Bermuda Cruise Vacation

We enjoyed our NCL Getaway cruise vacation so much last year, that I immediately booked another vacation on her sister ship, the Breakaway for the next summer.  We would have more than twelve months to wait!  The cruise was booked for Aug 28th, our last week of summer, and this would be our first time to cruise in late August/early September, which is prime hurricane season.  After much consideration, I felt it was safest to book another cruise to Bermuda, since it rarely sees hurricane activity.  It's just a tiny speck of an island all alone in the middle of the North Atlantic.  And of course, with only five days before sail away, Hurricane Gaston began slowly making it's way to Bermuda!  We closely followed its track, knowing there was a possibility that our cruise could be delayed or rerouted.  Lucky for us, with two days to spare, Gatson took a sharp turn east and carried away from the island.  We thought we'd averted the crisis and were off to enjoy a hurricane free vacation.  The only other potential for hurricane activity was just an invest east of the Caribbean that had the potential of getting into the Gulf of Mexico and strengthening.  We knew it may cause some adjustments to the Caribbean itineraries but it would have no impact on our trip......or so we thought!  More on that later.

We kicked off our vacation with a Mom and Me Day!  Brenna and I usually have our annual Mom and Me Day just before her birthday.  This year, because of travel and summer camps, we had to postpone and decided to save it for a trip to the nail salon just before our vacation.  The day before we left for vacation we both got manicures and pedicures followed by a pancake breakfast at McDonald's.  Then it was back home to pack-up for an early morning departure.

The Run Down

I'm getting very behind on my blogging for a number of reasons.  We finished off the summer with a vacation, which left me a large number of photos that needed to be processed.  Immediately after returning, we started school.  Then, I unexpectedly, or rather unknowingly, took on a full-time job.  I have donated a significant portion of my time over the last five weeks to the set-up and start-up of our school's new library.  I can honestly say it's the most technical work I've put into something outside my own home, since I quit ExxonMobil.  Outside of the physical effort it has taken in the selection, cataloging, and barcoding of 4,500 books, I've also had a crash course in library database management and barcode generation and export.  While it was frustrating and exhausting at times, it was something that fit right into my skill set and I'm happy to have been a part of it.  Now that we've had a successful first week in the library, I expect to settle into what will be our normal school routine and hope to finally have some free time to get back to blogging.  In the mean time, while I work on getting the vacation post together, I thought I would go ahead and share the spring and summer run down.  This is the usual random collection of iPhone photos beginning with our annual spring hockey game to our last week of summer before we left for vacation.  Our spring was filled with lots of school activities and sports, while we packed our summer full of lots of beach and pool parties!

Sarnia Girls Soccer 2016

We closed out another soccer season in August.  Every year the competition gets harder and Brenna continues to grow her skills to meet it.  She also continues to get faster on the field.  I'm sure all that spring training for track and field has impacted her ability to accelerate on the soccer field.  It was a great season and she had two goals on the offensive side of play and really played a fantastic game of defense.  Here's some shots from the season.  

Brenna's 9th Birthday

Another year has come and gone and it's seems to be the fastest one yet.  I feel like I just wrote this post yesterday for her 8th birthday.  But, while the time seems to have passed quickly, the changes have been great.

She's done a lot of growing up in the last year.  She's slowly made the transition from "little kid" to "big kid".  She notices much more about the world around her, which has led to some interesting discussions.  She also continues to grow in her own personality.  She continues to be the most determined and strong willed (yet impatient) child I know, and it spans over all aspects of her life.  She likes to succeed (which is my polite way of saying she likes to win.....at everything!) and we are constantly trying to teach the importance of character, even in the disappointments.  She likes to be right!  She never backs down in a disagreement.  Unfortunately, while I do my best to teach her that it's ok to have your own opinion and you don't always have to agree, she hasn't quite learned the importance of picking your battles!  So, it seems we're always in a debate about some trivial issue.  While all of this may sound like she's a fussy child and she does have her moments, I can assure you that she is very much a happy, enjoy-life-to-the-fullest, joyful kid and looks at life from a positive prospective.  All that strong will and determination makes her confident in herself.  She has no insecurities and I hope she keeps that confidence as we head into those tough middle-school years.  She is very independent and prefers to manage things on her own, while still needing a few reminders from mom on occasion.  She's very smart and learns quickly.  She has a very analytical mind and her favorite games are the ones that require strategy, like Rook or Mexican Train dominoes.  Jacob's not the type to "let her win" and she recently celebrated the great achievement of besting her daddy (and me, of course) for the first time in a Rook match.  God has a special plan for this child and I can see Him working in her life.  She is the greatest blessing God has ever given me and Jacob and we pray for her constantly. 

