St. Maarten

Ready for our flight! Do we look just a little excited?

There it is!

St. Maarten a little closer up.

Flying in!

View to the right of our beach.

View to the left of our resort's beach.

Our favorite beach spot.

Our favorite spot to be.

We hiked this enormous, steep hill (think San Francisco) several times a day. Our room was at the top and everything else was at the bottom. The beach was about 1/4 mile down the hill from up.

View from the top of our resort.

Sailboats parked for the night.

Just one of the many beaches.

Took this picture for Davis because he loves red tortilla chips and they are so hard to find.

Every restaurant was open-air. This was one of our favorites, one of only two that we went to more than once. Jimbo, the owner, came to St. Maarten in the late 80s/early 90s for vacation and never left. Incredible food!

Gorgeous mountains.

Hermit crab.

Loved all the views!

Best pizza place ever- Pizza Galley!

Look at my hair! Humidity is crazy high there! My own mother didn't even recognize me!

Boats parked behind the restaurants where they catch whatever is on the menu.

Cruise ships! Each ship holds 6,000 people and sometimes there are 6 ships lined up at once. That's a lot of people! Thankfully, there were only 2 that day.

On the dock in Philipsburg.

The water was beautiful everywhere!

Philipsburg courthouse.

Fun picture with a pirate for our boys.

Rick surpised me and bought this absolutely gorgeous emerald anniversary band as a 15th anniversary gift in Philipsburg.

Pigeons were everywhere! My mom would have hated it there!

Aaahhh!

Getting the boat ready for our day trip to Marigot Island.

Ready for our boat trip to Marigot Island.

More boats.

I was fascinated by how many boats were out in the middle of the week!

Loved this huge boat!

Simpson Bay Bridge up. It opens a couple of times a day to let boats through which can cause big traffic jams!

These open-air markets were all over. They were filled with beautiful, bright colored items and it was super easy to bargain shop!

Rick reading about Fort Louis.

Gorgeous view of Marigot Island on our way up.

Top of Fort Louis.

We made it to the top!

Beautiful water!

Rick standing at very top of the fort.

View of Marigot Island from top of fort.

View of the fort from the bottom of the mountain we climbed.

Our very fun French waiter/host, Jean Michele. Best paninis (even better than mine) made on French baguettes! Yum!

Cemetary picture for my mom!

Token beach pic.

Favorite part of any beach trip- the sunset over the water.


To celebrate our 15th anniversary, Rick and I took an 8 day trip to St. Maarten without our children. It was a perfect week! St. Maarten was gorgeous and so relaxing! A huge and special thanks to both sets of grandparents for keeping our babies and taking such good care of them!

Quick visit with Jon's family

5 people gone for 10 days in 3 separate directions requires lots of stuff!

Watching Grandma cut the cake.

Celebrating Jon's birthday.

Boys ready for cake.

Girls having cake.

Sweet cousins!

Silly Ava!

Isaac & Davis busy playing.

We don't get to see family often enough, especially Jon and his family. They live in Louisiana and that's really far when you have small children like we both do, so we cherish the time we get to spend together. Our trips to TN overlapped a little a couple of weekends ago and it was one of our best visits yet! The kids picked up like there had been no time at all and the grown ups actually got to sit down and talk awhile! We hope we get to see them again soon!

Here we go!

5 people gone for 11 days to 3 separate locations = LOTS of stuff! A HUGE thanks to both sets of grandparents for keeping our children for us while we celebrate our 15th anniversary in St. Maarten. Have a great week everyone!

Ballerina Aubrey

Aubrey with her ballerina friends, Rachel & Emily.

Starting class.

Practicing walking toe-heel with Ms. Brittany.

Ready for a forward roll.

She loves to jump on the trampoline.

Hanging from the rings.

This summer, Aubrey is taking two classes at the Little Gym. She is taking a basic gymnastics class with Andrew on Saturdays and a ballet/tap/gymnastics class on Thursdays. I took some pictures of her in her too cute ballerina outfit today. She's really enjoying it!

Pocket's Birthday Party

Alex & Gray bringing the gift in.

Elmo Cookie Cake

Gray & Aubrey waiting to eat.

"Cheese!"

Being silly!

Enjoying his cookie cake!

Ready to sing & cut the cookie cake!

Emily with the birthday boy.

Emily laughing about Patrick pretending to blow out his candles. We forgot the candles!

Opening his present.

Cutting the cookie cake.

Alex & Gray licking the icing.

Poor Elmo!

I think he enjoyed his party.




The three amigos (and their mommies & siblings), Gray, Pocket (Patrick), and Aubrey, got together to celebrate Pocket's 2nd birthday. We had panini's and an Elmo cookie cake. All 6 children had a blast playing together and we look forward to many more celebrations together!

Big girl bed!!!

It was time. The other night, Rick watched as Aubrey climbed over the rail of her crib and slid down. Sunday night we put her in a toddler bed. She has done so well! She has now slept in it 2 nights and taken one nap. At the moment, she doesn't know she can get out until someone comes to get her but I'm sure it won't be too long before she figures it out! She also gave up her pacifier a couple of weeks ago. My baby girl is no longer a baby.

A day at the lake June 2011

Aubrey wanted to ride the boat before her brother's did.

Davis decided if Aubrey could do it, then he could do it.

Playing in the little pool with Caroline & Kaeden.

Patrick joined in.

Andrew telling Caroline to stop splashing (um, pot, this is kettle calling!).

Andrew sliding into the lake (he wouldn't jump).

In he goes!

Davis hanging out with some of the bigger kids. He looks just as big as they do!

Andrew in the lake.

Rick getting ready to jump in.

Rick & Andrew

Davis finally decided to get in!

Andrew sliding in again.

All this water makes a girl hungry. It was so hot out and she picked this spot out all by herself. Smart girl!

Yesterday was our final youth group get together for the summer and it was the perfect send off! We met at one of our member's house on the lake and another member brought his boat. The teens (and some of the kids) got to ride on the boat and go tubing. Davis & Aubrey both loved riding the boat and watching the big kids try to tube. Andrew loved "swimming" in the lake. All 3 were exhausted but it was such a fun day! We will miss having the youth group in our home this summer but we look forward to their return in the fall!