Cruise Pictures, Episode II

All around the boat, and especially at dinner time, the photography staff comes by to take your picture. Here are a few of our best (and worst)....

The three boys

This was about as good as it got

This was more the norm

And this....

Formal night #1

A rare view of a natural smile from Viv

At the bar

Look at my handsome man

Formal night #2

An actual decent picture of Clay. Also rarely seen these days

When we were telling Vivi to smile, Carter took it into his own hands, literally.

Embarkation

Cruise Pictures, Episode I

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we went on a cruise with Cory's side of the family. It was actually really fun. The kids had such a good time that they play "cruise ship" at least 3 times a week.
We went on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas, the biggest cruise ship out there right now. It holds over 6,000 guests and over 2,000 staff.

Vivi and Ashley at dinner in Ft. Lauderdale the night before the cruise

Free face painting every day!

Carter climbed to the top of the 43 ft high rock wall several times. It is his new favorite activity.

One of the 14 pools!

Vivi chillaxin in Labadee, RC's own private island

There's our ship in the background!

Floating down the lazy river in Jamaica at the Hilton All inclusive resort

water slides!

Vivi and Nana

Carter and Trey did a pirate parade with kids camp one evening while  Cory and I were enjoying our adult beverages in a bar. 

Vivi and Pop share a birthday (on the boat!)

Birthday Princess

We did a character breakfast the last morning. RC has Dreamworks characters on their boats. 

The kids were always wanting to see if we were moving or not

There he goes!

The kids with their server for the week. She was amazing. She cut up their meat, blew on their macaroni to cool it off and helped them keep their clothes clean throughout the evening!

Camping in the Backyard for Labor Day

We had planned on going camping for Labor Day but after getting the new pup (who has not had all his shots) we decided we should stay home. We still wanted to camp, so we decided to set up the tent in the backyard.
Really, this is win-win for me. I can still shower, do dishes, laundry and don't have to bathe two stinky dogs at the end of the weekend. I can also work on updating my blog.

We had some errands to run in town and also got Clay's hair cut. (Which is a whole different story) and then set up 'camping around dinner time.
We did hot dogs and s'mores (we call them shmoes) in the 30 mph wind and all survived. Ugh, the wind here kills me.

Once it was nice and dark we got into the tent and attempted to sleep.

But now I'm reminded why we only camp with everyone about once a year.
Everyone is always falling out of their sleeping bag, needing to pee, spooked by some sound and most importantly not letting me sleep.

Also, we attempted to let the puppy sleep with us out of the crate and he thought it was super, happy, fun time. At about 1:30 in the morning I finally got up, took the puppy and put him in his crate and the two of us slept in the house. I still had to get up with him two more times to let him potty, but at least he wasn't trying to nibble my ears all night.

Our awesome tent mansion my parents got us for our wedding 7.5 years ago. Still going strong! 

Starting the fire

Newman chasing the tent flapping in the wind

perspective

Camping is old hat for Bailey

hot dogs, with buns this time!

Clay chowing down

Hellooo Newman

In case you missed his Facebook Debut:

There once was a young Air Force couple

Who figured they hadn't enough trouble.

So they brought home a Great Dane

They're most likely insane.

And now instead of one dog they've double.

We brought Newman home last Sunday at 6 weeks old. He came from a litter of 10 (I think, I don't know there were a lot) and is a beautiful merle blue. 

He has been a really good and smart puppy so far. We're making good progress on housebreaking and crate training. But it's easy to forget how much work having a puppy is. They are not completely unlike mobile 6 month olds (without a diaper on). 

It's been 8 years since we've had a puppy in the house so we're on the learning curve again.

But like I said, he's made awesome progress in just the week we've had him. We'll start obedience training at about 8 or 9 weeks and we'll be on our way. 

He's so tiny right now and I've been trying to take a bunch of pictures so that in just a few short months I can compare his ginormous size back to now. He sure is cute.

And in case you were wondering where his name came from:

First Day of School 2013

Here are our obligatory first day of school pictures. This year Carter will be in first grade. I don't know anything about anything with his class yet. His teacher is from the high school and just moved down to teach 1st grade. I didn't get to meet her this morning since I had to take Clay to his class because Kindergarten orientation was the first hour of school for him. Luckily, Cory walked him into class today. Hopefully I'll get to introduce myself this afternoon when I pick him up.

 Clay is in Transitional Kindergarten this year. California is in the middle of moving their cut-off date for school from Dec.1 to Sept.1 (like the rest of the country). So, in order to do this gradually over 3 years they've moved the age cutoff up each year and allowed the kids who would have normally been eligible for Kindergarten with the old cutoff date to attend 'transitional' kindergarten. Anywhoo, it boils down to the fact that Clay will get 2 years of Kindergarten.

 I do know SOME stuff about Clay's teacher. She has recently been teaching 1st grade at Branch (Where the boys go to school) but moved down to Kindergarten this year. She has taught Kindergarten in the past as well. She seems very nice and Clay was ready to go today. Not a tear was shed by anyone. Actually, I take that back. Vivi cried when we had to leave Clay. I think everyone (especially the boys) were ready for school to start though.

 Although I am going to take this moment to vent on how much I DO NOT LIKE the way the beginning of the school year is run around here. First of all, we don't find out who our kids' teachers are until the Friday before school starts at 4pm. The office secretary literally tapes a list to the door and runs away. This led to many a flustered and confused parent on the various Edwards FB pages with "Does anyone know if so and so is a good teacher?" "What about this teacher?" "Anyone know anything about this teacher?" Etc. Also, there is no meet the teacher before school happens, or letters sent out with school supplies. It is very frustrating. You know NOTHING until the 1st day of school. Okay rant over.

 Drop off went okay and I'll be interested to hear about their days when I go to pick them up at 2 today. This is the first year that either of the boys get to pack their lunch and they were very excited about it.

They wanted one silly picture

Cory was able to drop by Clay's class quickly after dropping Carter off and before heading to work.