This year she picked flowers for a birthday party theme and we sat down to build her invitation together.  She decided to have the party at home in the backyard and after much negotiation we agreed to just invite her girl friends.  Decorating for the party is always part of the fun and we found some really cute flower decor to go with our theme.  I usually just order a birthday cake or cupcake for the convenience, but this year Brenna talked me into baking our own.  We dedicated the whole day before the party to putting up party decorations and baking cupcakes.  She had a great time frosting her cupcakes with a rainbow of icing colors.  She decorated each one with a specific friend in mind.

Niagara Falls and Great Wolf Lodge

As soon as we found out we were coming to Canada I stopped off by the book store and picked up a copy Frommer's Canada to browse.  That's when I realized that Niagara Falls was only about a three hour drive from Sarnia.  I came home and told Jacob that we had to go!  For one reason or another, it took us two and half years to get there.  Jacob's time has been limited this summer due to work commitments, so we tried to squeeze in a short two-night trip over the July holiday weekend.

We drove down on Sunday to avoid the Canada Day crowds.  We got an early start and were in Niagara before noon.  We decided to stop off by the hotel to see if they could hold our luggage until check-in while we toured the Niagara Falls area.  We were surprised to hear that they already had a room available so we checked-in and got settled into our room.  Another benefit to the trip was this was our first stay at Great Wolf Lodge.  It definitely lived up to all it's rave reviews from friends and the trip turned out to be more about Great Wolf than Niagara.  She was so excited with the whole place and loved having her own separated little space with TV and bunk bed.  After promising that we would have time to try everything at the hotel, we convinced her to leave so we could go tour Niagara Falls.

Canada Day in Detroit

Just as American's celebrate Independence Day on the July 4th, Canadian's show their nation's pride on Canada Day on July 1st.  This year we mixed up our celebrations and spent Canada Day in the States with a fun day trip to Detroit and we celebrated Independence Day in Canada with a trip to Niagara Falls (post to coming up).

For Canada Day we decided to drive into Detroit to explore Great Lakes Crossing.  It's a large indoor outlet mall and entertainment complex.  Lots of friends had raved about what a great day trip it was. This was another item on my hit list of places I wanted to visit while we're here, and it seemed like Canada Day would offer a great chance to do it since Jacob had the day off and Brenna just got of school the day before.  We left first thing in the morning and made a short detour to Oakland University for a special treat.  We got to enjoy the only Chick-fil-A that Detroit has to offer that doesn't require a security pass (the only other one is in the McNamara terminal of the Detroit Airport).  We walked around the Student Union a little bit while we waited for the food court to open.  Brenna enjoyed the Saints and Sinners Fountain.

Rock Glen Falls Field Trip - School Wrap-Up

We finished off our school year with our 8th and final class field trip of the year.  Add in a Christmas Choir Concert, Dr. Seuss Day, and a spring musical and I would say we've had a full and busy year.  So to celebrate, this field trip wasn't associated with any study unit.  We didn't have to do a project or report on it.  It was just for fun and the kids enjoyed every minute of it!

We visited Rock Glen Falls in Arkona for the day.  Brenna and I had visited Rock Glen last year as part of our Mom and Me Day 2015, so Brenna was excited to go back and enjoy it with her friends.  The kids hunted for fossils, played in the falls, swam in the creek, and enjoyed the playground.  It was a great day of just being a kid in a fun and adventurous new place.

District Track and Field Meet

The district track and field meet began with an early morning (up around 5:30 AM) and a long drive to Windsor.  We had to be on the field by 9 AM for the opening ceremonies which were immediately followed by the first event of the day, the 800 meter race.

