Back to School!

This year both Grady and Anson are going to school at Five Oaks Academy.  Anson is in the Primary classroom, which includes 3K, 4K, and 5K.  Grady moved up to Lower Elementary, where he is a 1st grader.  Grady went there last year, and we love the school.  However, it was still hard to send them back after summer, especially since they went back so early.

Here is their special first day breakfast - fruit and doughnut holes on a stick!

We also have a tradition where I decorate a cone with their name and so e fun stickers.  I fill it with school supplies and treats and give it to them on the first day.  It is actually a German tradition and several of the German families at their school (there are many!) had them this year too!

Here they are with our special banner, each holding their special sign

This is what the signs said...

Discovering their cones

Out by the palm tree, ready to go!

After we arrived at school

Anson and one of his teachers, Miss Dawn

Camille walking Grady to his classroom

Hugging his teacher, Miss Alissa

With his buddy, Reese

What's a baby sister to do?

The school is great about taking pictures and posting them to their website.  Here are a few cute ones from the first few days...

With Miss Laura, who he just adores

Check the pencil behind his ear

With some church friends who are also school friends!

Grady has already been learning so much!  I can hardly keep up with everything they are doing this year - gardening, sewing, cooking, and crafts, in addition to math, history, geography, and reading.

Anson is already writing numbers, sweeping, and making lots of new friends.  So far they school year is quite a success!

Last Blast of Summer

Grady and Anson started school very early this year, so although we still have plenty of summery weather ahead of us, real summer was ending for us.  I tried to fit in a few more fun things while I could.

We went to a few more parks on our Park Passport.  Here we are at Greer City Park, which we had never visited before.

The fountains "dance" to music and so did the kids!

Batman was on a mission

They played so well with all the kids that were there that day and made many instant friends.

Serious man

The kids have also been wanting to go to Playnation for a while

And then, sadly, Summer 2013 was over just like that :(

Table Rock

We have been trying to take advantage of all of the natural beauty that surrounds us in this part of the country.  There are so many state parks and waterfalls and places to hike that we have never explored.  One weekend recently we headed west, into the mountains, to check out Table Rock State Park, and it was quite amazing.

Ready for a hike!

Checking out the lake - man-made (all lakes in SC are) but still beautiful

There were waterfalls and streams to cross everywhere!

This picture is amusing, but it's a long story!

If anyone tells you it is easy to hike into the wilderness with a 1,3, and 6 year old, don't believe them.  It was a bit challenging.  But we don't let that stop us!  It was a very cool place that we hope to return to repeatedly as the kids get bigger.  There was so much more that we did not get to see!

Puerto Rico 2013

I rarely post about us on here.  You know, the big people who take care of the children?  We are generally far more boring and way less cute than the kids, so I spare you.  But recently we did something pretty cool.  We got to take our "tenth plus one" anniversary trip (10th was delayed because of a certain someone's birth) to Puerto Rico.

We arrived to this beautiful view at our first resort...

Then we went to get a late lunch and check out the very large resort

Views from our incredible casita!  We were basically hanging out OVER the ocean and our place was enormous - like a house!

Look what they did on our bed!

That day was our actual anniversary and we headed to dinner down at the marina.  It was the resorts best rated restaurant (out of about 15!).  This was right in front of our casita - SO pretty everywhere

Sunset views over the resort.  A James Bond movie was filmed here.

This was our spot at dinner - looking out over the marina

The views in the morning were even prettier!

The grounds around our part of the resort

That morning we headed to the resort's private island on their high speed ferry

The resort from the water - ours is one way up on top, towards the left

The sign when we arrived on the island - such a fun place with lots to do!

Amazing beach with El Yunque (the rainforest) in the background

We hiked around the island and even went to where there was a wedding chapel at the top of the hill

Quite a view!

Here we are at the top!

Then we hiked to a totally secluded pocket beach

This was our trail back - they also do horseback riding on these trails

We had an incredible infinity pool right by our casita

That night we actually spotted a coqui frog on the wall outside our door!

The next day we headed to Culebra on the ferry from Fajardo - quite an experience.  People were getting sick like crazy, but we were fine.

Arriving in Culebra

Flamenco Beach - always on the top 10 beaches in the world lists

A tank left by the US Navy

Warning: live ammunition 

We also went kayaking and snorkeling - that is the 2 of us with a sea turtle!

We saw quite a few!

On Tamarindo Beach - we are on the right

The next day we headed back to "our" island - our view from the top...

Mama on the beach

Palomonito, in the distance - they were filming something there that day

See the helicopter?  It flew over about 100 times filming

A view of the island as we were leaving

That night we kayaked in the bioluminescent bay.  It is in a lagoon, encircled by mangrove forest.  You kayak out at night and once it is pitch black, the microorganisms in the water make it glow and sparkle!  It is hard to explain and impossible to capture on camera, but I have wanted to do it for a very long time, and I am so glad we made it happen!

Here I am getting ready to head out, with our cute little car

At the marina

All set to go!

That night we went to Metropol for dinner, which was fun since we had been a few years ago with Grady!  That was our last night in Fajardo!

Our cute little casita, just before we checked out and headed to the rainforest

We were off to the rainforest!

First we hiked down to a waterfall

The water was cold!

Then we hiked way up to the top of the mountain and even climbed the tower at the top.  This trail was quite difficult, but it was nice because it was very quiet.  We were alone at the top of the tower.

There were clouds passing around us, going super fast.  It was very cool being IN a cloud!

Panoramic

  

In front of the trail map

After that we checked out a few interesting things...

This used to be a public swimming pool!

Then we left the rainforest and headed to San Juan for the second part of our trip!

First night at the Ritz!  We dined in the lobby, actually.  They have an amazing sushi chef from Japan, so we tried it, and it was so good!

We went to the El San Juan that evening for drinks

The Ritz was so nice and we had so many adventures in the first half of our trip that we mostly relaxed and ate very good food while in San Juan :)

Eric at the beach bar, having a mojito

We ate at two fabulous restaurants while there.  One was called Marmalade, and it was probably the best place I have ever eaten.  No wonder it is the #1 rated restaurant in all of San Juan!  Our last night we ate at Perla, which is actually located in a building that sits right on the beach and is shaped like a giant clam shell.  Sounds cheesy but was actually beautiful and elegant.  Here I am - not a great picture, but you can sort of see what it was like.

We left the next morning.  It was sad to go, but we were very excited to get home and see our three babies!  We came home feeling very relaxed!  It was an amazing trip with many cool adventures and new experiences!