Anyway...Garrett turned 14! He's now legal to attend Church dances! I doubt that is on the top of his list, but I'm just saying that he could if he wanted to :) He opened some presents and then headed off to Rainforest Cafe for dinner. Grant was sick so we left him with a "barf bowl" by his side, laying on the couch. He didn't seem to care. Dinner was great. Although Garrett's "Pastalaya" turned out to be spicier than he'd anticipated. The "Volcano" dessert made up for it!
Here Garrett is with his "Sugar Baby". He had to make her for his "Skills for Living" class in 8th grade. He started with a 4 pound bag of sugar and some panty hose...added some tissue paper, button eyes, a diaper, binky, Build-A-Bear clothes, etc. and ended up with a "Sugar Baby" that he was to take care of for a week. Ugh! I can't stand these silly projects that are suppose to teach abstinence and the pitfalls of teen pregnancy. Garrett was really serious about everything in the beginning...by the sixth day, he walked into the house, put the baby in a booster seat and announced "Now THAT'S daycare!" We were cracking up! I think he named her Annabelle Lee or something. She looks kind of odd, but what do you expect?
Here's Grant is with some of his class at the Fifth Grade awards assembly...We are at a new school and they do things a little differently. Everyone gets an award, obviously, but seriously folks..."No tardies all year"...that's an award?!! Please. Bill thinks that could have been the only thing they could come up with for some of the kids. Anyway, it was a bit strange, but we wouldn't have missed being there. All of our kids like having us at their "stuff" and we love being there! Grant is now a BIG sixth grader! He is the tall one in the greenish shirt.
And finally...Bill and I took a last minute trip to Cancun, Mexico! I had been toying with the idea of getting away...I am always doing that! Anyway, we couldn't seem to find a block of time because of all of the activities of the kids. But being magical like I am, I made it work. Christine is SUPER responsible and was fine with being in charge and the boys were fine with us going, so we did. We spent 4 days at the Marriott CasaMagna which is right on the Caribbean. It was wonderful! We ate the most wonderful shrimp at Captain's Cove and had some interesting food at La Distileria. It was fun watching a Mexican soccer game with a bunch of Mexicans in the Champions Sports Bar at the hotel. We have been feeling a fair amount of stress with the whole Houston/Dallas arrangement, the death of my sister in law, dealing with my 2 nieces and now unemployment...I said "I just want to lay on a beach somehwere." So that's what we did. Well not on the beach, but at the pool, with the sound of the Caribbean in the backgound. (If I can avoid the sand, I do.) We now feel rejuvinated and ready to roll up our sleeves and head to High Adventure and Girls Camp.
We are on the balcony of our room...beautiful view of the Caribbean
Another beautful shot from our room!
A pretty cool shot of the hot tub at our hotel! We had never seen a bigger hot tub!
We are in the Atrium of the Marriott. It was a beautiful hotel. The sad part was that we felt like we were in a bit of a ghost town. Because of the Swine Flu scare, the hotel was only filled to about 30%. It was nice because we enjoyed a lot of attention. But we felt bad for the folks who make their living on tourism.