This year was our first experience with the 800 meter.  Brenna generally doesn't like long distance running.  Our school also offers cross-country in the fall, to which Brenna has adamantly declined saying "All they do is run, for a long ways, for a long time!"  However, the school is allowed three participants between grades 3rd - 5th in the 800 meter and three participants between grades 6th - 8th in the 1500 meter.  Brenna was surprised to find out that she was selected as one of the participants to run in the 800 meter.  However, she was disappointed to hear that it meant she wouldn't be running the 100 meter, since each participant can only compete in three track events.  She was slated for the 200 meter, 800 meter, and girls relay, along with three field events; standing long jump, running long jump, and ball throw.

Grade 2 and 3 girls ready for the day!

World Buffet

For the second half of this school year our social studies class focused on the cultures of the world.  I think that is why we did "It's a Small World" for the school's spring musical.  Our teacher also happens to be the music coordinator.  The kids were broken into groups and each group got to pick a country that they'd like to learn more about.  Brenna was paired with her buddy Leeanna and they chose China.  The social studies unit carried throughout the entire semester, moving from one project to the next.  The first project was to pick a book related to the your country and write a persuasive book report on why someone should visit.  For the next project, they were required to build a paper structure in the likeness of architecture from you country.

Both of the first two activities were completed at school.  Oh, but the next assignment, it was an all-hands-on-deck experience.  Our teacher decided that each group should chose an authentic dish from your country to prepare.  The kids were responsible for finding the recipe and making their own grocery list.  The recipes were tripled (that's right, tripled!) because our teacher decided to turn the project into a community event.  Our school is a protestant christian based school and as such we have more than 15 protestant churches that are represented within the school.  Our teacher decided to use the project to create a "World Buffet" for our area pastors, bus drivers, and school janitorial staff.

It turned into a three day adventure.  After the kids made their grocery list we had a field trip to our local farmers market to purchase all our fruits and vegetables.  The next day was a second field trip to visit the grocery store for the remaining ingredients.  Keep in mind, we braved an open market and grocery store with twenty-one eight-year olds.  It was total chaos.  I repeated the phrase "Don't touch that!" dozens of times.  Shopping carts raced down the isles and product displays were knocked over.  The only person that wanted us out of there faster than me was the store manager.

But the best was still yet to come.  With a school bus loaded with kids and groceries we left the school at 9 AM for our third field trip and made our way to a local soup kitchen downtown.  The owner had granted us use of the facilities to prepare and present our meal.  The kitchen had two ovens, two stoves, two fridges and plenty of tables and counter space.  If we thought the grocery store was challenging, it was nothing compared to 21 kids running around with knives, playing with raw meat, and frying in hot grease.  We cooked from 9:30 am until 1:00 pm that afternoon, when our first guest walked in the door.  And if all that cooking wasn't bad enough, there was no air-conditioning!  We did manage to get two floor fans set up to at least provide a flow of air through kitchen.  Also, another downer was that the kitchen was not equipped with a dish washer.  You can't imagine how many dirty dishes a group of 21 kids can produce!  I thought the pile of dishes would never end!

Brenna and Leeanna chose to make chinese chicken and vegetable spring rolls.  We also had meat pies, cheese pies, empanadas, salad, breads of all kinds, and other dishes that I couldn't even name.  When it was all over, I'm happy to report it was a great success (though extremely stressful!).  Everyone walked away with all their fingers, no burns, and to our knowledge no one ended up in the ER with food poison (it was a serious concern).  The kids could not have enjoyed it more and it was definitely an experience to remember.

Track and Field Day 2016

Track and Field has turned into one of Brenna's favorite and most anticipated sports.  This makes our third season to participate, and Brenna started asking in January when it would start.  After the long wait to March, they finally started school practices and then it was another long wait until mid-May when Track and Field Day finally arrived.  The school has a full day of events as the students compete by grade for a berth in the Christian School District Track and Field Meet.  Brenna competed in eight events this year, adding the 400 meter and 800 meter races to her resume, along with the usual 200 meter and 100 meter races, standing long jump, running long jump, high jump, and ball throw.  Jacob took the day off and helped out with managing some of the events.  I volunteered in the kitchen but was able to step away from time to time and catch most of the action.  By the end of the day she had made a clean sweep for the 3rd grade girls and came home with eight 1st place ribbons.   She was very pleased with herself!  It was a great day.

I'm so thankful that the christian school district puts such a big emphasis on their athletic programs along side education in the early years.  Other schools, both here and back home in the south, also have athletic programs, but most don't start until 5th grade.  These type of extracurricular activities builds character and experiences beyond what a "book learning" environment can provide.  It's been such a fun experience for Brenna.

