amazing and has further inspired me to get back in to shape. We stayed in a hotel with a water park. It was alot of fun, and the kids were able to use the park as much as they wanted during our stay. It wasn't the largest of waterparks, but nevertheless, it was pretty good size and we had a great time. It was pretty cool to know that all the kids could swim, so we could really just relax and enjoy ourselves while at the waterpark. Even little Mike handles himself really well in the water now, and he spent most of his time floating around the lazy river all by himself. He is tall enough that he could walk when we wasn't swimming. Orlando is actually quite lovely, and we really enjoy visiting there. It seems that when we are not working or doing school, all we have to do is walk out our front door and it feels like we are on vacation, It's pretty wonderful. We are all loving South florida. We have so much to do here and so much opportunities to offer.

Josh is now playing Football, but he injured his knee a couple of weeks ago, and although he is walking fine we are taking out time getting him back in to full practices and games. We figure a couple of weeks more and he should be good to go. The coaches really need him to come back and play. They are all so impressed with him. He just came back from a tournament in Tennessee and they had a game on Sunday and he of course refused to play. Even when the coaches begged him to go in, he simply told them he couldn't, it just wouldn't feel right. We are so proud of him. Kyndra will be starting Tennis in September. And Hailee is hoping to get back into Soccer. I am training for her first triathlon on October 24th in Orlando. We really couldn't be happier, we are truly loving our lives here in Florida, and we have already all grown so much. David and I both feel that our family is closer now than we ever have been. We are all healthy and happy. Grandma and Papa are hoping to come and visit us in November for Thanksgiving, and Debbie and Kevin will drive down then too. We certainly hope it all works out. We would love to see them again.