Home safe and sound!

We are home safe and sound after 9 days of travel and many many adventures to write about! We've been to Disney World, Mexico, Grand Cayman (we are definitely going back there) and to Jamaica Mon and the Bahamas! We've been deep fried Disney style (don't forget to bring your darn wallet for this trip LET ME TELL YOU)!!!!! Phew...I think my Amex is still hot after that run last night from our on board charges but it was worth it!! We had an amazing HUGE room, huge balcony suite and many memories...too many to account all right now. I will do a really good post, or a series of posts about this trip on the Disney Fantasy's 7 day Western Caribbean Cruise... and we will definitely be doing another cruise with Disney in the future...but for now...I am really tired and still feeling like I am moving and on a ship...and I've been unpacking our family all day and trying to get this "ship" turned around to function this coming week so here are just a few pictures to wet your whistle!!

Mother's Day 2014

We enjoyed a nice sun-filled and quite warm (May and summer have arrived in Florida) Mother's day! We started the day at 6:39 am with both kids climbing in to bed with us for "snuggles" and "tickle kisses" and we just took it easy this morning opening home-made mother's day cards and crafts including home-made special frames and photos of both Jackson and Sarabeth from their schools. My office desk will have some new pictures for sure come Monday morning. Daddy also bought fresh flowers and a neat new camera to take on our cruise that is coming up really soon! We had a wonderful mother's day brunch at The Moorings, the kids were so well behaved and we all enjoyed fresh shrimp, crab, lobster bisque, fresh tomato and motz salad along with all sorts of other goodies but those were my favorite. So many ladies complimented on how beautiful our family is and complimented us on their behavior, what more can a mother ask for on a day like today!!?? We came home and all had quiet time (Jack and Jon) or a nap (Mommy and Sarabeth) and it was the best gift anyone could give me...a true honest to goodness nap!!! When we woke up, we swam in the pool and enjoyed literally passes directly over our house from the Blue Angels! I will get Jon to post a video, we had a major air show at our little local airport this weekend and the blue angels were here and have been flying around all week! It has been really exciting and the air port is not that far from our house and the turn around for the jets was literally over the beach and right over our neighborhood. It was really really cool to see and we did not have to fight the crowds at the air show (although of course Jon and Jack went and sweat it out with the best of them yesterday). I've never seen anything like one of the low passes just over the trees in our yard that we saw today...out of nowhere FOUR giant fighter jets blue and yellow came screaming through the air and the craziest thing was...we could see them so close and so clearly we could read the numbers on the planes and by the time you here them...they have already past so it was just amazing to see and hear and never did we expect to see them from our own backyard so close!! Here are some pictures from today, video coming soon of the Blue Angel jets!!!

Visit to Ohio for Gigi's 90th birthday weekend!!!

Last weekend at this time we were still in Ohio...and what a wild week it has been since we got back to Florida and got back settled into work/school/life here!! We enjoyed about 3.5 days in Ohio and got to see most of our family in that short amount of time last weekend. Despite what felt like freezing temperatures to us (winds out of the north...it really was that darn wind) we had two gorgeous sun filled days with lots of time spent outside and we enjoyed wonderful meals with everyone as well as fun family and cousin time! We even got to celebrate with the family graduate, Uncle Jay a week early...congrats on your graduation from MICHIGAN this week Uncle Jay Jay...we know you will do great things and Jon and I will be there to take you out for a nice meal this summer when we are in D.C. in July! Can't wait to see you then!! We had a whirlwind weekend that started with what is now going to be a new family tradition...we stayed overnight at the Orlando airport Hyatt (inside the airport hotel with a rooftop pool) with the kids the night before our early am flight on Friday. We had a smooth non-stop no problem flight to Detroit and arrived to good old Mighigan...48, gray skies and spitting rain...yes...we were reminded of our mid-western roots on this late April morning!!! Mimi met us at the airport and we were in Perrysburg in no time getting everyone settled in at her house and SB down for a good nap. The kids are great travelers now and each trip we make there is less "stuff" involved...this time we debated even bringing the stroller to the airport but alas, we did still opt to be smart and travel with a stroller...great place to stick a small child AND lots of carry on stuff while you are en route from security to the gate, etc. Friday we just got settled in and that night Great Grandma O'Bryant came over, Uncle Jay came home from college, and the Burrow family came over to see us after their ballet dress rehearsal for the girls. Saturday was spent getting ready for the festivities for Gigi that night and the big party was that night with the entire family in town from near and far. After the birthday party many of us went out in Perrysburg to share a drink and some time to talk without kids. Sunday we spent time with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Megan and had a great brunch and trip to Imagination Station. Sunday night brought a weekend closing pizza party at the Burrow's home with one last burst of cousin fun before we had to pack up and board the plane again on Monday am in Detroit! Phew...I cannot believe we did all that we did in only 3.5 days but it really was great to see everyone! One of our best visits in a long time. We are staying south for the summer but are already starting to plan a northern visit for this coming fall...maybe this time a gathering in the Columbus area to see Aunt Frances and Uncle Denny's stomping grounds and of course an OSU home game and maybe an apple orchard too!!! My kids don't even know what an apple orchard is...but hey, we have acres of orange groves here... Here are some great pictures of the weekend's fun...the best pictures of the night are care of Julia and Craig's camera but the rest are mine, enjoy!!!