Honors

 

Caution: this is a brag post.

 

I am so proud of Lucy. She brought home straight A's for the second quarter in a row. I don't know what happened between 6th grade and 7th but she has been totally on fire this year academically, doing amazing work in her classes while balancing cross country and swimming and school plays and other activities. I am so impressed and pleased!

 

Yesterday we were invited to the Middle School Honors Assembly to watch her be recognized for making the High Honors list and improving double-digits in her math testing scores, and watch her explain the work the Green Team has been doing to reduce waste at the school. Oh, and she sang with the choir (hence the plain white shirts) but we came in a bit late and missed that part.

 

Honors students.

Lucy explains the work of the Green Team.

Honors Breakfast with her pals.

Ice Breakers Pentathalon

We had our last official free suite weekend in Montreal over MLK weekend, but we opted to rush home early on Sunday morning so the kids could compete in the Ice Breakers Pentathalon swim meet. They each competed in five events so they could earn the Pentathalon medal.

 

Lucy's backstroke.

 

Almost there!

Gavin off the blocks.

Leading his heat in the breast stroke.

 In addition to the Pentathalon medal, both kids won "duckies" by winning heats. Lucy won two heats and Gavin won his breaststroke heat, setting a team record at the same time. I thought they did awesome, especially considering that they woke up that morning in another country!

Pentathalon swag.

Florida Family and Friends

The warmth and sunshine in Florida were amazing, and just what we needed for our poor freezing Vermont bones. But the best part of our vacation was being with some of our favorite people. We would go to the north pole to be with these guys!

 

 

We got to Florida just in time to attend our friend Ivy's mission homecoming talk and meet her sweet family. The Ceballo-Barberenas bookended our trip, with church on our first day and dinner at a Dominican restaurant on our last.

 

 

Hanging out with Dave, Kara, and the kids was definitely the best part of our whole trip. Hawaii is just too far to drive. We are so glad they moved to Florida. (And, I'll say it, glad that Florida is not the north pole.)

A birthday cake was waiting for me when I arrived.

Emma Jean carrot hair sculptures.

Giant chess game at the Orlando Science Museum.

Free goats climbing trees.
(Can anyone spot Ethan?)

Dave took me on a motorcycle ride.

Soccer and family kickball in the park.

Except when Emma Jean stole the ball.

Cool pool on a warm day.

Playing games.

Gator spotting at sunset at Mt. Dora.
We will miss you, Florida.

Universal Studios

We took two days out of our Florida vacation to go to Universal Studios to see Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade Village, and the whole Wizarding World of Harry Potter extravaganza. It was every bit as amazing as we hoped. Even though it was winter vacation week so everyone in America was there with us.

 

We got there at 6:30am to get in line for early admission at 7:00.

The rides were very fun and worth the wait. But equally fun were all the other little features and shops. Stan Shunpike hung out near the Knight Bus and had conversations with passers-by and the shrunken head in the bus window. The dragon on top of Gringotts blew fire. The figures in portraits and photographs moved. Ollivander was there at his shop to help the wands choose the wizards. And once wands were acquired, they could be used to make things move in shop windows. Very cool.

Ready to board the Knight Bus.

Ollivander himself!

Lucy trying out the WRONG wand.

Gavin's wand chooses him.

Casting an aguamente charm to make it rain.

Opening chocolate frog boxes at Honeydukes
with an alohomora charm.

I haven't seen this wizard. Have you?

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

Crowds of wanna-be wizards and witches in Diagon Alley.

Fire-breathing dragon.

Platform 9 3/4.

On our way to Hogwarts!

 

Hogwarts Express rolling into Hogsmeade Station.

The Harry Potter sections were only a small part of Universal Studios, and we did finally venture into the rest of the park. We rode the Despicable Me and Jurassic Park rides, explored Poseidon's temple, and watched a magic show. Other than the Harry Potter stuff, Lucy was most excited about an exhibit of costumes and props from I Love Lucy.

I love both Lucys.

 With such an early morning start, we were completely worn out by afternoon. So we went back to the hotel and let the kids play in the on-site water park while we relaxed by the pool and prepared for another pre-dawn foray into Universal Studios to try to beat the crowds.

Watersliding.

 

Every hotel should have a lazy river.

Florida New Year

The morning after Christmas, we piled into the car and drove down to Dave's new house in Florida to thaw out from the Vermont cold. But perhaps somebody was missing the frigid temps back home because the suggestion was made that we celebrate New Year's Eve with a penguin plunge into the pool in Dave's backyard. It wasn't THAT cold . . . but it is winter in Florida and the pool is not heated, so it was a shock to jump into the chilly water.

Kids are ready!

Flexing for the camera.

Cold water!

But not cold enough to deter these guys.

Cousin warm-up in the "hot tub" afterward.

On New Year's Day we drove over to Blue Springs State Park to see the manatees. I thought we might see one if we were lucky, I had no idea there were dozens of them and we would be able to see them easily in the clear water of the warm spring!

 

This being a Florida swamp, there were more creatures than manatees in that water. We saw one alligator, which was exactly enough to deter me from wanting to jump in!

 

Swim? No thanks.

Gator barely visible along shoreline, above bird's wings.

We had a little gentle warm Florida rain but we didn't care. We rented canoes so we could go out in the St. John's River to spot some more wildlife. It was as murky as the spring water was clear. Lucy declared that it looked like we were canoeing through Diet Coke. So we saw no manatees and (thankfully) no gators, but we did see some beautiful birds and lots of gorgeous swamp scenery.

Boys' canoe.

My view.

Posing for pictures.

Swamp Thing!