Paradise Island, Bahamas

May 24-31 2009. Just in case you are wondering, Atlantis Resort in Paradise Island, Bahamas is the BEST place to go on vacation. Seriously. If you ever have money to spend on a vacation, I would highly recommend it to anyone--with kids, without kids, young, old...whoever. It is amazing. There is a huge waterpark with several water slides and 2 lazy rivers, LOTS of pools (including 2 kiddie pools with small water slides and shallow water), several beaches on the property, aquariums, movie theater, comedy club, shopping, casino, great restaurants, starbucks... seriously something for everyone. We had a BLAST! (It is hard to say if Elise had a blast, but everyone else did for sure.)

Rob's grandparents, Mona Boo and Papa Boo took us all (45 of us) on this vacation and it was so much fun. Robbie counted down the "sleeps" until we got to fly on the jet to the "Hamas". Our flights were on time, our luggage showed up, the sun shined every day, the waitresses came to our pool and beach chairs to bring us rum drinks....ahhh.

The first day there we took an excursion with Powerboat Tours that Rob's cousin Shawna had found for us all...it was amazing. We got to go to a private island and feed iguanas the size of dogs --which may sound freaky but was actually a really cool experience. Then we went to another private island where we got to feed stringrays from our hands, watch the sharks be fed (small reef sharks), snorkel, play on the white sand beach and in the clear blue water, enjoy the rum punch from the open bar, and they made an amazing lunch for us with fresh grilled fish and steak. It was seriously Paradise.

Rob and Robbie got to swim with the dolfins and feed them, Rob got to golf on Michael Jordan's favorite course (twice), I got to shop and tan.

On the way home from the airport at the end of the trip, Robbie cried for 40 minutes saying, "I want to go to the Hamas....I want to go to the Hamas.....I want to go to the Hamas....I want to see the dolfins....I want to go to the Hamas..." Needless to say, he really enjoyed the trip. What a privileged life we all lead.

Now we are back to the little inflatable pool and the Thomas the Train sprinkler. THANK YOU Mona and Papa Boo!

Bahama Videos

Rob here... Well not much else I can say than we are blessed out of our minds to have been able to take this trip to the Bahamas. Below are 3 Videos that I posted onto You Tube. More pics will come soon...

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Apologize

Robbie loves music. He actually requests One Republic songs when we are in the car. Rob thinks he is going to be a famous musician....we'll see. (Although he does a great job playing his eucalele along with AI and the ipod) Anyhow, he does have a love for music and he has a great memory about stuff. He has officially seen 5 partial American Idol episodes in his little life. One of them happened to be when Kris sang "Apologize". Robbie now reminds us of that whenever the song comes on the ipod, "Mommy Kris sang Powgize on Ameeria Idol". SO we are now voting for Kris, thanks to Robbie's love of the Apologize song.

The Zoo Vol. 2 (including Toby and Jacob)

My sister, Elizabeth came for a visit with her family recently. We so wish they lived closer, Margaret and I cried when they left. The boys (Toby, 2 3/4 and Jacob, 1 & of course Robbie, 3) all play so well together, it's just a blast. I miss them!

Here are some pics of our day at the zoo and just hangin around the house.

Easter (Slower than Christmas)

Without even planning, Ryane and Elise were wearing the same Easter dress.

The Idol Judges.

Well, a month later, here is our Easter post. I've been on the couch and in bed all day with the stomach flu so I have time to do a post!

Every year the day before easter we dye easter eggs at Rob's parent's house. Every year the egg decorating contest gets more elaborate and and much more competitive. This year, the judging was an American Idol theme...and they had their work cut-out for them. In the running for cash prizes was the Jack-in-the Box egg, Obama Chia Egg, Egg-conomy crash egg, KISS egg., Empty Tomb egg..and many more. So we dyed eggs, won some money, ate lots of homemade Mexican food.

Easter morning we do an egg hunt (for all of the adult children) at Rob's parents', go to church, and crash for a nap! Every year we get together for yet another egg hunt with our best friends, Drew and Cindy. This year my dad and Theresa came down and we all went over to Drew & Cindy's for dinner. Fun was had by all. Candy was eaten by all (mostly by Robbie, courtesy of Aunt Margaret).