#277 - St. Thomas Revisited

Lou and I just got back from a wonderful vacation to St. Thomas.  When I say wonderful, I truly mean it - it was fantastic, beautiful, relaxing, and more fun than we could have imagined.  This was our first vacation together since having two children, and wow, did we need it!

Although we had been looking forward to this vacation for months, we both had a lot of anxiety about leaving the boys.  Our biggest fear was if one of them got sick.  Gabby, our nanny, was lined up to watch them from Wednesday through Friday, and then Grandfather and Grandmother were driving here to take care of them from Friday through Sunday.  Tuesday night before we left, Owen had quite the meltdown, sobbing tears of sadness that when he woke up Wednesday morning, his Mommy and Daddy would be gone.  Lou and I about lost it, and the parental guilt kicked in big time.

But, let me just tell you..... those kids did great!  They didn't miss us for one second.  They were having a blast with Gabby and then their grandparents.  They were getting spoiled rotten, and loving life with a new set of rules and routines.  We got to video conference them a number of times, and we took a lot of pictures and videos that we texted back to them.  And, thank the Lord, they both stayed healthy the entire time we were gone!  That's quite the miracle!

Last year, Heather and I went to St. Thomas on our annual girls' trip.  Remember this post?  While we were there, we found ourselves saying over and over, wouldn't it be fun if we brought Mike and Lou here?  So, this year, when planning our big trip, we decided to make it a couples vacation.  We stayed at the same hotel, went to the same islands, took the same chartered trip to the British Virgin Islands, and even ate at a few of the same restaurants.  That's how much we loved it!  We even added an extra day to the trip this year. 

Here's a rundown of our vacation:

Waiting on the airplane for takeoff.  Lou already has his earphones in listening to music!

The flight down was uneventful, and we were greated with warm, sunny weather.  We had an awesome room overlooking the ocean.  Here's a picture of the setting sun taken from our balcony the first night.  

Another picture of the sunset

These little critters are all over the islands.  

On Thursday, we took the car ferry over to St. John.  It was great having a car on St. John, as it allowed us to check out multiple beaches and tour the beautiful island.  The ferry ride over was a lot of fun, especially the part when a huge wave came crashing over the side of the boat and drenched Heather and me.  It was pretty hilarious!

The beautiful harbor of St. John.

The two of us at Saltpond Bay, St. John

On Friday, we did the tour of the British Virgin Islands again.  The boat charter was the highlight of our trip last year, and we knew we wanted to do it again.  Not surprisingly, it was the highlight of this year's trip too!  We had a blast!  The boat took us around the different US and British Virgin Islands - Tortolla, Virgin Gorda, Cooper Key, Jost Van Dyke and St. John.  We snorkled into The Baths of Virgin Gorda, had lunch at a private island, and swam onto shore to get a Painkiller from Soggy Dollar Bar.  

A view from the hike through The Baths.  We are looking out at the Carribean sea.

Walking though The Baths

You can see here how we snorkeled in through the rocks

A picture of Heather and me on Jost Van Dyke.  The only way to get to the bar beach is by swimming up to the sand.  

That night, we went to a great pizza place on St. Thomas.  

On Saturday, Heather and Mike had to head home early to take care of a sick child, so Lou and I spent the day driving around St. Thomas and checking out some of the "local" beaches.  Let's just say that we prefer to stick to the more touristy places....  That night, we had an incredible dinner at Old Stone Farmhouse, and we got to sign the ceiling of the kitchen.  It was pretty cool.  

Saturday was spent walking around the resort, and then going downtown for lunch before heading back to the airport.  This picture was taken from the marina of our hotel and is looking at downtown St. Thomas - Charlotte Amelie.

Walking along the boardwalk of our hotel

All in - a great trip.  Many, many thanks to my dad and Catherine and Gabby for making this possible for us.  It was a real gift to be able to relax and enjoy our vacation knowing that our boys were well taken care of.

#276 - My Scuba/Ninja/PowerRanger

Owen's fascination with Ninjago, ninjas and Power Rangers continues.  Here's a picture of him from this morning, sporting a scuba mask, a balaclava, and a bat (pretend sword), in his effort to be a ruthless ninja Power Ranger.