It's a Small World

Every year our school puts on at least one big production show musical.  Last year, it was "Candy Cane Lane" for Christmas.  This was Brenna's first stage debut.  She auditioned and was chosen to sing a short solo performance.  This seemed to be her stepping off point.  The school does a good job of encouraging the kids to take on the spot light and use their talents.  Couple this with hand-bell performances, junior choir, and leading school chapels, and it came as no surprise when Brenna came home this past Christmas and said she had volunteered to read the scriptures in front of the entire church congregation for the Children's Christmas Program.  Stage fright is definitely not an issue for her.

This year our school decided to do "It's A Small World" for a spring musical.  Brenna raked over the audition sheets and surprised me when she decided not to audition for a speaking role, but to try out for the dancing part of the Russian ballerina.  They spent weeks on auditions, rehearsals, set design, and costumes.  It was so much fun for the kids to act out their parts.  Each country was represented with great effort for attention to detail.  We had the Mexican hat dance, the Beatles, and Highland dancers.  There was no stereotyping either.  They let the dark haired Asian kid be a Russian ballerina, the blond haired Swedish kid got to be the China woman, a Canadian kid played Uncle Sam, and our Australian kid didn't even get the Australian part!  They all did a fantastic job and we were so proud of Brenna's fearlessness.  She was beautiful on-stage doing her ballet set!

Le Chat et la Lune

Near the end of every year since 1st grade, the kids have performed a play in french to demonstrate their language skills.  Our first year, it was "Chicken Little".  The second year, it was "The Three Little Pigs".  And this year it was "The Cat and the Moon" or "Le Chat et la Lune" in french.

Brenna has done very well with her french during our time here and even I've picked up a few phrases along the way.  The kids were responsible for learning their own lines and creating a mask that was appropriate for their character.  When it was time for Brenna's group to perform, they were shy one character.  Brenna knew all the lines, so she gladly volunteered to perform the parts for both the dog (le chien) and the horse (le cheval).

3rd Grade Spring Pictures

Easter

Crystal Mountain Michigan Spring Break

We're trying to make the most out of our time up north.  We've slowing been moving through a hit-list of places that we wanted to enjoy while we were here.  These are the type of places that we might not have visited otherwise.  One big item on our list was to experience skiing.  Neither Jacob nor I have ever tried it, and considering how well Brenna has embraced the winter climate, we made it a priority for this year.

I found a great resort in north Michigan called Crystal Mountain that seemed to have everything we were looking for.  In January, I made all the arrangements for a Spring Break Ski Vacation.  It had been a mild winter, but the resort assured me there would be skiing until April.  I planned it just like I plan all our other trips; with great attention to detail.  I made reservations for snowmobiling, snow-shoeing, and ski lessons.  We also planned for spa appointments, the adventure course, and a hiking trip to the Michigan Legacy Art Park.  As the date approached, we weren't "warming-up" but we were hitting temperatures above freezing.  I was concerned that we may not see any snow on this ski vacation.  As it turns out, we did have snow.  Granted it was more man-made than natural, but it provided the slopes we needed to try our first ski adventure.  Unfortunately, because of the above-freezing temperatures, most of the other trails on the mountain were snow-free and eliminated our opportunity to try snowmobiling and snow-shoeing.  At first I was a bit disappointed, but after our first couple of days at Crystal Mountain I realized it was a better fit us.  We got the best of both worlds.  We could enjoy the all the outdoor activities with mild temperatures and still take in the winter-type skiing.  It did rain 2 out of our 5 days there, but there were plenty of activities to keep us busy and we enjoyed some down time in the cabin with board games and family movies.

We drove roughly 4 hours all the way across Michigan with the cats.  We reserved a 2-bedroom, 2-bath, pet-friendly cabin so they could join us on this vacation.  The cabin was just what you would expect from a cozy ski cabin.  It was settled on the outer edge of the mountain and backed up to a small pond.  The living area had a large window that looked out over the pond and the Canadian geese kept Pickles entertained during his stay.  He spent most of his time perched on top of the kitchen counter for the best view of the backyard.  Moose preferred the solitude of the master bedroom which had a very large sky window that gave him views of the tall maple trees outside.