Life Lately

Summertime goes by so quickly, so we are trying to get in as much fun as we can! Rachel has been busy with tennis camp and Rebecca is still in swimming lessons.

We have been to the pool a few times.

Rope climbing fun at bootcamp class. I made it to the top twice!

I've enjoyed my classes, trying to mix it up.

#lakelanier

Our big news for June, is that our niece, Amy, moved to Georgia!

She is going to go to college here and will be staying with us.

We have been taking her out and about and getting her

familiar with Georgia.

At the mall

Rebecca started back to SonShine camp this week. She has been

going each summer since she was one. Sadly, this will be her last year.

Music City

For Memeorial Day weekend this year, we took a quick trip to Nashville, TN. I have always heard great things about the city and it is fairly close to us, so we went for a few days.

                                                                   Photo is from Google
We stayed at the Gaylord Hotel and Convention Center. Last year we stayed at The Gaylord in Orlando and loved it, so I decided it would be a good idea. Love this hotel! So big and so many things to do.

                             Exploring the hotel. We found the pools, the spa and outside they had games for
                              families to play and big grassy areas for kids to run around.

The Gaylord Hotels have huge atriums, filled with water features, beautiful plants, shopping, restaurants. It is hard to take it all in and just so pretty.

Our first full day in Nashville, we started at the zoo.

The girls rode a zipline thing. It moved fast!

Giraffes!

After the zoo, we went to see the Parthenon. Downtown Nashville has an exact replica of the Parthenon and we had to go see it, since we might never make it to Greece :)

Incredible!

You feel really  tiny and small.

On Sunday we started at a Children's Museum and learning center. It was very interesting

and we learned about physics, the body and a special exhibit about dogs. We also

checked out the section of space travel. The girls tried a space walk ride.

We had to get out into the sunshine and enjoy the hotel pool.

And since we were in Nashville, the home of country music, we thought it made

sense to go to The Grand Ole Opry.

The show started back in the radio days and they continue to broadcast it

each week. They perform the show in different acts and still follow a

radio style format. It was very entertaining.

Vince Gill was the big name for the night. He has a great voice and

I was happy we went to see the show.

I snuck in a run and ran to the Grand Ole Opry House, since it was

fairly close to our hotel.

The Gaylord has a river system that winds through it and they offer

"boat rides", so we had to go!

Fun glasses to wear for the ride. They have a Jungle Book theme

going on this summer at the hotel.

We had some amazing food at the Hotel too. The pizza there so good and

I had the best fried egg sandwich! We are hoping to go back at Christmas

time because they have a special event.

One last photo as we were leaving. We had a great time and can't wait to go back!

Twelve

Rachel is 12 years old!

Her birthday was on Wednesday and she had a great day.

She woke up early and wanted to open her gifts.

Yay for Legos! The girls love Legos.

The girls went to Nana's house for awhile and I went to my bootcamp class.

Then we picked up Daniella and went out for a birthday lunch.

The rest of the day, Rachel worked on her Legos and then in the evening, Nana and

Papa came over for cake and ice cream

We did a little birthday shopping with money from Abuela and Rachel

bought another Lego castle she has wanted for a long time.

It took about three hours to build and she loves it.

I think Rachel had a great birthday this year. Still hard to believe how quickly

she is growing up and next year she will be an official teenager !

So Long to School and Randomness

As usual, I am a bit behind in keeping up with this blog :) . The days have been zooming by and I just can't seem to catch up. So before it gets too late, a few pictures from the last days of school and a few other random ones thrown in there too ....................

Rachel's school had an awards ceremony and Rachel made the honor roll and

also got a special award in reading. Proud of her !

I got to help out in Rebecca's class for her end of the year party. The theme was Hawaiian and all the kids had a good time. Rebecca and her teacher, Ms. Rutecky.

Last day of school pictures. They were both excited to be finishing up with school. After school, the girls and I went out for pizza to celebrate and then over to church for AWANA Award night.

Rebecca worked super hard this year and finished her Sparks book ,so she earned a ribbon.

Other stuff...

My parents had the girls for a weekend, so we went to IKEA for awhile and then out to eat.

Rebecca finally watched the Wizard of Oz. I am not a fan of the movie. All those flying monkeys freak me out, but I watched with her for awhile.

I am still trying to get in some runs outside. I have a 10k in July, so I have to stick with it. I don't think I have mentioned it on here, but I have been on a weight training program for about a year now. Still going to the gym most mornings and lifting the weights.

Both of the girls were in desperate need of haircuts, so we went to see Ms. Jennifer and the

girls lost some curls.

We are officially out of school and on summer vacation now!! The first day, we all slept in and took it easy. It was wonderful! Since then our days have been busy with travel, tennis and swimming lessons. I am trying to find some sort of schedule for the summer. It always takes awhile to adjust.