Spring Band Trip

James' high school band just got back from a 3 night cruise to the Bahamas. As his mother, I made the selfless sacrifice to go as a chaperon. It ended up being one of the most fun chaperoning experiences I've had.

We left late Wednesday night on charter buses and drove to Florida. We arrived at the Golden Corral at 6:30 am. We had arranged for the entire restaurant to be open just for us. After our leisurely breakfast, we drove another 45 minutes or so to Coco Beach for our performance at the Ron Jon Surf Shop.

The kids were given a little bit of shopping time before we got back on the buses to drive the short ride to port.

As a chaperon, I was in charge of one room of boys. James was in another group, as I am sure he was quite pleased! I was responsible for getting my boys checked in and on board. Then throughout the trip, they had to check in with me every now & then to let me know what they were doing. My group ate at a separate table for dining each night. We had nightly curfews and room checks. The kids were allowed to be in different groups while we were in the Bahamas, but 3 of them stayed with me. And at the end of the cruise, I was responsible for getting them through customs. I only knew one of my guys prior to the trip. I couldn't have asked for a better group. They were great!

Of course, once we got on the ship, we weren't able to go directly to our staterooms, so had lunch on the Lido Deck and I let my guys explore the upper decks.


Here's a picture of the main lobby.

The water slides

Miniature Golf and walking track

I shared a room with two other moms. The rooms were small and windowless. I was actually surprised that I really didn't mind not having a window. That was a huge advantage when it came to sleeping in each morning!

Here's James with one of his friends sipping sodas at the bar.

First night's towel creature.

We arrived in the Bahamas around noon the next day.

There were 3 other ships when we arrived.

I did manage to get a picture taken with James when we got off the ship.

We took a short walk to Junkanoo Beach.

James with some of his friends.

 

 

 

We went to the Straw Market for some shopping. 

 

 

That night was the "formal night". Here I am with my roommates. 

 And here is one with my baby boy.

 

 

Another towel animal. 

Our last day was at sea. Several of the other chaperons (including both of my roommates) had one trophies for various ship trivia games. I was determined to win one myself, so after 4 different games, I finally one on. Hannah & I had gotten one on our last cruise for our room decorations.

Here I am with "my boys". They were so sweet!

Here are the girls from our dinner table with one of our waiters. He was so funny!

Our final towel creature.

 

 

This was such a fun trip! As the mother of a freshman, I enjoyed getting to know more of the band students as well as many of the band parents. 



Spring Break

I've gotten behind again!

Anyway.......our original plan for Spring Break 2013 was to drive up to Indiana and visit all the grandparents. With the death of my father-in-law the week before, we changed our plans. The kids wanted to stay at home, so we had a little "Stay-Cation".


We went to the Tellus Science Museum on Monday. James had been a couple of times on middle school field trips, but Hannah had never been before.

 

On Tuesday, Hannah & I went to Six Flags. We met up with some friends of hers. James opted to stay home.

We went and saw the movie Oz on Wednesday. James did go see the movie with us, he just didn't want to be in the picture.

We stayed home on Thursday. Hannah went back to Six Flags on Friday with her friends. It was a nice and fairly uneventful spring break. Not much longer until summer vacation!!!!

Memorial Board for Grandpa

This past week, my father in law passed away unexpectedly. We've been worrying about my mother with her health problems lately, so the news that my husband's father died really took us by surprise. James & Hannah adored their Grandpa and it was especially difficult seeing them in such pain.
I was about 19 when I lost my first grandparent and my last one died in 2011.

We received the news on Friday. We left for Indiana first thing the next morning. It's really tough being so far away from our family during times like this. By the time we arrived on Saturday, all of the arrangements had already been made. We felt pretty helpless, but we wanted to do something, so Hannah & I offered to make the photo memorial boards.

Because Sunday was Easter, we weren't able to gather our supplies until Monday. Chris and the kids searched through old photos at Grandma's house. We took the old 3x3 square photos to Sams Club and made copies of them. We didn't want to use the original ones on the boards. Hannah sorted the pictures and chose the best ones to use.

Here are the completed Memorial Boards. The first one pictured is of more recent years.

This one is the earlier years.

We did enjoy seeing relatives. We had not seen most of Chris' aunts, uncles, & cousins since before we moved to Georgia in 2000. We also got to visit my mom a couple of times in the hospital. And my sister was in town visiting mom, too, so that was an added bonus. We were planning to go up to Indiana exactly one week later during spring break so we could see mom and visit all of the grandparents.

Here are some pictures of Grandpa Nick with James & Hannah over the years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last two were taken this past Christmas, the last time we saw Grandpa.

 

 

We miss you, Grandpa Nick!