27 years...

Kirk and I celebrated 27 years of marriage on August 8th. It seems like we've only been married like 5 years...time sure flies.

We decided to celebrate by going to dinner at the Cracked Conch. Dinner was absolutely DELICIOUS and we had a beautiful sunset as well.

The residence team at the Ritz surprised us with this lovely bouquet of flowers.

This was our "surprise" when we returned from dinner. Romellia, one of our concierge team members, made this cool design on our bed with the help of the girls. Yes, these are bath towels folded into all sorts of shapes, complete with rose petals.

Then we had a "special" tubby to match! The girls were in charge of making sure the petals were arranged JUST SO.(Romellia was the boss!)

We couldn't let the tubby go to waste....the girls helped us out by jumping in and having a blast.

Fun in the sun...and sky

We continue to have loads of fun here in Cayman. The girls wanted to go parasailing on 7 mile beach. Derek and Becky came and Britnee, Avery and Brolin went parasailing with the girls.

Here's Sage, Avery and Star getting ready to lift off.

Sage, Avery and Star

Brolin, Britnee and Sky take their turn now.

Tropical Storm Ernesto tried to dampen the fun, but Cayman was spared the major wrath as it diverted south of Cayman. We did get some rain and wind.

We even had some big waves.

Every day, Kirk and his sidekick, Lea head to the gym to work out.

Here's Mari leading the girls in some exercises in the hallway of our residence. (btw...we've been the ONLY ones here in the hallway, so we had tons of privacy)

Life

Life on a small island can be SO relaxing. People might ask....what do you do all day...besides laying out at the beach and the pool? Well, we have had LOTS to do. It's just nice not to have to adhere to any type of schedule at all.

It's fun to go around Georgetown and pretend to be tourists. Here's Mari and Lea with Black Dick.

Diving has also been a fun past time. So convenient to have the boat pull up right to the beach at the Ritz.

It's been fun to renew friendships with friends on the island. Here's Mari's twin, Ally. (honestly, she looks SO MUCH like Mari did at that age)

We have access to all sorts of fun toys here at the Ritz. Here's Star and Sage trying out the paddle boards.

You know it's summer in Cayman when you see all the poinciana trees in bloom. Aren't they stunning?

We had heard about a lone dolphin out at Starfish Point. And yes, we were lucky enough to see it firsthand. It was just incredible. You couldn't have paid for this experience! Thanks to Derek for taking us out there.

We also heard that the dolphin LOVES anchors...yes, you got it, anchors. He has an anchor fetish! Here's Derek playing with him with an anchor. Evidently, he is a VERY LONELY DOLPHIN, so he loves the interaction...even if it is with an anchor!

5 weeks

Some of you know that we are out of our home in Jackson for a good 6 weeks. For 5 of those weeks we are in the Cayman Islands. There are 8 of us "cozily situated" in a 2 bedroom private residence at the Ritz Carlton here in Cayman.

We have enjoyed some awesome and interesting sunsets.

We almost had a financial breakdown at the gas station filling up the car! Good thing, this is a small island and we aren't doing a ton of driving! Gas is @$6.50 an imperial gallon...whatever that is.

Where we used to say "oh, look" every time we saw an iguana....now we say...don't get in a crash trying to avoid it. They have become very prolific in abundance and they are EVERYWHERE. (literally)

And this is what I see out my window, every....single....day. Are you jealous yet?

catching up...

Still doing a bit of catching up...YOU KNOW WHAT THIS IS????

MY GRANDCHILD!!!!! YES...COMING MID DECEMBER, COMPLIMENTS OF TY AND SLOANE.

Prom picture of Maya and her date Taylor. Maya was quite surprised to be voted Prom Queen!

Star and her date Bo and Sky and her date Garret went to the junior prom.

Lea was the manager of the basketball team that played at Special Olympics in Laramie, WY at University of Wyoming.

It's been awhile...

Yeah, I know it's been quite a while since I have blogged. I don't know really what happened? Guess I got busy with....life? People have been bugging (or kindly suggesting) me that I get back on the band wagon. So, here goes. I won't bore you with trying to catch up on EVERYTHING....just the highlights. So here goes!

Mari turns the BIG 20--yes that is a H U G E Totoro that I made her for her birthday--she's loves Totoro!

Sage graduates from middle school--oops, I mean "promoted". And I'm gonna brag here, so just suck it up and deal with it...this young lady received the highest score EVER on a math test given to assess growth in her entire school EVER and she did it in 1 hour!

We had lots of visitors this spring. (check out this guy's teeth...thanks to Mari for a great picture!)

We became keepers of bees! aka..beekeepers...thank you Ty and Sloane for helping us!

the Big guy has another birthday

MONUMENTAL ACHIEVEMENT....KARA GRADUATES FROM BYU!!!!!!!(she finished in December and walked in April)

Maya Papaya turns 17...she's turned into quite the hiker and adventurer. Look forward for a few more pictures of the past, but then we're on to the present! See you all soon!