Day 1 in Destin

It's our first full day in Destin. There are four VERY excited people here. We booked a Dolphin Cruise for today and chose the earliest one hoping for the best views! We decided to take jackets because it was a little chilly but once we got out on the water it was FREEZING! We saw lots of dolphins but the best thing about the cruise for the kids by far was feeding the seagulls from the boat. The captain handed out pieces of popcorn to the kids. They were supposed to hold them up above their heads and the seagulls would swoop down and pick them out of the kids hands. We got some great video of both Kaleaha and Krennan with the birds literally taking food out their hands. They loved it. It was so fun to watch them! We went all over Destin and clear out into the Gulf of Mexico. The water was amazing! I can't believe that you could actually see the water lines that designate one body of water from the other. WOW!! After the cruise was over we went for a stroll down the Harbor Walk to see what was going on at their St. Patrick's Day parade. We saw a leprechaun on stilts making balloon animals and people watched for a little bit. We saw the booth where they were booking for a pirate cruise called the Buccaneer. We are scheduled to go on that ride on Tuesday before we leave. We stopped at a snow cone booth and enjoyed a couple of different flavors before heading back to the hotel to swim. I LOVE Baskin Robbins. We don't have any close to us and we looked for them on our way down and found that a number of them were out of business. Ron finally found one that was open and only about 15 minutes from where we were staying. ROAD TRIP! Left the kids in their PJ's and took off for ice cream!

And we're off!!!

Today is the start of a long two weeks, but we are SO excited! I took a half vacation day. Ron took off for the whole day. We took the kids to school, I had a doctor's appointment then went to work and Rotary for a while before coming home and loading up the car. We are leaving from picking up Kaleaha at school to start our State Meet/Destin trip. Our car is completely loaded down. I don't even think we have room for a new T-shirt! It's kinda hard to pack for 2 separate locations with completely different weather. We got out of town by 4:00 and made it to the hotel in time to swim for a little while. I think Krennan gave a few people in the pool area a heart attack running back and forth between the hot tub and the big pool and jumping in. Nobody expects a little guy to be able to swim like he does. Kaleaha's State Meet started at 8:00 Friday morning. She SWEPT every category and WON the All Around as well! By far the best meet of the year for her. Yes, you are seeing 5 GOLD medals! So proud of her and her team. We had to leave before the 2nd session of the State Meet where the rest of the team was competing. Team awards will be awarded after that session. We got the call late Friday night that Flame Level 5 had won State! Way to go girls!! We left Little Rock and headed to our halfway point of the trip, Jackson, MS. It's a long drive so we were glad to finally get to Jackson late Friday night. I had specifically picked this hotel based on the fact that it was supposed to have a heated pool. Bad surprise to find out that it was only a seasonal pool. Especially since I had booked the same hotel going and coming to Destin. It actually worked out OK since we arrived too late to do any swimming but it was really a downer as far as the return trip. We left Jackson early Saturday morning and arrived in Destin (a LONG time later) about 5:00 pm. We literally dumped all our stuff at the condo and took off for the beach. We were all in AWE. It's SO beautiful! The water was a little cold for me but the kids were in LOVE! They both jumped in the ocean up to their necks, clothes and all. Didn't bother them at all. We ordered pizza from a local pizza place next to the condo and then two kiddos crashed pretty quickly.

Report Cards 3rd quarter

Today we had Parent/ Teacher conference for Kaleaha. These days the conferences are led by the students then summed up by the teacher. According to Kaleaha and Ms. Jernigan, she's once again a straight A student!!

Cooking

So, I know I'm a little slow about this whole cooking thing, but thanks to Pinterest, I've had a little bit of success in the kitchen this year. I know it took me a little while, but I guess it's better late than never. Out of the blue on Friday morning, Krennan asked me to fix his some Banana Nut Bread. I didn't have the stuff (and have never even attempted to make it) but told him we would do it this weekend. Ironically, at work on Thursday I found a recipe that sounded yummy for Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. I brought the recipe home and we got all the ingredients togetherSaturday morning and started baking.

Kayla

I know that I've posted stuff on here before about how much we love our Birth Mom's but Kayla is so awesome. I got finished with Rotary today and was waiting on another Rotarian to get finished after our meeting so that I could put some stuff into his truck for our Annual Garage Sale. I was killing time by catching up on FaceBook and I saw Kayla's most recent post. Again, she's amazing!

Let the countdown begin

Today before I left to go to work, Krennan asked me for the bazillionth time if today was the day we are going to the beach. I tried to explain how many days were left but it was a little over his head. I went to work and was telling Becky about it and she said, you should make him a calendar. Brilliant idea! I put one together at work and did a countdown for our trip. He was super excited. Getting ready for the trip also involved shopping. While trying to find Kaleaha a new swimsuit, we had to make a pit stop in the toy department where she did a hula hoop demonstration.

Super Hero

When Ron takes Krennan to school he likes to "fly" in. Meaning Ron has to carry him and let him act like an airplane. After that entrance today, he decided that he qualified as a Super Hero. Still working on a suitable name for him.

River City Classic

Oh yeah!!!
River City Classic

Vault 8.55 1st place
Bars 8.70 3rd place
Beam 9.575 !!!!!!! 1st place
Floor 9.125 tie placed 2nd
All Around. 35.95
ANOTHER 1st place!!!!!!




~Michelle 🐸
Here are some more Meet pics... Here's another pic of the team and their coaches. After the meet we finally got to go to The Purple Cow to eat. Our family and 8 more of the girls and moms went with us. It was super yummy and we were covered up in milkshakes. Kaleaha ordered a Chocolate Threat and I had them split it to share with Krennan. He didn't want chocolate, he wanted purple. So, he ended up getting his own Purple Cow milkshake. He demolished it!

Finally!!!

It's been kinda of a crappy week. Kidney stones have been back for me since around Valentines Day. Lucky me. I've just decided that next year, when I get my new calendar, I'm ripping out February. This is the 3rd consecutive year that I've had kidney stones in February. This is getting really OLD!!! But... After 13 years of TRYING to fit Florida into a vacation, we finally just BOOKED it!!! We are taking Spring Break and going to DESTIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We can't wait, I'm not sure which one of us is more excited. All Krennan can talk about is the beach, Kaleaha is talking about the ocean and Ron and I are just excited to get to go. Friday (March 1st) is National Employee Appreciation Day, at our branch, Dorvan decided to buy pizza for all of us. He's the best. I bought Sonic and we had a feast! Love our little branch! It also happened to be picture day at Bonneville. Kaleaha talked Mamom into fixing her hair for the day.

Cheer Clinic

Flame sponsored a Cheer Clinic and Kaleaha wanted to go. I didn't stay for the whole event but Kaleaha had Coach Mike show us one of the tricks that she learned.

Head Phones!

During all of these gymnastics meets, we take the iPad so that Krennan can watch movies. We have been taking Kaleaha's headphones for him to use and he won't hardly watch movies because he doesn't like her headphones. In his defense, they don't really fit him all that well because we haven't been able to find any in his size for an affordable price. Finally, tonight at Walmart, we found some that we thought would fit him. Looks like we were successful!! And since he was SO good at Walmart, can I PLEASE (PRETTY PLEASE WITH DRAGONBERRIES ON TOP) have a cool toy???

Happy Wednesday

We started out our day by going to Breakfast for Mom's at Bonneville. A good time to spend with just me and Kaleaha. After I got to work, Ron sent me a picture of Krennan doing his gymnastics. Then while gymnastics was going on it started snowing like crazy. Here's my view from work and Krennan's reaction after the gym.