As soon as we got the okay.....

... from the eye doctor to go back into the water, we had more fun in the sun as August gave us ...

... The Dog Days of Summer!!!

July....

Yea!!  I know - this is November!
Please bear with me, we're still trying to catch up!
July brought us Uncle Bobby's birthday.

Happy Birthday to you, Uncle Bobby!!!

Mommy & Me

Daddy & Me

Nanny, Me & Maria

We had a fabulous birthday feast for Uncle Bobby!!  A good time had by all!!

Stone Mountain, Georgia

I know!
Bad blogger these days!!
Still here!!


Many thanks to all those who have missed us, as well as, your touching concern!!!  It is very much appreciated!!


Life, new work schedules and a licencing course for work haven't been very conducive to blogging :0(

Right after our adventures in Aruba, we headed to Stone Mountain in Georgia for a Xuzhou China Family Reunion!!

We were so happy to finally meet some of the families that have become part of our extended family over the last few years!!

Our children come from the same SWI in Xuzhou, China.


Naturally, we had to have more drama as we headed to Georgia!!  Poor John passed a kidney stone just we were getting ready to meet up with the families to visit what else but Stone Mountain, and poor Jillian literally came face to face with Stone Mountain when she fell flat on her face!


Luckily she didn't do any damage although she had a small bruise on her forehead.  


After spending the weekend in Georgia, we headed home - only we didn't exactly head home.


At the airport,  Jillian came down with a fever and the runs.  We were shut out of our flight, hiked all over the airport in Atlanta for several hours, and ended up as a guest for one more night in Atlanta courtesy of Delt@!!  Long story there!


Upon our actual arrival home, Jillian ended up with an ear infection.  Poor kid was miserable!!  It took a full week and then some, plus antibiotics, and the worst diaper rash ever before she was somewhat back to normal!!


More updates to come - just not tonight.

The Aruba commentary is up!!!!

In spite of all the drama, we had a great time!!

Let me tell you, it sure was a lot of work for me - but it was well worth it to see Debra sooo excited and happy to experience her first time flying, as well as, an Aruba vacation!!

Happy family vacation, Happy 10 year anniversary to me and John, and Happy 4th of July, Independence Day!!!

  

Happy reading!!!

Okay..... Aruba here we come!! UPDATED!!

Okay..... I know we are soooo behind in our updates!!


So, here's the deal - the photos are up from our Aruba vacation, however, you'll have to come back for my humorous, witty and sometimes frustrating commentary!!


In the meantime, hope you like the photos!!




Okay, here goes:  As we were contemplating what to do for our 10th wedding anniversary, we decided to take a family vacation.  We also decided to bring my sister, Debra, along as well.  So, we hustled to get expedited passports for Debra and Jillian.


When we were sure we had passports in hand, we booked an all-inclusive for 8 days/7 nights at the 0ccidental Gr@nd in what we now call Aruba - "Mommy's Ruba" and/or "Myruba"!!
We packed our bags, picked up Debra and headed for the airport.


At check in, we found that one of our carry on bags was mixed up and the wrong bag was checked. We found this out when we went though security and had to throw out 3/4 of our sunscreen intended for Jillian and Debra - which cost a small fortune let me tell you!!


Outside of going down to the Jersey shore with us last year, Debra really hasn't been on a vacation that she could remember.  Sure, as kids and at a very young age, our parents took us to Lake George ( I can't remember this except for seeing old photos), as well as, various day trips though the years.  


Debra knew we were going somewhere, however, she had absolutely no idea what we had planned for her!!  Debra, at the age of 53, was getting on a plane for the very first time and heading to tropical paradise!!!  


When we got to the airport, she was sooooo excited - and when the plane took off, Debra was so shocked, she grabbed Jillian's "Baby".  Jillian starts crying, no make that, screaming when Baby gets ripped out of her hands.  I take Baby back from Debra and give her back to Jillian.  Then Debra takes "Buddy" (the elephant).  Jillian starts screaming all over again.  I take Buddy back , give him back to Jillian and try my best to reassure both of them that everything is okay.  They both calm down and we were on our way.


It was absolutely wonderful to see the shear joy and excitement on Debra's face looking out the window.


As for Jillian, she thought she was on a big bus and proceeded to sing what else of course, "The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round...." followed by a repertoire of:  "Twinkle, twinkle little star",  the ABC's, "Old Mc Donald had a farm" - with several farm animals including a cat and a dog", "Ring around the Rosie",  "Row, row, row your boat" and "Bingo was his namo", as well as, other favorite tunes that Jillian favors - probably not much to the delight of those sitting around us!!


Upon our arrival, we went through customs.  Thankfully no problems there - only to find we were missing two bags at the baggage carousel - all of which contained everything that John needed for our trip, as well as, diapers,wipes and A&D 0intment for Jillian!!


There was more drama when we had no hotel shuttle vouchers which the travel agent had not provided!!  Gratefully, the hotel shuttle driver provided us with said vouchers for arrival and departure.


The drama didn't end there - The hotel had no reservation for us!!
I said what do you mean there is no reservation??!!  I have a receipt!!! 


They put us in a mini suite, told us they would move us to another room the next day as we had a reservation for an ocean front room.  For our inconvenience they upgraded us to VIP status which included room service.


And, this was only the first day!!

Naturally, we took SEVERAL photos of our feet in the water!!!

Not that we have any foot fetishes mind you, it's just that I always argue that I won't go in any water that I can't see my feet in the water and the only water I want to see my feet in is Aruba!!

So, since it isn't very often we can make our way to "Myruba" especially on a regular basis, the first thing we do when we can go is take a picture - or several pictures of my feet in the water - only now we all get in on the act!!  Don't know how we missed John's feet this time!!

Of course, we had to get Jillian a hat!!  And when Jillian got a hat.....

Aruba 2

... Debra got a hat!!!


They both had to have the same hat, and, they both wore those hats ALL over Aruba!! 

We stayed here and this was the view from our "rooms"!!  Yes, I said "rooms" - as in more than one or even two rooms!!!  More on that later!

As you can see, we ate quite well!!

And, these guys were all over the place!

Aruba 3

We ate some more....

We even got some rest.


We ran out of sunscreen halfway through our trip and had to purchase a different brand at $15.00 a can.  


After purchasing several cans and using said sunscreen, we found that Jillian had a reaction to it and developed a rash on her face and arms.


We had to get yet more sunscreen, and it was a good thing we had the foresight to bring some children's allergy medicine.


Thankfully, she was fine after that.

The scenery was..... 

.....spectacular!!

Aruba 4 - no pun intended - yet it's fitting!!

While we were there, world cup soccer was in full swing!
Woka, woka - what ever that means  Still don't know why people kept saying that or even what it means
!!!  

There was a horse and buggy, and we went to the "Piranha J0e" T-shirt hut - spent a small fortune there too!!

Aruba celebrates "our" 4th of July in wonderfully dramatic form!!!  It was so very exciting  and thrilling to see our flag is such fashion!!!