Painting Project!

The color in the background of this photo was the color we used to have in our master bedroom before Julio and Ayden (who helped) painted it last weekend (July 31 st). It is now a light blue to match the new bedding. I will take an "after" photo when I get the room all set up with all the new bedding (all of it still hasn't arrived in the mail yet!).

Trip to Asheville!

We were lucky that the Kindergarten start date coordinated with our trip to Asheville because the whole family was getting together to celebrate Grandma Betty's 95th birthday! On Friday, we went to Montreat where there was a fun park with a little river running right through it!
Ayden found a swimming hole that was just his size!
Here is little Cousin Annika with Cousin Frank and Gabriel wading in the creek.
Our adventure for the day was "creek walking." Here's Cousin Allie, Granny and Gabriel wading at the end point of our walk.
I think we broke out the watermelon after the creek walk, which hit the spot! Here are the two little girl cousins enjoying some!

Dancing to Elmo!

An early July morning...the kids were goofing around...

4th of July, Swimming and a Brand New School!!

We forgot the camera when we went over to our friends house for their annual block party complete with kids bike parade, but we snapped these when we got home just to mark the date anyhow! :)
Right after the 4th, Ayden participated in the Amberly Swim Clinic at the pool where they practiced all 4 strokes, did some diving practice and some fun games too. The clinic was intended to prepare them for the swim team that was to come in late July. Ayden thought the clinic was a bit long each day (for a week) and it was, two and a half hours each of the 4 days they had it!! As you can see from this photo (that I took with my cell phone!) Ayden did pretty well at diving!
On July 7th, we attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for Ayden's new elementary school, Alston Ridge!! It was exciting because this school was just built in the last two years to be a "green" school and was added to Wake Co public school system because the area out here in west Cary has been rapidly growing! They had dignitaries from the Town of Cary for the ceremonies and we were introduced to Ayden's new teacher! More photos to come...
My little Scooby Doo lover!! I can pretty much say that he is obsessed with "Obie Doo!" He wants to watch the movies or shows all the time and sings the theme song quite a bit! We couldn't resist indulging him with these fun pj's to satisfy the obsession! :)

Happy Father's Day (a little late!)

So, the weekend after we returned from Puerto Rico (about June 26th to be exact), we celebrated Father's Day because we weren't able to really celebrate it while we were traveling. Really all that we noticed on Father's Day while in PR was that the cemeteries were filled with people and also trucks of flowers for sale because family is a big part of life there. Without a doubt, the families will take flowers to their loved ones graves (especially a Father or Grandfather) on Father's Day!
So anyways, we celebrated that Saturday when we got home with some yummy huevos rancheros and a couple of gifts for Daddy including this handmade book that I helped Ayden make. He told me the story he had in mind as I wrote it down and then he completed it with illustrations.
I have to say, my kids are so very blessed to have the Daddy that they do and a wife couldn't be more lucky! :)

Last Batch...

Hope you enjoyed my little slide show of family photos! These were taken on May 22nd at a great park in Wake Forest where the city brought in replicas (one original) of Civil War cabins. It was a great location!

More Family Pics...

Family Photos - May 2010

I finally found a great photographer who has great prices! Our local Raleigh cousins, Frank and Sonja told us about Michelle Tomlinson because she took photos of them two weeks after their daughter was born last Fall. We were so happy with Michelle's work, so here are a few of the best ones.

On the way home...

I couldn't help but include this pic that was taken on our way to Lares. I was determined to find some fresh fruit at a rode side stand and we finally found the mangos that I was looking for the whole trip! We got a pineapple too and they were all delicious! Nothing better than just picked off the tree! :)
After all of our rustic beach and mountain living, my husband knew to choose this place for us to stay at the night before we left for the airport to go home! It was pretty luxurious and the pool was awesome! Bye-bye Puerto Rico! See you soon!

The Caves and the Mountains...

We saw sooooo many beautiful flowers and plants in Puerto Rico, here is just one sample of the beauty!
Here is the group shot from the caves adventure before we went down into the caves on the tram. From left to right, we've got Cindy, Ayden, Julio, Gabriel, Christina, Franklin (newly married couple!), Brandon, Erica, Caryl (Granny), Sharon and Julio (Papi)!
On our last day before heading back to the airport, we went to visit the extended family in Lares as I mentioned before. I was lucky to get all of Papi's photos from the trip last week, so here are some more photos from that visit in Lares. From left to right: Pedro (Papi's cousin), Julio (Papi) and Julio (my hubby)!
All the ladies! We've got Cousins: Rebecca, Rachel, Papi and Alejandra.
Papi's cousin Alejandra and her husband, Aquiles, live on a property in the mountains that has their church and their mother's house on it that has been there for over 100 years! (his mom's house that is!) Here is a photo of me, Esther (Tata - Papi's mom) and Alejandra's mother in law at her home!

From Culebra to Fajardo to Adjuntas...

On the beach in Culebra, we had a sand castle contest. Granny, Gabriel and I were on a team!
Just a cute shot of hang out time at the condo!
We left Culebra and headed back on the ferry towards Fajardo. We stayed in a B & B in Fajardo that we had been to on our last trip. They make the yummiest breakfast! The next morning, we drove to Adjuntas to stay at a mountain resort. I use the word "resort" somewhat lightly. :) They called it a resort because there was horseback riding, swimming, basketball, volleyball and a bunch of other activities. It seemed like both mornings that we were in Adjuntas, we went over to the Panaderia (a bakery) to get breakfast. Here we are with some fresh baked ginger bread and the always popular "Puro," the 100% fresh squeezed tropical punch that you could buy all over the island. We loved it in that hot, humid air!
Ayden swimming at the Adjuntas mountain resort! :)

Rio Camuy Caves!!

You can barely see, but this is a photo from inside a gigantic cave system in the middle of the island near a town called Lares. The Rio Camuy caves are one of the largest and deepest caves in the world! It was so amazing to see the stalactites and stalagmites that have formed over the last several million years! Took me back to college Geology!!
Here are the two big boys in their safety hats! :)
I couldn't resist having our photo taken inside the cave wearing the big green hats!
The next day, we went out to visit Papi's cousin and her family on Sunday afternoon for lunch. We explored around their property and found some interesting creatures, including this huge catepillar, who had several family members with him on the same bush. We wished that we could have seen him turn into a butterfly, he was beautiful!
Here is the shot of the whole family. On the right side of the photo is Papi's cousin Allejandra and her family and the Quinones clan is on the left and in the front. We all had a great time together!

Leaving the Island...

Here are the boys as we are waiting for the Papi shuttle to take us over to the ferry boat that will take us back to the main island.
I think they were saying, "Yah!" Don't exactly remember why, but I do remember it sure was cute!
I was attempting to take an updated photo of Molly and Scott (Julio's sister and brother in law) for my frame, but I should have done this at a time when they weren't in their beach attire, oh well! Cute photo anyhow! :)

Amazing Sea Creatures!

An amazing octopus on the left and an Eagle Ray on the right!
A sort of creepy looking barracuda that was just floating there, looking at us with an eery glance!


Colorful sealife on the left and an awesome shot of Julio's sister Molly and her husband Scott in the background and a sea turtle in the foreground! The sea turtle looked just like the ones in the movie, "Finding Nemo!"