And, before you ask, yes, I sent my kid to school like this.

#275 - We were cool once

Lou and I have had a few formal events to attend this month.  I splurged and bought a new dress, and even though I had some backups, I loved it so much that I ended up wearing it to both events.  Mom encouraged me to post these pictures "so that one day the boys can look back at their mom and dad and see that they were once cool".  So here you go, Mom!

This was before the Georgia Historical Society gala.  It was a beautiful event, and we thoroughly enjoyed meeting and hearing from the two honorees - S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chik-fil-A, and Herman Russell, owner of The Russell Company and a key figure of the civil rights movement.

The second weekend we attended the Telfair Museum Ball.  It was a bit more formal, technically a white tie event.  It was a spectacular event, with breathtaking decor (think live human statues and over the top displays of food), and we had a blast!

Same dress, different necklace....

A look down at the tables during the dinner.

My good friend, Rebecca and me.

Another one of us

My incredibly handsome husband!

See boys.... we were once cool.

#274 - Our Father

Our cute little kid saying the Our Father.

#273 - Speech Therapy

At Benjamin's 15-month appointment, our pediatrician became a little concerned over Benjamin's lack of talking.  The books and doctors say that at 12-months of age, babies should be saying Mama and Dada, at 15-months of age should be at 5-10 words, and by 18-months of age at 20+ words.  Benjamin didn't start saying Mama and Dada until close to 15-months old, and by 18-months, was only at 3 or 4 words (Mama, Dada, Cocoa and his version of Thank You).  So, at our 18-month appointment, with Ben's lack of progress, he ordered a speech evaluation.  The evaluation was done about six weeks later, and it confirmed that Benjamin had a speech delay.  His receptive communication skills (Benjamin point to the dog, to your nose, take off your shoes, etc.) were great; in fact, he tested out at a 2-year old level.  But, his verbal communication was behind.  So, we are now in weekly speech therapy.

Just in the few weeks we've been working with him, his speaking has exploded - he's adding new words and sounds almost on a daily basis.  He's now added uh-oh, dog, car, bubble, Nana and Gabby.  In speech therapy, we are working on animals and animal sounds, and he's almost saying moo (cow) and ruff (dog).  It's pretty amazing to watch his progress and see his thirst to learn.  And, I think he loves the one on one attention!  Speech therapy is pretty cool - they use an iPad and various learning apps on it to help facilitate the therapy, in addition to the old-fashioned speech play.  We go to the Pediatric Rehabilitation center at Memorial Hospital.  

Here's a video from this week of Benjamin practicing his new words.  It's tough to get him to sit still long enough to practice!  As you can see, he's a pretty happy kid!

#272 - Bedtime Giggle Time

Bedtime with Benjamin can be a lot of fun!  I've often mentioned here that it's my favorite time of the day.  Below, you can see why.  He still loves for me to rock him to sleep. Bedtime always starts off with good-night hugs and kisses for Owen and Daddy.  Benjamin plants big sloppy kisses on both of them, then runs to get his sippy cup of milk and races off to the bedroom.  Now that he's such a big boy, he wants to sit beside me on the rocking chair and drink his milk.  After prayers, we both get a little goofy - making faces at each other, having kissing contests (who can give the quickest kiss.... the lightest kiss....the loudest kiss, etc.), and in general, just making each other laugh.  After about ten minutes or so, he quiets down, and then climbs up on me and lays his head on my shoulder.  Within a few minutes he's out, and I put him down in his crib.

I took these on my phone, so they are a little blurry, but you can see what a typical night is like.

When things work out right, Lou is putting Owen down at the same time, and I'll come out of Benjamin's room to find Owen sound asleep.  These nights are rare, but treasured.

Here are pictures from last night.

#271 - iPhone Dump

I just backed up my iPhone and found these random pictures from January I thought I'd share:

Here's Owen getting ready for his first soccer practice.  He was so excited!

Boys being goofy

I like this picture because it shows how big Benjamin is as compared to Owen.  He is catching up to his big brother pretty fast!

Silly hat day at school