Sage makes a friend

We were checking out this cool store in town and realized that the owner had a cayman parrot as a pet. The bird was immediately attracted to Sage and to Sage ONLY. It took a lot of interest in Sage and wanted to be near her. The owner told Sage to put out her arm and the bird immediately jumped onto it. Sage...our animal lover was in heaven.

Happy Birthday Maya!!!

Maya had her GOLDEN birthday on April 15th turning 15! She is our ONLY blue-eyed girl and what a delight she is in our family! And just to brag about her even more...she finished school for this year the day before her b-day!



So, how did we celebrate? Going to Portofino's! YUM!

Kirk's newest children

About a week ago, we discovered this guy in our yard right next to our house. We gave him some bread, which he gobbled up quickly and also some water. Kirk gave him the name of Mr. Pidgey Widgey. We have no idea where he came from.

Every morning we find him in the same place in the yard and we discovered that he sleeps in a different spot in the evenings. How do we know this?....follow the poop!

Then one day this guy in the neighborhood (Larry) says, hey, there's another pigeon down the road. Kirk says, oh, he'll make a nice friend for Mr. Pidgey Widgey. Go and get him! Kirk promptly named him Karl.

So, here's Kirk's newest children--Karl and Mr. Pidgey Widgey. They get along ok when there isn't food around. But, when Kirk feeds them, Karl is the aggressive one and gets the bread first and won't let Mr. Widgey get any! So, Kirk has resorted to handing out a piece of bread to each bird.

"Hey Dad...can you get me my sunglasses?"

This is what Lea got when she asked Kirk for her sunglasses!

He thinks he's so CLEVER!

Finally...they can get down to business!

The Mission

If you know Sage (and many of you do!), you know that she is creative and likes to save things and then re-purpose them later into something wonderful. Such was the case with the pretzel container which was left by some renters. The problem is that I made her wait until all the pretzels were eaten before she could take the container. I knew what was brewing inside that head and the minute the pretzels were gone she had that container out on the beach. The mission...make an aquarium and gather the inhabitants.

Sage enlisted Maya in the gathering. Sage would "herd" the fish to Maya and she would scoop them up. It was unsuccessful...

until Kirk wanted to get in on the action. He says, I have a better net on a pole and I will get the fish! Everyone was so excited to watch and see!

The minute they would get a fish or two, Sage would take off running to put it quickly in her aquarium. (aka pretzel container)

Kirk was really good at catching fish and making deposits.

Mission Complete! The finished project.


OK, so that's not the end of the story. Sage continued to add to the aquarium. She put in some sand, a broken sea urchin and then a bunch of ravenous hermit crabs who proceeded to down the fish one by one until...well, you get the point!

TY TY..OUR FAVORITE GUY GUY!

We had a great time with Ty this past week. Kirk enjoyed having another MAN around the house as well. Here we're showing Ty how to do the WII Fit Plus, playing Rhythm Kung Fu!

Ty diving with Maya and Star

Hi Mom!!

Yes, I'm a manly man..did you know that I'm riding a horse...backward!

Bye Ty...see you in 2 weeks!

Girl Time

The girls decided to have a spa day one afternoon. We had a bunch of Ritz Carlton robes and so the girls got "dressed" and did some homemade facials. They looked up on the internet some recipes and we just happened to have the ingredients on hand. Here's Mari...

and Sage...she looks like she's in pain actually


Mari giving Sage a pedicure

the finished Sage..isn't she BEAUTIFUL!

the divers

Star, Sky and Maya have finished their scuba diving certification. It's been fun for all to dive off of seven mile beach. The boat pulls up to the beach at the Ritz Carlton and everyone helps to load the tanks on board. Then everyone gets organized and off they go.


Kirk

Star and Mari

Sky

here's the whole gang

you see these guys quite often here in Cayman

Easter

Happy Easter from the Islands! Easter is a BIG deal here in Cayman. They celebrate Good Friday and Easter and THEN Easter Monday. Yes, stores and businesses are closed to celebrate. The big thing here is to go camping over Easter. No thank you, I will enjoy the amenities at the Ritz Carlton. Since we are staying at the Ritz, we had to improvise and hold our Easter Egg hunt here in our condo. Our bedroom was the hunting ground. Lea is ALWAYS the first to begin the hunt...and this year she actually found a treat all by herself without Kirk or me to tell her to pick something up.

Maya searching my closet for treats.

everyone jockeying for position to grab the candy

Easter Dinner--we celebrated by NOT using paper plates!

Sky..thought she was clever using a strainer as an easter basket

Sage..her stash is ALWAYS the biggest because she is the most motivated

Maya--eating her goodies

and the BIGGEST easter surprise of all---TY came to visit!!!

Good friends and Good times

Last week, our good friends from Jackson came to Cayman on their cruise. We had a wonderful day with them and were sad to see the end of the day. As we headed out in the boat, these iguanas were all over the dock.

We took our guests out to Stingray City. The dark images you see in the water are the stingrays--sorry I couldn't get closer pictures, it was a rough day and high tide. We spent quite a bit of time enjoying these gentle creatures. Then we headed over to the reef to snorkel. We didn't snorkel for too long due to the visit of a hammerhead shark!

my BEAUTIFUL, BROWN girls--this is what it's all about!

boating around in our bay with Aaron and Holly Galbraith and Aaron's sisters, Carolyn and Suzanne

here's our entire group at the sandbar